Secret Santa
By: Jolly
A Naruto Fanfic
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Author's note
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Hello again everyone! It has been a long while since I last wrote something, but I got the writing bug bad. I've got another nifty story that's just chock full of NaruHina win! Or at least it will once it eventually gets there. :3 I even threw in a side of SasuSaku for free! This one is slightly based on personal experience and certainly a present-day AU. I was gunning for a one-shot, but when I hit 13K words and still had a good chunk left to write, I decided to split this into two chapters. This is entirely un-beta'd, so any mistakes are completely mine and I apologize in advance for any I missed.
Enjoy!
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"Damn it," grumbled a slightly disheveled blond teenager as he glared hatefully at the screen in front of him. "Not another one…" Pausing the game on his screen, Naruto Uzumaki leaned back in his chair and ran a hand through his hair in exasperation. Letting out a breathe, he pressed another button on the controller to bring up the debug information. Blue eyes scanned the on-screen data briefly as he put the controller on his desk and picked up a well-used notepad to begin jotting down a note.
"Map… Gun-Runner… Fault… Hole in map… Location… Wall intersection," he glanced back up at the screen momentarily. "36-23, 37-1… Details… Frag grenade explosion causes fault in map floor allowing player character to fall out of level at wall intersection." He then tossed the pencil and pad back onto his desk, picked the controller back up and restarted the level that he had been testing for the last nine hours. "All right you annoying P.O.S… let's have one last go at you to see what else I can break before I send you back to the S.E. boys and girls."
If anyone had asked Naruto a year ago if he would like a job playing video games all day, the likely answer would have been somewhere between 'damn skippy!' and 'where do I sign?' Now, however? Now, Naruto would probably stare a burning hole through the person asking him the question.
Being a member of the Quality Assurance team was not a difficult job, per se. It was merely tedious. Tedious, as in, 'Oh-My-God-Save-Me-I've-Been-Playing-The-Same-Level-Over-And-Over-For-The-Last-Nine-Hours', Tedious. And the writing involved? Don't even get him started. Naruto hadn't known how many notes he would have to write down when he first took the job, but if he had known, he might very well have declined the position merely on principle.
"Wait, what the hell?" he exclaimed as he cocked his head at the screen. He tapped the left analog stick on the controller to move his character backwards a bit, causing a tree he had walked past to sheer across the screen. "How did I miss that the last fifty times I've passed this?" Grumbling even more explicatives at the digital flora, Naruto repeated the process of annotating the error before he continued to play through the level.
He ended up finding three more unique errors during his playthrough before he finally turned off the developer console on his desk and pressed a button below the screen to switch the input to his computer's desktop. As he let out a long sigh, Naruto picked up his notepad from his desk and paged through his notes to get a quick count. He then opened up a word processor to begin the process of transcribing his notes into a legible report.
Many positive things could be said about Naruto Uzumaki. Unfortunately, his handwriting was not one of those things. As text began steadily filling the screen, Naruto idly reached down into a drawer and pulled out an energy bar, stopping his typing only long enough to open the wrapper. He was nearly a quarter of the way finished with the report when a completely unwelcome voice behind him tore his attention from the screen.
"You are supposed to still being testing the current map for errors, Mister Uzumaki. Why are you, instead, writing your daily report?" asked the cold, feminine voice. Naruto turned in his chair towards the antagonistic person in his cubicle while he attempted to keep his annoyance with said individual off of his face.
'Attempted' being the key word there.
Naruto merely held up his notepad and waved it a bit as he addressed his nominal superior with only a hint of the scorn he felt in his voice. "I've got over a hundred and twenty errors that I'm supposed to write into my daily report before the end of my shift, Miss Hyuuga. That simply isn't going to happen in the thirty minutes that you've allotted in the schedule," he explained while keeping direct eye contact with her. Her icy pale eyes only left his when she snatched his notebook from his grasp and began to flip through it quickly.
Apparently being unable to find a fault in his work ethic or his logical conclusions that led to his decision to 'not follow his schedule' was worthy of a scowl towards the blond as she closed and tossed his notebook at his chest. "How you can even read your own chicken scratch is beyond me. Have your report printed out and in my inbox before the end of your shift," she tersely told him as she stepped away from Naruto and made her way back to her office.
Once she was well out of earshot, Naruto finally let his annoyance with his personal nemesis show on his face as he turned back to his keyboard and muttered, "Bitch."
Hinata Hyuuga had seemed like such a nice supervisor when he first started working for the company. She had been very friendly to the entire team, Naruto included, for the first several months, but at some point, something changed with regards to him. Ever since then, she had treated him like dirt. As only good enough to be scraped from the bottom of her shoe.
What was worse was that Naruto simply couldn't understand why the change had happened in the first place. One day they were exchanging fairly regular e-mail traffic about numerous things, then the next it just stopped. At the time, he had merely shrugged it off, thinking she had more important things to do than chit-chat with him. But after several weeks, he began to wonder if he had said something unintentionally insulting to her without realizing. Then she suddenly started giving him the cold shoulder and it only went downhill from there.
Sure, he knew that he was a bit of a clown with his co-workers during breaks, but the worst that he'd ever done was hide the sugar and brought in an identical canister with salt inside. He'd even made sure to fess up immediately and put the original sugar back after he'd gotten his target, Kiba. Everyone had gotten a good laugh out of it and the fake sugar canister was still in the break room with a piece of duct tape on the side labelled 'SALT'.
But it shouldn't have gotten that sort of response from Hinata Hyuuga, especially since she had started treating him worse before the break room prank. Honestly, Naruto had stopped trying to figure it out after the first month. Now, he was the only one she addressed so formally in their work area and she seemed to go out of her way to find things wrong with his work on a weekly basis.
Had he not made a promise with his old man, he would have already quit this job. Unfortunately for Naruto, he never went back on his word. Dattebayo! If he promised his father that he would have his name in the credits of a video game before he turned twenty, he would darn well have his name in the credits of a video game before he turned twenty!
Stupid damned mouth… and stupid damned pale-eyed, cold-assed, stuck-up, micro-managing bitches.
With one final, violent, stab on his keyboard to finalize his report, Naruto saved the document to both his local computer and his personal network storage. He then e-mailed the report to the Software Engineering department and sent the document to the printer at the end of the row. He glanced at the time on his screen briefly and nodded. Five minutes to spare. He stood up and walked down the aisle towards the printer, which was already spitting out page after page of his report.
He reached the printer just as it finished the job and quickly straightened out the pages, stapled them together and headed over towards the large room's entrance. There by the main door, on the wall, was a wooden organizer with small cubbies secured to the wall. By each opening was the name of an employee and Naruto quickly slid his report into one of the largest three which was, unsurprisingly, labelled 'Hyuuga.'
He quickly headed back to his desk to clock out for the day, but decided to check his e-mail one last time before heading home. He quirked an eyebrow at an e-mail that had come in just a few minutes ago with the Subject: Secret Santa.
Was it really already December? Where the heck did Fall go?
Naruto mentally shrugged and opened the e-mail to see what the deal was. Apparently the Human Resources department figured everyone could use a morale booster as they came up on the final stretch for the development of the game. The body of the e-mail had all of the guidelines for the event and attached was a questionnaire to fill out for anyone who wanted to participate.
Naruto scanned the guidelines briefly. Fifty dollar limit. Keep gifts Safe For Work. If you participate, you must bring a gift or forfeit your own gift. Blah, blah, yadda, yadda. He didn't see any deal breakers on the list, so what the heck? Naruto absentmindedly clocked out for the day before he opened the attachment and began filling it out. Taking the time to double-check himself, Naruto gave a small nod, saved the document and sent the completed form back to the sender.
