Author's Note: Ooh, I'm going to Tamworth tomorrow, so this will be my last update for like… a long time. For a week. I wanted to get the xmas part out around xmas, but its just not going to work, so… well. I can't really help that. Merry Christmas to you all though, and I hope you get everything you want :3

Pairings: SasukexIno, ShikamaruxIno (finally. I know), some NejixIno. Hehe.

We are young

Heartache to heartache

We stand

No promises

No demands

Love is a battlefield

Another Chapter? Ohmygoodness.

"What was that?" Sakura asked, peering at her blond colleague as she booted up her computer and moved documents out of her way.

"What?"

"You stupid pig, what do you think I mean? That! That whole scene!"

"Oh? Kiba?"

Yes, Ino Yamanaka was definitely a bitch. She just couldn't help herself. She was feeling confident, elated, and more than a little impressed with herself. Naturally, the only way to top that was being an ass to Sakura.

"Oh? So you actually know his name, do you? That comes as a surprise to me," the rosette sniped, smoothing the skirt of her expensive suit, courtesy of their new best friend, Kakuzu the salesman.

"Well, that's what I'm here for," Ino answered brightly, enjoying the furious look on her rival's face. "I live to entertain you, my darling."

Sakura huffed, but quickly wiped the look off her face as Sasuke emerged from his office, looking tired, messy and harried, but with an eager glint in his sable eyes. The secretary stood eagerly to attention, ready to do whatever he asked.

Sasuke shot Ino a glance before handing the Haruno a yellow envelope and bending forward slightly to whisper in her ear. Sakura tensed, bit her lip, then nodded, before shouting an almost soldier-like "Yes, sir!" and taking off towards the photocopy room.

Once she was gone, Sasuke turned his attention to the suspicious blond woman sitting at the desk on his rival's side of the room. They both watched each other, Ino with a slight, creeping anxiety, and Sasuke with a cool, calm demeanor – at least on the outside.

"You… look good today… Ino."

Did he mentally murder himself for sounding like a lovestruck idiot?

Yes.

Did she notice that it was a stumble, and not just think it was an example of how he was so uninterested that he didn't even have to bother with a proper sentence?

No.

She was more freaked out by the fact Sasuke Uchiha was talking to her – nicely – after their… interesting… history together.

She smiled at him, choosing a cheery way to go about the somewhat awkward situation. "Thanks! So do you, as always!"

He barely smiled. Maybe his lips quirked half a millimetre, but that was it. He did, however, nod his head in acceptance of the compliment, before opening his mouth to say something else.

"Ino!"

The all-too-familiar voice of Shikamaru Nara made Ino smile genuinely. The strange vibe between her and the youngest Uchiha dissipated into nothing as secretary looked to boss with the same dedication that Sakura displayed for Sasuke.

….

Of course, it was more subtle. And she didn't stand to attention, shout her acceptance of a mission, and fly off.

"Ino, I need you to -" Shikamaru broke off, looking with calculating eyes between the Uchiha and Yamanaka, taking in every single detail. Sasuke and Ino. His body language, calm and cocky, hers, tense and nervous. What had been going on?

"Yes, sir?" Ino prompted, frowning as he looked at Sasuke.

"What are you looking at, Nara?" Sasuke glared reproachfully, moving his hands from his pockets, crossing his arms, and lifting his chin.

"Ino," he continued, trying to ignore the interruptions, "I need you to do something for me." He spoke carefully, beckoning her to stand and follow him into his office. Ino smiled and walked readily right behind him, feeling the intense stare of Sasuke Uchiha boring into her back.

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

Once in the safety of his office, Shikamaru explained the situation.

"I just figured out how we can prove the Sand murders false. Apparently, the accused, Gaara Sabaku, was suffering from mental instability, and a possible case of sleep-walking due to stress, where he doesn't remember, and didn't have control of, anything he was doing. All that on top of what I think is PTS from the murder of his father, not too long ago. Uchiha was meant to be working on the personal criteria of our client, while I searched for possible defences to tie in with the evidence he had found, but he was shabby. Didn't do anything anywhere near properly. Says he had other, more pressing cases to deal with."

