Madara sighed and rubbed his forehead while Nina put on her best poker face along with Tsunade. The two of them kept giving each other side glances as Madara looked at them and narrowed his eyes.

"This is stupid," Madara said finally.

"How is it stupid?" Tsunade said back. "I'm supposed to be the house mom and only the house mom, but I'm the one taking care of your books and finances and all the things that you should probably hire an accountant for. I think this is the only logical progression of things. Nina, wouldn't you agree?"

Nina smirked, "I do, Tsunade."

"This is you punishing me for when you didn't get eighty percent of your tips that one time, isn't it?" Madara said with a grumble as he looked at Nina.

Nina didn't say anything, but she raised her eyebrows suggestively.

Madara huffed and picked up the pen and signed the papers that were sitting in front of him. The breath left Nina's lungs when he put the pen down after signing the dotted line and she squealed like a five-year-old, wrapping her arms around Tsunade's shoulders in excitement.

When Nina released Tsunade, she got up from her seat and walked over to Madara, hugging him around the neck with a grin on her face.

"Ugh," Madara muttered, but he didn't push her away.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"You put her up to this, didn't you?" Madara asked Tsunade.

Tsunade only shrugged nonchalantly.

She had been the one to put Nina up to it, but Madara didn't have to know that for sure. Nina didn't want to go back to Konoha Enterprises, despite knowing that she was welcome there. She just didn't want to listen to the rumors that would have endlessly plagued her, and she didn't want to put Minato in a bad position. So when he asked her to come back, she told him that she didn't think it was a good idea.

Yet at the same time, she didn't want to strip anymore—and Minato definitely didn't want her to either. So she needed to find a different job entirely, and that's where Tsunade came in with her idea. Tsunade was the house mom, the one who worked with the dancers and kept that side of the business running smoothly, but over the years her duties started to become more and more administrative since Madara refused to hire an outside accountant, and Tsunade was getting tired of dealing with the endless drama with the girls.

So her solution had been for Madara to let her do the administrative work while promoting Nina to house mom, so she could stay at the club without having to dance. And even though Madara initially put his foot down and said absolutely not, all it took was a stand off with Tsunade, and a few smiles from Nina, and he was begrudgingly signing the papers that would set everything in stone.

"It was that or have her quit," Tsunade commented.

"Can't have that," Madara agreed.

"Well I have to go now that that's all settled," Tsunade said, gathering her things to leave.

"Hot date?" Nina teased.

Tsunade smirked at her, "I don't think meeting for lunch is necessarily a hot date."

"But it's still a date," Nina pointed out.

Tsunade threw her a wink and got up from the table and left. When she was gone, Nina took the opportunity to speak one on one with Madara.

"I wanted to ask you something," Nina started.

"No," Madara deadpanned.

Nina ignored him, "the lawsuit with Konoha Enterprises… You were the one who told the Senju's about everything, weren't you? After the shooting?"

Madara folded his hands on the table and looked at her with those watchful eyes, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Nina smiled in spite of herself, "thank you."

A ghost of a smile could be seen on Madara's lips, but he never let it come to fruition. But that was good enough for Nina because it might as well have been a confession from the man.

"You're welcome."

"Another office party?" Fugaku asked, walking up to Nina where she sat at the bar and waited for some of the guys from the office to show up for Obito's promotion party, as he was finally out of the role of admin and being moved to sales with the likes of Kakashi, Guy, and Genma.

"Yes sir," Nina said. Fugaku nodded and made her a whiskey sour. She hadn't talked to him much since the shooting happened several weeks ago, and she really felt bad about it, but she wasn't sure what to say because she didn't want to lead the guy on.

"I thought you were done with office life," he said, casually leaning against the bar and crossing his arms.

"Oh I am," she said. "But my friend got promoted and I promised him I would be here to celebrate."

"So no more double life then?" He asked with a smirk.

"No," Nina confirmed. "I'm not dancing anymore though and that's good."

Fugaku nodded, "probably for the best."

If there was one thing that Nina liked most about Fugaku, it was that he didn't care about her past as a stripper. It didn't seem to bother him whatsoever, and Nina appreciated that more than he would ever know. Even when she first started at Konoha Enterprises and Minato knew about her being a stripper, he didn't like it. Sure, he accepted it, but he did not like it. Fugaku on the other hand understood.