That done, he powered off his computer, grabbed his jacket and keys, and headed for the door. As he passed his supervisor's office, he glanced inside for a second. She was sitting at her desk, facing the doorway, reading through a report. Naruto could feel her gaze follow him, even though her eyes never left the papers in her hands. The feeling didn't leave even after there was a wall between them. It wasn't the first time Naruto had felt a similar sensation in regards to his supervisor, either. Weird…
He opened the door leading into the main areas of the building, looked over his shoulder at the mail boxes and, yep, his report was missing from her box.
Bitch.
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"You've got to be kidding me…"
Naruto could only stare in disbelief at the e-mail on his monitor. However, no matter how long he stared at it, the e-mail would simply not magically change on his whim. The e-mail in question had once again hit his inbox at the end of his shift. The subject?
Secret Santa.
Out of the forty-some-odd members of the Quality Assurance team that he could have gotten to be the Secret Santa for, his luck just had to screw with him again and drop his personal nemesis' name right in his lap.
Hinata Hyuuga.
His mouse cursor hovered dangerously over the Delete button as he attempted to melt the monitor with his glare. Instead of following through with what he really wanted to do, Naruto leaned back in chair, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He may have been, without a doubt, a major hothead, but his parents didn't raise a vindictive asshole or a fool. He opened his eyes, infinitely more calmed than ten seconds previous, leaned back towards his keyboard and mouse, and forwarded the e-mail to his personal address. He would read through her questionnaire later once he'd solicited advice from the best source at his disposal.
As soon as Naruto had stepped through the exterior doors to the employee parking lot, he hit speed dial '2' on his phone and put it against his ear.
"Riiiiing… Riiiiing… Rii…" *click*
"Hey, kid! What's the special occasion?" spoke the cheerful female voice on the other end of the line.
Naruto couldn't help but grin. "Hi, mom," he began. "Sorry it's been so long since I last called, but work's been crazy the last couple of months. We're just about ready to wrap up production on our current project," Naruto explained, apology plain in his voice as he made his way to his car. "So, that means that it's crunch time for the entire production team."
'Crunch time,' he had learned, meant that the team would be so busy, Naruto expected to be sleeping at his desk for the next couple of weeks and work through the weekends in order to finish doing all of the necessary testing in time to meet the deadline. Which reminded him… he had better pick up supplies for his desk this weekend.
"Don't sweat it, Naruto," reassured his mother, her unseen smile evident. "Your father and I are just glad that you're working hard to fulfill your promise. Though, to be honest, I'm still wondering if you're going to be able to make time to come home for Christmas?" Kushina asked with a mix of hope and doubt.
As his car came into view, Naruto hit the remote unlock and start on his key and grimaced as he dodged between the side mirrors of two cars parked just a bit too close together. "Barring some emergency, I should be able to make Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas morning, no worries," Naruto told her seriously. This was his first year living on his own, but Naruto still had every intention of making the hour long drive to his parents' house for the important holidays whenever he could manage it.
A sigh of relief came over the line that caused him to chuckle as he opened the door to his 2016 Chevrolet Cruze and sat down. "That's great to hear! I can't wa-" the sound in the earpiece cut off as the car's Bluetooth took over the call. "- to have you home again," came over the speakers. Naruto placed his phone in its dashboard stand, buckled up and pulled out of the spot to make his way out of the lot. "Any chance of you having a plus one for Christmas Eve dinner?" his mother asked hopefully.
Kushina Namikaze-Uzumaki's desire for eventual grandchildren, and her harassment of her only son about his love life, was a running joke within the extended family. She was ever hopeful that Naruto would one day bring a girlfriend over to 'meet the parents' and no amount of time lapsed nor number of 'no's' from her son could deter that hope.
Naruto merely shook his head in exasperation. "Mom, I barely have the presence of mind to keep my plant watered most weeks, let alone juggling work, bills, household chores and a girlfriend," he joked, hoping to move past this subject quickly. Then, in a move to put it to rest semi-permanently, he said, "I promise you, mom. You'll be the second person to know if and when I convince some insane woman to be my girlfriend."
"Who would be the first, then?" came the quick response.
"Me!" Naruto exclaimed with a laugh as he hit the on-ramp to the highway. A moan of despair came over the speakers in response.
"Well, I suppose that rules out girl troubles as the reason why you called today…"
Naruto could actually feel the blush on his cheeks. "Actually…" He was then forced to turn down the volume on the dashboard in response to the assault of sound his mother might have called a 'squee.' "Damn, mom! Knock it off before I have dogs chasing my car down the highway!" Naruto only turned the volume back up after he was sure his mother had gotten control of her excitement.
"Tell me everything! Spare no detail. What's her name? What does she look like? Does she-"
"It's not like that, mom! Jeez… just," he pause, sighed, then continued. "Just let me explain, okay?"
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"I see… that really is a pickle," his mother said, her voice once more coming over the ear piece as he sprawled on his couch. "So you called because you want to know what I think you should do, right?"
Naruto nodded his head as he rubbed his free hand down his face. "Yeah, that's about the long and short of it," he agreed. "I'm just torn, you know? I mean, I was this close to just saying 'Fuck it' and deleting the e-mail, but…"
"But you knew I would have kicked your ass for being a vindictive asshole," she finished for him, matter-of-factly in a satisfied tone. "Knew I raised you right." Naruto couldn't help but chuckle at his mother. He could practically see her nodding her head in pride with herself in his mind. "Well! If that's the case, then I only see one way to handle it, kid!"
At this, Naruto sat himself up and quirked an eyebrow. "Oh yeah? What's that?"
"It's simple, really. Kill her with kindness!"
"Kill her with kindness…?" he repeated, confused.
"Yup~!" The 'P' was a loud pop. It was one of his mother's verbal tics that she used when she was patting herself on the back for a great idea. Coincidentally, it was also one that he seemed to have inherited… The only downside was that when she had one of her 'great' ideas, she more often than not failed, or refused, to elaborate. Instead she expected everyone else to follow her own train of logic to reach the same conclusion. It was one of Naruto's least favorite games, but he knew that she would stay silent on the line until he either agreed with her or questioned her about it.
Naruto knew to question his mother's ideas at his own peril. So, he was forced to attempt to follow her logic instead. In order to 'kill her with kindness,' he would have to logically do the 'kind' thing. That would mean actually going through with the Secret Santa event. Okay, so she wanted him to do it. Got that… but 'kill her with kindness'? She was his personal workplace nemesis. How would he…?
Naruto's eyes shot open as the figurative lightbulb went on in his head.
He thought back on the original e-mail and mentally went over the rules and guidelines. Nowhere in the rules did it state that he was limited to giving only one gift, nor did it say anything about when said hypothetical additional gifts could be given to the recipient. And seeing as how the whole thing was meant to be secretive, that meant he would have to pull it all off while not changing his behavior. All the while, she would still be treating him like dirt and…
It started as a soft chuckle and worked its way up to a full-blown belly laugh. His mom was the best! This was it! If he pulled this off, this would be his crowning glory. His greatest prank ever! But wait…
"Mom," he started, a wide grin plastered on his face. "This is your greatest idea to date," he said with conviction. "But I'm going to need your help to pull it off. I'll see you in about an hour."
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Hinata was still trying to shake the cold out of her bones as she swiped her badge in front of the reader by the door into the Quality Assurance team's area. A major cold front had blown in over the weekend and the forecast showed that it was likely going to be a very white holiday season this year. She didn't know whether to be upset or relieved that most of her team already planned to be practically living at the office during the next two weeks.
