Author's Note: Fuck me, this is a long chapter! My God. I didn't want to split it up though – like over two – and it has a whole bunch of little time skip segments in here. Hopefully you won't get too annoyed. It sort of leaves things to the imagination, sometimes. It's not very confusing. I hope. Maybe its because I'm writing it.

As usual, most of the stuff in here came mostly out of nowhere. And its so looong! Argh! 13 pages XD This whole story so far is what… 87 pages? It's like woah! –is massive-

Anyway, I'll leave any more talk to the author's note at the bottom.

If I had to

I would put myself right beside you

So let me ask

Do you like that? Do you like that?

Chapter 12.

"So what was your friend in the hospital for anyway?"

Deidara moved closer, so as to better shelter them both with the umbrella. Although the woman kept her face forward, his eyes never left her.

"I basically high-fived him when he was holding the remnants of a broken mirror in his hand," Ino told the model flatly, avoiding looking at his face.

"That was sweet of you…. Should I be worried?"

She crossed her arms and closed her eyes, sighing. "Just don't let me hold that umbrella. You'd end up impaled on the end or something."

"I'd do well to remember that, yeah?" he chuckled.

Ino smiled half-heartedly, still feeling bad that she had left Kiba in the hands of interfering nurses in the Casualty ward, and looked at the blond next to her. Blue met blue, he smiled, and she blushed, lowering her head again. They continued on in silence.

It was at times like this – when everything was quiet and nobody spoke, not when she was being shown such kindness from a wet, gorgeous man who was walking very, very close to her – that she felt she would usually just relax and calm down. She felt tired, much too tired. Mental strength would be needed if she was going to follow Deidara back to the party, and she was taking all the time she had to build that strength up.

Maybe I should tell him that. He might think I'm ignoring him.

"My shoes are being ruined," she groaned instead, staring at her feet. One of her coat sleeves was also soaking wet. Despite how close she and Deidara were under the black cloth of the umbrella, she still wasn't completely safe from the rain. It clung to her as it ricocheted off store windows to her left.

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"You should be. It's a very important subject, after all."

"But of course."

There were lights everywhere. Both of them were cast in dappled colours from displays all over the street. Deidara was lit by gold, and his eyes glistened. There was a slight wind blowing through the rain.

"My hair is wet," he mused, taking a strand and running it through his fingers. "And so are my shoes. And so is the rest of me. Getting sort of cold, now that I think about it."

Ino smirked and nudged him in the side. "Would you like my jacket, then?" she asked, teasing him as she started to remove her white coat. Lucky she had grabbed it just before she'd gone with Kiba to the hospital. He raised an eyebrow, grinned, and snaked and arm around her waist, pulling her closer.

"It'll be fine, yeah."

"Deidara! You're all wet," she complained. She made herself comfortable anyway, though. As long as Sasuke wasn't around to see, it would be fine. There would be no scene caused, and she could gleefully enjoy sticking it to him. Even though she had told him and Kiba that she didn't care, it was natural that she'd want to do something like that after he had punched her trying to get to his brother. Problem was, with Sasuke, he was very, very possessive, and even more competitive. She was surprised he'd let Deidara leave at all. Then again, the blond model was almost four years his senior, and it looked like he was used to dealing with people anyway. It's not like the modeling business had room for pushovers anyway.

"Don't worry. Not too far to go now."

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

Ino was less than delighted to walk back into the hall with Deidara and find that there was only one seat left at the table, and that was his. He offered it too her numerous times, and maybe, maybe it would have been easier to just accept, but the seat was his, and hers had been stolen by a Sasuke-thirsty Sakura. As soon as Ino had walked in the door, Sasuke had looked up, possibly ignoring his pink secretary even more than he had before. He shot Deidara a glare as both blonds approached their table, and the bomber graced the Uchiha gunner with a smirk.

Ino forced Deidara – her new ultimate favourite person – to sit down. He did so reluctantly. At least this way, maybe she could get away from the Uchiha brothers for a while, and still be present at her own party. She could probably take Kiba's place. Of course, Naruto and the rest of his table would ask questions, but they could be easily taken care of. She wasn't a lawyer for nothing, after all.

Almost immediately after she said she wouldn't be taking another chair from opposing tables – everything had been worked out perfectly, dammit, and the few spares she had were taken by the four gatecrashers – Sasori stood up.

