I do not own Naruto in any way. All rights belong to the makers of Naruto.

This is my first multi-chapter story on the site and my first long piece of writing in well over a year, so any and all C&C is greatly appreciated.

It centres around Shikamaru Nara, an unmotivated worker at the head office of a huge company based in London, and the lives of him, his friends, and his rivals. I've cast several Naruto characters well out of type, which I hope will make it a refreshing and fun story. Then again, I've been wrong before...

Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 4 – Company

Every few floors up the building Shikamaru worked in there was a staff gym. Someone high up in the company had decided that it would make them a more attractive employer if they were seen to care this deeply about their workforce. In a sense it worked, because for every vacancy there was no shortage of applicants, but what was never mentioned to prospective workers was how little time there was to utilise the facilities.

Deadlines were such that people had to work while they ate at lunchtime and although they were officially allowed their human right to a break it was frowned upon by the upper-management to such a degree that no-one ever took the opportunity. Staff often worked several extra hours in the evening to keep up with the workload, and then left straight after finishing to spend what little remained of their day as far from the office as possible.

As such, Shikamaru was able to find peace and quiet in one of the vacated changing rooms and he sat on the tiled floor with his back to the lockers, eyes closed and brow furrowed with discomfort.

His stomach had begun to settle down after the churning that had begun at Uchiha's provocation, but his head still raged like a wild animal, fresh bouts of pain flushing through his body with every minute.

Thinking about Sasuke should've made him angry, yet Shikamaru knew that wouldn't help his predicament in any way, so occupied himself by counting the cracks running through the tile to his right with long, slightly shaky fingers.

Having regained a degree of normality in his body Shikamaru reopened his eyes and was startled to find someone standing over him. He was first surprised by how the intruder in his hideaway had been able to approach without alerting him, but was caught more off guard by the fact that it was Ino who was watching him and it had been her soft, natural fragrance that had subconsciously made him feel better.

"Wow! You look awful!" she announced forwardly before promptly sitting herself down next to him, her legs tucked elegantly to one side so as not to reveal her underwear. She had not dressed to impress like yesterday, but cut no less fine a figure in her tight, lilac cardigan, which she had donned over a crisp, white shirt and a pleated, grey skirt.

"Rough night out huh?" she continued her rhetoric. "Kiba looked bad as well… I saw him and Choji earlier. He said that his head was trying to kill him, and that all he could take solace in was that you get hangovers that are almost twice as bad as his. I saw you stumble into here, and thought I'd follow and see if you were alright, or if you wanted some company."

She grinned at him and paused, like she expected an input. Shikamaru attempted to turn and smile weakly, barely managing to briefly turn up the corners of his mouth. Ino was sitting very close on his left side, her body turned in to face him, with her right shoulder supported by the lockers that he also leant on, her head tilted to rest there as well, at an angle that he found strangely attractive.

"Thanks." Tried the young man, hoping to show his appreciation for the comforting chat she was attempting to initiate. Worried that his statement had emerged as little more than a grunt, he added. "…For talking to me…" before being interrupted by her buoyantly happy voice.

"I'm happy to!" she exclaimed brightly. "You need cheering up. There's nothing more sad than a man crying alone in the dark."

Shikamaru realised with shock that she was right; his eyes had been welling up as he winced from the stress, but any embarrassment he might have felt was cut short as her diatribe went on.

"Don't worry. I know it's just from the pain. I always get watery in the eyes when I'm hungover and headachy."

She proceeded to launch into a full description of her last night out, sparing no detail, whilst her bleary audience just let the words wash over him, enjoying the happy, almost bossy tone of her voice.

He was brought back to his body with a jolt when he noticed her voice waver and then stop altogether and he looked across at the crestfallen young woman's downcast expression. Shikamaru thought that she looked almost shameful at her outburst and this was confirmed when she spoke up again, in a much less exuberant voice.

"I'm so embarrassed…" she said, and explained softly upon seeing her companion's quizzical expression.

"I used to be very bossy and overbearing as a teenager. It's the one thing I'd change about my past if I could…I try to keep that side of myself inside when I can, but I…" she trailed off, looking ready to burst into tears.

"Don't worry." Spoke Shikamaru in his lazy, unhurried manner, feeling far more like himself in Ino's calming presence. She looked away from the floor and back to him, so he marshalled a serious, yet kind smile and carried on. "It was really helpful… nice…"

He quickly lost his train of thought in the sheer blue of her gaze, before stopping completely, allowing the thrum of the air-conditioning to be the only aural accompaniment to the intense stare that was locking their eyes.

