hello everybody who is reading this. i'm actually kinda late posting this. a day and some late, actually. i'm sorry haha. i guess i couldn't finish it QUITE on time. BUT anyway. turns out i won't be making a new years special.... at least in time for it. it might exist still, though.

but besides that. here is the chapter. it's SLIGHTLY rushed. there could be possible grammatical errors, and maybe some things WONT quiteeee be right. but hopefully nothing too bad.

the person who normally beta's for me is currently not here so this is before someone has actually read it. including myself, because i wanted to post it asap.

i will read this and maybe fix it up tomorrow... so.... yeah. please bare with me.

and yes. i love haku too. i AM going to give him a big role. somehow.

*haii.

Naruto held the red and white bottle in his right hand while his left hand hung off the sofa, and touching the floor. He turned the bottle around in his hand, reading the instructions printed on the back. "Take two pills a day every 4 to 6 hours as needed…do not take more than directed…" I wonder how many she took… He slightly angled it, revealing a line of black printed letters on the white bottle. April 2006. He let out another sigh as he went back to reading the instructions again. I wonder what happens if people take more than one pill… when it expired almost 3 years ago. Naruto closed his eyes and sighed again. The memories of previous night filled his mind instantly. What am I goi…

"Naruto?"

Naruto suddenly felt a shock go through his entire body. He sat up instantly, clutching the empty bottle with both his hands, his eyes suddenly fixated on the floor. He heard the soft creaking as Ino slowly walked down the stairs.

"There you are Naruto. I guess I was pretty tired, I slept all night eh?"

…She doesn't remember what happened. Oh crap. What now? If I explain to her what happened, she'll kill me. Maybe if I don't tell her, she won't remember… yeah that sounds good.

Naruto quickly looked up from the floor and at Ino, who was only wearing an oversized black t-shirt. Naruto instantly felt his cheeks flush and his body began to shake from his anxiety. Oh shi… I forgot about that.

"Hm? What's wrong Naruto?" Ino looked down at her own body. The loudest scream Naruto had ever heard, suddenly filled the entire room. Ino suddenly tried grab Naruto's legs but he pulled them away just in time.

"WHAT THE HELL?! WHAT HAPPENED TO MY CLOTHES?!"

Naruto quickly jumped over the other side of the sofa, distancing himself from Ino.

"uhm, well, you see… Last night, your clothes got all wet from the snow and uh, I was afraid you'd get sick so I changed you into what was around…"

"YOU?! YOU changed MY clothes?! AND WHAT snow. Why the HELL would I be wet from snow, I HATE that stuff. Why would I even go NEAR IT?!"

"uh… well, I actually have to go. I gotta meet up with Sasuke…" Naruto quickly ran around the sofa and barely passed by Ino as she tried to grab him. He grabbed his jacket and quickly put on his shoes and ran out the door.

Ino let herself fall onto the sofa. What the hell?! What was he talking about. WHAT snow. Ino leaned her head back onto the top of the sofa. Did something happen while I was sleeping? Ino tried to think back to what happened, but all she could draw was a blank. UGH. There's something poking my back. Ino furiously stuck her hand into the sofa and grabbed what was there and was about to throw it but she noticed what it was.

What the… what is this doing here? She brought the white bottle closer. Then it felt like she had just fallen a few stories and landed flat on the ground. She remembered.

Naruto quickly slammed the door behind me, jumped down the stairs and began to run straight down the street. He began to slow down to a walk when he thought he had gotten far enough. He stopped walking, looked up at the sun as it slowly climbed up into the sky and gave a sigh. What am I gonna do for the rest of the day?

Suddenly he felt someone's hand pat on his shoulder and his body instantly froze. Naruto slowly turned his head around, expecting to certain death but he saw a young man, a little taller than him, smiling back.

"Hey Naruto."

Naruto stood there, slightly baffled. He stared at the figure in front of him, his eyes blinked a few times as if to get something out of them.

"HAKU?!"

Naruto quickly turned himself around to get a better look at the person, scanning him from his head to his toe.

"It really is you Haku! When was the last time I saw you?!"

Haku walked beside Naruto, his arm now around Naruto's neck, "Well, let's get some food while we talk, I'm starving."

The two of them started walking down the street, past the people who were busy setting up their shops for the day.

