Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any music I use.

Chapter Five: Romanticism

Instead, Kimimaro stood there in a Burberry dark blue cashmere pullover and a pair of Dior Homme charcoal pin-striped slacks. His feet were encased in black leather Hugo Boss shoes. Alright, so he looks damn fine and this is just as good, considering he's holding a single blue iris.

"Kimi-kun!" I squealed and gave him a hug, "that's for me?"

He nodded shyly and handed me the flower. I took his hand graciously and walked him through the tiled areas out to the wood laminate floors of the balcony.

The light from the ceramic lanterns glowed softly on his face as he glanced outside, "amazing, did you go all out or what?" he murmured breathlessly, drinking in the area.

I chuckled and ran a hand through his hair, "no, but the food's pretty tasty, oh! And I brought some champagne."

Kimimaro uncorked it expertly and then we toasted, "to good company and good food."

Suddenly, I thought of the empty bookshelf in Sakura's old room, "Kimi-kun, let's take a picture, we haven't taken one since…before I left."

We posed, him with a simple, soft, barely there smile, and myself with a bright, smile and a raised champagne flute. His long white hair seemed to blend with the ends of my platinum blond strands. The striking difference between us was the eyes. Kimimaro had exotic, creepy, red eyes, while I myself had pupil-less light cornflower blue eyes.

"Ino-chan, where did you get this sandwich? It's wonderful," he seemed to breathe out his words instead of speaking. It was a quiet rasp that was kind of sexy, compared to Deidara's exuberant manner of speech.

My own panini sandwich had been devoured politely for a while as I picked from the fruit platter, "a little shop just before you hit the lake town." I popped a raspberry in my mouth and I let out a soft sigh of contentment.

"What kinds of fruit do we have here?" he asked, "raspberries, strawberries, grapes, blueberries, blackberries, and peaches?"

I nodded before taking another slice of peach.

"Excellent, all my favourites," he said before taking a nibble at a large strawberry, "there's this little place next door to the Jutsu offices that sells fruit with cereal and some fresh cream. Perhaps, we'll go to breakfast, one of these days?"

Kimimaro glanced up shyly at me and I couldn't help but smile, "tomorrow then, when we head back into town."

He looked up, "are we not heading home?"

I shook my head, "nonsense. It's too late to get back in time for enough sleep to go into another meeting tomorrow morning and I fed my cat a lot of food. Besides, Orochimaru has packs of unopened silk boxers and other items."

Finally, he shot me a full blown grin, "great, we'll spend the night and leave early for some breakfast tomorrow, alright, Ino-chan?"

Somehow, I felt like he needed to be needed by someone else, like he kept looking for assurance. So I grinned back and helped him put away the empty fruit platter and the throw away the garbage.

Afterwards I headed up to Kabuto and Orochimaru's respective rooms. I opened up Kabuto's stash of unopened, tags still on, Hugo Boss dress shirts and threw one on to wear to sleep. I stripped off everything except for my panties and pilfered Orochimaru's still-in-package, unopened, tags still on silk boxers for Kimimaro.

We slept in the guest rooms and the next morning Kimimaro wore the same pin-stripe slacks with the Hugo Boss shoes, but instead of the sweater, he wore a Juicy Couture t-shirt.

"Good morning, Kimi-kun," I smiled at him.

Kimimaro chuckled, "come on; let's go out for some breakfast." He slung an arm around my shoulders and we drove back into town. He was right, fresh cream and berries was the perfect way to start off my day. I nearly skipped back into the office and waved to Tenten.

"Good morning," she called with a smile, "nice 3.1 Phillip Lim skirt."

I grinned back, "Thanks, have you ever been to the little market next door? They sell the best berries and fresh cream."

"I'll keep that in mind…" Tenten grinned, "So, how was your date with Kimimaro, eh?"

I laughed, "I think, it was the most romantic date ever. The stars, the lake, the food, and the atmosphere were perfect."

Tenten smiled, "well, it does sound perfect, but seeing as how you planned it, it should have been perfect." We both laughed and simply worked on typing out several files and organizing Orochimaru's hectic schedule around his weekly chess game against Jiraiya.

As the phone rang I picked it up, "hello, Oto Jutsu, Yamanaka Ino's office, how may I help you?"

A familiar voice came through the line, "Ino-chan, yeah, it's me, Deidara, yeah."

Suddenly, gripping fear grabbed hold of my chest. Oh shit, ice raced through my veins, what was I supposed to do? Oh my god. I calmed down and gave a weak smile to Tenten.

"Hey, Deidara, how are you?" I responded brightly.

He seemed smug, "I think that we should go for dinner tonight at Sannin."

Holy shit, the Sannin was one of the best restaurants around. I paused for a moment and decided what could be a plausible truth, "you know, Deidara, I don't think I'm ready for another commitment after Shika…"

Tenten raised an eyebrow and I winked back, "alright, yeah, take as long as you want, Ino-chan. I'll see you at the merger signing later today. Bye, yeah."