He noticed her mouth forming a sincere, happy smile again, and the cool breeze of her nervous exhalation played across his chest.

It may have been his imagination, but in the instant that followed, he was almost certain that she had been moving; a fraction of a millimetre at a time, towards him.

As the tension between the two seated figures reach a twentieth second, any further speculation Shikamaru might have had was cut short, as light spilled into the murky room and the door slammed open.

With their moment broken, they both turned to face the newcomer.

"Oh… It's you…" said Naruto Uzumaki as he realised the changing room he'd entered wasn't as empty as he'd originally thought. Due to the fact that the only good light in the room was shafting in from the open door next to Naruto, his left side was cast into shadow. His right however, was crystal clear and twisted into a scowl.

"You look even worse than usual Nara." He smirked, turning to close the door and hit the lights.

Ino had stood with alarm as soon as she'd realised it had been Naruto who'd entered, but when the light had seared Shikamaru's gloom-adjusted eyes he must have gasped in pain, because she swooped back down to his level with concern in her face.

"Are you okay?"

"I'll live…"

He spoke through gritted teeth whilst he looked past her at Naruto and let his jaw drop. In the new light the handsome man's left cheek was visible clearly and so too was the rippling, black bruise that had spread across it since the events of the previous day. It gave Shikamaru some odd satisfaction that even in the horrible state he was in, he managed a passable rejoinder.

"I could say the same about you Uzumaki."

The brightly dressed man by the door walked forwards with clenched fists, scowl deepening at the insult. He wore a bizarre combination of an orange shirt with rolled up sleeves and neatly-pressed blue trousers. Somehow the garish mix seemed to work on the tanned man with the bleached blond hair.

"It's about time you were taught a lesson in respect man." He smiled, the humour not reaching his eyes. "If you keep running your mouth like that… it might just be me who gets to deliver it."

In the seriousness of the moment, any aspect of the chatty, boisterous Naruto that other people might know was gone, replaced with a steely, determined version that meant business.

Shikamaru let a silence envelope the trio rather than carry on the verbal back-and-forth. Naruto was a jerk, who needed to be put in his place, but nothing had happened yet that was worth getting hit over.

"Lost your nerve Nara?" he goaded, a trace of his immature side shining through. "Better find it quickly."

Throughout the exchange Naruto had stolidly ignored Ino, as though he couldn't bear to look at the person who'd damaged the face he took such great pride in, but when she stepped directly between him and Shikamaru, he had no choice but to acknowledge her presence.

"Better find yours Uzumaki…" she said with an animal tone in her voice, and determination clear on her face. "You've pissed me off to such an extent that I'm seriously considering making you symmetrical again…"

As the threat reached Naruto, she raised her left hand to help the point sink in, clear relish of the situation bringing an angry smirk to her mouth.

A fierce pride for his new friend warmed Shikamaru's chest, but he knew that Naruto wouldn't step down from provocation like that, so he forced himself to his feet and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with her; a united front.

Shikamaru would spend many a daydream over the next few weeks, wondering exactly what would've occurred in the locker-room if it had been left to run its course, but as it happened he would never find out, because in the silence that followed him joining Ino on his feet, a welcome new face arrived amongst them.

Naruto's back straightened and his hands went limp the moment the quiet authority of Neji Hyuga's voice filled the room.

"There you are Uzumaki. I've been waiting for you with Uchiha in Conference Room 7." Neji was more neatly presented than he had been at the bar; his black hair tied together loosely between his shoulder-blades, and a dark suit resting comfortably on his lean frame. "I'm sure you can explain your reasons for keeping us waiting when we are back upstairs."

"Certainly Director Hyuga." Said Naruto without deference, not even trying to hide his irritation at having been interrupted. Shoving a blue kitbag into the nearest locker and retrieving the key, he span on his heel and prowled out of the room.

"…bitch…" came the mutter from under his breath as he departed and Shikamaru could feel Ino tensing up beside him, physically stopping herself from retorting.

Neji turned to leave, then thought better of it and faced the pair once more.

"Thanks Neji…" said Shikamaru, embarrassed at having created a situation which had forced his friend to act outside his comfort zone.

Silence reigned as Neji accepted the thanks, and the apology that was hidden within it.

"You look like shit…" he said with the barest hint of a smile visible on his implacable face. "Go home Shikamaru."

Shikamaru nodded and winced as fresh irritation surged through his head. He watched Neji turn and nod slightly in Ino's direction.

"Miss Yamanaka."

"Director Hyuga."

The buzzing of the words in this brief exchange died down slowly in his head as Neji's receding footfalls indicated that he was leaving.