"So what have you been up to. It's been so long!"

"Well, you know, just the usual… missions and more missions."

"I would imagine. Anbu must really keep you busy!"

"Yeah… I never thought I'd actually get used to it, but hey I'm here now, aren't I?"

"You should be thanking me for your life now."

Haku suddenly stopped walking, his arm pulling Naruto back, making him almost trip. Haku looked over to the shop beside him and pointed his thumb towards it.

"Well, how about I do that by treating you to some barbeque?"

The two of them walked into the store and looked waited for someone to welcome them. When they got seated, Haku quickly ordered some food while Naruto began to take off his jacket. Within a minute, the food came and Naruto was already throwing it onto the grill. As soon as the meat looked ready, Naruto quickly grabbed the meat off the grill and began to shove it into his mouth.

"This ain't ramen, but it sure is good."

"You should swallow your food before talking, you could choke."

Naruto ignored Haku's comment and continued stuff more meat into his mouth, before throwing more meat onto the grill.

"So, you still haven't told me, what brings you back to Konoha?"
Haku's eyes suddenly widened and his face filled with shock.

"You can't be serious right?"
Naruto suddenly felt extremely confused. Thoughts began to race through his mind, was he missing something important? Everytime he looked up at Haku's face while in his thoughts, made him feel like he was.

"Uh…am I missing something?"
Haku started chuckling.

"I can't believe this Naruto, you really have changed! It's Christmas soon, and you completely forgot!"
Naruto's eyes widened. How could he have forgotten about his favourite holiday?! Then something hit him. Christmas. Shopping. Naruto felt the blood from his face slowly drain away.

"Naruto? You okay?"

Haku's voice drowned in his thoughts. I have to get her something amazing, and maybe she'll completely forget about what happened. What's the most amazing Christmas present ever? What do girls even WANT for Christmas, they have everything they need already.

"Guess you forgot about Christmas shopping too eh? Well, having trouble thinking about what to get Sakura? Speaking of which, how has she been?"

The name alone felt like a punch in the gut to Naruto. He lowered his head, his eyes watching the meat as the red in it slowly fade away. There wasn't a response, Naruto just let the sizzling of the meat fill the silence. Naruto reached out and picked off a piece of meat from the grill and put it on Haku's plate. He looked up at Haku and a sad smile crossed his face.

"Nee-chan's dead."

Ino flopped forwards onto the sofa and let out a sigh. She buried her face onto the arm rest of the sofa, her body completely drained of energy. She peered over the arm rest at the room that not quite as filled with boxes. She turned onto her side as she picked up the white bottle and started to stare at it. She tilted the bottle slightly until she could clearly read the printed line of words.

What am I going to do… he knows. Why was I so stupid? Ugh. Stupid medicine.

The front door suddenly opened and a gust of cold air filled the room. Ino quickly sat up and looked over at the door, seeing Naruto come in. He looked over back at her, their eyes meeting for a second. Ino was about to say something but then Naruto looked away behind him and then came into the house. Ino stood up to walk towards him when she noticed Haku coming in behind Naruto. He looked over at her and gave her a wave. Ino smiled back but her eyes quickly went back to watching Naruto as he took off his shoes.

"Hey Ino. Naruto didn't tell me that you were the one who was moving in with him."
"Huh? Oh. No, I'm not, I was just uh… visiting."

Naruto looked up around at the room and then at Ino.

"I see you managed to find Nee-chan's clothes."

Ino suddenly remembered what happened and felt her anger bubble inside her.

"YOU SHUT UP. You don't get to talk. Anyway, Haku, sorry I can't stay and talk, I gotta go."

She quickly grabbed her stuff walked by the two of them and out the door.

Haku looked at Naruto, "So. What'd you do this time?" Then he looked around at the room, "Ah. You ditched her to clean the house by herself, while you went out and had fun without her."

Naruto took his eyes off the bottle on the floor and turned around, giving a weak smile, "Well. I guess you could say that."

Ino stormed through the streets as thoughts of ways to murder Naruto popped into her mind. He's such an idiot. Ugh. Before she knew it, Ino had arrived home and she almost literally kicked the door down because the lock wouldn't open. God, the world's against me today. She quickly ran up the stairs and into her room where she started to rummage through her closest until she found a half finished white sweater. She sat down on the floor as she put the sweater and the clump of wool it was attached to on her lap.