She personally felt that the holidays should be spent with your loved ones, not at work. However, because the development of their current project had been delayed, the entire development team was now forced to work right through the weeks leading up to Christmas. She already knew that she would have to approve days off for a few of her workers whose religious holidays were observed during the next couple of weeks, but that left the rest of the team going strong right up until the last minute.
Hinata just hoped that her team would be able to handle the workload on top of any holiday plans they might have had.
She was so distracted with these thoughts that she didn't notice the large silvery bag sitting on her chair until she was a full two steps into her office. Her eyes immediately narrowed with suspicion and she quickly glanced about her office looking for any other signs that might clue her into the identity of the intruder. Finding nothing with her eyes, she took a deep breath through her nose to catch any scents that might give them away.
Instead, her eyes widened at the very distinct scent of cinnamon. Cinnamon, aside from being one of her favorite spices, also happened to be excellent for covering up any lingering scents that might have been left. Whether that was by accident or design…
Hinata made her way around her desk to her chair and stared at the bag, willing it to spill the secret of who had left it there. The inanimate bag, however, merely sat there; completely immune to her intimidation tactics. Giving it up as a bad deal, Hinata finally relented and carefully pulled the bag open. Inside the insulated bag lay a bakery box. A box from a bakery halfway across town. Curiouser and curiouser…
Atop the box was a small nondescript card, which Hinata gently plucked out of the bag and opened.
Do your best!
Secret Santa
She didn't recognize the handwriting at all. Very odd, indeed. Hinata had seen the raw notes of every person on the Quality Assurance team aside from the handful that didn't make hand-written notes at all. While her Secret Santa could have been one of those people, her gut told her it wasn't. No, no… her gut told her that her Secret Santa was someone on her team. She could think of a few of her team members that might think of doing something like this.
Which one was it, though…? Temari? Perhaps… but the note was too simple for her normal writing pattern. Sasuke? No, no. 'Do your best' was not something he would say at all. This fit Sakura's style more than anyone else on her team. Though judging by the smell alone, Hinata knew if it was Sakura, she wouldn't be able to restrain herself from 'wandering by' at just the right time to weasel her way into snagging one for herself. That girl had a major sweet tooth. And it certainly wasn't Naruto, Kiba, Lee or Sai. Subtlety was not their strong suit.
Though there was that one prank in the break room… Hinata had to admit that one was pretty smooth on Naruto's part… not to mention funny.
Hinata allowed a small smile to play across her lips as she put the card on her desk and reached into the bag to pull out the box. She could guess, but she truly was surprised that her Secret Santa would go to such lengths as to bring an early gift of her favorite guilty pleasure. Lo' and behold… a half dozen cinnamon buns were revealed as she opened the lid. Her mouth watered eagerly at the thought of biting into one of those tantalizing, delectable treats.
"Miss Hyuuga. We've got a problem." A very unwelcome voice broke her from her reverie. She was so distracted by her gift that she had completely missed Naruto's approach to her office. She bit back an involuntary growl at the interruption, but some of her anger must have shown through, because Naruto's neutral expression turned slightly sour. Hinata knew that she shouldn't take it out on him. Naruto never interrupted her morning routine unless something was seriously wrong. It was one of the things that she liked most about him as one of her team members; if it was something that could be handled without her input, he took care of it and only let her know after the fact to keep her in the loop. If only he hadn't…
Calming herself a bit, Hinata focused on Naruto and responded. "What seems to be the issue, Mister Uzumaki?" He seemed to recover his previous neutral demeanor as he straightened up from where he was leaning forward onto the doorframe and stepped into the office a bit.
"Nobody in Q.A. can access the updated maps that the S.E team uploaded over the weekend," he explained quickly. "I called over to S.E. and they said they didn't have any issues with the upload, so I checked the folder permissions and got immediately kicked back. It seems that the folder permissions got messed up sometime between then and now and, unfortunately, the only two guys in I.T. that can fix the problem aren't going to be in for at least another half hour."
Hinata's eyes narrowed dangerously. The beginning of crunch time was not at all the time for something like this to happen without a quick fix in the pipeline. "I.T. is supposed to show up at 7 A.M., just like us. Why are they late?"
Naruto sighed shortly and then told her exactly what she didn't want to hear right now. "Seems one of them broke down on the way to work and the other went to go pick him up. He left his desk not two minutes before I called the Help Desk." He then shrugged and shook his head. "Just bad timing all around, ma'am. I came to tell you the situation… and to ask if you wanted me to pass the word to the team to go over their old reports to look for trends?
Hinata's eyes closed and her shoulders drooped slightly. 'Damn it… why does he have to be so damned efficient?' It was times like this that made her both glad he was on her team and upset with him for blowing her off all these months. He would have been the perfect replacement for Tenten's Team Lead position instead of that complete incompetent, Mizuki. Why did he not…?
'No. Stop it, Hinata. What's done is done.' After centering herself, Hinata finally opened her eyes to see Naruto's sky blue eyes staring at her quizzically. "Thank you for letting me know, Mister Uzumaki. Yes, please have the team go over their notes and reports to look for trends they can use to test the new maps more efficiently."
Naruto gave a quick nod and stepped back to turn around, but stopped momentarily. After a second, he turned his head back towards Hinata and stage whispered, "Also, unless you want the team to come track those things down in the next 5 minutes, you might want to close the door or secure them somewhere safe." He jutted his chin in the direction of the bakery box on her desk to indicate what 'those things' were, before turning his head back around and disappearing beyond the portal.
With a long sigh, Hinata decided to take the blonde's advice. She quickly moved to her office door, peeked out momentarily to check for anyone nearby, and closed it so that she could enjoy her second breakfast in relative peace. 'With the delay, I should have just enough time to have one of them,' she thought to herself happily as she made her way back to her chair.
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'WHO LET THE DOGS OUT?! WHO! WHO! WHO-WHO! WHO LE-' *clatter-clatter* '-THE DOGS OUT?!'
"Shit! Stupid phone… What do you want, Dog Breath? I just dropped my phone because you called when I was getting out of my car! Damn it, hold on a sec…" *shh-shh-shh* *fooooooosh* "You're lucky it didn't break, dude. I would have been forced to kick your ass."
"Ha! Never mind then, Butterfingers. You answered my question already. See you in a bit!" *click*
"…The hell was that all about? Ass… couldn't wait five minutes for me to get into the office."
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"Mister Uzumaki! What is the meaning of this?" Hinata called out as she stormed down the row of cubicles towards the source of her ire holding a printout in her clenched hand. As she came upon his desk, Naruto had already swiveled around in his chair to face her with a quirked eyebrow. Hinata held up the paper in her hand as she stared him down. "Why am I getting complaints from the Software Engineers about you calling them idiots?!"
Naruto held up a finger to stop her from going on. "I did not call anyone an idiot. I merely strongly inferred that the designer and/or team responsible for the… travesty that is the 'boss room' that was sent to us needed to revisit their childhood days of playing 8-bit gaming systems to better understand the concept of acceptable 'room design' and what a 'reasonable' boss fight entails," he explained, annoyance painted across his face. He thrust his thumb over his shoulder at his monitor that was showing the current build on a pause screen. "Here, just watch a few playthroughs and you'll see what I'm talking about."
He then spun around in his chair, picked up the controller lying on his desk and unpaused the game. Hinata watched as the character entered the room with what was supposedly the final boss, the screen cut to a cinematic that Naruto quickly skipped, and then watched as the fight began… and then ended five seconds later. "Wait, you died in one hit? How does that work?" Hinata asked as she leaned over the back of Naruto's chair to stare at the monitor. Naruto restarted the level and brought up his character's inventory, allowing Hinata to scan over everything quickly. "You've equipped the best gear and still got one-shot? Go back into the room and let me see something," she commanded over his shoulder.