Which made Nina think…

"You know," she started, leaning forward. Fugaku raised an eyebrow and walked a little closer to her.

"What?"

"There's this girl," she started and Fugaku laughed in spite of himself and already shook his head.

"Am I that helpless?"

"No!" Nina said, reaching her hand across the bar and grabbing onto his sleeve before he walked away from her. He huffed and frowned at her. "But she's really pretty and she's one of my girls and—"

"You're trying to set me up with a stripper?" Fugaku deadpanned.

"Uh hello, you're talking to a former one," she pointed out, gesturing to where she sat for extra effect. Fugaku sighed and ran his hand through his hair.

"I don't know, Nina," he said with a frown.

"Hey! We got along great and I was a stripper when we met!"

"We still do, but that doesn't change the fact that you are a giant pain in the ass," he said, his frown ghosting into a smirk. Nina couldn't help but hold in a laugh in spite of herself, picturing a certain man with blonde hair and blue eyes in the back of her head.

"That's what Minato says."

"Minato would be right," Fugaku teased.

"Rude," she said, though her tone was still lighthearted. "Come on. I think you two would get along great. She's a little shy," she stopped when Fugaku was narrowing his eyes.

"A shy stripper?"

"Hush," she said. "She's shy because she's still pretty new. Her name is Mikoto, she's gorgeous, and I think you two would get along great. How 'bout it? Can I give her your number?"

Fugaku huffed but shrugged, "yeah, okay."

"Hey, Dimples!"

"There's your cue," Fugaku said to her, giving her a wicked smirk as he wiped the bar down. Nina grinned at him and got off the bar stool to see Genma with some of the other sales guys walking into Kaguya's.

"When you coming back?" Genma asked, splitting off from the rest of the salesmen and swinging an arm around her shoulders.

"Well hello to you too, Genma," Nina said. "And I'm not."

"Breaking my heart, Dimples. I miss having a pretty face in the office," Genma said, letting her go. He then looked around, "better not let Minato hear that or else he'll wring my neck."

Since Nina wasn't at Konoha Enterprises anymore, she was able to forget that pretty much everyone there knew that Minato and Kushina had ended things, and that he was now with her instead. Hearing Genma bring it up so casually was enough to make her feel so awkward that she actually questioned why she came in the first place.

"Something tells me that significant others wringing your neck is not a rare occurrence," she teased.

Genma snickered, "because it's not."

She laughed with him, but parted ways when she saw Obito standing with some of the other salesmen.

"Obito!" She called out, not wanting to walk over the group of them. She liked the salesmen enough, but sometimes they could be intimidating, especially when Kakashi and Guy were in the middle of one of their weird competitions.

Obito saw her and his face lit up, walking away from the salesmen and over to Nina, hugging her without missing a beat.

"I'm glad you made it!"

"And miss out on your big promotion? No way," Nina said, putting her cocktail to her lips and taking a sip. Her eyes scanned around the room, looking for who all was there, and was glad to see a good turnout. She didn't think she would be able to stand if it no one was there to support Obito.

"Good because I wouldn't forgive you if you didn't show," he remarked, looking around the room.

"Looking for someone?"

Obito's eyes flashed to hers, "actually, I am. I hear Jiraiya is bringing a girl with him and I'm dying to see who."

Nina raised an eyebrow. From what she heard about Jiraiya and his womanizing ways, it didn't sound particularly odd for him to bring a woman. But with the way Obito said it, she was curious.

Then there was a hand on the small of her back and Nina didn't even have to look to see who it was, as she already felt him kiss the side of her head.

"Obito, congratulations! I'm glad we finally got you out of the role of an admin," Minato said. He smiled at Obito and Nina's heart warmed, knowing how proud Minato was of the dark haired boy. Sure, he ran the office really freaking well, but Obito deserved a better position, and one that didn't consist of him fighting with Shikaku Nara for binders and bringing coffee to Minato all day long.

Speaking of…

Nina craned her neck around Minato to see if Shikaku was anywhere to be found, frowning when she came up empty handed.

"Thank you!" Obito beamed. "Hopefully the temp can handle your inability to brew a cup of coffee."

