Fanfic: The Office, Part 3/?
Title: The Office, Part 2/?
Author: meepers369
Summary: AU. Ino can’t help but feel miffed regarding Shikamaru’s duty to escort the Chicago representative around the office.
Part 1 Part 2 Chapter on Fanfiction
Shikamaru was impressed.
He’d never really come to Ino’s department before, more often seeing her in board meetings or randomly in the office as she was running errands to other departments. And of course, for their daily afternoon break with Chouji. He really should have come here more, he realized guiltily, since marketing was so important to the company’s strategic plans. But Ino was so efficient at running her department and clear and concise about the reports and results and the direction marketing was in that he never really had to bother…
She never takes a breather, he realized.
When he and Temari had come in first thing in the morning, the marketing department was already up and bustling. Shikamaru was not surprised to see Ino happily bossing interns and assistants around. He was surprised, however, by the lack of complaints and grumbles. In fact, everyone seemed perfectly willing to be ordered around by the blonde.
“Who runs this department?” Temari’s questioning voice was quiet. Glancing at her, Shikamaru was again surprised, this time by the sight of a slight smile gracing the normally stoic girl’s features. It was like she almost approved, Shikamaru realized with a start.
“Ms. Ino Yamanaka,” he replied loudly. The girl of mention glanced up.
“Just a moment, please.” Ino turned to give final directions to her assistants, then smiled brightly at them. After formal introductions, Ino walked to a door, holding it open for her visitors. “Please, come into my office. We’ll be able to speak much more comfortably in there.” Shikamaru followed Temari inside. Only after Ino had closed the door did Shikamaru realize with guilty annoyance that he should have been the one to hold the door open.
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After settling in, Ino and Temari exchanged pleasantries while Shikamaru firmly examined a plant next to him. The office was rather small, but Ino had decorated the space nicely with flowers and a great many pig-themed office materials. Shikamaru smiled at that. He and Chouji had began that trend, buying her a stapler with cute pig-print designs along the edge for her birthday the first year they all worked together at the company. Ino had screeched and whined that how could they give a stapler, of all things, to a girl for her birthday. They could tell she loved it, though, from the way she smiled and carefully placed the stapler next to a small vase of flowers on her desk. The stapler was sitting there now, next to the pig mug and the pig-shaped paper clips and pig-themed hankerchief box, along with the pig plushie she had dragged around since elementary school.
Temari noticed the pigs. She commented on them, proceeding to throw one of her startling questions. Ino’s paused uncertainly; Shikamaru felt rather than saw Ino throw a pleading look at him. He stifled a laugh, then looked at from his plant to give his best “don’t-ask-me” look combined with a shrug. He again felt rather than saw her annoyance. Shikamaru stifled another laugh. It wouldn’t be so hard to save her from Temari’s awkward question, but frankly, he was curious to see how Ino would deal with it.
Shikamaru was not disappointed. He was treated to another surprise when Ino babbled on some nonsense about pigs to Temari. She was actually nervous, he realized. For the third time in ten minutes, Shikamaru had to stifle his laugh. When Ino rose to the door, he quickly jumped up to hold the door open for her. It took all of his concentration to look as bored and serious as he normally was, and only allowed himself an extremely goofy grin when Temari and Ino strode off in front of him, chatting politely.
He hadn’t been so happy in days.
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The meeting with Ino’s creative team was nothing like he expected, either. No one was yelling, per se, but everyone was trying to raise their voice above the other, fingers pointing determinedly to their design, their idea, their work. Shikamaru scowled. He hated these types of meetings the most, slightly surprised that Ino would let this kind of chaos happen. He glanced at her. She was sitting at the head of the table, head slightly tilted, listening and watching carefully.