Naruto silently complied, re-entering the room as instructed, then skipped the cinematic again. "Do a 360 first thing." Naruto did so and then died as soon as he had completed a full rotation. However, Hinata had seen what had upset Naruto so much. "You can't avoid that first shot?" Naruto shook his head.
"I've played this level almost fifty times through and still haven't managed to not get hit right off the bat," he explained as he finally turned back to Hinata, who was much closer than he had expected her to be. "There's no cover within a reachable distance before that first shot lands and the accuracy is damned near pinpoint with the ability to one-shot a max-geared player character."
Hinata, however, was not the least bit concerned about her proximity to him. Instead, it seemed as if she had taken the full head of steam directed at him and was about to point it elsewhere. The sound of multiple pairs of feet shuffling behind her forced Hinata to temper her anger as she turned to find that they had an audience. Her fellow team leaders Ino and Mizuki had followed her over from the offices to Naruto's desk and she could see her entire team either standing or poking their heads into the aisle.
She decided to address her team first. "Do the rest of you concur with Mister Uzumaki's findings?" She received a series of nods and numerous variations of yes as a response. Kiba's sarcastic quip of, 'I'll pay any S.E. scrub a hundred dollars that can win that fight without dev cheats as it is right now,' got a good round of chuckles from the group, too. Hinata turned her attention to her fellow leads.
"Check with your teams to see if it's the same with them. If they agree, then I'm going to march over there and give them a piece of all our minds. We do not have the time to waste on builds this broken at this stage of development and I plan to make that abundantly clear. We should be dealing with complete levels with minimal errors, not…" she turned back to Naruto's monitor and waved a hand at it dismissively. "Not that."
They gave quick nods and jogged over to their respective teams as Hinata turned back to Naruto. "As for you, Mister Uzumaki," she began with a cold glare that Naruto seemed to completely ignore. "Next time, bring something like this to my attention first instead of making the unilateral decision to send a scathing e-mail to another team. Dealing with interdepartmental stupidity in my job, not yours." Without waiting for a response from him, she left his cubicle and made her way back down the aisle towards her office to prepare for the coming confrontation. 'With any luck, it'll just be a case of being sent the wrong build,' she thought to herself, keeping her figurative fingers crossed that that was all that it was. A few hours of wasted work was a better outcome than having to overhaul an entire build because of a crappy design concept.
At some point, her entire team had disappeared into their cubicles and seemed to be busily doing everything they could to not be in any way involved in the fireworks between Hinata and Naruto. As she reached the end of the row, she paused for a moment in an attempt to calm herself. She took a deep, shaky breath, and noticed that her hands seemed to be a bit jittery, causing her to frown out of concern. It was the fourth day into the crunch and Hinata's energy was beginning to wane. She had dealt with it before on other projects, but crunch time during development always seemed to leave her figurative fuel tank below quarter.
She momentarily wished that she still had one of those delicious cinnamon buns leftover from the beginning of the week, but between her own sugar needs and sharing with Ino, they had been devoured before the day was out. Hinata mentally steeled herself as she rounded the corner and made her way towards her office. She froze mid-step as something sticking out from the mailboxes caught her eye, causing her to turn for a closer look.
Jutting out from her mailbox was the distinctive wrapper of a Snickers bar. Curious, Hinata walked over and pulled it out. She was certain that it wasn't there ten minutes prior… but then again, she wasn't exactly focused on the mailboxes when she stormed away from her office. Taped to the candy bar was another small note; one identical in design to the note attached to the bakery box. 'Another gift? When did they put this here?' she thought to herself as she quickly opened the note.
Keep doing a great job!
Here's something to help
Keep you moving!
Secret Santa
Hinata couldn't help the soft smile that formed on her face as she read the encouraging note. She carefully detached it from the candy bar as she walked into her office and stood it next to its sibling on the corner of her desk. Hinata felt a warmth inside her chest that she identified immediately as extreme gratitude. It may have only been a simple candy bar… but it was such a thoughtful gift, and given at such an opportune moment, that Hinata decided that her Secret Santa was going to get a heartfelt hug when they weren't so secret any longer.
Decision made, Hinata then tore open the wrapper and took a very unladylike bite of the chocolate-caramel-nougaty goodness to fuel up. Goodness knew she would need it to deal with the fallout of Naruto's hotheaded idiocy, however correct his points may have been. Seriously! Sometimes she just wanted to throttle that man!
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'THAT GUY TEX IS REALLY A ROBOT. AND YOU'RE HIS BOYFRIEND. SO THAT MAKES YOU… A GAY ROBOT.' 'YEAH… THAT'S RIGHT… I'M A GAY ROBOT…'
"Grand Central Station!"
"You let that stupid thing play all the way through every time, don't you?"
"Yup~!"
"Idiot…"
"So what'cha need, Bastard?"
"Hnn… It's not really about me, per se… but I did want to run an idea by you."
"Shoot."
"So you know how I'm not the greatest at expressing myself, right?"
"You and eighty-five percent of the American male population, yeah. Go on."
"Well, instead of getting my Secret Santa a normal gift-"
"Okay, let me stop you right there, because I can see where this is heading and neither of us will enjoy the end result if I don't. I swear on all that's holy, if you ask Sakura to marry you in lieu of an actual Secret Santa gift-"
"Wait! How did you know that I'm her Secret Santa?!"
"Read it over your shoulder before you could minimize it. Anyway! As I was saying! If you ask her to marry you as your 'gift' and I don't stop you, we're both as good as dead."
"How do you figure?"
"Okay, let's take this idea of yours to its logical conclusion. Shut up! Me. Logic. Har har. Moving on!"
"Hn."
"You ask Sakura the big Q. Regardless of her answer, the gossip grape vine will carry the knowledge of the event in some way, shape, or form, through methods unknown to anyone with a Y chromosome, directly to my mom. Who will then immediately tell your mom. Who will then be on your ass like white on rice on a paper plate in a snow storm for not allowing her to be there to see it or take pictures, because your mom adores Sakura and is just as eager for eventual grandkids as my mom is. Then both of them will jump all over my ass for not stopping you in the first place, because, of course, as your best friend, I would have been in the know. Thanks for that, by the way."
"Hn."
"Then, after they were done stomping new mud holes into us, we would both be subjected to our respective mothers' 'Woe Is Me Where Did I Go Wrong Raising My Son' spiel. Then we would be eventually guilted into 'Making It Up' to them by having to buy them a spread of their favorite treats and/or treating them to a Mother/Son Date where they drag us to a nice restaurant dressed up in our Sunday Best while our dads and your brother sit at home together laughing at us while drinking hard liquor and watching sports on T.V."
"Hn…"
"Yeah. 'Hn…' is right! Get Sakura an actual gift for Secret Santa and save popping the Question until Saturday. Preferably before I show up so that I can avoid the inevitable squeals of joy from our excitable mothers."
"Speaking of which, your mom asked my mom to tell me to get on your case about bringing a date Saturday. This is me officially 'getting on your case.' Try to not bring anyone I can't stand."
"Just for that, I think I'll ask Ino. It'll be like high school all over again!"
"Idiot. Then you would have to deal with the catty dialogue, too. With no Mister Umino there to act as a buffer."
"Crap… Forgot about that."
"Hn. Anyway, thanks for the advice. I'd better go figure out what to buy."
"Good luck, have fun, don't die~!"
