"I think they should be higher."

It was a slow Monday morning at Victoria's Secret, and Ino was taking full advantage of the lack of customers a couple of hours into the day by trying on the merchandise, which was currently a push-up bra under her low-cut black top. Her manager, Tsunade, tutted her disapproval while stringing up skimpy undergarments onto plush display hangers.

"One only has so much to push up, sweetheart."

Ino frowned at her augmented cleavage. "I'd get more sales if they looked like yours."

"You'd need a bit more than a push-up bra," Tsunade replied tonelessly, then playfully added, "Try the couch cushions in the break room."

The younger blonde was about to sling a nasty retort involving sagginess when a pink-haired girl skipped into the store, bubbling with excitement.

"Oh my God, Ino! You'll never guess–," she stopped short at the sight of Ino, "Jesus, what happened to your chest? You look like a head sitting on top of an ass."

Ino flipped her long ponytail over her shoulder to properly display her assets and shot back cheerfully, "Oh, I'm sorry, Sakura, did no one tell you? They're called breasts. Most girls grow them when they hit puberty."

Sakura, quite used to her friend's quips about her smaller chest, waved her off and continued with her original intention with renewed fervor. "Anyway, I was saying, guess who works here at the mall now?"

Mildly interested, Ino looked Sakura up and down. "Hmm, your denim miniskirt and legwarmers tell me...New Kids On The Block?"

Even insulting Sakura's employee-required Abercrombie & Fitch threads didn't bring her down, because the girl just bounced and squealed, "No, just guess!"

Ino eyed her best friend warily. Only one person could leave Sakura this effervescently chipper. The platinum blonde's eyes suddenly went as round as saucers.

"..No."

"Yes."

"No!"

"Yes! Yes, yes, YES!"

"When?"

"He starts around lunch time!"

In a mad panic, Ino started grabbing random bras off their racks, "Shit! I need to find a better bra!"

----

Hinata was shocked by the number of people who ate at Hot Dog On A Stick. It was barely 12:30, on a Monday no less, and she and Chouji already had to make a new batch of corndogs to meet the public's demand. Though, she thought to herself, "public" wasn't the right word to describe the customers. She noticed most of them were male mall employees. Well, she did work at a kitschy corndog stand. Maybe it was some sort of inside joke with the guys, like police officers eating donuts fully knowing they were perpetuating the stereotype, but continuing to do so ironically.

Or, they just really liked corndogs.

"Welcome to Hot Dog On A Stick, may I..." Hinata stopped when she recognized the customer from not more than fifteen minutes ago. "I'm sorry, did you forget something?"

The kid grinned goofily. "I, uh, forgot to buy lemonade."

Hinata smiled at the poor thirsty boy, "Oh, of course! I'll get that for you right away!" She turned to the lemonade dispenser with a cup, but the boy interrupted her.

"I need um, five lemonades...no, make it six," he said while staring at the lemonade swirling in the big clear tank, like he was estimating how much was left.

The blue-haired employee looked up at the lemonade tank – there was no WAY she could get six servings out of there! She began to fret.

"I'm s-sorry, I don't think there's enough lemonade left. If you wouldn't mind waiting, I can make more?"

The boy nodded eagerly, "By all means, take your time!"

Cheered by such an understanding customer, Hinata peeked her head into the back room and found Chouji shoving sticks into weiners in preparation for batter-dipping.

"What's up, Hinata?"

"Er, a customer requested six lemonades but we don't have that much left, and there's still a long line..." she meekly explained.

Chouji was not new to the game. He sighed and hefted a large bucket of cut lemons while walking out to the front with her. "Don't worry about it. I'll cover the register and orders, you can go ahead and make more lemonade."

After Chouji set the bucket down behind the counter, Hinata went right into making more lemonade, bouncing and pressing and squeaking and grunting. Chouji turned to look back at his line of waiting customers and found they were mesmerized by the new Hot Dog girl. All except his next customer who was shaking his head in both amusement and exasperation. The young man ran a hand over his spiky ponytail and greeted his friend.

"What's a non-horny guy gotta do to get a corndog around here?"

The assistant manager smirked, "Hey Shikamaru. Corndog and fries, as usual? Or did you want to wait for lemonade too?"

"I'm good, thanks," he answered as Chouji handed him his food and didn't bother ringing it up. Shikamaru turned to watch the petite girl smash lemons and commented, "She has no idea what she's doing."

