I don't really know whether or not people like this story, as I just put it out there yesterday, but I'll add more chapters for the three or four who do like it! Thanks guys!

Chapter 2

The Boiler Room

Ino stood corrected.

The encouraging comment from Shikamaru was nice, but it didn't make boiler duty any less of a nightmare.

"What….temperature….on….this one?" Ino breathed heavily as sweat dripped profusely down her porcelain skin.

"Waaaaay lower than where you have it down." Answered Tenten as she walked over, herself no less sweaty than Ino.

Tenten took one of the scoop shovels and carefully reached into the boiler with it to take some of the coal out. But you know, when you try to be really slow and careful with something, you can see your arms tremble ever so slightly…

"Ouch!" Tenten dropped the shovel to the floor with a pang, coal dispersing all around. Ino stepped around them, as they were still red hot.

"Are you alright?" Ino bent down to her friend's aid and took her arm to look at it. "Oh my god!" Ino gasped when she got a better look at the burn. "Tenten, this thing is going to be huge when it swells!"

Tenten looked unaffected by this.

"Did you hear me?" Ino asked tugging on her arm as Tenten stood up casually. "I said-"

"Yeah, yeah, I heard ya." Said Tenten. "But don't worry about it. Burns like this are the least of your worries in the boiler room."

Ino gulped. What was in store for her?

Little did Ino know, one room over, they were being listened to by two boys.

And those two boys just happened to be Shikamaru and Neji on laundry duty. Surprise surprise.

"Poor girls…" said Neji as he wrung out a work rag and set it aside, though his voice didn't show nearly as much empathy as his words did.

"You're telling me," said Shikamaru peeking through one of the wallboards that lead to the boiler room. The walls in the basement part of the orphanage were flimsy and old, and Mina didn't bother with them. This enabled the orphans to create peepholes, exit hatches, and talk to one another in separate rooms while they did their work.

"It's getting kind of hot," Shikamaru said wrinkling his brow suspiciously.

"Well, maybe that's because we are next to a boiler room, Nara." Neji stated. Shikamaru gave him a withering look before going on.

"No I mean…it's been hot in here before while people are on boiler duty, but never this hot. Look at us, even we're sweating." The boys looked down at themselves to see that they were indeed sweating, and weren't surprised if some of the sweat got into the clothes.

"I have a feeling that those girls have no idea what they're doing." Neji's eyes widened.

Back in the boiler room…

"Here, I'll do this then, you just relax…" Ino picked up the shovel in order to finish what Tenten had attempted to do, but Tenten took the shovel back from her and set it against the wall.

"No need. We should just lower the temperature manually." She flipped something up on the wall to reveal a dial.

Laundry Room…

"It's about time they decided to use the dial!"

"Yep."

Boiler Room…

Ino's eyes narrowed plainly.

"Ok…where was that before?" She asked flatly.

"Mina hates us using the dial. She wants us to learn 'discipline' and all that crap, so she normally has Kelisa down here to supervise the craftier of us. But I guess she decided to cut us slack today, so she didn't come. Now come help me turn this! It's way too hot in here!" Tenten tried turning it, but it wouldn't budge. She waved Ino over. Ino tried, but nothing so much as made a tick of movement. They both tried at the same time. Nothing.

It was jammed.

Laundry Room…

"Uh oh…"

"What?" Neji swung his head around. "Did you manage to shrink one of Mina's blouses again?" Shikamaru gave him a stern look.

"Well, one, that was once, and at least I didn't forget to delicate wash her bra!" Shika scolded. Neji cringed at that memory. Let's just say a weeks beating from Mina over her destroyed bra was no party. "And two, no. I meant what's going on in the boiler room."

"Why, may I ask, are you all of a sudden so concerned with them?" Neji tested, wiping the sweat off his forehead.

"No reason," Shikamaru shrugged. "I just…feel bad that they have to be in that hell all day and wanted to know how they were holding up," he said all in one breath.

"Right," said Neji. "And perhaps you are the least bit frightened to know that they can't get the dial to work, and have no way of lowering the excessive heat beating down on them as we speak?" Neji asked.

"Hah! So you were listening too!" Shika said grinning, pointing an accusatory finger at Neji. Neji turned away.

"Only a little," he said softly. "And for a different reason than yours…" he added in a mumble, looking through the crack in the wall at Tenten.

"Either way," breathed Shikamaru. "It seems pretty bad in there…should we…?"

"No. At least not yet." Neji answered, returning to his work. Shikamaru was about to protest, but instead heeded his friend's words and returned to his own work.

Although their eyes were on their work, we all known where their ears were.

The boiler room…

"Damn…" heaved Tenten, dropping to the floor. "At this rate…we're so gonna get heat stroke…" she said. "There's no way we can take to coal out, because there's too much of it, and scooping even ten lumps could leave us with welts down our arms."

"So basically," heaved Ino, sliding down the dirty wall to a seated position. "We're screwed."

"Afraid so," answered Tenten, closing her eyes.

Laundry Room…

"Yep," the two said in unison.

Boiler Room…

A creak was heard from one of the wallboards. Then three knocks. Tenten brightened up and lifted her head, happily. Ino was confused though.

Tenten giddily ran over to where the sounds were heard. She gave three knocks back.

Then, one of the wall planks flipped open, and out of them crawled the two boys from earlier, Shikamaru and Neji.

Ino subtly tried to wipe the grease and sweat off her face with her rags.

"We decided you guys needed some help," Shikamaru stood up.

"And that it's way too damn hot and it's getting in the way of working…" Neji added. Shikamaru jabbed him in the side. "Ow!"

"How'd you guys know?" Ino asked.

"Um." Both boys fell silent. How were they to answer that? We listened to every exchange of words you made through the peepholes in the wall when we should have been doing laundry. Oh, yeah. That would go over well with them.

"Were you listening to us?" Tenten teased, poking Neji. Neji turned red, as he didn't like being touched, namely not by those of the opposite sex. (AN: 'Are you trying to seduce me miss Tenten?')

"Of course not!" The boys answered all too quickly.

"I mean," began Shika. "Why would we do that?"

The girls just laughed. Guys were so easy to panic. And these particular ones were just so adorable panicked.

"Well, now that you're here, help us please," Tenten said, gesturing to the dial. The boys walked over it and tried to turn it.

"Yep," said Neji. "That's definitely jammed."

"Well thanks, we couldn't tell that much," Tenten said sarcastically with a grin. Neji turned to her. Most girls were no so spicy to him. Noticing he was a having a weirdly steady stare at her, he quickly turned back to the dial.

"So, what do we do?" Ino asked, stepping forward.

"We keep trying." Answered Shika. "Ok, we're all going to turn it at once, ok?" He said. The girls nodded.

They each firmly took a part of the dial.

"Turn!" said Shika. They all began to forcefully try to move the dial.

"Why on EARTH is it suddenly so hot in this building! You girls better have a good-" The voice cut off.

The teens didn't have to turn around to know who's scratchy, bossy voice that was. And they all knew it wasn't good. Ino gulped. As if they didn't have enough troubles today already. They were already going to be punished for having rose the temperature so dramatically, and now are being caught with two other people who should be tending to their own work, all hanging on a mechanism they are banned from using. And this was all happening within what was already a punishment.

"You four. In my office. Now."

I have two words for these guys. Uh-oh.