"Idiot." *click*
"Hmm… I think this one looks the best." *snip* "Now the plant food goes into the vase… add water." *shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh* "Recut the stem at an angle while it's submerged." *snip* "And finally remove the leaves below the water line. There! All ready. Just need to drop this off, then go grab the coffee."
XXXXXXXX
Sunday morning greeted Hinata with the joy of six inches of snow. Worse yet, the forecast called for another six to eight inches before the day was done. This only annoyed Hinata further as she trudged her way through the parking lot, slipping hither and thither and attempting to not fall on her ass in the process of making it to the door. A native Northerner, she was not.
As a reward for their hard work, Hinata had given her team half the day off today to somewhat recharge their batteries before showing up at noon. Unfortunately, she did not include herself in that break. There was simply too much work for her to do to afford herself any time off. She was almost through the worst of the snow drifts and piles in the lot when she felt her feet go in opposite direction. She didn't quite end up with her face in the snow, but it was a near-miss thing as she caught her fall with both hands in a drift.
'Stupid ice…' she mentally grumbled as she prepared to push herself back onto her feet. However, before she could put plan into action, she was startled by a firm grip being applied to her upper arm that immediately, yet carefully pulled her to her feet.
"You okay, Miss Hyuuga?" She turned to see a concerned-looking Naruto keeping her vertical. He had on his customary burnt orange heavy jacket and was carrying a pair of drink carriers filled with coffee cups with his free hand and arm. How he wasn't spilling it everywhere was beyond her, but Naruto seemed to have no issue keeping his footing in these treacherous conditions.
Hinata could tell her face was flushed, but she couldn't tell if it was caused by the cold, the fact that she had almost eaten snow the hard way, or the fact that the most confusing and surprising man she had ever known was able to pick her up from the ground like she weighed nothing. She realized that Naruto was now looking at her with more concern at her lack of response and mentally shook herself. "I'm fine, thank you. Just a bit surprised, really. It's more slippery than I thought it would be," she admitted as she wiped her hands on the bottom of her jacket to get the snow off.
Naruto gave her a quick once over, then let go of her arm once he was sure she had her feet firmly under her. "Good. I was a bit worried when I saw you disappear below the roofs of the cars," Naruto said with a nod and a smile. "Come on. Let's get out of this crap."
He took a step away from the cars into the main drive, then turned and offered his free arm to her to hold on to. Hinata looked at Naruto, then to the offered arm and back again before giving him a small smile and taking his arm. They slowly made their way toward the main doors of the building, as Hinata tried valiantly to keep her feet under herself.
"How are you not slipping?" she finally asked after the fifth time her feet tried to get away from her. Naruto chuckled as removed his arm from her grasp and gently, yet firmly placed his arm around her back and waist. Hinata was not blushing… she was just flushed from the cold. Oblivious to any complexion changes his actions might have caused, Naruto focused his attention towards their feet.
"Keep your knees slightly bent and balance almost all of your weight on one leg," he instructed, being sure to hold onto her as he demonstrated by slightly lifting one leg off the ground. "Then place your other foot forward a bit," he put words to action. "And shift the weight smoothly to the other foot. Then rinse and repeat. When you do it right, it sort of looks like a waddle, but you almost never lose your balance or slip. Give it a try, but go slow at first." With that, he removed his arm from around her and moved his hand to lightly hold her upper arm while she attempted his method of snow walking.
After a few aborted attempts, Hinata managed to imitate Naruto's walk enough that she was able to keep her balance all the way to the door. Neither of them brought up how Naruto's hand never left her arm until he let go to open the door for her, nor did they try to start another conversation; both seemingly content in the rare amicable silence between them.
It wasn't until they stepped through the doors to the Quality Assurance department that the silence was broken by Hinata's small gasp.
One of the spare office chairs had been positioned next to her office door and sitting on the chair was a single white lily in a vase with a small card taped to the lip. Hinata turned to check Naruto's reaction, only to see him raise an eyebrow and turn to look at her. "Secret admirer?" he asked with a touch of amusement.
She let out an involuntary giggle and shook her head. "Secret Santa, I think," she corrected as they both started walking over to the chair. "They've been sneakily leaving me all sorts of small gifts throughout the week. Frankly, I find it equally charming and frustrating." She kneeled down to check the condition of the flower as, unseen by her, Naruto's composure slipped for a moment. "I haven't been able to figure out who it is, but I've made it a game with myself to try and guess who it is before Friday's big reveal."
The flower's stem was cut at an angle and all of the leaves had been removed below the waterline of the vase. It also looked as if the lily had been cut fresh just that morning. It seems that her Secret Santa knew something about plant care. Interesting… 'Ino, perhaps?' she thought to herself. It was plausible. Ino's parents were florists a few towns over, so it wasn't out of the realm of possibility… As a team leader, Ino also understood the need for a sugary boost when crunch time really got rough… And Ino also helped her finish off the cinnamon buns. 'Could it really be her?'
The puzzle pieces all certainly seemed to fit.
Naruto chuckled as he pulled one specific cup free from the carrier and held it within easy reach of her. "Here, one caramel mocha to start the day right." When she stood up and took it from him with a touch of surprise, he gave her a casual wave and smile. "Good luck with your Secret Santa. I'm going to go deliver the rest of these," he said, indicating the coffee carriers. Hinata momentarily wondered why Naruto had gotten her coffee when she hadn't asked him to, but then remembered that he had been asking around the office about who would be here this morning before he left yesterday.
It seemed that despite their ongoing… issues with each other, Naruto still deemed her worth the courtesy of being included in his coffee run. He had even remembered her habitual order from the many months since he had last done so.
Naruto then turned away to make his deliveries, starting, apparently, with Ino's as he knocked loudly on her office door with an almost wicked smile. "Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey, Ino! Got your usual macchiato~!" he sang cheerily. The responding frustrated growl from within the darkened office told Hinata all she needed to know about how Ino felt about being awoken, coffee or no coffee.
She turned her attention back to the vase, then picked it up and brought it into her office, turning on the light as she walked by. She set her coffee on the desk and removed the card taped to the vase.
For your collection
Secret Santa
Hinata held the vase at arm's length to admire the flower for a moment, then set it on top of her filing cabinet. She would go find a phone book and some scissors somewhere and press the flower later today. With a smile, she placed the card alongside the others on her desk and divested herself of her jacket and hat to prepare for the day's work.
XXXXXXXX
'ONCE AGAIN, I AM HANS!' 'YA, UND I AM FRANZ!' 'UND WE ARE HERE TO PUMP- *CLAP* - YOU UP!'
"Hey, mom. What's up?"
"How is everything working out, kid?"
"So far, so good. Thanks for letting me have a lily out of your greenhouse, by the way. She hasn't cottoned on to me yet, but the timing on the gift drops is getting trickier. She's on the hunt and trying to catch me in the act."
*giggle* "Three down and one more to go before we can call the operation a success. Think you've got what it takes to pull off the last one without getting caught?"
"I'll just think ninja-y thoughts and pull something out of thin air to make it happen if worse comes to worse."
"In what way do you resemble a ninja at all? You habitually wear orange and have the loudest mouth of any of your peers. Honestly, I'm impressed you've managed to do as much as you have without something throwing a monkey wrench into the whole plan."
"Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence, mom…"
"Just calling it like I see it, kid. My advice is to just keep a sharp eye out for the opportune moment and don't be afraid to manufacture an opening if you have to."
"Hmm… that's actually some pretty good advice. I think I know just how to do it, too. Thanks, mom!"
"Anytime, kiddo~! Don't forget to invite her to Christmas Eve dinner when this is all over, okay~?"
