Chapter Eight: You Look Like I Need Another Drink
Disclaimer: We own nothing. The end.
Author's Note: Sorry for the long wait, again. But we're giving you an extra, extra, extra, long chapter, so that's our way of making up for the wait. We were originally going to post on Sunday, but as most of you probably know, fanfiction was not letting writers upload documents. Thank you so much for all of your reviews, you guys really keep us motivated! Hopefully you'll enjoy this chapter as much as we do!
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"Sasuke-san, is it possible for me to skip the lunch you have scheduled on Thursday?" Sakura asked, showing herself into her boss' office. Sasuke looked up and raised an eyebrow.
"Erm, I have another engagement to attend to, if that's alright."
"More important than my lunch?"
Yes.
"Do you really want to know?" Sakura asked skeptically.
"Enlighten me."
"Well…I think this lunch you set up is just a lame way to get us to work on a national holiday." She placed her hands on her hips in mock annoyance, receiving the closest thing to a laugh from Sasuke. Was that a smile?
"What if I said that you had to come?"
"In that case…I'd just have to ignore you."
"Fine, you can take off this once." Sasuke said, giving off the feel of indifference. She thanked him and went back to doing her work, leaving him alone with his paperwork once more.
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Thursday came soon enough, and Sakura remembered her promise to Ino a few weeks earlier. They had set up a day to meet during lunch at a little café she, Ino, Shikamaru, and Hinata used to dine in regularly and discuss business issues. Sakura grabbed her purse and headed off.
A few minutes in a taxi cab later she found herself standing in front of the Ichiraku Café, and heard a familiar voice.
"Forehead, over here!" Sakura's highly enthusiastic secretary called frantically with her hands up in the air waving at her boss from a cozy little booth near the back of the restaurant. Shikamaru's hair could be seen over the seats. Sakura grinned to herself and made her way over to her old friends. It's so good to see them all again!
"Hey guys, long time no see!" She took a seat next to Shikamaru. "So, who's paying?"
The others shifted nervously, knowing how much Sakura could eat in a short period of time. She glanced over at Shikamaru with an air of innocence filling her eyes. He narrowed his eyes back at her, and instead turned to Ino.
"Don't look at me, I'm broke!"
Hinata sighed, "I suppose I could pay." Noticing their protesting faces she added, "No, really I don't mind. Besides, my cousin left some money on the banister." At this, everyone began laughing.
"So, Ino, you called me for a meeting?" Sakura asked, questioning the obvious.
"Yeah, we need to discuss this whole 'Uchiha-Inc.' thing. You've been undercover there for how long now?"
Sakura mentally recounted her infiltration of the company. "About four months I'm pretty sure."
"Great, and how's the seducing going?" Shikamaru smirked, remembering his last encounter with the pink-haired girl.
"It's…getting there…sort of. Hehe…" Sakura blushed slightly. Ino simply rolled her eyes.
"You're such a bad whore. You realize your dad has started letting people go. Think about it, people are homeless because of you," she said accusingly. Before Sakura got the chance to reply, a waitress came over to take their orders. They quickly ordered their meals and went back to discussing business. Amidst their squabbling, they didn't notice four very attractive individuals walk in.
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"Teme, I want to sit at a booth!"
"Stop your excessive whining."
"Please, oh please, Neji! It's so cute and cozy in there. The atmosphere is just like home!" Naruto exclaimed, all but jumping up and down.
"Fine," Sasuke grunted, not wanting to draw any more attention to them.
"Oh, look! There by the back wall. Last one there has to pay!" Kiba grinned.
"No," Neji replied, grabbing his ear and dragging him to the booth.
"Dobe, why did you invite Kiba?"
"I thought you did…" Naruto questioned. They both looked at Kiba for a moment and sighed. Not wanting to waste brain cells pondering over Kiba's presence, the two men followed an agitated Neji to their booth. Sasuke took a seat next to Neji, whilst Naruto took a seat across from him beside Kiba.
As soon as they sat down a very giddy waitress was ready to take their orders.
"Just coffee," Sasuke said, ordering for the four of them.
"Right away sirs," the girl replied with a wink before walking off.
"So, teme, what did you want us here for?" Naruto said as he mindlessly played with his fork.
"Oh, no reason in particular." The other three turned to him strangely.
"Sasuke, how dare you! I took time out of my busy schedule for this!" Kiba cried, obviously distressed.
"Kiba, you weren't invited," Neji pointed out.
"Oh. Right."
"Since we're here we might as well discuss the upcoming fashion show," Naruto decided, getting strange looks of 'I can't believe you have such plausible ideas' from the rest of the group.
"Well, I was thinking about wearing my black banana hammock instead of the white one…what do you guys think?" Kiba asked indifferently, causing Naruto to smack his forehead. He began again, "I was thinking more along the lines of-"
"Kiba, enough," Sasuke commanded, but before he could continue, the giddy waitress reappeared.
"So, like, are you sure you only want coffee? I could like, totally go back and bring you something else, if you want," she said in an extremely high pitched voice.