When one person became especially loud, even standing up to wave his papers around excitedly and slamming his fist in front of a disagreeing colleague, Ino cut in. “It’s an interesting idea, Mr. Jones,” she said calmly, “But who exactly are designing for? Our research clearly shows that our target population is from the early twenties to the mid thirties for this product.” With that, the man mumbled a response and sat. Ino smiled kindly. “I do like your idea, but perhaps it is better suited for another project. Could you please submit a proposal for applications of your design to other products?”
One by one, Ino addressed each design plan the people in the room had thrown out. Shikamaru was amazed at how quickly everyone had settled down, each wearing a slightly guilty look. For each person, Ino briskly scolded the idea flaws, praised the brilliant points, and suggested either alternatives or improvements. To one girl, she shook her head gently, ruthlessly telling her to start over. The girl looked defiant, but nodded.
“And what do you have for me?” Ino was smiling brightly, her attention at a dark-haired boy who Shikamaru recognized, with annoyance, as that new boy, Sai.
“Well…” Sai spoke softly with a smile that seemed endlessly pasted on. Everyone seemed to be listening with rapt attention, Ino especially. Ino had nattered relentlessly to Chouji and Shikamaru the first week Sai had come in, praising his amazing designs and gorgeous portfolio and oh-em-gee such a cute smile and hot body. She’d finally stopped, after forever, it seemed to Shikamaru, but it looked like she still was in rapture with this new designer of hers. Shikamaru scowled.
He had to admit, grudgingly, that Sai’s designs and ideas were very brilliant. Everyone else was nodding in agreement; even that girl who had glared at Ino defiantly was taking notes from his ideas. After Sai finished talking, Ino nodded in approval. She proceeded to collect various outlines for ideas, then walked them through different requests that had come through the main department, finally closing the meeting with a strict directions on what needed to be done and a soft thank you to all. She walked out, with her creative team behind in heavy discussion, Shikamaru and Temari following behind.
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“That was almost worse than our official board meetings,” Shikamaru complained to Ino. Ino giggled.
“My creative team is more excitable than the rest. You know artistic folks. The really crazy one is the advertising team, they’re loud.” Ino sighed happily. “It’s a good thing Sai came in, everyone listens to him. And his ideas are great for others to follow off of, he really keeps them together.”
“Why did you let them get so out of hand in the beginning, then?” questioned Temari. Ino blinked. Temari had formed it as a question, but it felt more as a demand. “You were able to quiet them down easily when you interjected; everyone clearly respected your opinion.” Was that...admiration in Temari’s voice? Ino felt herself straighten up with pride.
“Well, when I tried that way before, you know, setting up heavy rules and meeting procedures beforehand, it didn’t really work too well,” Ino admitted. “At first, since I’m younger than most of them, they weren’t very happy to listen to me. Even when they started respecting my opinions, no matter how hard I worked at to having a calm, discussion-orientated atmosphere, it would always degrade into a shouting match.” Ino grinned.
“My theory is that they are so annoyed with being creative all the time, that they have to let out their stress somehow. So I let them do their shouting first, then when we get down to business, they’re actually calmer. I never let them get too aggressive, of course.” Ino’s voice turned serious. “Also, this doesn’t work for every group.” Temari glanced at Ino sharply. “If you sit at a meeting with another team, they will not work with that strategy. I learned that the hard way.” Ino looked embarrassed. “I’m afraid I ran into a lot of trouble with that…it took me way too long to be able to establish productive meetings with each of my times, and sometimes they still don’t go well.”
You’re doing great, thought Shikamaru fiercely. He of all people knew the statistics, after Ino starting running marketing, sales went up nearly 15%. He felt an enormous sense of pride.
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The rest of the morning was very similar, only not in a business setting. Ino ran between different groups within her department, collecting completed proposals, checking on progress, chiding, praising, bossing, and giving out strict orders. An hour before lunch, Ino returned to her office, only to be accosted by her assistants with piles of paperwork. She looked doubtfully at Temari. “I don’t mind if you want to sit in the office with me, but for now all I’ll be doing is all this paperwork…”
“I understand.” Temari smiled slightly. “I want to question some people in your department, if that’s okay with you?”