"Moooom!"
"Love you! See you on Saturday!" *click*
"Grrr… She's lucky I love her so much…"
XXXXXXXX
Hinata glared at the jewel case sticking partially out of her mailbox as she stood in her office's doorway. It had literally not been there sixty seconds before when Hinata had walked into her office. She had checked. How the hell did her Secret Santa manage to pull off that kind of timing without her noticing? Hinata reviewed the last couple of minutes in her head while continuing to stare. She had walked back from Mizuki's office, where she had forcibly and verbally removed his head from his ass. He had tried to defend his idiocy, citing 'thoroughness,' but Hinata had shot that excuse down faster than Naruto could kill a bowl of ramen.
Naruto and Kiba had found a bug, tracked it back to the line of code causing it and promptly exploited it to crash the build. The Software Engineers said they already knew the bug was there. They had explained that it was caused by a pointer not finding the file it was looking for; which they had already fixed in the build Q.A. was being sent this afternoon. However, because Mizuki had told his team to try and tear it apart, his team was literally doing nothing productive. So she had been forced to go over and get them directed at work that still needed to be done. After that, she had checked her inbox for new reports, gone in her office, sat in her chair, leaned back and closed her eyes in an attempt to calm herself down. She quickly gave it up as a bad deal and decided to go unload on Ino.
And now she was here staring at a disc in her mailbox. No sounds. No distinctive scents. No one in sight. Seriously, though. How did they manage to sneak anything into her box while she was sitting right in her office in that span of time? Hinata knew that she wasn't that out of it to miss someone walking past her doorway. So that meant that her Secret Santa must be someone from a different team, right? Her team would have had to walk past her door to get to the mailboxes. Even if she had missed them going in one direction, she never would have missed them going the other way, too. Or did they even walk by her office at all? Her team constantly coordinated with people in other teams, so the fact that no one walked by her office door didn't necessarily eliminate them from the running.
With a small sigh of frustration, Hinata walked over to get a closer look. She deduced that it was a music CD from the custom artwork on the front that read 'Classical Mix' with a spiral design in the background. She picked up the case and flipped it over, hoping it might give her some clue to the identity of her Secret Santa. On the back was only the same custom artwork spiral with the words 'Spiraling Whirlpool Productions' below it. Something about the name and art tickled the back of her mind. With only two days left to figure it out, Hinata knew that this was probably her last and best chance to solve the mystery.
'No note?' she wondered as she flipped it back over and wandered back into her office. 'No, it's probably…' She pried open the case as she sat at her desk to find the CD and missing note within. Hinata smiled at her correct guess and pulled the card out of the case to read it.
Home stretch!
Here's some tunes
To help you relax.
Secret Santa
Of the ten things she had listed on her questionnaire as things she liked and would accept as a Secret Santa gift, her Secret Santa had now gotten her four of them, and despite how much they had already gotten her, she didn't doubt that they were saving the best for last. Still, she couldn't help but wonder what else they could get her without going over the fifty dollar limit. Maybe she was giving her Secret Santa too much credit?
'That still leaves the question of who it is, though.' She had already marked off all of the men on her team from her mental list. She had figured out that Sasuke had gotten Sakura and Kiba had gotten Naruto early last week. Sai she hadn't figured out yet, but, regardless, he was so socially inept that he wouldn't have ever conceived the sort of gift blitz that she'd been the target of. Lee couldn't shut up about getting to be Ino's Secret Santa. And Naruto…
Well, with how they had been constantly butting heads recently, especially over the last nine days… Just, no. The coffee and help walking to the building on Sunday had been a nice reprieve from the norm for them, but that had been all that it was. Things had returned to business as usual the same afternoon and stayed that way ever since. Though, if she was being honest, she had been the one to revert first…
Sakura and Temari were being mum about the whole thing, but she had deduced that they both had gotten people on other teams. That left her with Ino as the only likely candidate. Unless she had completely missed her guess and it was someone from a different team, that is.
With a mental shrug, she added the card to the collection on the corner of her desk and turned her attention back to the CD case. Opening it, she saw that the inner cover had the track list for the disc. She saw many of her favorites and several that she had never heard of. Going by the selection that she did know, she trusted it would be enjoyable to leave the CD on repeat.
With that thought, she smiled and put the disc into her computer. After loading up the music player, she chose the CD from the list and clicked Play. As the opening notes of "Moonlight Sonata" filled the office, Hinata noticed an e-mail notification pop up in the lower corner of her screen. She quickly maximized her e-mail program and saw a number of e-mails that she had missed in the few minutes that she'd been away from her desk.
She checked the clock and realized that it was getting close to 6:00 P.M. She deleted the few unimportant follow-on e-mails after a quick perusal, but the last one to come in was from the Software Engineering team informing all and sundry that the tentative final full build had been compiled and uploaded for testing. While it was fantastic news for the team, Hinata couldn't help but groan, prop both elbows on her desk and place her face into both hands.
'Of course they're ready to have the finished product tested right at the end of the workday. When else would they logically have it ready?' she thought acerbically as she lifted her head enough to look at the monitor again. She was running on fumes by this point of the day and she knew that most of her team were either in the same boat as her, passed out at their desks, or had already gone home for the day to take care of personal business. She debated internally whether or not to recall everyone and get this, hopefully, last build tested as quickly as possible.
Duty warred with compassion for several long seconds before duty inevitably won out. Decision made, Hinata stood and went to tell her team the news. Unfortunately, as she exited her office, she recognized the grey jacket and shaggy hair of Kiba Inuzuka leaving through the main door. She went to go out and call him back, but remembered that he mentioned that he needed to go home to let his dog, Akamaru, out and take care of a few errands. Coming up short, she instead turned towards her team's area and prepared to let everyone know. She'd get Kiba back later.
"Everyone, can I have your attention, please?" she called out as she stood at the end of the aisle. She waited the few expected seconds for her team to put games on pause or finish up what they were doing. Then she waited a few more seconds. After waiting for almost thirty seconds with absolutely no response from anyone, Hinata confusedly began walking down the aisle to see what the issue was.
Everyone was gone. Every cubicle was empty. The only one that looked even remotely like the occupant was still in the building was Naruto's. His jacket was draped over the back of his chair, car keys were on the desk by the monitor and his sports bag was on the floor next to his filing cabinet. Yes, definitely still in the building. Actually, now that she was paying attention, she could hear his distinctive footsteps coming from around the back side of the room towards their section. She turned to the back of the aisle and waited, annoyance clear to see.
Naruto rounded the corner, looking ready to fall asleep on his feet and obviously running on autopilot. A small tug of sympathy pulled in her chest, but she viciously squashed it and focused on the matter at hand. "Mister Uzumaki," she began, startling Naruto and causing him to jump a bit. "Where did the rest of the team go?"
Naruto stared at her, uncomprehending, momentarily before blinking rapidly, as if he hadn't expected her to be there. Finally, he seemed to shake the cobwebs out of his brain and she could tell he was going over everything in his head. "Kiba went home to take care of Akamaru… Sai went to grab take-out… Sakura and Sasuke went for dinner and a movie… Lee headed down to the gym… Temari… I don't actually know where she is…" he trailed off as he turned to poke his head into her cubicle. "Ah, says on her whiteboard that she's at the hospital visiting her youngest brother." He nodded with satisfaction as he turned his attention back to Hinata and started walking towards her. "And I was just about to head home to water my plant, grab a quick shower and some grub before coming back here to crash at my desk for the night," he finished as he started to move around her to get into his cubicle.
