Author's Note: Heh. Things start happening here a bit. Ino's going to sound like such a ho in this… Ah well. We knew we all wish we could be in her position, don't we?

Pairings: InoxKiba, ShikaxIno

It's still enough time to figure out

How to chase my blues away

Chapter 1.

I can do this.

Ino walked into work the next morning with yet another new item of clothing. It was thin and light and violet – her favourite colour – with buttons on the front. Ino had left some of those buttons undone, pulling the attention of every male she had walked past on the way from home to work. She wore a black business skirt on the bottom, with a pair of plain black high heels, and a jacket to go over the top. Before she went to see if this time she would make an impact, she picked up the stack of paper that Shikamaru had dropped off to her the day before, all completely organized, up to date, and ready to hand in to Mr. Hyuuga.

She peeked into her boss' office, smiling fondly as she saw him asleep and buried amidst a hundred different books and notes, a pen still held idly in his hand. Tip-toeing in, she put the files on the chair in front of his desk, then went to work cleaning all the mess he had managed to create for himself.

Bloody hell… wake up, would you, Shikamaru?! she thought as she purposely went about dropping paperweights, staplers and other office equipment onto the floor to see if he would wake up. To her annoyance, it took quite a bit to rouse him - almost ten minutes! But, the important thing was, she succeeded.

"Mmm… Ino? What are you doing?" he yawned. His head didn't even make it off the table to look at her. His expensive suit was wrinkled and untidy, his tie loose around his neck.

Ino was lucky she had enough self control to actually look at him. She had a thing for tousled men in suits. What could she say?

"Oh! Mr. Nara! I didn't mean to disturb you -" The tone was there, innocent, surprised and sweet. Any man would have accepted her in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, Shikamaru Nara was not just any man.

"I find that hard to believe," he muttered. "With all of the heaviest things I own being dropped onto the floor…. I know it's troublesome to question you like this, but I get that you're not that clumsy. Did you want something?"

Oh. Snap.

Cursing herself for the stupid thought in the first place, she decided to change the subject. The bastard hadn't even raised his head to look at her! Sometimes, she wondered why she even bothered.

Ino rolled her eyes exasperatedly. Fine. Be a bitch… What to do now… Uh…

…

That's it! Flattery! Everyone likes flattery!

"You're very dedicated, Mr. Nara, to have stayed here to work on your newest case all night…. The debate on Ms. Tsunade Sannin's divorce suit is difficult, I know. I've read the file case. If she was having an affair… then it is hard to decide who gets what, isn't it, sir? The men are having a hard time of it, on top of their conflicting - um… Ehe… Sorry…. But it's difficult, isn't it, sir? You must have been up all night - judging by how tired you look."

It annoyed her that she had stumbled and trailed off at the end of most of her sentences, but her mind was really not working at that point.

Shikamaru's eyes were now open, but they stared through the glass of his desk, at his expensive shoes.

"…I've only been here half and hour longer than you have."

Ino blinked. No way! Surely, after ten months of working for him, she would have seen him coming and going to work? She racked her brains. No. She had just thought that he spent all his time at the office, not that he got there at reasonable times and fell asleep anyway.

"Oh…"

Well. To say the least, things were awkward. She could just hear the crickets chirping in the background, emphasizing their silence. Ino wanted just to slap herself – or him – or better yet, Sakura for making her feel like she would have to rush. Yes. It was Sakura's fault. That worked…

Unfortunately, it was not Sakura's fault that her stupid legs would not move so she could get the hell out of there.

"I have to work," he said suddenly, breaking the tension that had gathered between them. "You're distra-" At last he looked up, and stopped mid-sentence, a blush reddening his cheeks. Ino was delighted to see that her new blouse was doing its duty. Maybe this wasn't a complete waste of time!

"Distract… ing…. Troublesome!" he barked, grabbing a book and burying his nose in it. Taking the hint with a grateful grin on her face, Ino up and went, looking back just before she completely left the room.

"Remember, Mr. Nara, if you ever need anything, all you have to do is ask."

She went to turn away again, putting one foot out the door.

Come on, say my name, Shikamaru. Don't let me leave. Come on, please?

How strange life was sometimes. Just ten seconds ago she had wanted nothing more but to leave, and him to forget that they had even had that conversation. Now, she just wanted him to ask her to stay.

"I-Ino?"

She turned, making sure her hair flicked over her shoulder as she did so. Ino loved her hair sometimes.

"Yes, sir?"

Shikamaru grumbled to himself, keeping the book right close to his face. Secretaries were meant to help, weren't they? Ino wasn't helping. She was…

Distracting….

He shook his head, trying to speak around gritted teeth. The lazy, uncaring façade was proving difficult to keep up at that precise moment in time. How… urgh.

Women.

"I need to get this done…. It's troublesome, but I have to… meaning, I need to stay awake."

Ino nodded politely, although she was slightly disappointed. So no confession of deep and undying love? Better luck next time.

"I need coffee."

She flashed a brilliant – if fake – smile, and bobbed her head.

"Whatever you want, sir."

Ino was waiting for her order in the coffee shop across the road from the office when she noticed her pink-haired adversary was in the same vicinity, and neither of them had yet made a scene – an event practically unheard of, as far as they were both concerned. The Haruno looked like a bright perky lolly in pink and white. Just like Ino, she had bought a new outfit to try and gain the attention of her boss.

Ino reflected back on the first time she met Sakura, Shikamaru, Neji and Tenten. It had been at a strange work… camp… thing. The big boss' cousin had organized a get-to-know-each-other week away, to promote friendship, cooperation, and other such things at the start of the year. The whole firm was there – not just the new secretary recruits…. It was so strange, getting to know most of them while they were casual and, well… normal. It was winter, so people got cold, huddling up to each other for warmth, and showing that no, they weren't all invincible. Sasuke had been there too. Ino remembered with a faint smile how she made him accept the fact that yes, she was cold, and der, she was going to take as much body heat from him as she could.

