My Boss The Genius
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PART TEN
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They were all crazy.
"What did you say, Pig? Say it again, I dare you!"
"Forehead! I said Sasuke is only with you so he can look at his beautiful reflection on your Forehead!"
"PiiiIIIG!"
With a raging battle cry, Sakura (whom Temari had known previously as that nice doctor with the pink hair) tackled a taunting Ino, who was making childish faces at the other woman. They both hit the ground, screaming bloody murder and hissing like jilted cats. Behind them was Hinata, the shy to-be-bride quietly wringing her hands, her long bluish-black hair falling like a curtain around her face.
"S-Sakura, Ino, please don't fight," she said hesitantly, hoping they could hear her above their hissy fit. Tenten, languishing on the fancy chair beside her, watched the fight with bright eyes, shouting encouragement when Sakura managed to grapple Ino's neck.
"Man, I should record this and sell it online. I'd make a killing!" Tenten exclaimed, and Hinata squeaked with mortification. The fight didn't look like it would end anytime soon, especially since Tenten didn't want it to end, and Hinata barely looked like she could swat a fly. Thankfully, though, Sakura's cell phone started to trill. Apparently the ringtone was a special one, because Sakura and Ino's heads immediately snapped up when it rang.
"It's mine!" Ino shouted, diving for Sakura's bag. But Sakura snagged Ino's ankle, dragging her away from it.
"It's my cell phone!" the roseate hissed, pouncing for her bag. She successfully grabbed her bag and the phone, quickly answering with a sickly saccharine voice, "Sasuke-kun?" But she was thwarted from hearing the answer, because Ino quickly swiped the phone, running to hide behind Temari as she spoke into it with an even sicklier saccharine voice.
"Sasuke-kuuun~, did you forget my phone number? This is Forehead girl's phone!" Temari yelped as Ino grabbed her shoulders, steering her left and right as a shield when Sakura came rushing up, her eyes narrowed in retribution. "Sakura? Oh why would you want to talk to her when I'm here? You know big guy, if you come over tonight you can show me just how big you are—"
"INO-PIG!"
Ino laughed and tossed the cell phone over Temari's shoulder. It smacked Sakura on the forehead before she caught it with both her hands, quickly answering, "Sasuke-kun? I'm so sorry!" as Ino snickered and sauntered past her friend.
"Come on Temari, let's leave the unromantic couple to be unromantic together," she said, winking at Temari (who was extremely confused and extremely unsettled at this point). Sakura, hearing her, turned another of her glares at Ino.
"We so are romantic!" she protested.
"Your anniversary present was a pile of medical textbooks."
"They were for school and I needed them!"
"Still unromantic!"
Sakura huffed and decided it was better to ignore Ino, promptly turning away to have a semi-private conversation with Sasuke. Temari, who had followed Ino without much arguing, found herself standing with Hinata, Tenten, and Ino near the large full-length mirrors. The gown consultant had gone off to fetch the wedding dress and the bridesmaids gowns, leaving the five women to entertain themselves for a few minutes.
"Hinata, isn't Hanabi one of your bridesmaids too?" Tenten asked. Hinata, poking her two index fingers together in what struck Temari has a useless but strangely endearing gesture, nodded.
"Yes, but Hanabi-chan is busy today, so father said he will make arrangements to have her fitting at the mansion." Mansion? Temari thought. Was Naruto marrying into money? But Temari wasn't able to finish this train of thought when the door opened and a young man rushed in.
"Hey old hag!" he shouted, pointing his finger accusingly at Ino, "Don't run away from me!"
"Shut up brat!" Ino snarled, pulling his cheeks, "Don't blame me for your incompetence!" Tenten started laughing hysterically, pointing at the young man with the spiky brown hair and green goggles slung around his neck.
"Konohamaru's your bodyguard?" she said between her bouts of laughter. "No wonder you ran away!" Temari looked at the young man, puzzled. He was part of the FBI? He looked like he just graduated high school! Not to mention he didn't have the aura of an agent at all. He was all scrawny legs and awkward tallness, and the blush that was spreading across his face was no doubt from embarrassment. Ino was still pinching his cheeks too, leaving red marks.
"I didn't run away," Ino snapped, pouting. "I was educating him about the finer points of protecting his assignment." Tenten grinned.