"Take mine."

"No," Sasuke jumped, rising to his feet as well. "Take mine."

Kankurou, who had been dying of boredom, left his chair as well – mostly likely just for something to do. "Have mine if you want. I'll probably be off soon anyway." He was sort of only half looking at her. His brother just kept staring.

Neji followed suit. "I should get back to work, Ino. You can -"

"Fucking hell!"

Ino gasped as she was suddenly wrenched sideways and down, completely losing balance and having to sling an arm around her captor's neck to keep herself steady. Hidan shifted in his seat, putting his knee under hers so that it would be slightly more comfortable for her.

"There we go. Not so fucking hard, is it? Bunch of chivalrous fuckers…" he muttered, readjusting Ino so that she wasn't almost choking him with the arm around his neck. "So who's a fucking genius, now? This way no one has to leave, and…"

- He put his lips on her neck, and placed an arm around her stomach, make her blush like crazy, kneading her thighs nervously with her knuckles.

"… everyone's happy."

From her place on Hidan's lap – to the left of Tenten, and the right of Kankurou – she tried to avoid the eye of everyone else on the table. The weight of the silence completely trumped a million elephants combined.

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

There seemed to be a separate world outside of Ino's table. Chatter around the room just kept going, people kept enjoying themselves, waiting for their food to come. No one noticed her less-than-perfect situation with the silver-haired 'bad boy' and all his rivals. She wished she could just stick her head in the sand and get away from everything.

Temari, five seats to Ino's left, watched the reactions of the men around the table as soon as Hidan made his move. Sasori had snarled slightly, Neji raised an eyebrow, Itachi's eyes narrowed, Kankurou sniggers, Gaara stared, and Sasuke fixed the model with the King of all Glares. Her own date, Shikamaru, who had asked her not-all-that spontaneously to be his date to the function in the first place, curled his hands into a fist angrily, and she noticed his jaw muscles clench. She frowned.

I'll just have to change that.

After all, he had returned the coy looks from across the desk in his office. He had fought like a madman in the court to defend her brother and the honour of her family name. It wasn't as if he didn't like her. She just had to make him forget about that princess and wake up to himself. Maybe she was an ex or something he hadn't gotten over. She didn't really know the story behind it herself. All she did know, is that he was a little too protective of someone who was just his secretary.

The heiress woke up from her thoughts to loud, hysterical laughter.

Kankurou. Her eldest brother. Should she have been surprised? Looking at his glass, he had probably already had an unhealthy amount of wine – a lot of people had, it seemed. But what else were they going to do to try and ignore the tension around the table?

Kankurou was laughing so hard he was barely breathing, slamming his fist hard on the table as he used his free hand to clutch at his ribs. Everyone stared at him. Some people wore puzzled expressions, and the rest were slowly getting angrier. Then something happened, something changed. Tenten started giggling, and Sakura joined in.

"What's so funny?" Neji asked his secretary, staring flatly across the table at her. Temari noted with some amusement that his pale eyes were starting to droop. Maybe he just wasn't a giggling drunk like the rest of them.

"Y-You're just all so… tight! It's Christmas! The faces you're wearing are – are…!"

Tenten was unable to finish the sentence. Smiles were starting to appear on other faces. Deidara was chuckling and Sasori grinned lightly. Hidan sighed and rested his head on the back of Ino's neck, but he was the only one not caring before, so that was okay. Sasuke scowled, Neji looked nonplussed. When Ino at last started laughing, and realised that if she pretended like nothing had happened then no one else would make a big deal out of it either, everything seemed to clear up almost instantly. Just as the pointless laughter came to a close, the food came.

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

A half hour later, Ino had actually managed to relax, even with the minor molestation suit that Hidan was building against himself. She spent most of her time making enthusiastic small talk, but would immediately divert herself once Hidan's teeth snapped by her ear. At which point, she would lean forward, grab his plate and feed him off it. She thought it rather amusing. He was behaving like a kid. A very tall, pretty, mischievous, foul-mouthed kid, and what could she say? He just seemed so… adorable? He could actually pull off the eyes thing, when he really, really wanted. Her motherly instinct was completely taking over. Sasuke kept shooting her looks, which were returned with a raised eyebrow and a just get over it shake of the head, and she actually managed to speak to Gaara Sabaku, after getting into a keen conversation to do with movies with his brother. Kankurou designed sets and props for movies. He would make puppets and dummies and make them take the place of actors, so he could map out scenes before they were presented to producers. His services were also used for stunts.

