awkward silence with assumed disclaimers and such

Naruto had called it an "attack on their rights." Sasuke had called it "idiotic." Gaara had rolled his eyes. But there was no avoiding it. They needed jobs.

This was not just an out-of-the-blue idea. The adults (or as Naruto had called them, "The Nazis") had approached the teens the week before and demanded they start making their own money or stop asking them for theirs. It seemed to be a conspiracy that they had all worked out, figuring the hormonal ones would only comply if everyone else had to do it, too. Naruto thought it was just to get them out of the house more so that "The Nazis" could "make babies." Or in Iruka's case "get boned."

Thus, Naruto, Gaara, Sasuke and Hinata (who was practically attached to Naruto at the hip and was in the situation by her own will) were thrown out into the real world, or as Lee had warned them "Corporate America."

"But we're not in America," said Sasuke, in a bored tone.

"That's not the point," argued Lee as he pushed Sakura into his car and slammed the door shut so she couldn't escape. "It's the principal of the thing." So, they figured the easiest job they could manage would be at Toys R' Us and since it was the holiday season, Toys R' Us was able to give them minimum wage for nights and weekends.

"Why, Gaara, I didn't know you worked here!" The redhead turned around and tried to suppress a groan of annoyance. What were the chances that Hyuuga Neji would just wander into Toys R' Us unless he had evil intentions?

"Hi, Neji," he said, in a voice that he hoped sounded intimidating. "Haven't seen you since I smashed your face in."

"That's right, when I called you a little shit…" said the Hyuuga with a smirk. Gaara glared and started placing Mr. Potato Heads onto the shelf behind him. "Don't think you can ignore me, little Gaara."

"He can think whatever he wants," piped up Hinata. Surprised, both Gaara and Neji turned around to see the shy girl peeking over a stack of Bratz dolls in her arms. She was blushing, apparently just as shocked that she'd said anything as the other two were.

"What did you say, you little bitch?" snarled Neji as he started walking towards her, fists clenched. Hinata began backing away, but tripped over a toy car. She let out a cry and fell heavily to the ground. With a sickening "crack", Hinata landed on her wrist as a rain of slutty, Barbie-wannabes crashed into the ground around her. "You forget your place, Hinata."

"And you forget yours, asshole," Naruto said coldly as he stepped between the two Hyuugas. "Get the fuck out before I do something that will hurt you."

"Make me, junio-" Neji didn't get to finished because Naruto had swung his fist right into the Hyuuga's already delicate nose. With a crunch, Neji was thrown backwards into Gaara, who would have fallen onto the floor if Sasuke hadn't miraculously appeared out of nowhere, dropped a spider-man action figure, and hooked his arms around the redhead's waist.

"Gotcha," said Sasuke before hoisting Gaara back onto his feet.

However, the ignorantly smitten Uchiha didn't bother trying to save Neji, whose face became intimately acquainted with the tiled floor. To the horror of the four teens, he didn't get up.

"I think it's time to flee the crime-scene," said Naruto as he picked up Hinata (whose face was streaked with tears from her broken wrist) bride-style and walked quickly towards the front of the store. Sasuke looked at Gaara and couldn't help but smile as he followed Naruto's example, swinging he arms under the still-standing redhead and carrying him through the door, leaving Neji in a pool of blood.

"There are still no suspects in the attack of Hyuuga Neji, heir to the Hyuuga fortune, who was jumped by four midgets dressed in black on Tuesday. Neji was found unconscious in the local Toys R' Us and was rushed to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with a concussion.

'It was too late to save his beautiful face, but at least he is okay,' said his uncle, Hiashi in an interview last week. As most of you know, Neji's parents created the work-out tape empire here in Konoha and were murdered during a robbery of their home ten years ago, leaving behind their son to manage their affairs.

In an unrelated case, Toys R' Us is now hiring for the holi…" Itachi turned the television off and turned, frowning angrily at Sasuke and Gaara, who were sitting on the couch with their heads down. Temari was standing next to the older Hyuuga with a similarly fierce glare on her usually cheerful face.

"What do you have to say for yourselves?" he said in a low growl. Sasuke and Gaara didn't say anything, but Itachi furrowed his brows when he noticed that they were smiling. "There's nothing funny about this! Hinata broke her wrist, Neji has a concussion and faces serious amount of plastic surgery…" His voice trailed as Sasuke and Gaara chortled under their breath.

"You think this is a joke?" shouted Temari, coming to the aid of Itachi's failing discipline. "You three…wait, where's Naruto? I though Iruka said they were coming."

Gaara spoke up, still laughing to himself. "He's taking care of Hinata."

"Which is another way of saying, 'taking advantage of her innocence'" said Sasuke. "We've barely seen him at all since she got out of the hospital." Temari looked flustered, but carried on.

"Fine. Well, you three obviously have no idea what it means to have responsibility. As punishment," she continued, ignoring the shocked look on Gaara's and Sasuke's faces, "You will start working at my shop, I've already discussed it with Itachi and Iruka." She ignored the cries of protest and walked out of the room, dragging a clueless Itachi by the wrist.

"I hate being an adult," whined Gaara, standing up from the couch. Sasuke stood up next to him and nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, but it has its perks," he purred, leaning in close to Gaara's face and winking. The redhead was stunned and started to bend forward to meet the Uchiha's lips, but Sasuke pulled back and ran into the kitchen to grab his car keys. "You wanna ride home?" he asked playfully.

Gaara stood on the spot for a second, still in a daze after being so close to… "Yeah… sure," he said slowly before running after Sasuke.

cough

Well, I don't really have an excuse for this huge absence in my part...I got accepted to college recently. I got a job because I had too much free time. Hopefully, this long-ish chapter is enough to appease the fans, otherwise, flame me at will.

I'll probably be updating more frequently now...that I remembered I had a fanfic. And now that senioritis is in full fever or whatever. Hehe. Well, that's all for now. TBC and R&R.