A/N: I've wanted to post this for a while my sister and I came up with it when I still had no clue how to post stories but I figured now was a good time because right now I think we could use a few more summer fics. I hope people like it I should have more chapters posted soon if I get some reviews. This is Ino-cetric so if you don't like Ino or the pair ShikaIno for that matter don't read this. For those who decide to keep reading I would like to apologize here for the spelling and grammer mistakes I've made I spell checked 300 times but I'm sure I missed something.
Disclamer: I don't own Naruto if I did the Sasuke Retrival Squad would have been a sucsess.
"Good bye old house" Inoichi waved cheerfully as he drove the old family minivan away from the house where he and his daughter had lived for the past 12 years. "Ino wave good bye to the house."
His 15 year old daughter Ino moaned in the backed seat. "Dad tell me why are we moving again?" she asked sitting up.
"Ino you know I lost my job here. I was lucky to find this new one in Konaha city. Look on the bright side at least I waited until you got out of school to move."
"Yeah big bright side now I get to miss going to camp with my friends" she rolled down her window getting one last glimpse of her old home "good bye home, good bye summer, good bye life."
As the house in the distance grew small Ino took out her ipod and put on her headphones to tune out her dad's talk radio. "Honey I'm glad you're being so mature about this" Inoichi said unaware that she couldn't hear him "I know I haven't told you yet but the apartment where we'll be staying is actually a bit more than I can afford on my current salary so you'll have to get summer job alright Ino. Ino? Are you listening?"
"Yeah sounds great dad" Ino said although she had no idea what her dad had just said. She turned her music up as she found one of her favorite songs. It always reminded Ino of her mom who had died two years ago, her father didn't like to admit it but that was one of the main reasons they were moving because everything there reminded him of her.
A few hours later they arrived in Konaha city. Ino was shocked at all the huge buildings; their old home had been on the outskirts of a fairly small town. They drove past skyscraper after skyscraper as they made their way to a tall apartment building. Ino grabbed the room key and made her way to the fifth floor.
"582, 583, ah 584" she unlocked the door and walked in. It was a big apartment; there was a small kitchen area in one corner of the living room. There were two bedrooms, Ino quickly chose one that was painted almost entirely purple. Her dad came up shortly after carrying the suitcases. He put them down and said "so Ino do you like our new home?"
"Yeah it's pretty cool, but how'd you afford it?"
"I told you about that in the car, speaking of which now would be as good a time as any to start looking."
Ino had no idea what he meant "looking for what?"
"A summer job" with those three words Ino's picture of a perfect summer came crashing down. This meant no trips to the beach or long days at the mall.
"I told you in the car that I couldn't afford this place on my current salary so you need to get a job you said it was fine earlier."
"Well you…I urhg I hate my life!" she said storming into her new room and slamming the door.
A while later, Ino wasn't quite sure how but her dad had somehow got her to go look for a new job. She had gone through the want adds in the paper and made a list of the jobs that wouldn't be that horrible. She had gotten on the bus for her first time ever which made her a bit nervous, all the jobs were too far to walk but most were in the same general area so she might not have to take the bus again.
"Ok number one, pet grooming 42 Maple Street…where the heck is Maple Street?" she looked at the list, she had no idea where any of these places were.
"Do you need some help?"
Ino looked up. An extremely cute boy with hair in a spiky ponytail that defied the law of gravity was talking to her. Normally Ino didn't talk to strangers but he seemed nice enough "yeah I'm new here; I have no idea where anything is do you?"
"I might be able to help but first so we're no longer talking to strangers I'm Shikamaru Nara" he said holding out his hand.
Ino smiled "I'm Ino Yamanaka" she said shaking his hand.
"Cool, so where are you trying to get Miss Yamanaka?" he sat down next to her.
"Call me Ino, I'm trying to get to Maple Street or any of these places really" she said showing him her list.
He looked at the list "well Ino you happen to be in luck as I know where all of these places are. I could give you directions or would you like a personal tour guide?"
Ino giggled "directions are fine."
"Ok then, to get to Maple Street your going to want to stay on this bus until it gets to1st Avenue" he continued giving very detailed directions like "the jewelry store is right across from the pizza place that smells like old shoes" so that after a while Ino felt as though she knew the city herself.