The four men looked up at her oddly. At the sight of four gorgeous men looking up at her, the waitress blushed a fierce shade of crimson and began babbling once more.
"We have this totally awesome menu, should I bring it over?"
Naruto glanced at Kiba and grinned. He then stood up and put an arm around the waitress.
"Listen, (Naruto glanced down at her nametag) Flo, we really appreciate your services, but we only really want some coffee. Well…" his voice trailed off into a mock sigh.
"Oh, what? What?" Flo asked in excitement.
"We'd really love some sushi. But you see, we only eat at Teuchi's sushi bar, and that's a good hour's drive from here…"
"Oh, don't worry about it; I can totally go pick some up for you!"
"Are you sure? I don't want to cause you so much trouble..." Naruto cast his eyes to the floor in mock embarrassment, causing the girl to shriek. Kiba started snickering, but received a kick from Neji.
"Not at all!" the girl said in hushed tones, "I'll leave like right away!"
And with that, she was gone. Naruto triumphantly sat back down. "So anyway, what were we saying?"
"…what is Teuchi's sushi bar?" Neji asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh, I have no idea."
Kiba cracked up.
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"Sakura, you really have to get it going with this guy," Ino sighed, sipping her coffee. "I don't want you to freak out over this, but you need to pick up the pace."
"I know, I know…but-"
"Just be yourself, Sakura-san. If he can't accept you for who you are, then we might as well start thinking of a new plan."
A new plan? But that's the easy way out…and I've come too far to back down now…
"No. I can do this! I can't let you guys down…I can't let myself down…"
"That…was-" Shikamaru began.
"Beautiful? I know," Sakura smiled triumphantly.
"I was going to say really pathetic, but we can go with beautiful if it'll make you feel better about yourself."
"Shika, could you for once at least pretend you feel human emotions?" Ino rolled her eyes as she finished off the rest of her coffee.
"Oh, sure Ino. Let's see…I feel really bored right now. I feel like you can't plan business meetings to save your life. And I feel like I could be doing something so much more useful with my life right-OW." Ino glared at him. "I mean, I love spending my time with you."
"That's what I thought. Hey, wait a minute…do you hear that?" Ino leaned forward, trying to catch more of the conversation coming from the next booth.
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"So like I was saying, Sasuke, Trident works so much better than Colgate, and it could really help that plaque problem of yours!"
"…dobe, shut up."
"No, I'm serious! You could have pearly whites in just five to ten days," Naruto finished off with a grin.
"Hey, Naruto does have a point, just look at his teeth!"
"Can we please stop this mindless conversation?" Neji sighed in annoyance, rapidly losing his already diminishing patience.
"Fine, fine. You guys are so boring…say, where's Saku-chan?"
"She took today off," Sasuke informed him.
"Aw. I bet you're disappointed, Sasuke," Naruto snickered. Suddenly a blonde head sitting in the booth across from them caught his eye. He raised himself off the seat to get a better glimpse of the blonde mass.
"What the…"
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"Oh my god! I think that's Uzumaki!" Ino gasped as she quickly plunged back to her seat. Sakura all but choked on her food.
"Wait, what?"
"It's your 'cousin!' Uzumaki! He's sitting in the next booth! And I'm pretty sure he saw me."
"But that means…he's here with Sasuke!"
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"Yes?" Sasuke glanced at Neji.
"Yes what? I didn't say anything," Neji replied in confusion.
"I could have sworn I heard-wait, there it is again."
"It's the Haruno secretary! She's probably bad mouthing us. Well, if she wants to play that way…" Naruto cleared his throat and began talking just loud enough for the other booth to hear. "That damn Haruno company. Isn't it pathetic how they're groveling at our feet for money?"
"Dobe, what are you doing?" Sasuke questioned, but was only ignored.
"They'd have better luck sending one of their spies over here to infiltrate our building! Ha!"
Sasuke suddenly began thinking. "What if…no, they're not that smart."
"That's the spirit, teme!" Naruto cheered.
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"WHAT A JERK!" Ino cried, hearing Naruto's insults. "Well, two can play at that game!"
"Ino, don't!" Sakura urged her. But it was too late.
"OH, HINATA, DID YOU HEAR? ALL THE GUYS OVER AT UCHIHA INC ARE GAY."
Suddenly, all heads in the restaurant turned towards the table of men, who promptly shifted away from each other.
"What? Neji-nii-san is gay?" Hinata gasped. Sakura smacked her forehead and groaned.
"REALLY, HASN'T ANYONE WONDERED WHY IT'S AN ALL MALE MODELING AGENCY?"
"Ino, you're so troublesome. Keep your voice down!"
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"Teme, she has a point. Why is it all male?" Naruto asked the CEO.
"What? Hinata's here?" Neji questioned, peering over the seat. He was forced to duck, however, when a loaf of bread suddenly flew through the air, hitting Kiba square in the face, knocking him out.
"WHAT THE- BREAD? OH HO HO HO, IT'S ON. WAITER, GET ME AN ORDER OF RIBS! STAT!" Naruto shrieked.
"They'll take some time to cook…" a random waiter informed him.