Basically, what she got to learn about Gaara, was that the redhead was not nervous about his trial, he had already decided on the outcome, and he was not happy about Christmas being so close. Eep. Friendly. But he almost smiled once. Almost. And that was when she was teasing Kankurou about what sort of movies he participated in.

Well. He said movies and life-sized, as-good-as-the-real-thing dummies. What else was I to think?

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

"So, Ino, when did you get that bruise, anyway?" Tenten ended up asking eventually. People had been avoiding the question all night, assuming it was nothing serious, because Ino herself didn't really seem to care.

"It's really nothing important. I was taking Kiba to Casualty, and slipped over in the rain. I hit my head on one of the store windows – so lucky nothing was broken, seriously," she smiled, leaning back onto Hidan's chest. She felt him laugh beneath her.

"Sounds like something Deidara did once," he sniggered, shooting a look to the blond bomber from across the table. Interest was piqued, everyone turned to look at him.

"What happened?" Ino asked, biting her lip at the scowl on his face, but wanting to know anyway. Deidara sighed at the unwanted attention, and lifted the long stream of hair away from his left eye. It seemed slightly paler than his other one.

"Photoshoot gone wrong," he sighed, lifting a lip towards a smirking Hidan. "We were going for a sci-fi shoot, and I had to wear this heavy, metal piece of crap over my eye. It was fine for a while, but it had to move and dart around for the… complete effect, or something…. I don't know. Either way, something sparked, and it hurt."

"Oh my god, Dei! Are you okay?" Ino asked, eyes wide and hand over her mouth. She had taken to calling him Dei midway through their walk back. She thought it sounded cute on him. She missed Shikamaru's 'blah blah blah I wub joo Deidei' mock session away to her left, but Sakura saw it and laughed. Unfortunately for her, she was mostly ignored – as usual. Ha.

"I got over it," he said, letting silky blond fall back across his face. "But I don't see out of it so well anymore."

Tenten frowned and focused a slightly tipsy gaze on Hidan. "You liar. That's not like what happened to Ino at all."

"Oi. Fuck you, bitch," the model snarled. "Tell them the rest of the story, asshole," he commanded.

"There's nothing more to tell," Deidara returned flatly, with a sort of 'just drop it' kind of tone.

"I thought there was something missing from your recount," Sasori mused. "The rest had something to do with makeup and high shoes…. I believe you were wearing a midriff too."

"Hey, you. Shut up."

"I remember that," Itachi smirked. Deidara bared his teeth.

"Little Miss fucking Priss managed to – right after they'd put him in nine fucking story high boots – try and finish putting on his makeup and enter the studio, which, might I add, had just been fucking cleaned."

"As you can guess, he missed the 'caution' sign," Sasori said smugly.

Ino closed her eyes and laughed silently, although Deidara in high boots and the tight leather that usually went along with matrix/sci-fi-themed things was quite a happy sight, the image of him falling because of it was also pretty hilarious.

I wonder if he wears a monocle… Wow. That would be cool…

"It wasn't funny. I got a whole stick of eyeliner in my fucking eye, and then it started to burn," the blond shot defensively, referring to how the eyescope had started to spark. "Maybe you should try it sometime. It's great that you think me losing most of my sight in one eye is so amusing."

Ino became serious, guilty she had laughed. Hidan, however, was slightly less obliging. He continued to laugh wholeheartedly with most of the others at the table until Deidara flipped him the bird. The silver model stopped immediately, scowling and leaning forward to pick up his knife. Ino, startled, hit him sharply in the shoulder.

"What are you going to do with that?" she chided. "Throw it at him?"

Suddenly his grip tightened around her waist and hips. If he was worried about her trying to get away, he needn't have been. The drilling stare, hypnotizing like a snake's, was holding her easily in place. He brought his lips to her ear, and spoke low enough for no one else to hear.

"Hit me again."

"Now, now, none of that," Kankurou announced, leaning in close so that his cheek was almost touching Hidan's. "Her date's just over there, you know. What are you guys talking about, anyway?"