She looked at it for a few moments and she felt herself smiling. Ino took the sweater and shoved into a bag that was lying around on the floor and was out of the house as fast as she had came in. She ran through the streets until she finally got to where she wanted to go. She stopped in front of the door and looked in her bag to make sure she didn't leave anything she needed at home. Ino looked at the doorbell and pressed it gently, listening to the ring echo behind the door. The lock clicked the door slowly opened. Ino smiled at the person in front of her.

"I'm here to knit again!"

A groan responded to her enthusiasm.

"You're so troublesome Ino."

Shikamaru looked down at the bag in her hands and scoffed.

"You haven't made much progress over the last year, have you?"

"It's your fault! I don't have anyone to knit the size to! You're always so busy."

"Hai Hai. Whatever. Just come in."

Ino quickly followed after Shikamaru, who was already out of sight by the time she got her shoes off. She ran through the halls until she got to his room. She ripped open the door and saw him lying on the floor, his back against her, reading some books.

"You're such a jerk sometimes."

"You just care too much sometimes."

Ino sat down behind him and started to get the sweater out.

"Sit up…jerk."

Shikamaru closed the book and sighed. He sat up and pulled another a book underneath the one he finished and put it in his lap. He felt Ino press the sweater to his back as he continued to read.

"Sit up straight…" Ino mumbled as she continued to knit behind him. Shikamaru complied while he picked up a third book off the floor and started flipping through it. There was silence in the room except for the clicking of the needles and the instances where Ino would screw up and swear to herself.

Shikamaru tossed the book over to the floor and turned around to face Ino. She looked up from her knitting and looked back down, a vexed look crossed her face. Shikamaru was about to say something but Ino suddenly looked up and pressed the sweater up to his chest. He felt his arms being lifted up as Ino measured out the length of the sleeves. Then she came really close to his neck.

"hm… you think that I should make the neck a little longer?"

Shikamaru looked down at her, who was still staring at the neck of the sweater. He couldn't stop staring at the azure of her eyes and how curiosity seemed to gleam from them. She looked up at him making him jump on the inside. He felt blood rush to his face.

"Are you okay?"

"uh. Yeah." Shikamaru quickly turned back around and picked up a book that he already read and pretended to read again.

"So you think I should make the neck a little longer?"

"Depends on who you're knitting this sweater for."

There was a pause. Shikamaru looked from the book and over his shoulder to see Ino holding the sweater in her lap, staring at it. She looked up and caught him trying to quickly turn back to his book.

"I would think someone like you would've figured that out by now."

Shikamaru started to read a random paragraph that he already read once to clear his mind a bit but the clicking of the needles distracted him.

"Well. Seeing as to how much effort you're putting into this, it's obviously someone important."

There wasn't a response, but the clicking continued.

"There's really only one other person who has about the same body size as me."

The clicking was the only response, again.

"You like Naruto."

The clicking stopped. Ino heard the words come from his mouth and it felt like a spear stabbing through her body. It wasn't like she hadn't already come to accept this fact. It was the fact that Shikamaru had acknowledged it. That he knew. Her eyes began to tear and felt herself having choking to say what she needed to.

"I…..'m…. sorry…."

She tried to calm herself down a bit so she could finish her sentence.

"I'm…sorry. I'm making you do something like this for me… I'm so selfish…"

"So. Naruto eh?"

Shikamaru felt himself chuckle a little.

"That guy's really something else. He's gonna do great things for the village one day."

He turned around to face Ino, who was wiping her eyes with her sleeves.

She meekly looked up at him through her tear filled eyes and he smiled at her.

"Does he know? You know how Naruto's like, he won't really know until you tell him exactly how you feel."

Shikamaru got up and picked up the sweater which was lying on the floor beside Ino. He put it up this body and put his arm to each sleeve and nodded a few times.

"Well, looks like you've made a lot of progress on this. Kiba and Hinata have organized a party for Christmas at 3 or so at the restaurant down the street. You know, the one where we used to go with Asuma once in a while."

He took the sweater and folded it back into the bag Ino brought it in and put it on her lap. He held out his hand to help her up.

"Come on. It's getting late, I think you should be getting home."

Ino suddenly stood up and looked over at the clock behind Shikamaru.