"Thanks Shikamaru I really needed the help" she said looking at the directions he had written on the list.
"No problem, hey I think this is your stop" Ino looked up. It was indeed her stop. She walked to the front of the bus she noticed Shikamaru had followed. "My stop too" he explained. Ino looked at the exit nervously, getting on had been easy enough but getting off on the other hand...
Shikamaru seemed to notice this "never been on a bus before?"
Ino shook her head "don't worry I'll get off first so if you slip I'll catch you."
Ino wasn't sure. She didn't know if she could trust this guy, but something in his voice made her nod. Shikamaru got off easily and stood there waiting for her. She gulped and took the first step 'that wasn't so bad' she thought as she took the next step. Unfortunately for Ino someone who was getting impatient pushed her slightly making her lose her balance.
"AHH!" she shrieked closing her eyes. She waited for the ground to come but it didn't.
"I said I would catch you didn't I?" Ino opened her eyes to meet Shikamaru's deep hazel ones. Shikamaru was holding her and telling the bus driver she was fine. He put her down although part of her didn't want him to let go 'what am I thinking? He's a total stranger…who may have just saved my life, no I can't think like that I barely know the guy eep here he comes what do I do, what do I do?' Ino thought as Shikamaru walked over to her.
"Ino are you ok?" he asked.
"Yeah I'm fine, but I think I dropped my bag on the bus. My dad is so going to kill me if I lost it."
"Don't worry I went and got it for you" he handed her bag to her.
"Thanks" she took the bag and realized she was blushing.
"No problem. I'll see you around Ino" he waved and walked off.
"Yeah I'll see ya around" she said after he already left. Ino stood there in a daze. She shook her head "I gotta get going I have seven interviews" she said to herself. Thanks to Shikamaru's directions she got to the pet grooming business in less than five minutes.
She walked in and talked briefly to the owner until she remembered she was allergic to cats.
Thanks to the directions she found the first six places easily but none were right for her. She was about to give up hope of ever finding a summer job but she figured one more interview wouldn't kill her. The last job was at a place called the Hyuuga Hotel 'sounds familiar' she thought 'maybe I stayed there once on vacation, oh well it's my last hope'.
When she got to the hotel she stopped and stared. It was incredible. It was made of white marble with gold doors and windows with far too many stories to count. "Wow" Ino wasn't sure if they would even let her into a place like this, she wasn't really wearing what she'd consider to be fancy clothes, a purple tank top with pink polka-dots and light blue Capri pants. "Well no use standing out here" Ino said to herself as she decided to go in for the interview 'it wouldn't be too bad to work at a place like this'.
She walked in through the revolving door to see a huge lobby with lavish decorations and expensive looking furniture. Two boys walked by carrying several suitcases one had spiky blond hair and the other had black hair that was tinted blue "um excuse me" Ino tried to get their attention but they didn't even notice her. 'Maybe this was a bad idea' she thought.
"Hey long time no see" Ino turned and saw Shikamaru walking towards her.
"What are you doing here?" she asked.
"I work here" he pointed at his uniform "I thought I might see you here this place was last on your list right?"
"Yeah the other interviews didn't go so well, but I was able to find them all thanks to the directions. So um where's the manager's office?" Ino asked looking around.
"I'll escort you to your interview if you want" Shikamaru offered, Ino nodded, "ok there are a few ways we can get there it's just across the lobby but I often find walking all that way to be tiresome so I prefer luggage cart."
Ino wasn't sure what he meant by this. He took her hand and grabbed a passing empty luggage cart; he then helped her up onto the cart and stood on the back hanging on. "Please keep your arms and legs inside the cart at all times, our current destination Tsunade's office."
"Are we allowed to do this?" Ino didn't want to get in trouble before she was even hired.
"Yeah it's perfectly fine, takeoff in five, four, three, two, one!" Shikamaru pushed off a wall and they zoomed down a ramp and across the lobby. Ino giggled loudly as they stopped about twelve feet from where they began. Shikamaru helped her off and someone was heard clapping near them. Ino looked up at a tall blond woman with a chest that couldn't be natural.