"Nothing much," Hidan said smoothly. Ino's eyes were still wide, and staring into his. He smirked slightly, and loosened his arms around her.

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

By eleven o'clock everyone was getting drunk, and were more accepting towards trivia games than they would have been before. Due to Sasuke's complaining, Ino had gone back over to him, leaving a seriously less than impressed Hidan. The blond secretary straddled her date's knee, and was nominated scribe – being not as drunk as some others, as well as being a popular choice in the first place.

Near the grand piano on the stage, Hinata was standing, readying the question cards that she was going to have to read out. She was blushing slightly, but didn't appear to be all that nervous despite that. Questions had been submitted by all of the tables, and nobody else knew what the other groups were going to ask. Ino and the others had contributed with things from a variety of category's, including fashion – how could they not? – law, sports, TV – more specifically Ino's soaps – and music. She scribbled the team name Sasori had suggested before on the top of the sheet.

Akatsuki.

"I like the sound of that. Where'd you get it?" Ino asked him. He shared a look with his comrades around the table.

"Just made it up then."

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

"On the hit Soap, I'll Love You Forever, You Sexy Thing, Even Though You're My Cousin, what happened to Gloria's nineteenth husband?"

"The cheating slut drowned him. While she pashed him after her wedding to his step-twin's uncle. And he was driving. Couldn't see, lost control and smashed into a glacier. He took the actual current husband too, that was driving in the other car," Neji said immediately, a lopsided smile on his face as he remembered the moment. He took another swig of wine, and poked his tongue out at Ino, who had responded a second later.

"I always said, the best thing he ever did is break up with her," Ino nodded wisely. "I felt sorry for Signor Catastrophe when she sunk her claws into him.

"How did you know that?" Sakura asked incredulously, staring at the high boss Hyuuga.

"I like my TV," he told her. "What do you think I do in my office all day?"

Tenten snorted, and Neji shot her a look. Ino decided not to go there, clapping a hand over Hidan's mouth and receiving what could easily be classified as a tongue pash on her palm.

"I don't know too many men who watch Soapies," she mused, looking dreamy-eyed at her boss. Neji Hyuuga seemed just so perfect sometimes.

"Well I certainly don't watch that crap," the high boss slurred, obviously unaware of what he was doing. Ino stared at him, confused, and the others laughed. Poor Neji. He was completely out of it.

"That's really sad…" Sakura said quietly. "Their wedding day…." She was an angsty drunk. Oh dear.

"I promise that I won't… drown you on our wedding day," Sasuke said, slumping even further forward, so that his head rested solidly on her shoulder. Ino, surprised, looked automatically to Shikamaru, who was a shifty drunk, eyes constantly darting around to look at everything. He seemed really, really paranoid for some reason. It was probably just the alcohol.

"That's nice to know, Sasuke," Ino smiled. "Where's the next question, it's not coming!" she shouted. Ino was a slightly eccentric drunk. She had moodswings even worse than when she was sober.

"What was voted 'Hottest Design' this year, and who was the fashion genius that designed it?" Hinata asked softly through the mic in the middle of the room.

"I would have no idea," Ino said, slapping her head on the table in shame. "I missed the last issue due to work." She poked her tongue out at Shikamaru, who wasn't watching her, instead making a move towards Temari's neck.

"It's the Bow. The one featured in the magazine was purple," Sasori said confidently. "Orochimaru Sannin designed it. I met him at the premiere of this season's line."

"You know Orochimaru? I love him!" Tenten said, obviously in awe. She sunk down onto the table and looked up at his slightly smiling face adoringly. "Did you ever know that you're my hero?"

"I don't like those bow things. I think they look stupid," Kankurou sighed.

"Ever tried wearing one of the fucking things?" Hidan snapped, raising an eyebrow.

"You have no idea," Itachi contributed.

"Wow. Modelling can suck."

Ino was nodding when she felt someone else's foot on hers. Her eyes darted around the table. No one showed signs that it was them doing it. Whoever it was wasn't wearing shoes, because she could feel soft socks stroking up her calf. She squirmed on Sasuke's lap.

"What is the 77th Pokémon?"

"Easy," Hidan grinned. "Ponyta." He froze as everyone stared at him. "You assholes fuck the hell off, okay? You want the fucking point or not?"

