A Worse Idea

Although Sakura had said that it was a bad idea, she hadn't actually mentioned why it was such a bad idea. But then again, Sakura had thought Ino's line of work had been a bad idea too. Therefore, the fair-haired girl chose to ignore that warning and continued onwards with her plan. Obviously, she needed to arrange longer meetings because running into him in the library or whilst he was on errands or on the bus wasn't enough! Ino concluded that she required at least an hour to work her magic. And she had just the plan.

As Ino swung her around, the little baby squealed in delight, her black curls bouncing every time she was flown high into the air and then swooping down low enough so that the tips of the toddler's toes brushed the carpet, right before she was vaulted into the air again.

"I hope she doesn't get used to that," Kurenai remarked with a surprised smile, watching Ino playing with her daughter. "Otherwise she'll ask me to do it all the time too!"

Ino laughed, cuddling the girl in her arms before handing her back to Kurenai. "Aww, well so what if she does, huh?"

"Between you and the rest of the gang, she's gonna grow up spoiled rotten," the woman replied in a mock-stern voice, but Ino could tell that Kurenai didn't mind too much.

"So-o, did you make the call?" Ino inquired, a hopeful light filling her eyes.

The woman sighed, parting her red lips and shaking her head. "Yes-" At this point Ino had gasped in delight, flinging her arms around Kurenai and spilling out a multitude of thank you's until Kurenai interjected with a 'but'.

"But only for the one day. That was all I could manage."

One day was more than enough. Ino hugged the woman, kissed baby Ume Sarutobi and went on her way to get ready for her first day of school. See, she wasn't exactly lying; she was a supply teacher now! Truly. They would love her.

They hated her.

They talked when she talked, made rude remarks about what they were meant to be studying and didn't even pretend to look interested in what she was teaching them. Kids these days. Ino was certain she had never been like that. There was just one girl who attempted to be good and it reminded her of the way Sakura used to be in class (a teacher's pet) and was the only one who knew or cared about The Water Cycle. How did Kurenai deal with these idiots? Most of the children were talking amongst themselves, not giving a toss about evaporation or the sea or anything, which was rather worrying because Kurenai had informed Ino they would be having tests soon. Ino was certain that she had never been so rude to her teachers. Especially someone as glamorous as herself.

"RIGHT! The next idiot to be trading Yu-Gi-Oh cards in class, I will make you eat them and then give you detention for a week!"

It sounded a lot more impressive than it actually was, because Ino was only here for a day. And that was when her dreamboat sailed into the classroom, Uchiha Itachi, holding a small stack of papers in his hand and a surprised smile on his face. Ino's ire instantly faded and she beamed delightedly. Someone in the class muttered 'hormones' and another giggled, but she was too busy being delightful to tell them off.

"Itachi-San! I mean, Sensei! You're here!" Not that it was a surprise, since this was all staged for him (even the part where she'd faked a teaching qualification), but pretended to look like she actually did this every day and was totally at ease in the classroom.

"Yamanaka-San," he acknowledged with a polite nod and glanced around the class, they looked alright for the most part but he had been certain he'd heard yelling before stepping in. "Sorry to interrupt, but my stapler-"

The bell for break rang and Ino chose this moment to depict her awesome teacher-acting skills.

"Everyone, file out calmly, there's no need to rush. Thank you. That's really good, Ari. No Hatsu, you're not getting the cards until the end of the day- oh, go on then," Ino rolled her eyes in a good-natured sort of way and handed the entire collection back to the baffled boy. He grinned at Ino before scurrying off after his friends.

She turned back to Itachi as the last of the students filed out and smiled expectantly at him. "Ahaha, what was it, about your stapler?"

"Mine has unfortunately gone missing and I just needed these stapled for the next lesson, I was hoping to borrow one from here," he replied in his gorgeous voice. Well... Ino was sure he didn't mean to make it sound seductive, but she had never met a man that could talk about mundane subjects like staplers and take her breath away.