While thinking, Ino had still been staring blankly in Sakura's direction, looking, but not really seeing. Sensing someone's eyes on her, Sakura turned, and Ino readied for the chaos that usually resulted in their meeting.

"… H-hello, I-Ino. Good m-morning, Sakura…" sounded a meek voice, stopping both women in their tracks. They turned to look at the dark haired cousin of the firm's CEO, Hinata Hyuuga. How coincidental. Ino had just been thinking about her.

"Oh… morning, Miss Hyuuga," She smiled, trying to remove any signs of her previous aggression from her voice and body-language while speaking to the shy woman. She liked Hinata. She was so sweet, and kept her cousin in check whenever he got too carried away with demotions, firing and other such punishments. "How is Mr. Hyuuga? I haven't seen him on our floor once this week. Not even to punish Mr. Nara for being slack."

It always amused Ino when Neji Hyuuga came storming through the office, his pale eyes blazing, and his hair – that could easily rival her own – swinging in a long silky sheet down his back. Everyone would part before him, his presence enough to instill admiration even into Sasuke Uchiha, and they would watch him throw open Shikamaru's door without hesitation, appealing to Shikamaru's pet hate of being interrupted without announcement. Even though he was usually a calm, composed young man, sometimes Shikamaru's reluctance towards everything got on the high boss' nerves. The genius lawyer was only kept around because he could destroy anyone and everyone when he got into the courtroom. No matter what Neji had tried, he rarely got any results outside of it, though.

Hinata smiled and played with her fingers nervously. "C-cousin Neji r-realised w-what it takes to m-make Shikamaru work… He d-doesn't need to g-get angry anymore…"

"Huh?"

Ino realised she had just stumbled across a helpful source on the inner workings of Shikamaru. Hinata, as the master of Hyuuga Corp, and the owner of the whole Konoha company, and not just Neji's branch, knew everything there was to know about the people that worked for her. Why she had not thought of imploring for her aid before escaped the blond. Maybe it was because Ino was sort of afraid of her. Hinata was regularly looked over, but there were rumours about the things she had done for her company. Neji was not the true mastermind – or so office rumours said.

"What do you mean, Miss Hyuuga? What is it that can actually get a response out of him?" she asked, ignoring the hiss in her ear of 'that's cheating!'

Stupid wench Sakura. Just because she hadn't thought of asking for help from the Hyuuga heiress. Ino knew the rosette wouldn't try the same source of information – that was a pride thing – so she had Hinata and her knowledge all to herself.

"W-Well… Sh-Shikamaru only ever t-tries if something is… very, very i-important to him, or if there's s-someone to m-match him…. Ever since w-we employed S-Sasuke, and m-made them work together… h-he has been responding m-more and m-more positively…. He s-says although i-it's troublesome doing work, it's more s-so if he has to undo b-bad work and then start f-from s-scratch anyway…. I-In the long r-run, it's easier for him to d-do everything himself…."

As if thinking she had far surpassed her daily word count, she moved forward in the line, saying she hoped she had been able to help.

Ino stared at her. Sakura-Big Brow, you'd better start looking for a new job right now.

People in the shop looked at her strangely as she jumped with excitement and impatience from one foot to another as she waited for her coffee. She knew exactly what she would have to do.

Shikamaru was determined to be the winner – he had gone to extreme lengths to prove that pretty – er… gorgeous… no… beautiful – Sasuke Uchiha would not beat him – and so she would make him lose. After attracting his attention, she would make herself available to practically anyone but him. Gone were the days of no-action, I-hope-he-notices-me Ino. She would make him notice her.

--------------

She pondered the dangers of her plan while in the elevator, on her way up to the eleventh floor. If she did start seeing other men – possibly lots of other men – and he saw – which was the idea – then he could just call her a whore and totally ignore it. Or he could just be angry and not to speak to her at all. Or he could just think her completely below him and she'd lose all hope of them ever getting together.

… Damn….

That would be bad. Maybe she'd test him out first, make sure he wouldn't get too offended, or put off….

So, who would her first target be?

The secretary held the rail inside the elevator for balance as it stopped suddenly. She had hoped for an unbroken ride to the top, but it had been interrupted on the fourth floor. Ino waited to see who would get on. The lower levels – from six down – were usually swarming with police and private eyes. Actually, come to think of it, she'd heard good reports about the people down there. Sure, they obviously weren't as sophisticated as the lawyers and magistrates of the top floors, but she supposed they would be okay for what she needed. Maybe Shikamaru would be struck with the Hey!-but-what?-I'm-so-much-better! thought.

Just maybe.

The elevator doors slid open slowly to reveal a tall young man with shaggy brown hair. By the looks of the gun at his hip and the logo on the arm of his jacket, he was a copper. Well, maybe he wasn't the highest of authorities, and was simply middle class, but Ino figured she could use him as her guinea pig. Unless of course he turned around and was as ugly as dog spit on toast.

She watched, approving his personality as he laughed and waved to who she supposed was one of his friends – another, very tall man with a high turtleneck, sunglasses and a heavy trench coat, who Ino figured would be one of the PI's – they all looked as though they had something to hide.

She grinned as he went to turn so that he would face her, and quickly stepped up close to him, preparing herself for the sacrifice that was to come.

Oh… how she had loved her outfit…

I wanna feel the heat with somebody

I know you all want to dance with somebody. Don't deny it. It's pointless.

Oh, reviews would be nice, if you wanted. It's just a bit of fun, so I suppose you don't have to, but whatever.

My parting words for today are...

Kiss, kiss, fall in love!