"Sayonara, Dei-kun," I chuckled back.

I opened my student e-mail account and saw one new one from Hinata-chan.

From: Hyuuga Hinata
To: Yamanaka Ino
Subject: Lunch
Ino-chan! It would be nice to go for some lunch today at El Nino. I want to know how your date went!
XOXO,
Hyuuga Hinata
Marketing Director at Byakugan Corp.

She laughed, "You're lucky he understands you."

I pouted, sending a quick response to Hinata-chan, "no way, besides, I'm going to go to lunch with Hinata-chan. Want to come, Ten-chan?" I asked, looking up with a smile. There was a grin and a nod of affirmation before we continued our separate work.

"Good, then you can drive us out to El Nino," I murmured.

She chuckled, "so are you going for Kimimaro, then?"

I tapped my chin thoughtfully and shrugged. I wasn't entirely sure myself, but I wanted to be able to make the right decision. At first I had just wanted to go out on dates to forget about Shikamaru, but now that Shikamaru was in the midst of being forgotten, I wanted to make the right decision.

I propped my feet up and sighed contentedly. Two days in my Cesare Paciotti boots and my feet were killing me. Never mind that they accentuated my ass, and gave me the sexiest posture, but seriously, I could not walk around for two days in these. Tomorrow, I was going to wear flats.

Ten-chan and I sat down in a booth at El Nino and were talking about all the hottest gossip in Oto lately.

"Oh, hey, I was at Otogakure yesterday and guess who I saw?!" she grinned, taking a sip of her water.

I recognized that grin, "no way, Uchiha-fucking-Sasuke?" I shrieked.

Those pretty doe brown eyes danced with excitement and I had to ask, "was he with Sakura?"

"No! That's what is so juicy! He was there with Karin!" crowed Tenten.

We giggled and I looked at the door for telltale liquid, ebony hair. When I saw Hinata-chan I waved her over. Those lovely lavender eyes and dark hair with fair skin was a stellar combination. She was hot.

"Hey! Hinata-chan!" I smiled at her.

She smiled back daintily, "Hello, Ino-chan. Hi, Tenten-senpai."

Tenten nodded and took a sip of water. Her bun was tied with a

The only reason Hinata-chan did not work at Oto Jutsu was because her father, the almight Hyuuga Hiashi, was the co-chairman of Byakugan Corporations with his brother Hyuuga Hizashi. Hyuuga Hizashi happened to also be the father of Hyuuga Neji, Tenten's ex-boyfriend. It's very funny how small the world is.

"Great dress, Hinata-chan," I said, off-handedly after we gave the waiter our orders.

She beamed, "it's, ah, by Kara Janx."

"Amazing grape purple with taupe trim," agreed Tenten.

Once we got past the small talk Hinata-chan got right in there, "Ino-chan, h-how was your date with Kimimaro?"

I grinned; passive Hinata was still in there – barely, "it was romantic. You remember the lake house, don't you? We ate on the patio and sat outside watching the lake and talking. Of course, the mood was set with Orochimaru's favourite, Vivaldi's Four Seasons and the lanterns outside…"

Hinata squealed, "That's so romantic!"

"I know, Ino-chan's so lucky, eh?" Tenten winked and we laughed. More gossip was discussed, but they're all rumors, so I don't feel the need to disclose any of it.

I got back into my black Mercedes with Ten-chan riding shotgun and my Blackberry rang. I frowned, only three people called me on my Blackberry, Orochimaru, Kabuto, and Shizune.

"Ten-chan, can you pass m-"

"-got it," she handed it to me and I pushed the accept button.

"Hello, this is Yamanaka Ino," I said softly.

A creepy voice I knew too well screeched down the line, "Yamanaka! You and Tenten report to my office immediately! You have invitations and our leading contributing editor has an idea to pitch to you two!"

"Hai, Orochimaru-sama, we'll be there soon," he just hung up on me and I turned to Tenten. She just shrugged, obviously as clueless as I.

I parallel parked on the street and we hopped out and hopped in to the express elevator, the one that goes directly to the 85th floor.

Tenten pushed open the door and I called, "Orochimaru-san! Your lovely interns are here!"

Orochimaru shot us a death glare and we both shut up. Sometimes, he could be a little uptight… I sat down in one of the chairs opposite to his desk and Ten-chan sat in the other one. We both sat in our chairs and quietly.

Orochimaru stared intensely at them both, "I would like you to write invitations to the Oto Metropolitan Ball. Also, the editor-at-large wants to take you two and two or three friends shopping to find outfits to wear for an article, are you up for it?"

A/N: Some feedback would be nice. Just because I'm not sure how to keep this moving. I know where I want to go, but I'm having trouble getting there, if you know what I mean...