"Oh my God. My dad's gonna kill me."

She grabbed the bag and her stuff and began to run through the hallway, while Shikamaru slowly followed. By the time Shikamaru got to the door, Ino had already had her coat and shoes on and was already heading out.

"Thanks Shika! Maybe you can not act like a jerk sometimes. You'll find a nice girl one day."

Ino disappeared through the door and Shikamaru stood there for a second.

"You know I have. She just doesn't see me in that way."

The light from the window gradually moved until it hit Ino's eyes. Her body automatically turned onto it's side to evade it, but then her eyes flashed open. The light blinded her instantly, making her eyes shut, but she managed to open them slightly as her hands frantically searched for her clock. She peaked over the side of her bed, to see a clock lying face down and a single battery beside it.

She rolled out off her bed, the cold air instantly giving her goose bumps. She rummaged through the stuff she had on her table until she finally found her watch and checked the time. 2:03. Her heart started pulsing extremely fast, as Ino rushed into the washroom to prepare for her day.

Ino ran down the stairs as fast as she could without falling, while checking the time on her watch. 3:12. She got to her door and quickly put on her boots, and looked through her bag to make sure she had what she needed. The white wrapped gift seemed illuminate back at her from her bag. She smiled to herself, although she was up until 5 finishing up the sweater, it was now neatly wrapped in a box. It felt like her heart starting to warm up, until she looked at her watch again. 3:16. This time her heart nearly jumped out from her chest as she ran out the door, slamming it behind her.

Ino ran as fast as she could down the street, as she looked at her watch. 3:32.

"You know, the place down the street where we used to go with Asuma once in a while."

We went to so many places with Asuma back then, and there are at least 10 different restaurants ON this street.

She finally saw the sign up ahead and a person standing by the restaurant door. As she got closer, she saw who it was. Her heart began to race even faster, and she ran even faster to get to the restaurant now. By the time Ino got in front of the restaurant she was out of breath and her legs felt like they were going to give out anytime. She let her body lean against the light pole as she caught her breath. Naruto walked over and let out a chuckle.

"You… shut… up…"

He grabbed her hand and started to pull her away from the restaurant. Ino almost fell over as Naruto dragged her along into the streets.

"What are you doing?!"

"I'm going to give you your Christmas present."

"You could just give it to me in there."

"If I could, I wouldn't have waited for you out there. It's not here."

"Then where is it?"

Naruto continued to pull Ino along, not looking back at her. But a smile seemed be glued onto his face

"You'll see."

They weren't in the streets anymore, but were walking along a small narrow path up a hill. The snow here was untouched, except for the trail that seemed to have been crudely shoveled out.

"Where are you taking me?"

There was no answer, not even a glance. He simply kept on leading her, holding tightly onto her mitteneded hands. Ino looked at her watch on her free hand. 3:51.

"How much longer is this going to take?"

"Are you trying to RAPE me?!"

"OH MY GOD!"

He still didn't look back but a sigh escaped from him, leaving a trail of his breath behind him. The wind blew by and it pierced her bare neck, making her entire body shiver.

"How far are we going… I'm starting to get cold…" Her voice trailed off, not expecting her remark to have been heard. But he suddenly stopped and she nearly ran into him.

"Don't stop so suddenly!"

Another sigh came from him as he began to take off his white scarf.

"You complain too much." He bent down a little so that his eyes were level with hers. He began to brush her long hair over one of her shoulders.

"What are you doing, you creep?!" Her hands lightly pushed away his hand.

His breath came out in a puff this time. He bent forward, his face coming closer to hers.

"Calm down." She felt his breath from his words and began to feel her face flush.

He began to move his arms forward toward her and she clenched her eyes shut, expecting some force. But instead she felt something warm begin to wrap around her neck. Slowly, she began relax and open her eyes. Suddenly he had come very close, his head tilting down, his forehead almost touching hers. She began to stare at his face and her hand began to move up and touched his face. His eyes looked up to meet hers through his bangs; she pushed them back as she moved her hand back to the side of his face. She began to pull him closer until her lips met the warmth of his.

After a few moments, theirs lips parted and he looked down at her eyes. The blue in them seemed to glow, and the expectant look on her face made his heart beat even faster than it already was.

He slowly opened his mouth to say something.

"…I…"