“Of course!” Ino smiled brightly in return. Well, well, well. Looks like that girl could actually smile! “If you have any problems, feel free to yell for help.” Temari left the office, carefully flipping her notebook to a fresh page. Shikamaru remained at the door, watching Ino. “What do you want?” Ino asked, frowning. “Shouldn’t you be going with her?”
Shikamaru didn’t answer. He merely walked to her desk and started playing with her stapler.
“Stop that!” Ino reached for her stapler. He grinned lazily and kept it out of her reach. Ino huffed in annoyance, grimly starting on her paperwork. She felt him watching her, and found she could not concentrate. After a moment of silence, she pushed her paperwork away. “What are you doing for lunch?”
“What?”
“What do you mean what, I asked you what you’re doing for lunch.” Ino could feel heat creeping up in her cheeks. “I haven’t seen you in so long, do you want to get lunch together? Sakura won’t mind. I’m sure we can get Chouji to come, too, even if he has a different schedule.” She looked up at him. He was watching her intently. “What is it?” she snapped. “Stop staring at me, moron, and answer the question!”
To her dismay, he shook his head. “I’m sorry. Temari and I get lunch together. She likes to discuss what she’s observed in the morning, while I answer any of the questions she never asked.” He scowled. “Remember? Tsunade ordered me to accompany her every moment of the workday.”
“That doesn’t mean you have to go with her at lunch.” Or afternoon break for that matter, Ino thought sullenly. “Fine then,” she growled, turning back to her paperwork. “Get out. I can’t concentrate with you in the room.” She heard him shift uncomfortably, and absolutely refused to look up when he put her stapler back on her desk.
“I’ll see you later, then.” When the door clicked closed behind him, Ino thought she felt a similar sound in her heart.
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Thanks all for reading~! This story is coming out a lot longer than I expected it to, I hope it's not moving too slowly. o__o
Author: meepers369
Summary: AU. Ino can’t help but feel miffed regarding Shikamaru’s duty to escort the Chicago representative around the office.
Part 1 Part 2 Chapter on Fanfiction
Shikamaru was impressed.
He’d never really come to Ino’s department before, more often seeing her in board meetings or randomly in the office as she was running errands to other departments. And of course, for their daily afternoon break with Chouji. He really should have come here more, he realized guiltily, since marketing was so important to the company’s strategic plans. But Ino was so efficient at running her department and clear and concise about the reports and results and the direction marketing was in that he never really had to bother…
She never takes a breather, he realized.
When he and Temari had come in first thing in the morning, the marketing department was already up and bustling. Shikamaru was not surprised to see Ino happily bossing interns and assistants around. He was surprised, however, by the lack of complaints and grumbles. In fact, everyone seemed perfectly willing to be ordered around by the blonde.
“Who runs this department?” Temari’s questioning voice was quiet. Glancing at her, Shikamaru was again surprised, this time by the sight of a slight smile gracing the normally stoic girl’s features. It was like she almost approved, Shikamaru realized with a start.
“Ms. Ino Yamanaka,” he replied loudly. The girl of mention glanced up.
“Just a moment, please.” Ino turned to give final directions to her assistants, then smiled brightly at them. After formal introductions, Ino walked to a door, holding it open for her visitors. “Please, come into my office. We’ll be able to speak much more comfortably in there.” Shikamaru followed Temari inside. Only after Ino had closed the door did Shikamaru realize with guilty annoyance that he should have been the one to hold the door open.