"I used to love Pokémon…" Kankurou sighed, leaning back in his chair.

"Well what do you want? To fucking get married?"

"I used to, too," Ino said, remembering times she would hijack Sasuke's gameboy to actually play it.

"Fuck. Now there's an offer."

"I'm feeling popular. I'm getting married to Sasuke and Hidan," the blond smiled cheerily.

"Sure you don't want to run away with the best man, now?" Deidara winked, effectively pissing off his swear-happy colleague.

"Don't be a slut," Sasori told him dully. Ino laughed, as did the other girls. Gaara Sabaku closed his eyes wearily. He and Shikamaru had barely opened their mouths all night.

"What is a subpoena?" Hinata asked quietly from her place on stage. Ino wondered why she wasn't with the rest of her table, and asked Tenten about it. Apparently she was filling in until the guy that had actually been meant to do it got there. It was actually a team, that was meant to be asking the questions – agents from somewhere or another. A group of about six of them. They should have been there ages ago, but something seemed to have happened to them.

"You should know this, Ino," Shikamaru told her. "You're studying, aren't you?"

"Subpoena's easy…" Neji drawled. "It's -"

"A subpoena is an order to appear in court," Ino said, trying to sound intelligent while intoxicated. "… I think."

Below the table, her shoe was being slipped from her feet by Mystery Foot. Who the hell was that anyway?

Subpoena… Was I right?

Shikamaru actually smiled and dipped his head. "Good work. When are you going back to uni anyway? You'd probably get a job in Konoha the minute you graduated, hey, Neji?"

"Fuck yes…" the Hyuuga muttered. Nobody heard him though.

"I have my exams in a couple of months, but I applied for leave to help deal with the pressures of your case, Mr. Sabaku."

"… I appreciate that…" Gaara answered. She smiled.

"You can do that?" Sakura asked, groaning. "I could be in med school by now!"

"I didn't know this job was so horrible for you," Neji snapped. She doubled back.

"It's not that…. This job is great. I just, really want to be a doctor."

"I think that's a worthy ambition," Shikamaru said lazily, looking at Ino. "You really have to be clever. Ino mentioned once that you took your job to save up? You're a really smart woman, Sakura. Couldn't you get a scholarship?"

Sakura blushed, and Ino gritted her teeth. That stupid prick. It was completely different if she wanted to flirt with other guys. He wasn't allowed to hit on her own… her… friend? That was…

She's not my friend… is she?

Of course not.

But she is.

"Shikamaru?"

He seemed startled she actually looked at him. Blue eyes seemed almost defeated, definitely fed up.

That foot is still there…. She acknowledged dimly. I wonder who that is.

"… Yeah?"

"You're troublesome."

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

At about 12:30pm, the night was almost over. Everyone had had a good time, and were looking forward to a long sleep when they got home, before they'd have to get up and go to work again. Tenten got a call that made her ashen faced for a while, but nobody really noticed. Everyone had drunk their fair share.

"Where'd my phone go?" Ino muttered, searching her purse. "I need to call for a ride home."

"You can share a car with me, if you'd like," Sasori offered. "I can pay."

"I'll drive you, Ino," Sasuke said firmly.

"No…. But then we'd crash into a glacier, and -"

"Don't you dare drink drive with her in the car, Uchiha," Shikamaru snarled. "That's a lawsuit waiting to happen."

"You people are so… tight…" Kankurou said, not for the first time that night. "Just relaaaaaax…." He practically collapsed onto the table, a loud thunk resonating through the whole hall. There were 'Ooooooohs," from the rest of the table.

"Mr. Hyuuga? Are you going to be at the office tomorrow?" Ino asked, propping herself clumsily up on a hand.

"No rest for the wicked," he replied, less than impressed.

"Okay. I'll have Mr. Na- … I'll have Shikamaru's notes printed, and can hand them in tomorrow then. It's my day off, but I'll get over it."

"Fine. Is the night done yet? I'm all socialled out."

True, a lot of people had already started to leave. There were few whole tables left in the whole hall. Kankurou, Gaara and Temari stood up.

"Our taxi's due here any minute," the eldest sibling said. "We'll get going." She smiled at everyone, said it was good to meet them, and waited until her brother did the same. Then she leant and kissed Shikamaru, cupping his face with her hand.

