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Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

New Year's eve:

The Hyuga Clan threw a New Year's party every year, and all the elders and Hiashi invite all of their close friends. Hinata also got to invite all of her friends this year, and Hinata, Sasuke, Shikamaru, Temari, and Sakura began concocting a plan to set up Ino and Naruto.

At this point, they all knew about Ino's crush on Naruto, and now that he was single, it came back in full force. They figured New Year's was a very easy time to set two people up: they could have both of them choose each other to kiss at midnight, or they could leave a mistletoe up from Christmas and lure both of them under it. They spent a couple minutes brainstorming, and they agreed to just leave those two as the only ones without a person to kiss at midnight.

They had everyone except Naruto and Ino show up early, and Sai agreed to kiss Sakura, and Tenten agreed to kiss Neji. Temari didn't have anyone, and Sasuke offered up Shikamaru before anyone could say anything. She agreed, and Shikamaru just "hmph"ed, so they couldn't judge if he actually wanted to or if he was just too lazy to argue.

The party started, and only Naruto arrived on time. Ino and Naruto were supposed to talk all night and then kiss at midnight, but the plan couldn't work if Ino wasn't even there. Three hours passed, and it was 11 o'clock already. She finally arrived, and Hinata was there to greet her. She said that she fell asleep, and woke up only 10 minutes ago. She didn't do any of her makeup or anything, so she she said she needed to use the restroom. Hinata showed her to it and asked her to come out to the tables by the pool and meet up with the rest of them when she was done.

She went to the restroom, but on her way back she met a waiter carrying some alcohol. She took a shot, and it reached her quickly. She started socializing more, and more and more guys began eyeing her. Around 11:30, Sakura went to go check on her, and she saw her talking to a Hyuga and another woman. Sakura went up to them to get her back, and Ino noticed her.

"Sakura, meet… meet… I forgot your guys' names, sorry," Ino slurred.

"It's not important," the man said. He and his girlfriend had been standing there talking to Ino since she walked in the room. They saw the way the other guys stared at her, and wanted to keep her occupied so she didn't go off with any of them.

"Ino, how much have you had to drink?" Sakura hissed.

Ino held up 2 fingers and giggled. "I only had 2!"

"2 what's?"

"Those things," Ino said as she pointed to a waiter. On his tray were blue shot glasses that didn't look very liver-friendly. They probably had copious amounts of alcohol, and doing 2 of them was probably worth more alcoholic than 2 shots.

"Oh, my goodness. Well, you're coming with me," Sakura said. She grabbed Ino's arm, and pulled her off the wall that she was leaning against. She turned to the Hyuga and the girl that were with her. "Thank you guys so much. I don't want to think about it, but I don't know where she would be right now if it weren't for you guys."

"Yeah, of course. Us girls have to look out for each other right?" The girl said. "Also, you should probably take her home."

"Yeah, I'm gonna have a friend do that."

"I can do it."

"No, it's okay. He can teleport, so it'll be very quick."

"He?" The girl asked.

"Oh, he's not like that. I'd trust him with anything."

"Well, if you say so." The girl smiled, and said goodbye to Ino. Ino said bye back, and they began walking over to the tables that the rest of their friends were sitting at. When they reached the table, Ino began acting even more out of hand.

"Naruto!" She squealed. He was sitting on one of the chairs, and she jumped into his lap. She almost rolled off but he held her up. He stared at the rest of them, as if he was asking "what the hell do I do?"

"Ino, come here," Hinata said. Hinata pulled her up, and Ino walked around the table with her.

"Naruto, can you take her home?" Sakura whispered to him.

"Sure, but why me?"

"You can teleport. You can get her there and come back in like 2 minutes."

"That's true."

"Inoo," Sakura cooed. Ino skipped over to Sakura. "Naruto's gonna take you home, okay?"

"Noo, I don't wanna go home," Ino pouted.

"Okay then. We'll go to the park, how does that sound?" Naruto asked.

"Okay!"

He put his arm around her waist, and she wrapped her arm around his shoulders. "You ready?"

"Yep."

Since they were outside, he could just throw a knife over the fence and he would be off the Hyuga property. He did so, and teleported to it. He threw it again, and teleported to it. He did this all the way to her house. He used her key and opened the door. He found his way to the stairs, threw a knife up there, teleported, and had to carry her to her room since she chose that moment to stop walking.

He laid her onto the bed, but when he tried to leave, she wouldn't let go of his neck. She pulled him onto the bed with her and snuggled up against him. He was on the verge of panic because she was completely inebriated and didn't feel comfortable being in a bed with her. After a minute or two, her breathing calmed down, and he teleported out of there to Sasuke, using the mark he made on Sasuke on his first day back.

"Did she give you any trouble?" Hinata asked.

"Yes," Naruto said. "When we got to the house, she stopped walking, so I had to carry her. And then when I put her on the bed she kept an iron grip around my neck and then pulled me with her." Sakura laughed.

"Is that why you took so long?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah, I waited till she fell asleep. I didn't want her to start crying or something if I left while she was awake."

"Aww, that's cute," Tenten said. "You know, I think you two would make a cute couple."

"What?" He asked.

"I agree," Sakura said. Hinata and Sasuke agreed as well, but Naruto didn't believe it.

"Okay, whatever," he said.

Midnight neared, and Naruto and Kiba joked about kissing each other since they didn't have anyone to kiss, but part of Naruto wished Ino didn't get drunk, and that she was still at the party so maybe he could ask her. Obviously he didn't like her or anything, but it would've been nice to have someone since most of his close friends all had someone to kiss.