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After settling in, Ino and Temari exchanged pleasantries while Shikamaru firmly examined a plant next to him. The office was rather small, but Ino had decorated the space nicely with flowers and a great many pig-themed office materials. Shikamaru smiled at that. He and Chouji had began that trend, buying her a stapler with cute pig-print designs along the edge for her birthday the first year they all worked together at the company. Ino had screeched and whined that how could they give a stapler, of all things, to a girl for her birthday. They could tell she loved it, though, from the way she smiled and carefully placed the stapler next to a small vase of flowers on her desk. The stapler was sitting there now, next to the pig mug and the pig-shaped paper clips and pig-themed hankerchief box, along with the pig plushie she had dragged around since elementary school.
Temari noticed the pigs. She commented on them, proceeding to throw one of her startling questions. Ino’s paused uncertainly; Shikamaru felt rather than saw Ino throw a pleading look at him. He stifled a laugh, then looked at from his plant to give his best “don’t-ask-me” look combined with a shrug. He again felt rather than saw her annoyance. Shikamaru stifled another laugh. It wouldn’t be so hard to save her from Temari’s awkward question, but frankly, he was curious to see how Ino would deal with it.
Shikamaru was not disappointed. He was treated to another surprise when Ino babbled on some nonsense about pigs to Temari. She was actually nervous, he realized. For the third time in ten minutes, Shikamaru had to stifle his laugh. When Ino rose to the door, he quickly jumped up to hold the door open for her. It took all of his concentration to look as bored and serious as he normally was, and only allowed himself an extremely goofy grin when Temari and Ino strode off in front of him, chatting politely.
He hadn’t been so happy in days.
----------
The meeting with Ino’s creative team was nothing like he expected, either. No one was yelling, per se, but everyone was trying to raise their voice above the other, fingers pointing determinedly to their design, their idea, their work. Shikamaru scowled. He hated these types of meetings the most, slightly surprised that Ino would let this kind of chaos happen. He glanced at her. She was sitting at the head of the table, head slightly tilted, listening and watching carefully.
When one person became especially loud, even standing up to wave his papers around excitedly and slamming his fist in front of a disagreeing colleague, Ino cut in. “It’s an interesting idea, Mr. Jones,” she said calmly, “But who exactly are designing for? Our research clearly shows that our target population is from the early twenties to the mid thirties for this product.” With that, the man mumbled a response and sat. Ino smiled kindly. “I do like your idea, but perhaps it is better suited for another project. Could you please submit a proposal for applications of your design to other products?”
One by one, Ino addressed each design plan the people in the room had thrown out. Shikamaru was amazed at how quickly everyone had settled down, each wearing a slightly guilty look. For each person, Ino briskly scolded the idea flaws, praised the brilliant points, and suggested either alternatives or improvements. To one girl, she shook her head gently, ruthlessly telling her to start over. The girl looked defiant, but nodded.
“And what do you have for me?” Ino was smiling brightly, her attention at a dark-haired boy who Shikamaru recognized, with annoyance, as that new boy, Sai.
“Well…” Sai spoke softly with a smile that seemed endlessly pasted on. Everyone seemed to be listening with rapt attention, Ino especially. Ino had nattered relentlessly to Chouji and Shikamaru the first week Sai had come in, praising his amazing designs and gorgeous portfolio and oh-em-gee such a cute smile and hot body. She’d finally stopped, after forever, it seemed to Shikamaru, but it looked like she still was in rapture with this new designer of hers. Shikamaru scowled.
He had to admit, grudgingly, that Sai’s designs and ideas were very brilliant. Everyone else was nodding in agreement; even that girl who had glared at Ino defiantly was taking notes from his ideas. After Sai finished talking, Ino nodded in approval. She proceeded to collect various outlines for ideas, then walked them through different requests that had come through the main department, finally closing the meeting with a strict directions on what needed to be done and a soft thank you to all. She walked out, with her creative team behind in heavy discussion, Shikamaru and Temari following behind.
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“That was almost worse than our official board meetings,” Shikamaru complained to Ino. Ino giggled.
“My creative team is more excitable than the rest. You know artistic folks. The really crazy one is the advertising team, they’re loud.” Ino sighed happily. “It’s a good thing Sai came in, everyone listens to him. And his ideas are great for others to follow off of, he really keeps them together.”