Obito shot a look at Nina and the two of them laughed, resulting in Minato rolling his eyes.

"I can work the coffee machine!" Minato argued.

"Sure you can," Obito remarked.

Minato shook his head, about to walk away and said, "well I'll be around. I'm going to go meet Jiraiya's new girlfriend."

Obito's dark eyes doubled in side and he looked at Nina the minute Minato left her side, looking way too excited to see who Jiraiya was with. Nina didn't necessarily see why he was so excited, but maybe that was just because Jiraiya had been nothing but an ass to her. But from what she heard from Obito, he didn't really have a bad thing to say about the guy.

As to keep Obito happy, Nina looked over her shoulder and kept her eyes steady on Minato's figure as he headed over to Jiraiya and his girlfriend.

"Tsunade?" Nina blurted, just completely and utterly astonished.

"Holy shit look at her—" Obito didn't finish that sentence because Nina was shooting him a glare. She didn't need to listen to him talk about Tsunade's chest. Really. She didn't need to hear it. She had to hear it all the time at Mangekyo and didn't want Obito hopping on the bandwagon either.

Obito cleared his throat and smiled sheepishly at Nina, "I take it you know her?"

"She managed the dancers at Mangekyo," Nina answered, her tone firm and making it clear that this conversation was not going to go any further. Obito put his hands up in defeat and left it at that.

Nina then turned her attention away from Tsunade and Jiraiya, and caught sight of Shikaku talking to Choza and Inoichi not far away.

She turned to Obito, "I'm gonna go talk to Shikaku real quick."

Obito nodded and walked over to the salesmen, Nina watching him like a hawk at first to make sure none of them messed with him. But thankfully Genma was nodding at him when he approached and brought him into their circle.

Feeling better now that she knew Obito was okay, she walked over to Shikaku, and he caught her eye right away, stepping away from Choza and Inoichi and giving her a lazy smirk.

"Dimples, it's been a minute."

"It has," she said, glad to see the scarred man. "How's the new admin? Ordering enough binders for you?"

Shikaku chuckled, "I've started copying Obito to the emails I send when I ask for new binders, just to piss him off."

Nina actually laughed, despite knowing how mad Obito probably got when he saw them, and covered her mouth as she did.

"You're an awful man."

Shikaku shrugged, "it's good to keep him humble."

"I just wanted to say thank you. You've been really great, and I'm sorry I didn't come back to the office," she said, playing with the straw in her cocktail.

Shikaku gave her an encouraging smile, "what can I say? You grew on me. And that's all right. No one says anything bad about you, if you're worried, but maybe it is for the best. Plus, I doubt the Senju's would be amused at their CEO dating his administrative assistant."

"Heaven forbid they're unhappy," Nina remarked.

"Eh, life's easier when they're not," Shikaku said. He was then giving her his usual smirk again, "I still think you and Minato should come over for dinner one night. Yoshino would love to entertain you two."

"I'll see if I can convince him," Nina assured. She'd love to meet the woman who married Shikaku Nara. She heard him mention from time to time that she was one of the most troublesome women that he knew, and Nina couldn't help but find it completely endearing. She could only imagine what the two of them were like together.

"Speak of the devil and he shall appear," Shikaku remarked, nodding his head where Minato was coming back over to her. Shikaku winked at her, "I'll leave you two alone."

Nina rolled her eyes at Shikaku, but smiled nonetheless when Minato reached her.

"So Jiraiya," she started, her eyes darting over to where the white haired man was standing with Tsunade of all people.

"Yeah," Minato said, rubbing the back of his head and giving her a sheepish smile. "He's Jiraiya. What can I say?"

Nina shrugged. She seemed to be the only person on the planet who had a problem with the man and CFO of Konoha Enterprises.

"He gave me some updates about Danzo," Minato said, his voice dropping just a bit. Nina raised her eyebrows expectantly. "Apparently there's enough information to criminally prosecute him, and the board definitely wants to go ahead with that."

"Wow," Nina said. It was good to know that all those phone calls she had with Konoha Enterprises attorneys weren't for nothing. "Well good. He deserves it."

"He really does," Minato agreed.

"I'm glad he'll be in prison," Nina muttered, thinking about her father and Minato getting shot on that horrible day. It all worked out in the end for the best, but the fact that Danzo put them in that position was something she would never forget.

