Lucky Star

Chapter 6- Fruit cake

It was an average day in the Lucky Star. Neji glaring and smirking at Tenten, Tenten getting irritated and yelling, Hinata hiding away from it all, and Ino and Sakura eavesdropping… totally average. That is besides the fact that Sakura's and Ino's brains were on overload from the recent piece of information they had learned.

"I can't believe that we never realized that Neji like Tenten," Sakura said in disbelief leaning on the counter.

"Totally, you'd think that such girly girls as ourselves would have realized that instantly," Ino added, staring at the ceiling.

"We'll if either of you can't tell when a customer wants to order, then I'm not surprised," a random voice said. Ino and Sakura jolted and saw a pale guy with black hair, and a guy with pinapple hair. Ino instantly recognized them, "Sasuke, Shikamaru, what are you guys doing here?"

Sakura started at her in disbelief, "You actually know these people?"

Ino frowned, "Yeah, why?"

Shrugging, Sakura said, "Well I for one would think these types of guys would avoid you at all cost."

"We do," Sasuke said

"But she keeps coming back," Shikamaru added. Sakura smirked, "Now it all makes sense."

"You are all mean. Especially you, Shikamaru, how could you be so mean to your childhood friend?" Ino demanded, "I'm going to have a nice quiet discussion with Hinata about something private."

Sakura, Sasuke, and Shikamaru glanced at each other in obvious disbelief.

Sakura waited a moment, "Wait for it…3,2,1." Then a loud screech came from the kitchen. As the customers in the shop glanced at the door, Sakura just waved a hand at them, "Don't mind the noise. One of our employees is going through a minor tantrum." Sounds of glass being broken were heard, Sakura, Shikamaru, and Sasuke sweatdropped, "Or a really big one. Don't worry, she's not nuts."

"Yet," Shikamaru muttered under his breath that resulted in Sakura punching his shoulder with a fake smile on her face.

"Don't scare them off earlier than they already are. So how can I help you two?"

"You could start by telling us where Neji is," Sasuke said in monotones.

Sakura raised an eyebrow, "Do you really need me to tell you where he is?" She pointed to the other side of the room, "Follow the noise, moron." As Sasuke and Shikamaru looked to the other side of the room, they saw a smirking Neji with his arms crossed while Tenten was screaming at him and jabbing him with a broom. They looked back at Sakura with the mental question.

"It's irritate Tenten by acting like a bastard day," She supplied.

They nodded understanding.

Shikamaru looked up at the menu, "I'll have a Lucky Star burst with extra caffeine," he pondered a moment, "And what's Ino's favorite drink here?"

Sakura tilted her head, "Lucky Grape bubble, why?"

"Get me that too. I'm going to try to calm down Ino before you guys run out of business."

Sakura turned to Sasuke, "And what would you like?"

"Black coffee and a tomato cookie," Sasuke peered at her. Sakura blushed, "What? Do I have something on my face?"

"You look familiar…have I seen you somewhere before?" Sasuke asked, still looking away from her.

"No and it would be nice if you stopped that," Sakura added. Man, this guy was really weird. Hot, but weird. "Just wait a moment for me to get your order."

The rest of the day involved Sasuke and Shikamaru joining Neji which spared Tenten torture and agitation, Ino sulking feeling slightly better drinking her drink, Sakura avoiding Sasuke as much as possible, and Hinata constantly cooking to keep up with the demand. So by the end of the day, everyone, everyone employee wise, was exhausted.

"Ughh, my bones are crying," Ino complained.

"Bones can't cry," Shikamaru pointed out. Shikamaru, Sasuke, and Neji decided to stick around afterwards for whatever reason they decided.

"My bones do so shut up," Ino commented from the couch she was laying on.

"I totally agree," Sakura added, "Since you guys are here, why don't you be so nice and help?"

"…" Silence came from the three guys.

"Awww, are three strong men as yourselves afraid of a little manual work?" Tenten mocked.

"No…we were just considering laughing our butts off at the idea of us even considering to do it," Neji commented, "You guys know how we are, especially Shikamaur."

A random hand popped up, "I don't."

"That's because you go to that private girl's school," Tenten said staring at the ceiling counting all the dots.

