Something didn't feel right. As if something or someone had just entered his personal territory. not that he minded, of course. It could possibly be a new customer but this feeling grew stronger. His employee and cousin, Karin Uzumaki, was drinking tea cal my as she leaned over the counter, filled with different frames of tattoo designs arranged by prices and boxes of piercings which were organized neatly by their shape and size. He knew this feeling was way weirder than normal and he would usually ignore it. A small crack was heard and then tea started spilling from the now broken cup that Karin held. A bad omen of some sort confirmed his suspicions of something unusual happening today. As he was helping clean up the mess, he saw a petite pink-haired woman, clad in a white shirt, green cardigan, short pink skirt, and silver flats walk by with a paper in her hand. As she walked by the shop, she glanced over at him and grimaced, disgusted by all the "vulgar" tattoos and piercings displayed.

"Huh….bitch." Naruto glared and went back to cleaning up. Karin thanked him and asked if she could start her break early to get cleaned up, a new cup of tea and maybe a snack. After letting her take her break, he decided to close up shop for a couple minutes to see how Sasuke was doing. Business seemed a little slow today so he wasn't too worried about spending a little extra time away. karin had a key so she could just open the doors.

He walked over and waved to Ino. who waved back, before walking past the counter and into the back room. He suddenly stood still, shocked that the same girl that had walked past his shop 5 minutes ago was sitting next to Sasuke, obviously trying to catch her attention by twirling her hair and trying to pull what she thought was a seductive face that instead made her look constipated. Naruto almost laughed when he saw that Sasuke wasn't paying any attention to her, instead looking at a piece of paperer in front of him, looking over what seemed like an application form. WAIT, AN APPLICATION FORM?!

"H-hey, Sasuke? You busy or should I come back later?" Both Sasuke and the girl looked up. While the girl was shocked, Sasuke was calm and collected like always.

"It's fine, Naruto. You could stay here, but let me finish this meeting and I'll be right with you . See if Ino needs help with something." Sasuke shooed him away before going back to looking over the form. The girl smirked at him before going back to her terrible flirting.

"Man, I haven't even met her but I already know I'm gonna hate that bitch." Naruto mumbled as he walked out the back room doors.

"Hey, Naruto. Sorry, I forgot to tell you that they were in the middle of a meeting." I no sighed. Naruto smiled.

"It's fine , Ino. I would've gotten kicked out either way. Who is that girl, anyway?" Naruto pointed over his shoulder to the back room doors.

"The new temporary and an old acquaintance of mine. Sasuke's obviously been stressed lately with the wedding order and so he apparently took your advice and put up a help wanted sign in front of the shop and some posters around the mall." Ino explained as she picked up some flower pots from under the counter to tag prices on them.

"She's a bitch. She passed by my shop a couple minutes ago and just looked as if my shop sold dog shit."

"She's a slut too. I've known her since we were in middle school and she used to bully the other girls and seduce guys into sleeping with her. And I can tell that Sasuke's her new target, judging by the googoo eyes she's been making at him." Ino rolled her eyes as Naruto growled.

"I walked in on them and saw her trying to flirt with Sasuke. God, she's terrible. She looked as if she was trying to pull out her hair and looked constipated." Ino laughed and just as she was about to make another remark, Sasuke and the bitch walked out.

"So make sure you learn this list of the prices for all the different flowers and bouquets. This list has everything you need for the next four months." Sauske handed her the list.

"Thanks, Mr. Uchiha. I can't wait until next week. See you soon!" The girl said as she sashayed out of the shop, but not before glaring at Ino and Naruto and flipping her hair off her shoulder like a diva.

"So you're willing to hire a stranger to help out during your time of stress when your best friend offered to help just yesterday? That's cold, Sasuke. Even for you." Naruto pouted while Ino snickered.

"I would've most definitely been happy to ask you to help, I know you wouldn't be able to memorize such a long list in such a shout time." Sasuke sighed.

"It just turned colder."

"Is that even possible?" Ino remarked sarcastically and laughed.

"I might've been able to if you had just let me try." Naruto whined while Sasuke sighed.

"I'm sorry, Naruto, I just can't afford anyone trying at the moment. Look, let's go to Starbucks downstairs and I'll get you a drink." Sasuke suggested. Naruto instantly perked up and laughed.

"A grande double chocolaté-chip frapped sounds good right about now!"

"Oh, get me a Vanilla Bean!" Ino yelled as she put all the tagged pots into a box before putting them back under the counter, scaring some of the customers. "Mkay!" Naruto yelled back before following Sasuke out the door and onto the escalator.

"Am I still coming over after work tonight for a drink?" Sasuke asked as they were moving down.

"Course, Sasu. Ya know, you're always welcome to come over. Kyuubi misses you too."

