How She Trusts || Naruto Uzumaki X OC

{Chapter Five}

  Ino wasn't kidding when she said that they would be working on the plans for a while. She had multiple folders for each individual detail of the party, each in their own colour-coded folder, and at least an hour was spent discussing them.

"Okay, so first is the guest list," Ino said, holding up the pink folder and waving it in the air.

"Wait, I'm kind of confused about what we're doing," Naomi spoke up, and picked up a random folder to flip through. Ino snatched it out of her hand and put the orange folder back into its original slot; before the blue, after the red.

"You mean you haven't heard about the party yet?" Sakura spoke up from her seat at the desk chair. It was the first thing that she had said since the two of them showed up at Naomi's house just a few minutes earlier. After a month, it was clear to Naomi that Sakura was the brains, and Ino was, in her own sort of way, the brawns. She was always the first to take action; the one who invited different guys to sit with them at their table, or call out a girl who she found annoying.

Sakura was more gentle than her childhood friend in many ways. She had a mother-like touch that Naomi couldn't help but feel drawn to. She was kind to Naomi, as well to most people that she had seen her interact with. There had only been a few occurrences in which Naomi had seen Sakura lose her cool, and that was when she saw someone trying to hit on Sasuke; the boy that she was so obviously infatuated with. Ino once told Naomi that the two girls had a falling out in their earlier teenage years, because of their mutual love for Sasuke. But Ino strayed from Sasuke's mass of fangirls, tired of fighting for his affection, and made amends with the pinkette.

"It just felt stupid choosing some guy that barely even knew who I was over my best friend," Ino said, when she was telling Naomi her story.

"Besides," Ino smiled, and glanced at Sakura from across the table, who was entirely distracted by the math book in front of her, "I always thought that they had a stronger connection."

Observing the two girls now, seeming so comfortable with one another that Sakura could crawl over Ino's body and put her head on the blonde's shoulder to share a peak at the folder that she had open in front of her, it was hard for Naomi to imagine them being anything other than best friends.

"Naomi, did you hear me?" Sakura asked, both her and Ino looked up at her. Naomi shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts.

"Huh?" Naomi asked.

"You heard about the party, right?" Sakura asked again.

Naomi nodded. "Yeah, you said something about it before, and I heard a bunch of people talking about it, but I didn't know that it was this elaborate."

"We have it every year," Ino said proudly.

"The both of you host it?"

"Well, we usually have it at Sakura's house since it's bigger, but we both plan for it. It's a pretty big deal." Ino bragged, and Naomi nodded again.

"So, back to the guest list," Ino said, and put the folder down so that everyone could take a look. Naomi saw that there were already pages and pages filled with different names that she hardly even recognized.

"They're student lists. Every student in the junior year is on one of these pages. I steal them from the office so that we can use them as guest lists," Sakura explained, and Naomi remembered her saying before that she acted as, in a way, the principal's second assistant. She must've had easy to access to a ton of private files, which made Naomi's heart stop for a second. Surely they didn't have The Picture on school records.

"So, is everyone invited?" Naomi guessed.

"No, it's just the way we work. We cross out the names of the people that we don't want showing up, and are left with the ones that we do. It's simple, trust me," Ino said, and pulled out a red sharpie.

"Okay... Shino Aburame? No," Ino said, and twirled the pen in her hand.

"Yes," Sakura argued, and Ino shot her a look. "What? He's nice," she stated.

"He's weird."

"You've never even talked to him."

"Why would I want to?"

"Naomi, what do you vote?" Sakura asked, stopping her argument with Ino. Ino also directed her attention to Naomi, and both looked at her expectantly.

"Um." Naomi didn't know Shino all too well. They shared chemistry together, where he sat on the opposite side of the room from her. They only exchanged words when a spider crawled its way onto Naomi's desk, and he saved the arachnid from being brutally murdered by her. He wasn't too pleased with her then, but Naomi didn't really have an opinion about him.

"Yes?" she said quizzically. Ino raised one eyebrow at her, as if she were waiting for Naomi to realize her mistake and turn him away. But when she said nothing, Ino sighed and moved onto the next name.

"Mai Akiyama? Yes." And it continued from there. A name was presented with an immediate answer from Ino, followed by another quick answer from Sakura. Naomi answered noticeably slower, trying hard to think if she recognized the names, and when she did, it took her even longer to remember where from. But when she had no clue who they were talking about, she just leaned in the direction that the other two were going in.

"Okay... Naruto Uzumaki. Yes." Ino said.

"Yes."

"Yes."

"Wow that was the quickest answer you've given." Ino smirked and flipped to the next page.

"Yeah, well he's a good friend."

"Yeah, they're together all the time," Sakura said teasingly.

"Actually, you guys take up all of my spare time. I don't get to spend that much time with him." Naomi sighed, then when the two girls looked at her with mischievous grins she blushed deeply and swatted at them with her hand. "Can we just move on?" she begged.

"Alright..." Ino said, sounding casual. But she and Sakura shared a knowing look.

The guest list was finished a little after 5:00, and just as Naomi thought that the work was over, Ino flipped open a new folder and pulled out a few different papers, and some photos.

"Now, decorations," she said. Naomi groaned and fell back onto the bed.

"I'm tired," she mumbled and shoved her head into one of her pillows.

"It's got to be done. We still need to get through catering and entertainment."

"God, I didn't know rich school kid parties took this much work."

Ino snorted. "I would hardly call our school rich."

"Why don't we take a break, Ino?" Sakura suggested, but Ino just shook her head.

"No way. Catering and whoever we hire for entertainment is going to need at least a two week notice. It has to be done, so suck it up and chug a redbull," Ino said, and tossed one of the energy drinks that she had brought with her to Naomi. She didn't drink it, she just stood it on her nightstand and took out her phone. Ever since Naruto told her that he would call, she'd been checking it nonstop.

"Another imaginary call?" Sakura teased when she saw Naomi checking her messages. The other two weren't oblivious to the fact that Naomi was waiting for someone to contact her.

"No, it's nothing." She sighed, and put her phone next to her unopened redbull.

"Okay, so for decorations, I was thinking that we could have these sort of lanterns," Ino said, and used her hands to visualize what she was talking about.

"I have to pee," Naomi said, and hopped off her bed.

"You're missing out!" Ino shouted when Naomi escaped the bedroom, and closed the door behind her. Instead of going to the bathroom across the hall, she went downstairs and wandered aimlessly through the rooms. She just needed a break. Before going back upstairs after a few minutes, she filled three cups with lemonade and stacked a plate with cookies. She put the dishes onto a tray, and carefully climbed the stairs to her bedroom.

She knocked open the door with her hip, and presented the goodies to her friends.

"I bring cookies and un-caffeinated drinks," she said, and slowly sat the tray down on her desk.

"Perfect," Sakura said, and slid off the bed to reach for a cookie and a cup. Naomi handed one to Ino, and then took the remaining cup.

"You're phone was going ballistic when you were gone, by the way," Ino said nonchalantly. Naomi's eyes widened, and she leaped across the bed, trying hard not to spill a drop of lemonade. She switched places with the phone, putting her lemonade on the bedside table and taking the phone into her hand.

Naruto
Missed Call

Naomi held her breath and unlocked her phone, then quick as she could she called him back. She tapped her fingers anxiously on her leg and waited for him to pick up. He probably called me on his break. Damn it. Naomi cursed herself for leaving her phone unattended. But let out the breath that she was holding in and smiled when she heard his voice.

"Naomi, hey! I'm glad you called back. There's something that I want to ask you."