As much as she really wanted to just leave the situation be and let her team have the night off, she knew that the sooner they got the job done, the sooner they could go back to their normal schedules and be finished. So, with sternness in her voice and on her face that she didn't truly feel, she crushed their plans with three simple words.
"Change of plans."
"What?" Naruto's head turned to stare in disbelief at Hinata so quickly that she was worried he might have hurt himself. However, she did not change her tone or facial expression.
"The final build was just uploaded. I'm recalling the entire team to get the jump on it so that we can be finished with this project as quickly as possible," she explained, hardening her heart as she forced herself to finish. "I need you to call Sai and Kiba. Let them know what's going on and get them back in here. Tell Kiba to take care of Akamaru first. I'll handle Temari, Sakura and Sasuke." She knew what was coming. She'd expected it, even. She just had to withstand it now.
Naruto's stare was rapidly heating up into a glare while his face lost some of its pallor and his shoulders tensed up. She could almost literally see his temper come to the fore in response to her cold declaration that the team's personal plans were less important than their work. Hinata was mentally counting down in her head to Naruto losing his cool completely and getting in her face about the issue. In fact, they were already almost face to face as it was, but she held her ground and didn't break eye contact with him.
Unexpectedly, Naruto closed his eyes and took a long, slow breath as he visibly forced himself to calm down. He then took a step back, faced her fully, and opened his eyes, which were now showing none of his previous anger. "What about Lee?" he asked, immensely surprising Hinata. Where did the anger go? Where was the fight? Naruto wasn't one to let something like this go! For a moment, Hinata's brain was too busy trying to process this abnormal behavior to form the answer to Naruto's question.
Naruto, however, just stared evenly at her, patiently waiting for her response. Finally shaking herself clear of her surprise, Hinata allowed some of her coldness to fall away. "If you have a change of clothes with you, go ahead and head down to the gym for a shower like you planned. Just let him know then. After you call the others, though, please." She already knew that Naruto habitually had a spare set of clothing in his bag and toiletries in his desk drawers, so they both knew she was merely politely telling him that he was a bit ripe while simultaneously letting him get a small part of his expected reprieve.
Naruto's nod and small smile reassured her that he wasn't going to suddenly shift gears and lose his temper again, so she turned and began walking away. "I'm going to go set up the coffee pots in the break room after I make my calls. Let the team know that I'm getting pizza and lots of caffeinated beverages delivered, so if they want something else, they'd better pick it up on the way back," she called out without looking back. She knew that the worst part was now past.
Naruto was always going to be the hardest one to convince to go along with this plan. He had effectively become her second-in-command - without having an official title stating as such - in spite of, or perhaps because of, how they were at odds with each other so often. Getting him on board with seemingly no fight at all would give her the leverage needed to get the rest back at their desks. She knew her team would follow Naruto and her combined lead without much complaint unless there was a legitimate issue that needed to be handled.
'This may be the first time in four months that we've shown a united front for the team,' she mused while stepping into her office. 'Now if I could only get him to stop ignoring my e-mails…'
As she sat back at her desk and picked up her phone, she paused momentarily, looked at the monitor, grabbed her mouse, moved the cursor on the screen, and set her new CD to repeat with a smile.
XXXXXXXX
"Riiiiing…" *click*
"The Number You Are Trying To Reach Is No Longer In Service. Please Check The Number You Are Dialing And Try Your Call Again."
"Dad, I need you to pass mom a message when she gets out of the shower."
"The Mother You Are Trying To Reach Has Been Waiting For An Update From Her Progeny."
"Dad, if you don't knock it off, I'm not going to warn you about Saturday's surprise."
"Hold up now, son. Let's not be hasty. What's this about a message and a surprise?"
"That's what I thought, old man. Anyway, tell mom 'Mission Success.' If she presses for details, tell her that it was a close call and that I thought she had caught me for a minute there. As for the surprise, do not tell mom this. Understood?"
"Yeah, sure thing."
"I'm serious as hell, dad. I need you to promise me. Mom does not find out. At all."
"Wow, it must be pretty bad if you're strong-arming me. Okay, I promise. Hurry up though, I hear your mother getting out of the shower."
"Okay, brace yourself. Sasuke is planning on popping the Question to Sakura on Saturday. Do what you will with that information except allow it to fall into mom's hands or ears."
"Well, shit… I'll make contingencies. Thanks for the warning, Naruto. That would have been bad to go into blind."
"What's a good son for, right? Gotta go catch Lee before he leaves the building. We're going full-tilt here at work tonight. Don't expect to hear from me until at least Friday afternoon."
"Understood. I'll let your mother know so she doesn't send out the search parties. One last thing: Any change in the number of place settings we'll need for Saturday?"
*sigh* "Not you, too… Look, I… I don't know right this minute. Have an extra ready, just in case, but I'm making no promises. It'll all depend on how the next forty-eight hours go. Good enough?"
"For government work. I'll keep that under my hat for now, but let me know by Friday night one way or the other, okay?"
"Sure thing, dad. Gotta jet now. I see Lee heading for the doors. Love you, bye!" *crackle-crackle-krshhhhhh* "Lee! Hey, wait up a sec! Hinata's got us putting in extra hours tonight. She needs everyone back in the office to test out the final build."
"Aaaallllll-right! This will be the perfect chance for me to show the lovely Ino how hard of a worker I am! Naruto, my friend! Thank you for informing me about this momentous change in the schedule! I will head back as fast as my legs can run!"
"Lee! You're not supposed to… aaaand he's gone. I swear, sometimes that guy makes the Energizer Bunny look like it needs to go Full Try-hard to keep up with him."
*chuckle* "It's good to know my son associates with such unique people. Builds character." *click*
XXXXXXXX
"Thank you for all of your hard work, everyone," Hinata said with a smile as she stood in the aisle of her team's section. It was just after 9:00 A.M on Thursday, a full thirty-nine hours ahead of schedule, and her team had completed their playthroughs of the, hopefully, final build. She had gone over her team's progress throughout the night and, between all of them, they were only able to find six errors in the entire game.
Admittedly, three of them were where Naruto exploited the same bug in three separate locations to effectively speed run the entire game in under an hour. A bug that he had been breaking maps with throughout the entire project, to boot! Even as tired as Naruto was all night, after pulling off that particular trick, the smile had yet to leave his face. She doubted that he was going to let the Software Engineers live it down, either.
"I apologize again for interrupting everyone's plans for this, but I am extremely proud of everything this team has accomplished," she continued as she looked upon the tired, but content expressions of her team. They really had put in hard work over the last thirteen hours, but it had been well worth it. They were done! "You all have earned a solid break. So I want everyone to go home, recuperate for the rest of the day, and show up tomorrow at noon for the exchanging of Secret Santa presents."
Hinata's smile widened as her team's cheer washed over her. When it had died down a bit, she went on. "So long as the S.E. team doesn't send us anything else by then, I plan to kick you all free for the weekend right after that." Her team's second cheer put the first to shame and caused more than one head to poke over cubicle walls or out of office doors in curiosity. "Now get out of here. I don't want to see your faces back in here until tomorrow!"
Laughter followed her back to her office, where she began packing her things in her bags. She had worried about dealing with the garbage from the team's impromptu pizza party, but it had been effectively taken out of her hands as the other teams descended upon the leftovers like a pack of ravenous wolves as soon as they had come in for the day.
She could hear her team leaving in ones and twos behind her as she went through her mental 'Going Home' checklist before nodding her head, satisfied that she hadn't forgotten anything. As she closed her office door, she decided to check her section to make sure nobody had forgotten anything in their haste to leave.