"THAT'S OKAY, WE'LL JUST TAKE THEIRS." Naruto reached behind him and grabbed a plate of ribs from a poor defenseless family trying to enjoy a nice meal. Naruto then began chucking the ribs as hard as he could at Ino.
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"AH! HE RIBBED ME!" Ino cried as she threw off a piece of meat that had landed in her hair.
"That is so gross…" Sakura scrunched her nose in disgust.
"SHIKAMARU, ARE YOU DONE WITH YOUR PASTA? NO? I DON'T CARE." She grabbed the plate and began throwing handfuls of pasta over their heads.
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"What the…" Sasuke practically yelled as spaghetti dripped off the top of his head. "That's it. We're going back to the office." He pulled out a cell phone, "let me just call Sakura and tell her to meet us there."
"Where's Hinata?" Neji asked, still looking for her.
"I NEED MORE RIBS!"
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A sudden cell phone ringing took Sakura by surprise. She glanced at the caller ID: Sasuke Uchiha.
"Oh my god, what do I do? What do I do?" She whispered frantically.
"…answer it?" Shikamaru suggested.
"BUT IT'S SASUKE!"
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"Hyuuga, what is it?" Sasuke said, hearing his name for the second time.
"I didn't say anything, Uchiha. You should get your hearing checked."
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"Uh…Sakura, under the table!"
"What?" Before she could say anything else, Shikamaru had grabbed her arm and pulled her underneath their table.
"Shika, what?"
"You need to get out of here, ASAP."
The phone continued ringing.
"Answer that first."
Sakura eyed the phone in her hand and hesitantly flipped it open.
"…Hello?"
"We're going back." She heard her boss on the other line.
"Who is 'we' and where is 'we' going back to?"
"You have horrible grammar. Neji, Naruto, Kiba, and I are going back to the office. I expect you to be there upon our arrival."
Sakura covered the mouth piece. "They're leaving! And they expect me to be there before they get there!"
"Stall while I think of a plan," Shikamaru replied before going into deep thought.
"Well, you can't always get what you want," Sakura spoke into the cell phone.
"What was that?"
"Umm…I was singing. It's such a great song. I can bring in the CD next-"
"I don't care. If I don't see you there-"
"You'll what? Spank me?" Sakura interrupted.
Shikamaru sighed in annoyance from his place on the floor next to Sakura. "Way to try talking dirty to him over the phone right now…"
"Sakura, are you drunk?" a slightly taken aback Sasuke questioned.
"I got it!" Shikamaru yelled.
"Who was that?"
"Um...my grandmother playing scrabble. Anyways, I have to go now if you want me to make it back to the office in time, Uchiha-sama. Bye!"
She quickly hung up before the CEO could respond and put her phone back into her purse.
"So what's your plan Shika? I need to get out of here!"
"Right. Okay, we need a distraction." Suddenly Shikamaru disappeared from under the table. "Hinata-san, could you please go over to your cousin's booth and distract them?"
"Er, I can try…"
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"Hello Neji-nii-san. W-what a n-nice surprise." The three males turned to look at their latest guest.
"I finally found you!" Neji said uncharacteristically. Naruto raised an eyebrow at the girl.
"Hey, you're pretty," Naruto commented, forgetting all about the spaghetti being chucked at Sasuke. Hinata turned to look at him and began blushing like mad.
"Back off, loser."
"Make me white-eyes!"
"Maybe I will."
"Maybe you won't."
"Maybe I won't."
"Maybe you will," Naruto continued. "Wait, I meant that you won't."
"You are hardly a challenge to wile."
During their bickering, a blushing Hinata motioned to Sakura to make her exit. After Sakura had fully made her way out of the restaurant, she turned back to the men.
"W-well, it was l-l-ovely s-s-s-seeing you all again. O-oh, and N-Neji-nii-san, t-thank you for the m-money." With that, she turned around and went back to her table with Shikamaru and Ino.
"We're leaving." Sasuke commanded, standing up.
"What about Kiba?" Naruto asked.
"…leave him," Sasuke began walking to the door, the other two following.
"So that's where my money went…" Neji thought aloud glancing towards a retreating Hinata, Ino, and Shikamaru as they made their way out the back door.
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"Hey guys, I like totally got your sushi!" Flo cried as she barged into the café, looking around for the men. She walked up to the table where they were formally sitting; now, the only one left was a still unconscious Kiba. After setting the bag of sushi down, she gently prodded him awake.
"Humfn. Waz goin on? Wha time izit?" Kiba asked groggily.
"Time for me to write down my number, hot stuff!" Flo giggled madly as she pulled out a pad of paper, a pen, and some handcuffs.
Kiba, regaining his senses, finally realized what was going on.
And then he ran away as fast as his legs could carry him, screeching sweet nothings about oppressive bread, ditsy stalkers, and rape.
"Dammit!" Flo cried as she watched him running, "I scared off another one!"
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Preview of Chapter 9:
"Naruto, I have a confession..."
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Author's Note: That's all you get :) Many secrets will be revealed. Let the drama begin.