Naruto and his family were eating lunch.

"Naruto," Kushina said. "Have you thought about moving out?"

"A little bit, yeah," he said. "I've been going on a lot of S-ranks lately to save up the money."

"You've been going on S-ranks? For money?" Kushina said. She hated when he endangered himself, and for something like money made it worse since they could provide for him if he needed.

"Yeah. I don't want to keep relying on you guys, and they pay the most."

"What if something happens to you? You won't be around to be independent!"

"Kushina," Minato said. "How would something happen to him?"

"Yeah, I have ways to get out of a sticky situation, assuming I let myself get in one," Naruto said.

"I don't know, but you never know what could happen," Kushina said.

"Yes, that's true, but look at his abilities," Minato said. "He's Kage level already."

"Fine. How many more are you taking?" She asked.

"I've already done enough. I can pay rent for a good 6 months if I didn't do any more missions."

"So no more for now?"

"Nope."

"Well, we can go looking for apartments soon."

"Uh, I kind of wanted to do that myself. The original plan was to surprise you guys when I got the apartment, so that's out of the question."

"Oh, okay. If you want to take this leap by yourself, then we will be here when you need it."

"Thanks."

She pinched his cheek, and he pulled back out of her reach, but leaned into Kina's range. She did the same thing, and Naruto received a double pinch from either side.

"Naruto what's wrong?" Hinata asked.

"My mom asked me about moving out today. I was planning to save up by doing a bunch of S-ranks, but she doesn't want me doing anymore, and I don't have enough to survive for two months."

"Why don't you just do A-ranks?" Ino asked.

"I lied and said I had enough to survive for 6 months, so she thinks I'm not going to do any more missions."

"Ino, didn't you mention wanting to move out soon?" Shikamaru asked. "Why don't you two live together. It would help both of you pay the rent."

Ino glared at Shikamaru. The last thing she wanted was Naruto knowing every weird thing she did. He would see how she lived, and he would be able to judge her for it.

"That sounds like a great idea!" Sakura said.

"I concur," Sasuke said. The only person that she knew that would say 'I concur' unironically were Neji and Lee, so Sasuke definitely saw all this as a joke while she was panicking being put in a spot like this. He would get a nice knuckle sandwich later.

"I mean, if you're okay with it, I wouldn't be opposed," Naruto said.

"Uh, I'll think about it," she said.

"If you don't want to, I totally understand."

"No, it's not that, it's just a big decision, that's all."

Naruto nodded, and Sakura and Hinata shared a knowing look. They talked for another hour or two, but Ino wasn't all there mentally. She was weighing the pros and cons of living with Naruto.

If they lived together, he would see every aspect of how she lived, and she didn't know if she was ready for that. But on the other hand, they would be around each other much more often, allowing them to become that much closer. They could become best friends and he would fall in love with her and they would live happily ever after. This was the chance that she had been waiting for, and she wasn't going to let some anxiety deter her from it.

When they were about to leave, she pulled him away from the group and walked with him.

"Yeah," she said.

"What?" He asked.

"Let's live together."

"Really?"

"Yeah, it'll be fun."

"Yeah!" He held up his hand and she high fived it. They got to his house, and they said their goodbyes. As she walked to her house, she realized that when they moved in together, she wouldn't feel them parting ways at the end of the day. They would have virtually unlimited time together, and she would do everything she could to capitalize on it.

Naruto told his parents that he was going to get an apartment with Ino, and his mother was less than pleased about him rooming with a girl.

"What's the problem mom?" Naruto asked.

"I don't trust you! What's stopping you two from doing it? It would be so easy for her to get pregnant!"

"That's what you're worried about?" He asked. "We're not dating! She doesn't even like me like that, and she never will!"

"You never know that. You're going to be living together, giving both of you ample opportunity to fall in love."

"She's not gonna fall in love with someone like me."

"Why not? I used to hate your father, and now look at where we are."

"Yeah, but it's different with her."

"How?"

"I don't know. I just don't think that could happen."

"Naruto," his father joined. "Anything can happen with love. It's unpredictable. But if that's a risk you want to take, then we'll support you."

It wasn't going to happen to him, and he wanted a place to stay. "Yeah, it is."

"Alrighty then. Go pick an apartment and show us when it's ready," Minato said.

Naruto and Ino looked through newspapers, and went to every apartment listing they could, but none of them suited them. If they liked the apartment, it was too expensive, but if it was cheap enough, it looked completely run down, and 5 out of the 6 ones in their budget had very shady looking landlords.

They decided that while they weren't looking, they would do a small mission here and there and pool their money together. That way, Naruto's parents wouldn't know he was doing missions, and they could up their budget a little each day.

After 2 weeks, his parents asked him if he wanted help since he had been gone almost all day, every day, for two weeks. He said nothing was in their budget, and he had miscalculated how much rent was when he told them he could survive for 6 months.

They asked him if he wanted financial help, but he declined; if he had to get help from his parents, what was the whole point of living alone? He felt that if he was living alone, he should be completely self-sufficient.

Finally, Naruto was doing a D-rank when Ino came up to him and said she found one. She helped him finish the mission and they went and checked it out. It was a nice and quaint apartment near the Hokage Stone Faces, and it was slightly more expensive than all the cheap ones they saw, but not outside of their new budget. They combed through it, and ended up really liking it, so they went through and signed a lease on it.