Desk by desk, she verified that the only things left were her team's customary desktop baubles and clutter. When she got to Naruto's desk, however, she paused and simply stared.
Naruto had propped his feet up onto his desk and was leaned back in his chair with a lightweight holiday-themed blanket spread over him. The sound of his breathing was long and even, a sure indicator that he had truly fallen directly to sleep. Hinata was glad that he had made the decision to sleep at his desk instead of trying to make the drive home as tired as he was. She had been prepared to put aside her anger with him and offer to drive him home if he had attempted to leave on his own. Angry she may have been with him, but she still… liked him.
Truly, it was difficult not to like him, even when he was at his worst. Right now, though, was not his worst by any stretch of the imagination. His golden locks and bright blue eyes were enough to make any girl take a second look. Add his personality to the mix and Hinata was honestly surprised that more of the women in their office hadn't tried to make a play for him. In the privacy of her own mind, she could freely admit to herself that his sleeping face was very cute, indeed. However… something was missing from the picture before her.
She thought about it momentarily, scanning him from head to toe, before it hit her what was missing. Hinata grinned as she edged around his sleeping form, reached down, opened the bottom drawer of his desk, and pulled out his goofy looking sleeping cap. She then quietly closed the drawer, turned, and carefully pulled the cap over his head and down over his eyes to help block out the light. He never stirred except to shift his head slightly, as if to assist her efforts. 'There. Just right.'
On a whim, Hinata leaned down and positioned her mouth next to Naruto's head, then whispered softly. "Thank you for all the hard work you've put in… and for putting up with my attitude with you. I still don't know why you keep ignoring me, but I promise that I'll try to tone it down from now on, Naruto. You've earned at least that much from me regardless of your reasons." Only Naruto's soft breathing answered her.
Satisfied, she turned to finish checking the last few cubicles before heading home herself.
As the door closed behind her and her footsteps faded from his hearing, Naruto allowed himself a small satisfied smile. That was the first time in four months that she had called him by his first name. Sometimes it was the small victories that made all the difference.
"Guess you win our bet, mom," he mumbled blearily. His mother had assured him that there must have been some sort of misunderstanding that caused Hinata's change in attitude towards him. That he just needed to man up and ask her up front why she had changed how she acted towards him. Turns out that his mom was spot on. "I promise I'll finally man up and straighten it all out… tomorrr…ow…" Naruto drifted back to sleep, his words slurring back into soft, even breathing.
XXXXXXXX
'RING RING RING! RING RING RING! PHONE CALL! PHONE CALL! RING RING RING! RING RING RING! PHONE CALL! PHONE CALL! RING RI-'
*grumblegrumble* "Hello…?
"Ah, I apologize if I woke you up, Mister Uzumaki. I can call back later if I caught you at a bad time."
*fshhh* *shhh* "Naw, it's fine. It's nearly dinner time. I needed to wake up anyway or I'll completely mess with my sleep cycle. Who is this, anyway?"
"Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. This is Kakashi Hatake. I was wondering if you had time for me to ask you some questions."
*creeeak* "Wait, Kakashi Hatake… as in my department head, Kakashi Hatake?!"
"Ah, I see my reputation precedes me. This simplifies things. So, did you have a few minutes free? It's not so important that it can't wait. I know that your team pulled an all-nighter to really kick the final build in the teeth."
"Yeah, sure I do. No problem at all. Just need a sec to clear the cobwebs upstairs. I'll check the break room for coffee to help me wake up, so go for it whenever you're ready."
"You're still in the office? In that case, why don't you just come up to see me in my office after you grab your coffee. I'll let Tenten know you're coming so she can join us. Oh, and don't worry about your appearance. Strictly a 'come as you are' affair."
"Err… okay. Thanks? You know I, like, kinda slept at my desk, right?"
"I assure you, Naruto, that I, too, am familiar with the sleeping arrangements common to 'crunch time' nor will I fault you for any minor fashion faux pas you may be committing by coming to a meeting with a superior dressed in what you slept in today. Especially after the kind of work you've put in over the last two weeks. So grab your coffee and I'll see you in twenty minutes."
"Uhh… okay then. Thanks! I'll be right up, sir!"
"Good to hear. You know where my office is?"
"No, but I can hear Ino griping at Shikamaru about something, so I'll ask her for directions. Knowing her, she'll want to know why, then freak out about every little thing wrong with what I'm wearing when I tell her I'm going to a meeting with you. Should be worth a good laugh."
"You enjoy annoying one of your team leads?"
"It's not so much that I 'annoy' her as it is good-natured joking using her personality and common reactions as initiators. Ino gives as good as she gets. Have her tell you about the Ramen Incident sometime that it's not so busy."
"If you're referring to the rumors I've heard about her threatening to pour a bowl of ramen down the garbage disposal in the break room and you ending up on your knees crying, then I think I understand the gist of the matter."
"Hey! For the record, sir, I was not crying. Those were manly tears of relief at recovering Noodle Ambrosia from near disaster."
"I note that you did not refute being on your knees in the break room."
"Pictures were taken, sir. Okay, I've got my coffee and I'm all warmed up for my verbal joust with Ino. I'll be up shortly, sir."
*chuckle* "Good luck, have fun, don't die!" *click*
"Ha! I knew I wasn't the only one who said that! Hey Ino! How do I get to Kakashi's office from here?"
"Take the elevator to the third floor, then an immediate right from the elevator to the end of the hall. Can't miss it. Why?"
"Got a meeting with him in fifteen minutes. Thanks for the directions! Later!"
"Oh, okay. See you… Wait, what?! Get back here, Naruto! You can't go to a meeting with my boss dressed like that!" *tak-tak-tak-tak-tak-tak-tak-tak* *grab*
"Ow, ow, ow! Not the ear! What the hell, Ino?!"
"There is no way in hell that I'm letting you go to a meeting with Kakashi dressed like that. Get in here!" *CREAK-SLAM* *click-swooosh* "Okay, let's go with a sky blue shirt to match your eyes and some khaki slacks. Semi-casual will have to cut it for now."
"Ino… why do you have a closet full of men's clothing in your office?"
"For exactly these sorts of situations. Hinata does, too, but since she's not here, it's up to me to make sure you're relatively presentable." *clack* *shhhnk-shhhnk* *clack* "Here, put these on." *snag* *fwump*
"Hey! I was drinking that!"
"It was at least four hours old. I'll put a cup on for you from my Keurig while you get dressed."
"Err… in here?"
"Naruto, if you're not in the process of disrobing in the next thirty seconds, I'm going to have Shikamaru and Chouji come in here like the mafia and hold you down while I do it for you. You don't have anything I haven't already seen, anyway, so hurry the hell up. We're racing the clock."
"Yes, ma'am… changing clothes now, ma'am."
*swish* *swish-fffpt* *ziiiiip* *fwump* *shhhhh* *shhhhh* *ziiiiip* *swish*
"How did you know what size I wear? These fit better than some of my stuff at home."
"Doesn't look bad on you, either. And you'll just have to keep wondering. A girl's got to have some secrets, you know? Anyway, here's your coffee. Get moving, bud." *click-creeeeeak* "Oh, and if he offers you anything good, you can keep the clothes as an early Christmas present from me. Good luck!"
"Ummm… Okay, thanks Ino. I think…" *click* *ker-chunk* "Well that was unexpected." *slurrrp* "Good coffee, though. I'll have to ask her what brand she gets later. Wonder what she meant by that last bit?"
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Author's Note
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I think I got all the characters' base personalities right, but sometimes things sound different in my head. Let me know what y'all think in the comments!
Looking forward to writing the next chapter! Ja-ne!