Kyuubi is Naruto's pet fox that likes to hang around and just eat and sleep. He's not usually fond of strangers but instantly took a liking to Sasuke the first time he cam ever. Kyuubi has dark red orange fur with white tipped ears and tail. He's fairly sweet and cuddly but can be dangerous when he wants to. Naruto almost giggled at how Kyuubi would react if the bitch ever went near him. He would tear her to shreds. Naruto wouldn't mind that happening anytime soon. Hopefully Bring your Pet to Work Day comes around soon.

"Yeah, thanks. I miss the little guy too." Sasuke walked up to the surprisingly short line of the Starbucks that stood in the middle of the food court. After ordering and getting their drinks, Naruto paying for Ino's, they sat down at one of the tables set up in front of the Starbucks.

For some reason, Sasuke seemed a bit….nervous. He was blushing while drinking his passion fruit iced tea, and whenever Naruto glances at him, he notices and smiles back. Naruto smiles back, of course, but the mood quickly dropped from casual to awkward.

"S-so Sasuke… who's the new girl?" Naruto asked, breaking the awkward tension between them.

"H-hm? Oh, Sakura Haruno. She came in today to talk about her application. She seems sweet and smart, but according to Ino, who knew her a long while back, she's supposed to be very aggressive and impatient. I had to confirm that claim so I initiated a meeting with her since I did not want any complaints from customers about her attitude and short temper. I only asked her to take care of the register and cleaning up, while Ino takes care of the orders and flower bouquets…" Sasuke continued to explain and drink his tea but wouldn't look at Naruto in the eye.

"Well, if it was only to do small things like that, I would've gladly helped out. My shop's doing well with Kiba, Karin, and Pein, so I can afford some time off." Naruto raised his eyebrow as Sasuke's face seemed to flush harder.

"Yeah…I'm sorry, I was also worried about your job too, but if you had told me that earlier, I would've taken up on your offer…"

"I can't do anything about it now though, with that pinky around so I'll just stick around sometimes in case anything goes wrong. She looks smart and sophisticated but can probably end up like one of those clumsy idiotic types." The blonde stood up and threw his empty cup towards the trash can, grinning as he saw it go in.

"Says you." Sasuke smirked.

"Shut up, man. Let's get going." Naruto grabbed ion's drink and waited as Sasuke pushed in his chair. Once they got back to Sasuke's shop and naruto gave the drink to Ino, he waved and left for his own shop, wondering what was up with Sasuke and why he was being unusually nervous all of a sudden.

After closing up his shop, the raven haired owner walked over to Naruto's shop. Naruto's shop looked like one of those parlors you usually see on the streets, except maybe a little more organized. The dim red lights lit up the whole shop and all different kinds of tattoo designs drawn on thick paper were hung around the store. Shelves wee filled with boxes of piercings and hair dyes.

There were also charts of colors and their designated names and charts with the different names of piercings and a large picture of a person with the piercing names labeling where each one was supposed to be. There were two empty metal benches lined under some of the shelves on the wall to Sasuke's right. On his left were the two charts hanging on the wall, and right in front of him was Karin sitting in front of the counter that contained most of the expensive piercings.

He waved to Karin, who waved back then went back to flipping through her magazine. Right behind Karin was a hallway that cosseted of the several booths that were used for giving tattoos and piercings. He made his way past the black curtain and continued down the hall until he reached Naruto's office in the back. He knocked on the door and walked in after hearing a small 'Come in.'

Naruto's black wooden desk had papers scattered all over it and there were boxes surrounding his desk that were filled with different colors of hair dye. Naruto's office was overall pretty neat and organized. The walls were painted an ultramarine blue and the floor was made of wooden planks painted black. He saw shelves full of customer files on Naruto's left organized alphabetically by last name. On Naruto's right was his drawing desk that had drawers filled with markers, colored pencils, pens, brush pens, pencils of all kinds of sizes, rulers, and was a neat stack of blank paper on a separate table right next to the drawing desk.

"Hey, Naru. Let's go, it looks cold out there. I saw people with snow all over their coats." naruto nodded as he finished polishing the last piercing before placing it in its respective box and putting it in one of the glass cases lining his drawers full of customer's files. The blonde grabbed his coat and scarf hanging on the wall hook near the door and followed Sasuke out of his office.

"Hey, Karin. It's time to go." Naruto said as they reached the counter. Karin was already locking up the register and turning off the light-up "OPEN" sign hanging in front of the window.

"Mkay." Karin responded as she grabbed her coat and put it on. Karin left as soon as Sasuke and Naruto walked out.. The blonde closed the doors and leaned down to lock them up. Sasuke blushed as the blonde leaned down. He took a small glance towards Naruto's ass, but turned away before Naruto could catch him in the act.

"Let's go." Naruto and Sasuke walked out of the mall and reached Naruto's car.