"Up you get." Commanded Ino. "I'll take you downstairs to a taxi. There's no way you'll get home on foot." The moment between the pair had clearly been swept away as her bossy side returned.

As it happened, Ino didn't just put him in a taxi and send him on his way. She trusted him so little that she came along and was currently making herself tea while her charge sagged on the sofa.

Removing the teabag and adding a tiny splash of milk, she placed the mug aside on a counter to cool and began fussing around the apartment.

"I'd prefer to singlehandedly uproot a tree than try and get you off that sofa…" she said as she put his cast-off shoes neatly into the rack by the door. "Are you okay with crashing on the couch?"

That wasn't a question, thought Shikamaru with amusement. He smiled internally at the new, assertive side to her.

By way of an answer, Shikamaru shifted from his slouching, upright position to lie stretched out across the sofa, his feet poking over the edge. Ino seemed almost motherly as she tugged the black throw from behind him and with a flourish, covered him neatly.

"I'd better get back to the office to finish work." She thought out loud as she knelt in front of the dozing young man on the couch.

"Thanks for everything Ino." He said with feeling, forcing heavy lids open to convey how indebted he felt to her.

A pleasant smile was her reply, before she pressed the back of her hand onto his forehead. Her cool skin felt impossibly relaxing against his sweaty brow.

"Thought so. You're running a temperature Shikamaru. It's no wonder you felt this bad if you were coming down with something as well…" she stood, and retreated to her beverage in the kitchen.

Feeling sleep approaching fast, Shikamaru opened his glazed eyes again.

"See you tomorrow" was all he could muster, and as his eyes fell shut his last sight was Ino's mouth, and the playful smirk it formed.

"It's my day off so no… Not unless you know where I live..."

Over the next few minutes Shikamaru fell slowly into slumber, aware of Ino quietly sipping her drink as she watched him drift off. The last sound he was conscious of was the dull 'plink' of keys, as she posted them back through the letterbox, after letting herself out and locking up. Beyond that moment, Shikamaru was dead to the world.

He stirred from his fitful sleep on the sofa to a strange scene of déjà-vu. In the kitchen, coolly sipping from a tall glass of iced water was a beautiful woman with a robe loosely tied around her. He couldn't make out her face, but was captivated by the sleek, blonde hair that flowed down her body, nearly reaching her waistline at the back.

Noticing his return to consciousness the woman lightly placed the glass down on the counter, barely making a sound and turning to look at him.

He realised with a start, that it was his dressing-gown that she wore, not Shino's, and with a second moment of surprise remembered that Shino wasn't even home, he was still at work. What is she doing here? He wondered, but was stopped from pondering further when the lady began to step lithely towards him.

He made to sit up, but stopped, as the woman calmly reached up to slide her fingers through the knot at her left hip and allow the robe to open. She arched her back to let the garment spill from her slight shoulders and ripple off, pooling on the floor as it stroked past defined calves.

As she breathed, Shikamaru noticed the faint outline of her ribs through almost translucently pale skin, but any further observation was cut short as suddenly, startlingly, she was right next to him.

For a second time he began to right himself, yet in this instance was halted when a pair of soft hands came to rest on the centre of his chest, pushing his back down to the couch. Fingers still in place, the woman stretched out a slender leg over the prone form beneath her, and shifted her weight smoothly to sit astride him.

Shikamaru stared up, her face still indistinct, and watched for a moment how the way she'd placed her hands on him pushed the swell of her breasts forward provocatively. Unbidden, his hands crept up, and settled slowly on her delicate waist.

She leant in an inch at a time, almost painstakingly, and Shikamaru breathed in deeply as she did so, sucking in a mouthful of fresh, woodland fragranced air. With the heady aroma swirling around his brain, he was finally able to make out the face of the woman on top of him.

"Ino?"

As her lips opened to answer, the scene melted away, slipping out of the edges of his mind fluidly like it had never been there at all.

"Fuck…"

Swore the heavily breathing man, for the second time in as many nights, as he shifted from his back to his side, hearing the 'snap' as his perspiring body peeled away from the leather of the couch. Sighing, he mirrored his sentiments from the prior encounter, with an added bitter edge directed at the intoxicating woman who'd invaded his mind and shattered any certainty in it in two short days.

"I really need to get laid…"

Hey look! It only took till Chapter 4 to get some real ShikaIno moments in this supposedly ShikaIno story...
Sorry guys... It's a bit of a slow starter this one!
C&C all very welcome, and I hope you all check in for Chapter 5 soon!