"See you later, yeah?"

"… Yeah…."

Ino could have burst with jealousy, and as she watched the siblings walk away, a spiteful growl on her face, she noticed that Gaara was still putting his shoe back on.

No way!

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

Neji refused to move until he saw that everything had been cleaned up. Sakura, Ino and Tenten stayed to help. Sasuke had left only at the express command of his blond date. Itachi left without a fight, but gave her a gift before he did so.

"I'm sorry… Ino…"

She was in the stairs, saying goodbye. He had requested her company before he left. She'd never seen him apologise before, and it was hard to tell if he was serious or not - his face held very little emotion, after all. He stroked a pale hand down her face, lingered on the bruise, kissed the top of her head, then left without another word.

Hidan was a different story. Although he didn't actually touch her, he certainly tried to, and she gracefully denied his numerous propositions – all of which were R rated in content. Dei left with a smile and a kiss on the hand, followed by a fond hug, all of which made her blush and whine, and Sasori parted insisting that he was allowed to kiss her cheek better. When she let him, she stood on her tiptoes and gave him one in return.

"Come visit me sometime, Ino."

With Sasuke it was difficult. As much as she said it was fine, she couldn't help but feel at least a little bit grudging towards him. He was going to just walk out, but she made him come back.

"Sasuke? What? No goodnight kiss?"

"I'm sorry, Ino…"

"Honey! It's fine! I'll get heaps of attention this way anyway! I'll see you at work, alright?"

She kissed him, and he held her tightly, burying his face in her neck before planting a soft kiss on her forehead. Then he walked away without a backward glance.

She didn't even get to see Shikamaru leave. He just slipped out.

"Alright," Tenten announced, putting a hand exhaustedly to her forehead and staggering to the side. "I'm done. It's over. I'm tired and I'm going home. Someone make sure he doesn't pass out on the stairs, please," she said, pointing to Neji.

"I don't need you people to look after me like that," he retorted, trying to stand and then falling back into his chair.

"Of course not, sir," Ino chided, saying goodbye to Tenten and the other pink secretary as they left to share at taxi. "Now, up you get. It's time to go."

She went to sling an arm around him, and lift him out of the chair but he pushed her moodily away.

"No – I can do it."

"Fine," she sighed, waiting for him to do it himself.

…

…

He couldn't.

"Come on, Mr. Hyuuga," she grumbled, supporting him as they made their way out the door. They were almost out into the stairs when he stopped, digging his heels into the floor ad refusing to go a step forward.

"What is it?"

He just pointed upwards, smirking drunkenly.

… Mistletoe? Fucking mistletoe

They were both quiet. He managed to stand on his own two feet for a second.

"It's okay sir. We don't have to."

… He stayed quiet.

"Anyway," she started, changing the subject. "I can have those notes for you on your desk in the morning."

She wasn't even sure he could see her properly. Pale eyes were glazed with alcohol, even though they seemed focused on hers.

"… I want… you on my desk in the morning," he told her, and closed the gap between them.

As Ino supported her handsome, completely drunk boss and responded to him in turn, she concluded that the party had been a success.

Something's getting in the way

Something's just about to break

I will try to find my place

In the Diary of Jane

Squee. New favourite song – among others. Thank you Iruka and Kakashi AMV's. Il est tres awesome :D

And a sincere apology for you know what. If you don't know, then that's great. But if you do, then please forgive me. There'll never be anything like that again. Ever. –cries in shame-

Anyways, I'm not sure about this chapter… It's alright. It does have a lot of Ino love.

Sometimes, I get questions about how things have come to happen, that other people don't really understand. That's being bad on my part, because I'm making assumptions that people will just get what I mean.

Obviously not.

Anyway, its good to be back. I'm truly sorry for the wait. I had a good time at Bush School though. It was great :D

Oh! And special love to Steph-uke. Who leaves lovely reviews and is finally reading it – even though it's a heterosexual fic. I love you. Oh! And there was a grammar issue in the last chapter. Troublesome TT I swear I checked it though. Seriously…

So who do we want Ino to be with?

Quote: Don't bite the hand that holds your allowance in it.

No more chapter until I beat my amount of reviews for chapter 4. I need fourteen :D

Looooooool.