"Me too… But anyway, Jiraiya won't say anything to you right away, but I wanted to let you know that he's actually feels really sorry for the way he treated you."

Nina felt her eyebrows furrow, "oh?"

Minato gave her a knowing look, "I'm serious. His ego is just a little bruised right now, but he really does feel sorry about the things he said to you. Just try to give him a chance? He really is a great guy."

Nina held back a sigh. She knew Minato loved Jiraiya, along with everyone else for that matter, and she might have been able to forgive the guy. But forget everything? Yeah… She spent too many years working with Madara Uchiha to forget things like that. But still…

"I'll let the Jiraiya thing go on one condition," she said.

"What's that?" Minato asked.

"We have to go to Shikaku's for dinner one night."

Minato very clearly was not expecting that, as his blue eyes looked away from her and searched for Shikaku momentarily, before flickering back to hers. He looked slightly confused, but more amused than anything else.

"That's a little random. But sure, we can make that happen," he said, laughing just barely, still slightly caught off guard.

"Great, I'll hold you to it," she said, standing up on her tip toes to quickly kiss him on the lips.

Minato smiled broadly at her, lacing his fingers through hers.

"Come on. I told Jiraiya I would bring you over to meet his girlfriend," Minato said, pulling her in the direction he had just come from.

Nina's eyes flashed to Tsunade, and the woman threw a wink at her which Nina smirked at and returned.

"Yeah… About that…"

"Just get rid of the place. You're never there anyway and it's just eating up all of your income," Minato said one night after dinner. Nina rubbed the back of her neck and collapsed into the sofa, resting against the arm of it as he came over to sit next to her.

"What if something happens and I need it?" She shot back.

"Like what?" Minato asked.

She crossed her arms and huffed.

Fine. Her apartment in The Valley was a shithole. No surprise there. And okay, fine. She was at Minato's literally ninety percent of the time anyway, but still. Her apartment had been her home for so many years. The minute she moved out of her dad's crappy place and into her own crappy place had been a milestone. Who cared if The Valley wasn't very safe? She was just fine living there, and heaven forbid something were to happen to her father again and he would have to come back to her for refuge. Could she imagine Kai Sato crashing on Minato's couch, nursing a bottle of Jack Daniels as he did?

Yeah right.

"I don't know! What if my dad needs to stay with me again!"

Minato huffed, "then he can stay here."

Nina didn't miss the way Minato seemed to actually to shiver at the possibility.

"You don't mean that," Nina said.

"I do," he promised, looking at her with those bright blue eyes. He moved closer to her and snaked his arm around her waist, trying to hold her gaze. "You don't have to get rid of it, but I don't know. I think it would be a good idea."

Nina sighed. She hated when he went all puppy dog on her. How was she supposed to keep her nerve when he did that?

"But why?" She pressed.

Minato huffed, "why do you have to be such a pain in the ass?"

Nina laughed in spite of herself and gaped at him, "excuse you!"

"I'm asking you to move in with me, Nina." He was looking at her with a steady gaze again, one that was both endearing and smoldering.

Nina bit down on the inside of her cheek. He was really serious about this, wasn't he?

"You sure?" She asked, her voice way softer than she intended.

The corners of Minato's lips quirked upward, "I'm positive."

She didn't have to give it all that much thought. Despite the fact that she really didn't want to give up her apartment, she could see where he was coming from. And well, after everything he had done for her, she supposed she could give him this one. The guy took a bullet for her after all. Officially moving in with him when she was already ninety percent moved in as it was? Yeah... She could make that work. And in all honesty, she practically lived with him already.

"Fine. I'll call my landlord next week. Happy?" She teased.

Minato's entire face lit up and then he was kissing her quickly. Nina smiled against his lips and kissed him back, wrapping her arms around his neck as she did and pulling him closer to her.

Yeah. He was definitely happy.

And finally, she was too.

That's all folks! I know it's not perfect, but I hope that everything turned out all right overall. There are definitely things I would change, but I think it's not too bad for my first full length fic. Thank you SO MUCH to EVERYONE who left a review! The support and feedback means so much to me. You guys have been so incredible.

Thank you for all the support (: