We Three

Chapter 6: The Silver

We Three

Seven years alone is a long time.

Eleven years after, and I am no longer alone.

It is just as agonizing.

…

"I can't believe you're making me go to some fruity Christmas party when we could be having fun at a realparty! With real friends and real music and realdrugs–"

"Ino, shut the fuck up," Naruto interrupts her, unbuckling the seat belt to the driver's seat of Jiraiya's truck, not feeling an ounce of sympathy for his pseudo-sister, "I'm taking us to Pein's damn party after this, okay? I've just got to make an appearance for an hour or so, and then we can go get drunk or whatever. Besides, how often do we get to dress all fancy?"

Naruto glances at the blonde girl in all her silence as he cuts the engine and straightens his tie. She is pouting, crossing her arms over her fluffy white fur coat and shaking her head in that condescending, annoyed manner she does, her crystal earrings glimmering. She looks absolutely stunning sitting in this old Ford '95.

Deidara had turned into an otherworldly work of magic when they had gone to his apartment before the party for a fix-up in a hurry. He had somehow used a mixture of rouge and silver eyeliner to make Ino look ten times healthier, happier. It's somewhat saddening to see what she could be. What she could have been. (Laughing with Sasuke and Sakura, being the gossipy, perfect best friend to them instead of doing her best to wither away, while Naruto wastes away all alone, never finds Deidara or Gaara or Pein or the Warehouses or a scale that reads back zero). Deidara had been ecstatic to help them get pretty ("You both look so gorgeous. I wish I could keep you all to myself," and they had laughed and winked at each other and Gaara had shown them a rare smile).

"Gaara's probably dancing all alone," she whines, but she's unbuckling too and opening the passenger door and pulling on her black heels, "And I don't like dressing fancy!"

"In the jeans he's wearing tonight? I doubt it,"

Ino is not amused, but she stops complaining for the seconds it takes to get around the front of the truck and to the concrete driveway they parked next to. It had been swept of snow and ice earlier for this event. There are more cars filling up the driveway and curb on either side of the house, and the house itself is lit up.

"Shit," Ino mutters with a playful snort, "Look at this place; they obviously don't believe in overkill, eh?"

Naruto nods, having already expected her reaction- it was everyone's. The Uchiha family is rich, and they live in a house that shows it. While their home certainly isn't the biggest in Konoha (the Hokage and Orochimaru's houses are five times bigger), it is a tall two stories, decorated with shimmering ice-sickles and blinking strings of light that Naruto knows took them hours to hang- it usually ranges from a two to three day project putting them up and taking them down.

Naruto takes Ino by her freezing hand (for the strength, he knows she knows) and leads her up the wet driveway to the front patio. The big windows in the front have their blinds up to show off the white frosted fern inside the foyer. He doesn't knock or ring because this is almost just as much his house as the owners', swings the door open and pushes his date into the warmth of a heater and the smell of gingerbread cookies.

Mikoto, ever the perfect host, is waiting by the door, a tray of drinks in hand and a charming smile on her beautiful face. She is wearing a slim, long silky emerald green dress, her long black hair pinned up in a jeweled bun. Naruto is used to the 'Uchiha experience', but Ino is not. She is stiff with the intensity of the decorations and lights and Celtic Thunder singing All I Want for Christmas softly in the background and Mikoto's fluttering hands on Naruto's cheeks and arms, and he gives the blonde girl some space in order toacclimate.