"One moment!" She gestured with her hands, eager to please him. Ino pulled open drawers and shut them again, her fingers expertly ran across items and put them back exactly where she found them before peering at her (Kurenai's) desk and finally found what she needed. He reached out his hand to take it, but she couldn't waste this opportunity to look helpful and said: "Oh please, let me!"

The blonde leaned forwards, clamping the stapler over the sheaf of papers he was holding and stapled them all together. He nodded, about to mouth a thanks when he moved the papers, only to find that he couldn't.

She had stapled his tie to the pieces of paper.

"Oh Kami-Sama! Oh I'm so sorry! Itachi-San! I- wait, I'll get it out, hold on!" And she dipped her head further forwards, her face close to his chest and trried to pry apart the small, metal fastenings between cloth and paper, not realising that the dark-haired man was staring uncomfortably at her and craning his neck over to the door (and avoiding the fact that she was wearing a v-necked sweater). It looked very weird, her lips over his tie and buttons. He could feel his neck beginning to get warm and decided that enough was enough.

"Yamanaka-San, it's alright, I'll do it. It's not a big problem," Itachi tried to reassure her, even managing a little smile.

Thankfully, she took her lips and teeth away from his tie and straightened back up, though she stared up at him with apologetic, blue eyes. It was obviously a big problem and she clasped her hands in front of her. "I'm really, really sorry."

So much for making a good impression. She desperately wanted to make it alright and her eyes darted around the room, looking for a solution, until they landed on it. There was a pair of scissors on the desk and she leaned forwards, aiming to simply pry apart the staple but when she looked up at Itachi, her hand slackened on the scissors and-

SNIP!

The end of the tie, along with the sheet of papers were finally freed thanks to the clean cut she'd administered. Itachi looked down at the remains of his tie, slashed diagonally across his thorax and looked back towards her.

"..."

Ino was still holding the scissors but dropped them instantly when she caught Itachi's gaze and dropped down to her knees, her long hair curtaining the mortified expression which had exploded on her face.

"I'M DEEPLY SORRY!" She apologised again, wishing that there was an air vent or some hole under the table she could crawl into and hide until Itachi went away. "I'm such an idiot! I didn't even know! I wasn't even trying to, Itachi-San, I'll buy you a new tie, the exact same type! I just-"

She would've stayed in that almost bow-crouch position had he not asked her to look up.

"It's alright, Yamanaka-San," he sweatdropped, not quite sure why she looked more upset about the ruined tie than he did but he knew he should appease her. He set the test papers aside and took off the remains of his tie, and then glanced over at her. "Well, that was certainly an eventful start to my day. Before break ends, would you like some tea or coffee?"

This was probably why she was falling for him. There wasn't even a crease on his face to hint that he was irritated. In fact, he was trying to make her feel better!

The blonde glanced at the tie and nodded slowly, swallowing hard as she watched him turn around to fill the kettle and procure two teacups. They sat, drinking tea, Ino turning red as he showed her the staple remover and removed the paper's from the tie with an amused look in his eyes and Ino apologised again. They stopped talking about the tie and instead he brought up a topic on Charles Dickens- but to be honest, Ino had no idea what the Dickens he was on about in some parts of th conversation. However, she did manage to redeem herself a smidgen by offering to wash the cups as he took his leave. She noticed that he'd left the remains of his tie at the desk. Her fingers stroked the cloth, it was generic black, probably old, definitely boring. Really, she had done him a favour by cutting it. But it didn't stop her from pocketing it and wearing a smile the rest of the day and even Hatsu couldn't help raising his brows when she waved wildly as Itachi walked past her class.

"You liiiikeeee-"

He was promptly silenced as Ino held onto a rare Yu-Gi-Oh card in one hand and a pair of scissors in the other. Nobody messed with her after that and the rest of the classes flew by uneventfully. Ino didn't understand why you needed teaching qualifications to teach. She'd got through this easily!