"Impressing a new girl? Shikamaru you always seem to go for the blonds" the woman said.
Shikamaru took a bow and said "thank you for the standing ovation lady Tsunade but actually Ino" he gestured at Ino who bowed "is here for a job interview I told you earlier that she might be coming."
"Aw yes, come on in Ino, you two pineapple head" Tsunade said holding open the door to her office.
Ino entered as did Shikamaru who protested "for the billionth time my hair is not pineapple shaped nor is it shaped like any other food for that matter."
"Yeah yeah yeah, I don't care" Tsunade closed the door and went over to her impressively large desk and sat down behind it "please have a seat" she said pointing to two large armchairs, Shikamaru sat in one and Ino followed suit.
"So Ino is it?" Ino nodded "You want a job here do you?"
"Yes mam I don't have any experience in the hotel business though" Ino admitted.
"All righty then you got the job, now that that's out of the way do you have it with you Shikamaru?" Ino was stunned had she heard right.
"Yup got it yesterday after work" Shikamaru took what looked like a game-boy out of his pocket.
"Good give it here" Shikamaru tossed it to her.
"Um miss did you say I got the job?" Ino noticed that the manager wasn't really paying attention to her anymore.
"Huh what? Oh yeah job's yours here's a uniform and badge you start tomorrow" Tsunade handed Ino a uniform and name tag with one hand playing the game with the other "Shikamaru show her the candy counter area where she'll be working."
Shikamaru ushered Ino out of the manager's office. "Wait a second, what is my job? She kinda forgot to tell me that part."
"You're the new candy counter girl" Shikamaru said simply.
He took her over to the other side of the lobby. There was a desk there with selves of candy and magazines behind it, on the desk was a cash register and a little sign that said closed. "You'll work here; basically you sell candy and magazines to people who want them" Shikamaru explained.
"What do I do now?"
"I'd suggest go home take a nap and come back here early tomorrow refreshed and ready to go, or you could hang out here four another five or six hours doing nothing, but you probably wouldn't want to do seeing as you'd be doing it for free whereas I'm paid to do that" Shikamaru leaned on the desk.
Ino giggled "tell me are you always this funny?"
"No I just have a natural charm that women can't resist, I see you've fallen pray to it too."
"Hey" Ino hit him playfully on the shoulder.
"Ow hey, see you're already hitting on me" he said smirking at her "and remember you should be grateful to me."
"Why?"
"I saved your life earlier remember?"
"The bus thing, you call that saving my life? Well I guess it could have been bad if you weren't there, tell you what for being my knight in shining armor I'll give you a token of my affection."
"I'm not really big on the whole token thing…how about a kiss instead?" Shikamaru said this very casually as if he were asking her for the time.
Ino wasn't sure if she should, he seemed really nice and she liked him a lot but she thought he might be joking and Ino had never kissed a guy before and she thought that maybe this was her chance. "Okay but close your eyes" Shikamaru did so. Ino took a deep breath she put her face close to his closed her eyes and…
"SOS Please someone help me" sang Ino's cell phone. This caused them to both open their eyes. Ino quickly pulled away and reached into her bag. She grabbed her phone and answered it.
"Hi dad really bad timing. Uh ha uh sure dad bye" she hung up sighed and turned to Shikamaru "I gotta go, I'll see you tomorrow."
Shikamaru waved as she left alone and un-kissed.
A/N: Sorry to those who wanted them to kiss I just thought it was a bit too early in their relationship for that but it will happen! eventually. This was originally supposed to be a Naruto version of the Suite Life of Zack and Cody but I'm taking it in a diferent direction now. See if you can guess who the bell hops were, Shikamaru's job is being a bell hop too. I'm going to introduce more Characters next chapter. I'm sorry if this chapter went a bit slow I wasn't sure how to end it and it kept going and going and going.
Remenber Reviews make updates come faster and they make me very happy!
To those who flame a poem for you:
Flamer Flamer on the wall
whose the cruelest of them all?
When I check for reviews so nice
All I get is hurtful spite
Ok so the rhyming is kinda messed up but that's the best I could do on short notice.