“Why did you let them get so out of hand in the beginning, then?” questioned Temari. Ino blinked. Temari had formed it as a question, but it felt more as a demand. “You were able to quiet them down easily when you interjected; everyone clearly respected your opinion.” Was that...admiration in Temari’s voice? Ino felt herself straighten up with pride.
“Well, when I tried that way before, you know, setting up heavy rules and meeting procedures beforehand, it didn’t really work too well,” Ino admitted. “At first, since I’m younger than most of them, they weren’t very happy to listen to me. Even when they started respecting my opinions, no matter how hard I worked at to having a calm, discussion-orientated atmosphere, it would always degrade into a shouting match.” Ino grinned.
“My theory is that they are so annoyed with being creative all the time, that they have to let out their stress somehow. So I let them do their shouting first, then when we get down to business, they’re actually calmer. I never let them get too aggressive, of course.” Ino’s voice turned serious. “Also, this doesn’t work for every group.” Temari glanced at Ino sharply. “If you sit at a meeting with another team, they will not work with that strategy. I learned that the hard way.” Ino looked embarrassed. “I’m afraid I ran into a lot of trouble with that…it took me way too long to be able to establish productive meetings with each of my times, and sometimes they still don’t go well.”
You’re doing great, thought Shikamaru fiercely. He of all people knew the statistics, after Ino starting running marketing, sales went up nearly 15%. He felt an enormous sense of pride.
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The rest of the morning was very similar, only not in a business setting. Ino ran between different groups within her department, collecting completed proposals, checking on progress, chiding, praising, bossing, and giving out strict orders. An hour before lunch, Ino returned to her office, only to be accosted by her assistants with piles of paperwork. She looked doubtfully at Temari. “I don’t mind if you want to sit in the office with me, but for now all I’ll be doing is all this paperwork…”
“I understand.” Temari smiled slightly. “I want to question some people in your department, if that’s okay with you?”
“Of course!” Ino smiled brightly in return. Well, well, well. Looks like that girl could actually smile! “If you have any problems, feel free to yell for help.” Temari left the office, carefully flipping her notebook to a fresh page. Shikamaru remained at the door, watching Ino. “What do you want?” Ino asked, frowning. “Shouldn’t you be going with her?”
Shikamaru didn’t answer. He merely walked to her desk and started playing with her stapler.
“Stop that!” Ino reached for her stapler. He grinned lazily and kept it out of her reach. Ino huffed in annoyance, grimly starting on her paperwork. She felt him watching her, and found she could not concentrate. After a moment of silence, she pushed her paperwork away. “What are you doing for lunch?”
“What?”
“What do you mean what, I asked you what you’re doing for lunch.” Ino could feel heat creeping up in her cheeks. “I haven’t seen you in so long, do you want to get lunch together? Sakura won’t mind. I’m sure we can get Chouji to come, too, even if he has a different schedule.” She looked up at him. He was watching her intently. “What is it?” she snapped. “Stop staring at me, moron, and answer the question!”
To her dismay, he shook his head. “I’m sorry. Temari and I get lunch together. She likes to discuss what she’s observed in the morning, while I answer any of the questions she never asked.” He scowled. “Remember? Tsunade ordered me to accompany her every moment of the workday.”
“That doesn’t mean you have to go with her at lunch.” Or afternoon break for that matter, Ino thought sullenly. “Fine then,” she growled, turning back to her paperwork. “Get out. I can’t concentrate with you in the room.” She heard him shift uncomfortably, and absolutely refused to look up when he put her stapler back on her desk.
“I’ll see you later, then.” When the door clicked closed behind him, Ino thought she felt a similar sound in her heart.
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Thanks all for reading~! This story is coming out a lot longer than I expected it to, I hope it's not moving too slowly. o__o