Probably his stupid brother again…

"Congratulations, sir," Ino smiled happily. Shikamaru looked at her briefly, then jerked his head away to hide the brief flash of contentment that crossed his face.

"Yeah…. Anyway. Uchiha isn't all too pleased with my revelations, so I'm worried he might find the notes and pass them off as his own. I'm going to have to get you to deliver them straight to Neji on the twelfth floor. No time to go through anyone else, and there's no one else I trust." Not to mention he was already paranoid about what had happened while he had stepped out of his office about an hour ago to stare at the clouds on the top of the roof.

He spoke as he rifled through the papers on his desk, his client's chairs, in cabinets and on shelves, unaware of how much happiness his last comment brought to his blond secretary and too busy thinking about how when he had come back, Ino hadn't been there to stop anyone from just going in and doing anything.

His secretary started to help him, fantasizing about how best to make sure Kiba wouldn't be too pissed off when she told him they wouldn't be seeing each other, and that now Shikamaru Nara had finally noticed her, they were going to take the next plane to Vanuatu and enjoy a tropical holiday before coming back and getting married.

"What does it look like, sir?" she asked, noticing the trouble he seemed to be having in regards to finding the important case notes.

"It's in a big, yellow envelope, with - … Ino? Where'd you go?"

The door slammed behind her as she left, bolting from the office as fast as she could.

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

She caught Sakura just as she was slinking out of the photocopy room, towards the elevator.

"Give that to me, you bubblegum bitch!" Ino demanded, standing in the doorway and blocking the rosette's only escape route. "That's Shikamaru's!"

Sakura hugged the yellow envelope, still warm from the modifications she had made to the owner's original signature, and shook her head defiantly, pale green facing off against bright blue as each woman fought silently with their equally as powerful wills.

"No way, Pig. This is Sasuke's, and he asked me to deliver it to Mr. Hyuuga! That's exactly what I'm going to do!"

Stalking towards her like a cat towards a mouse, Ino bared her teeth. "He stole it from Shikamaru!"

"No! It's the other way around! Sasuke doesn't have to steal! He's a genius!"

Ino made a grab for the envelope. "Give it, Sakura!"

"Never!" she screamed, and bolted under Ino's arm, out the door and into the elevator, frantically pushing at the 'twelve' button. Ino shoved people out of her way in an effort to get there with her. She turned to look over her shoulder at Shikamaru, who was standing next to Sasuke, watching her intently, biting his lip and scowling as he saw Sakura had it, and was getting away.

"It's okay, Shikama – I mean… Mr. Nara! I won't let Sas – I mean… Mr. Uchiha – win! You can count on me!" she called, leaping and almost killing herself as she landed with such force in high heels on the floor of the lift.

The elevator doors shut on two screaming women, fighting over a large, yellow envelope.

-----------

Shikamaru glared at the deeply-hated Sasuke Uchiha. It was severely unusual for him to actually feel such dislike for someone – hatred took a hell of a lot of effort, after all – but the sable-eyed man with his pretty-boy looks just infuriated him to no end. Under normal circumstances, he would have been delighted to have someone take half of his workload off his extremely weighted shoulders, but when it was an asshole like Sasuke, who couldn't even begin to match up to Shikamaru's certain brand of expertise, things were just way too troublesome. The other man seemed to have some interest in his secretary, too, which was another factor that didn't help his case.

Ino Yamanaka and her freakin' fanboys….

It was true. She could barely walk through the office without the highest possible percentage of male heads turning to look at her. Of course, Sakura was the same, but Shikamaru had no interest in the girl. She was a very pretty young lady, but she was so far into Uchiha obsession that it was hopeless ever to even try and talk to her. After all, the first time he had met her – at a weird, wacked out work… camp… thing – she had barely been able to work on the teamwork puzzle she was meant to be solving with him, too busy watching Sasuke and Ino, as the blond held tightly to the Uchiha's arm, complaining about the cold.

Granted, it was only because it took him two minutes to actually figure out the whole thing - and it was a good temporary distraction - that he even did it himself. He would have loved to sit there goggling like Sakura did. Unfortunately, he liked to think he had slightly more dignity than that.