"And you were running away." The two women then began their own 'discussion', which namely consisted of Ino protesting at high decibels of sound and Tenten purposefully riling her up by denying all protests. Hinata, ever the peacemaker, tried to intervene and mediate, telling the two they should calm down. Sakura, having been unable to ignore all the hubbub, had to cut her woefully one-sided romantic conversation with Sasuke to start yelling at Ino, then prompting Ino to yell back and consequently argue with two people. Konohamaru, who managed to find his brains in all this commotion, decided it would be best to step as far away from the fight as possible. And Temari, in the middle of it all, started reconsidering her oath to make friends.
Maybe.
The door opened again, emitting more people into this war-torn room. Temari almost wanted to groan, and hoped it was the gown consultant with their dresses. Unfortunately, the person entering the room was devoid of heavy skirts in hand, and he was male. Wonderful. More testosterone for Ino to yell at. But when he fully came into view, Temari's heart sputtered to a stop for just a moment. Because she was sure this male would yell right back.
"... the hell?"
Hinata brightened up. "Kiba-kun! Shino-kun!" she exclaimed. Kiba eyed them all skeptically for a moment, before apparently deciding it was none of his business and he didn't really want to know. The yelling that he heard from outside the room was due to the overall loudness of females in general. Nothing to be concerned about. So he and Shino entered the room, not even acknowledging Konohamaru who had taken refuge behind them.
"We came to see your first fitting," Shino told her matter-of-factly. "I hope you'd allow me the privilege of inspecting your dress before you wear it. I want to make sure the seamstress took in the waist exactly half an inch." Hinata giggled at his fixation on the minutiae, but Kiba sighed.
"Dude, this is what I mean about nit-picking." Shino said something in reply, and Hinata added her own voice to the conversation, but Temari couldn't hear them at all. She was looking closely at Kiba, who was still wearing a normal suit and tie. Akamaru was absent from his side, and Temari guessed it was probably because this establishment didn't allow pets. She watched him with a curiosity she never displayed before, remembering the first time they met.
"Oh!" Her light exclamation caught the attention of everyone in the room, because Temari had not said anything up until this point. Trying not to blush at all the attention, Temari quickly reached into her bag and grabbed a five from her wallet, thrusting it into Kiba's stomach. "Here! I owe you from that time." He looked at her in confusion, grabbing the five with gentler hands.
"What?" This time, Temari couldn't help the faint blush that lit up under her eyes.
"From the coffee shop," she said simply. The understanding dawned on him a few seconds later, and Temari could see its progression in his eyes. But he didn't accept the money; instead he took her hand and handed it back to her, smirking. His hand was warm and callused, and the calluses rubbing across her smoother hand made her shiver imperceptibly. She looked up at him, and saw that he was smirking at her, that familiar, roguish glint in his eyes.
"It was my treat. Don't worry about it." His hand fell, and Temari missed the warmth, but that was a silly thought so she buried it away deep in her head. Ino was lurking at the side, not close enough to intrude but close enough to inspect the two of them closely. She had a strange look in her eyes, one that was part hope and part deviousness. She opened her mouth to say something, but a sudden shrill alarm cut her off.
"What's going on?" Sakura asked, looking around. Kiba, Shino, and Konohamaru's hands strayed to their guns, resting lightly on them. Quickly, Kiba took charge, shuffling the unarmed girls away from the door.
"I don't know, but it can't be good," he replied. Hinata started digging around in her purse and, to Temari's surprise, fished out a gun that she quickly loaded and armed. Her surprise at timid little Hinata's gun, though, was nothing compared to when she looked over at Tenten. The special agent assigned to her security detail was slinging an M16 rifle over her shoulder and loading a 19mm in her hands. Her belt, which previously just looked like a normal leather wide-strap accessory with a large buckle, was now carrying several tear-gas bombs.
"Ms. Hyuuga!" someone called, and the gown consultant entered the room with her manager at her heels. "Ms. Hyuuga, there's beena security breach. You and your friends need to leave immediately, we have a back exit you can go through." She stopped in her tracks when she saw Hinata confidently holding a handgun, her eyes wide with disbelief. Temari was sure she looked like that too, so she sympathized with the consultant. "G-g-g—"
"Guns, say it properly," Tenten cut in, twirling her 19mm in her hand. The manager, a bit wary of all these people toting guns, stepped forward and her used body to half-shield her employee. Kiba reached in his blazer and pulled out his ID, letting the manager look at it.