"Hinata goes there too," Sakura lifted her head slightly to Hinata, "You don't know Shikamaru and Sasuke, too, don't you?"

Hinata, who had been half dozing, managed to muster enough strength to comment, "I know them. We went to elementary school together."

"This doesn't explain who's going to clean up," Ino said exasperated. She struggled to sit up and finally collapsed on the couch again, "I'll make you guys a deal. If you guys clean up, your orders for the next week will be free."

"Are you sure you can even propose that?" Tenten said shocked, "How are we even going to pay for it?"

Ino waved a hand, "Don't worry, I have it all planned out." Everyone looked at her cynically. "It'll go off of Naruto's paycheck."

"But Naruto hasn't been here the entire week." Sakura said.

"No thanks to that pedophile friend of the boss," Tenten added.

Ino smirked and leaned forward, "But what Naruto doesn't know is that he's being paid for not being here." Tenten, Sakura, and Hinata were wide eyed.

"Pure genius," Sakura said amazed, "How did you know that?"

Ino smirked, "I looked at your files."

Sakura instantly glared, "What are you doing looking in the files? You're not assistant manager."

Ino stared at the ceiling with a little evil smile on her face, "Well, I didn't mean to. It was just right there and I just happen to walk by it."

"Walk by it my ass," Tenten muttered. She turned to Sakura with a hopeful look, "Say Sakura, you know a big sale is coming up and I'm a little low on cash-"

"I'm not giving you a raise."

Tenten sighed, "It was worth a try and since those bums over there," pointing to the guys who were sitting there watching with little excitement, "aren't going to help. We'd better start."

SIGH The guys stared in amazement, though it didn't show on their faces, 'how knew that one could sight that loud and simultaneously?' Then they felt glares aimed towards them, when they looked all the girls were glaring with death in their eyes.

Shikamaru nervously said, "Say, it's getting late isn't it…"

Neji and Sasuke nodded and left a trail of dust after them, leaving Shikamaru behind coughing. When the dust settled, he noticed that he was the only one there with a certain appendage. "Well, I'm going to you know, " nervously pointing to the door, and scampered for his life, with a certain appendage tucked between his legs intact.

The girls glared at the door.

"Guys are useless," Tenten said.

"Totally," Hinata added leaving towards the kitchen, "Hey, Tenten want to help me?"

Shrugging, Tenten said, "Why not, better the kitchen than out here."

When they left, Sakura and Ino gave each other mischievious looks.

Sakura nudged Ino, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"We use Naruto's paycheck to go shopping?"

Sakura whacked Ino on the head, "No! We set Tenten up with Neji!"

"Brilliant! We need to get Hinata involved with this."

Sakura and Ino now were huddled in an impossible circle, again, but again they defy every law in existence.

"Let's have a little meeting next Monday on Tenten's day off." Sakura smirked rubbing her hands together evilly.

"Great! Let's first make code names!" Ino did a little dance, "You'll be Cherry Blossom!"

"And you'll be Purple Pig."

"WHAT!!! No fair! I gave you a great name and you give me Purple Pig!" Ino exclaimed, brandishing a broom like a sword.

"You could be Shikamaru's fangirl."

This stopped Ino's little rant, "On second thought, I quite like Purple pig."

-- --

"Now the action is finally starting!" Dark shadow number two cackled, "Soon they will come up with a plan and it'll be the greatest story ever told!"

"…didn't you say that about the last book you wrote?"

"Of course not! And by the way, I'll need to stay for about a month."

"…great…"

"I'll toss in my new collection of books that haven't been published yet."

"GREAT!!"

--author's note--

For those of you who have guessed who the dark shadows are, mewmewmemint and Dagirl14...I'm not going to tell you yet! blows raspberry

But I will tell you one thing...nothing!

Now I'm going to start a little poll of sorts, without a real poll machine... I'll give you options and the option that will win will go in the story! Simple enough, but the thing is that you have to review with your option in mind so I know which one you want. I can't read your minds and I don't want to. So...POLL BEGIN!!

Which of the following would you rather be implimented into the next chapter

a) Icha Icha Paradise

b) A pervert

c) A hot guy, from Naruto

d) A random song

or

e) something else you have in mind...within constraints...

SO VOTE!!!! -plays cheesy end music- BYE!