Shikamaru snapped out of his daydreams as Sasuke started to speak. His cool monotone voice grated like a rasp through the mind of the Nara genius.

"I hear she's dating someone from the lower levels, you know," he said casually, smirking at the carefully blank look on his colleagues face. "Some idiot. Works with dogs. Such a shame, you know. She could do so much better."

Little did Sasuke know, the comment had pleased Shikamaru more than disheartened him. Someone from the lower levels? Surely, as average as he was, he was above someone from the police departments. Maybe he was in for a shot?

"You think she'd go for someone like you?" Shikamaru asked flatly.

Sasuke's laugh should have been enough to freeze the water in the cooler, chief gathering point of gossip in the office. It caught Shikamaru's attention, and he looked at the handsome man suspiciously, a feeling of overwhelming foreboding sweeping over him.

"She already has."

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

"A Christmas party? She's not serious…."

Neji actually spoke out loud, his disbelief was so strong. The high boss of Konoha law firm had just finished a meeting with a very, very important client by the name of Temari, daughter of the late billionaire Mr. Sabaku, who had come to speak to him about her brother's murder case – and had not noticed the stack of invitations on his desk until half way through. Needless to say, it made things harder when he was too appalled at the idea of some bright red, unknown envelopes sitting unopened, just to his right, to focus on anything else. Trying to reach for something right in front of you, while at the same time pretending to be paying attention when someone was speaking, was never a good recipe for a productive and successful exchange. But Temari Sabaku was a professional. She knew what she had doing.

For the good of them both, she had ignored it.

Neji didn't waste any time at all. As soon as she had turned her back and left, he had ripped apart the red envelope with gusto, revealing the horrific idea beneath it.

You have been invited to Konoha's first ever Christmas party!

Held: 8:30pm to 1:00am, Ichiraku RSL, 19th December

RSVP 13th December

We hope to see you there,

Neji and Hinata Hyuuga

Please circle your answer below

Sure! I'll be there with bells on! No way! I'm the Grinch's best friend!

This invitation is good for you plus one

What the…

Since when had he approved this?

Neji sighed.

Hinata rarely consulted him on things anymore. Gone were the times of the unconfident little girl he once knew. Nowadays, she had grown into herself, fulfilling everything the family expected of her – and more. She still stuttered, but she was easily one of the strongest people Neji knew. The high boss of the firm grumbled to himself, rubbing his temples and staring at the paper of the invitation as if he could see right through it, straight to the trouble he thought it would cause.

Next thing I know, it'll be a trivia night, or it will be compulsory to wear a stupid Santa hat… or both….

His head slid from between his hands to thump less-than-gracefully on the desk, where it was quite happily resting before two screaming psychopaths – better known as Ino Yamanaka and Sakura Haruno threw open his door, smashing and shoving at each other to get to him first.

Now, seeing two women fight over him should not have been such an unwelcome sight, but this time was different. He was so not in the mood to deal with the two secretaries.

"Mr. Hyuuga, sir! Mr. Uchiha has -"

"No way, you stupid – Mr. Nara got all that information!" Ino hollered, cutting Sakura off and snatching at a bent and beaten yellow envelope, which looked like it had just come back from a war. The rosette tried to hold it away from her, but Ino succeeded after reaching over her rivals shoulder. Sakura tried to push her off, but only managed unbalancing them both, so that they toppled to the floor.

Sighing for what seemed like the umpteenth time that morning, Neji raised his head slightly to peer over the top of his desk at the two women on the floor. A slim eyebrow was raised.

"Are you two quite done?"

Sakura and Ino glared spitefully at each other before answering back.

"Yes!"

"There was never anything to begin with!"

"Yeah, right! Unless you stealing from Shikamaru isn't anything!"

"I did not steal, and neither did Sasuke!"

It occurred to the high boss, as he sat back wearily, that he had been quite forgotten, and he didn't appreciate it. People these days… they just had no proper respect.

He sat as still as a statue, fingers entwined elegantly, in his big, comfortable, leather, spinning chair, and waited for them to finish.

…

His patience was wearing thin. Very thin. Neither of them had emerged from behind the desk yet. They just kept shouting at each other, and the occasional yelp of pain was heard as they beat each other over the yellow envelope.