"Don't worry," he told her. "We're from the FBI. What's going on?" The manager relaxed when she realized they weren't going to hurt her or her employee, and quickly divulged the details. One of their security guards was found shot at one of the entrances to the building. Another one was gunned down only five minutes later, while they were trying to coordinate with everyone in the building. An evacuation was immediately called for, and so they sounded the alarms.
"We're hoping they'll get scared at the alarms and leave," she said, but Shino shook his head.
"If they shot two people, whatever they're after must be important. They won't leave." The manager grew even more stressed and worried at this, but pinched her lips together to control herself. Shino looked over at Kiba, who was frowning.
"Alright, ma'am, please lead Agent Aburame to the security room. I need you to set us up with a form of communications. Do you have walkie talkies?" he asked. She shook her head.
"No, but we have wireless headsets linked to a frequency to be able to talk one another in every corner of the building." Kiba grinned at that.
"Even better." The manager, her employee, and Shino then left. Kiba then turned to Tenten, and Temari was surprised at how easily he took control of the situation. Perhaps more than that, she was surprised at how easily everyone else allowed him to delegate orders. "Tenten, I need you to stay here and protect everyone. I'm going to take Konohamaru and see if we can find the breach." This particular order didn't seem to satisfy everyone though, and Hinata stepped up.
"Kiba-kun, let us help," she said.
"No, it's too dangerous to leave only Tenten here. We have three unarmed civilians to protect, I need you to help her protect them." At this, Ino stepped up, obviously rankled at the idea that she needed anyone to protect her.
"Can I please remind you that I was a former FBI agent? Just give me a gun and let me protect myself," Ino said haughtily.
"Yeah Kiba, I might have quit the Bureau three years ago but I'm still a better shot than the Pig over here," Sakura said. She didn't flinch at all when Ino's fist automatically reared back to punch her arm. In fact, Temari was sure the both of them didn't even realize it happened. Kiba shook his head again though, growling low under his breath.
"Note the word 'civilians.' You're not authorized to carry a gun," he said. But Ino and Sakura didn't even bat an eyelid.
"Hinata?" Ino asked sweetly, even though her facial expression remained the same; defiant. Hinata didn't move a muscle, still staring at the open door, but she replied all the same. (Just not to Ino.)
"Be careful you don't drop your guns, Tenten," she said softly. Tenten, a wicked smile on her face, shrugged her M16 rifle off her shoulder, and dropped the 19mm in her hand.
"Oops, I dropped my guns!" she exclaimed dramatically, stepping away from them. Another 19mm was already in her hand by the time Ino swooped up the dropped handgun and Sakura grabbed the rifle. Temari had no idea where it came from.
"Hey look Ino!" Sakura exclaimed with false joy. "Let's use these guns to protect ourselves from the imminent danger!"
"Good idea Sakura!"
(Yeah, it was official, Temari thought. They were clinically insane.)
Kiba was trying very hard not to make his face look like he was having an aneurysm. (And just so you know, he was failing.)
"Alright, fine," he bit out. He knew these girls were trouble when you put them in a room together. "Me and Ino will take point. Temari and Tenten will go next. Konohamaru, Sakura, I want you to watch our backs. Our first priority is to secure the safety of the principle." (The principle being Temari.) Kiba turned and looked at Temari. He smiled at her reassuringly. "Don't worry; we'll get you to a safe place soon." Temari wanted to tell him she didn't need reassurance and she wasn't worried, but he had already turned away to begin taking point. She didn't really feel up to arguing anyways, considering Tenten started herding her to walk behind Kiba and she could smell the husky scent of his jacket... or maybe it was him?
Temari had the strangest urge to grab the back of his jacket, but forced herself not to. But Kiba seemed to sense her feelings, and turned his head to look at her over his shoulder. He gave her the same roguish grin he always gave her. (But when did it start making her heart pause for a second?) "Stay close, okay?" he said, and she nodded. She was the only one who was unarmed, and made a resolution not to be a burden.
Although it turned out that wasn't necessary anyways. They successfully evacuated the building with no incidents, and when the authorities made a sweep of the place minutes later, they couldn't find any unknowns in the vicinity. For many people, it was utterly confusing. But Temari found it utterly unsettling. Who shot those security guards? She didn't want to know, but somehow found she already did.