Chouji turned back to observe his hard-working coworker. "No, she's doing fine. She's actually doing really well for her first job, very focused."

The other boy gave a sideways smile, "I meant in reference to the customers. I don't doubt her lemonade-making. She has no idea what she's doing to them."

Chouji laughed loudly, "Stay a bit, I'll be on my break shortly." He turned back to the line of people, "Next in line!"

No response from the next customer, so he tried again. "Next in line!"

Shikamaru moved off to the side, towards the end of the counter where the new girl was working on the juice-squeezing. She was completely absorbed in pressing the hell out of those lemons, but looked up when she sensed Shikamaru standing there.

"I-I'm sorry, were you waiting for a lemonade?"

He shook his head, "Nah, just waiting for my friend to break for lunch."

"Oh." She smiled graciously and went back to the lemon smashing, and Shikamaru turned his attention to the waiting line of customers. The obvious next customer was oblivious to Chouji's calling, but he noticed four people down the line was a very irritated-looking classmate of his. He wouldn't call him a friend, and he did know that the guy was generally antisocial, but strangely enough didn't mind Shikamaru's small talk in class, so he felt he was allowed to greet him.

"Oi, Sasuke."

Tall, handsome, completely dressed in black, and scowl blacker than his outfit, Sasuke's eyes flicked over to Shikamaru.

"You work here now?" the pony-tailed boy asked.

Sasuke nodded, then looked at his watch and added, "I start in ten minutes."

Shikamaru motioned his head toward the counter. "Just cut in front of them."

The other boy quirked a confused eyebrow.

Well acquainted with his minimalist communication methods, Shikamaru added, "They're too busy watching the new girl."

Sasuke still looked confused, but listened to Shikamaru regardless and cut in front of the other patrons to place his order of a corndog and lemonade with Chouji, who gave him the corndog and an empty drink cup and directed him to Hinata. He walked over to Shikamaru to wait for his drink.

"Will this take much longer?" he asked, not so much annoyed as he was impatient.

"She's almost done," Shikamaru replied, then asked, "Why are you eating here anyway? There are plenty of other places in the food court."

The black-clad boy shook his head disgustedly, "Look at the girls. And don't tell me you'd be willing to buy anything from them."

Shikamaru looked around at the other food stands, and sure enough, the girls working them kept looking over at Sasuke, whispering to each other, giggling, or doing other nonsensical fangirly things one shouldn't do when cooking or serving food. He turned back and saw Sasuke's uneasy posture and laughed outright.

"Don't worry, it looks like this new girl here is more taken with those lemons."

Sasuke, who was so used to avoiding any female's line of sight almost instinctively, looked upon the Hot Dog girl for the first time. Indeed, she didn't even notice the two young men were standing no more than ten feet away and talking about her. It was humorously unnerving.

By now, Hinata had finished juicing the lemons and was standing on a stool about to pour the bucket's liquid contents into the tank dispenser when she caught sight of Sasuke's empty cup in his hand.

"Oh! Were you waiting for your drink?"

Shikamaru tried very hard to keep his laughter in as Sasuke, almost instantly as a reaction to a female voice addressing him, immediately tightened and straightened his stance and schooled his face into a haughty scowl but still nodded in answer to the young woman's question.

Hinata, completely unaffected, smiled, stepped off the stool, took Sasuke's cup, and poured the lemonade directly out of the bucket, then handed the full cup back to Sasuke.

"I'm very sorry you had to wait. The cup tops and straws are at the condiment corner just behind me against the wall," she said, while pointing to the area mentioned. Then she went right back up the stool to pour the rest of the lemonade into the clear tank. Sasuke, looking every bit dumbfounded and failing miserably at hiding it, stood there for another minute before turning around and heading up the escalator to start his work shift. He didn't even bother with the tops and straws.

A few minutes later, Chouji stepped out from behind the counter with a tray laden with corndogs, fries, and a large drink and found Shikamaru sporting a silly smirk.

"What's got you in a good mood?"

Shikamaru chuckled, "Remind me to ask you later about how you filled your open position."

"Why?" Chouji frowned.

"Your new girl just totally mindfucked Sasuke."

Author's Notes:

Thanks for reading! And let me know what you think! This story is, for the most part, unplanned and type-as-I-go, so input would be nice. :)

If any of you are unfamiliar with Hot Dog On A Stick, I highly (HIGHLY!) recommend typing in "Hot Dog On A Stick" in Google Images. Believe me, it's hilarious. XD