Finally, Neji did the only thing he could think of – he had to call for Tenten. He had learned long ago to stay out of the path of rampaging women. Not many people knew this, but Hinata and his family had him so whipped.

Sneakily, he reached a hand towards the intercom on his desk.

"Tenten?"

Her voice was slightly distorted by static as she answered. "Yes, sir?"

"Come here, please… I have a situation…."

"… Yes, sir."

She was nothing short of a saint as she walked commandingly into the room, looking at the appalling display of violence on the floor of her boss' office, and at the man in the seat behind the desk, who seemed quite unimpressed.

"If you two idiots don't stop it right now, both Shikamaru and Sasuke will be fired!" the brunette roared over the top of their incessant shouting.

Ino and Sakura instantly stopped, with Ino snatching the envelope away, having won the tussle, and Sakura being powerless to get it back without endangering her life.

"S-Sorry, Mr. Hyuuga," Ino said, standing, brushing herself off and lowering her head to him in shame for the display beforehand. If she wanted to get a job as a lawyer for him later, then that was not the way to behave. Beside her, Sakura did the same thing, albeit she was still glaring at the blond for getting the envelope in the end.

Neji fixed them with a flat stare, finding a certain contented feeling while watching them squirm nervously under the high focus of his gaze. People often said that it almost seemed he was able to see through people. It was what had made him such a good lawyer.

"Is everything okay now, sir?" Tenten asked, examining a nail. Neji gave his assistant a silent nod, and she grinned before leaving.

"You disappoint me. Both of you. I don't know where to begin in explaining how much you have both shamed yourselves. Have you no respect? In yourselves? Me? The company you work for?"

Ino felt like a kid at the principal's office.

Albeit, this principal was considerably better looking than both the one she had had in primary school and the one in high school. Richer, too. And younger. With a nicer car. And wonderful hair….

"I'm sorry, sir," Sakura said softly, looking up at him apologetically. "I just wanted to help Mr. Uchiha with his work."

"I'm sorry too, Mr. Hyuuga…. I have vital information that Mr. Nara has found for the Sand Murder case, and I just wanted to give it to you as fast as possible."

Neji smirked slightly to himself. Ino was a born lawyer. He wasn't interested in hearing devotion from secretary to boss, but dedication to him and the company was always awarded. Oh, she looked sweet and innocent – when she wasn't attacking other people on the floor of his office – but she was dangerous. Very dangerous. A pretty face could get you places – especially in the information department.

He would know.

Lucky for Ino, he had had a soft spot for her ever since that work training camp that Hinata had organized. Back before she had known he was his boss, they had been split into teams for a game of hockey – to promote teamwork in a competitive environment – and her way of distracting him and his team while Shikamaru and Tenten worked around through the defences, was just to flirt outrageously. Winking… blowing kisses… falling into him and making him catch her….

He still remembered the look on her face when she found out that he was going to be her boss, and was, in fact, not just a look-alike to Neji Hyuuga, but Neji Hyuuga himself. For once, he had thanked Hinata and her 'pretend to be normal' scheme.

Still, no matter how cute he thought she was, Ino had to be punished. He had a murderous migraine now, and neither girl would be allowed to get away with it.

What to do though? It couldn't be too harsh, but he didn't want them let off lightly, either. In the police departments downstairs – or so he had heard – they punished minor wrong-doers with parties that they weren't invited to….

…

Wait.

Parties!

It was brilliant! This way, he wouldn't have to organize anything, and their workload would be almost trebled! They could arrange the stupid Christmas party. Booking entertainment, preparing food, making sure everyone knew about it…. They were all troubles that Neji Hyuuga did not want to deal with, and now, thanks to today, he would not have to.

"Listen, girls…. I know just what to do with you…."

We are strong!

No one can tell us we're wrong!

Yep. Love is a battlefield. I had to do it at some point. Come on, admit it. You love Pat Benatar. I know you do. Yeah. Can't hide from Jessie, now, can you?

No!

…

Omg! I love sliding around on my wheely chair!

…

Man has his will, but woman has her way.

Oh yeah. Oh. and you wish you had xmas invitations like mine.

Reviews, please:3