You Work for Me

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto... just using the characters and putting them in awkward situations for my own sick amusement.

"He what?" Neji murmured as he continued to listen to his cousin telling him everything that happened to her in the last two hours.

Hinata nodded softy. "He -sobs- finally -hic- kicked me -snivel- out…said…I…weak…-sob-… useless."

"After all these years and he's finally done it," Neji whispered quietly to himself. He knew that Hinata and her father had problems, but he never thought that Haishi would resort to kicking his own daughter out of the house in the middle of the night.

Hinata's eyes were dropping buckets of tears by the second as she continued to explain her problem to Neji. "I have no place to go, no money and no job! What am I going to do?"

Neji gave Hinata an annoyed look. He knew, that she knew, that he was going to let her stay with him whether she wanted to or not. Why did girls have to be so damn over-dramatic? "I thought you were working at the hospital."

"I volunteer at the hospital," Hinata spoke softly as she blew her nose for the hundredth time that night. She was practicing to become a doctor and she was currently attending school to finish her degree in medicine.

"You can always stay with me," Neji said as he saw Hinata's eyes glimmer with happiness, "but we'll still need to find you a job."

Hinata instantly fell back into her depressive mood. "I've never worked before," she pouted, hoping that her cousin would let her off the hook with this job thing.

"Don't worry, you're a fast learner," Neji countered. If Hiashi kicked her out of the house, it was for her own good. She needed to learn how to become more independent and to not always lean on family for support.

"So, where can we find a job?" Hinata asked innocently.

Neji knew that she had never really had a real job like many other teenagers before because she came from one of the richest families in Konoha. This whole working for money thing was weird for Hinata, but he would help her through it.

"We'll have to figure that out tomorrow morning," Neji said calmly.

"I hope I can find a job that I'll like," Hinata said quietly as she dropped her head low and fumbled with the napkin on her lap.

Hinata plopped onto the stool at Ichiraku's Ramen stand with an unladylike thump. She took off her shoes and rubbed her sore feet. She was so tired because she had just spent the whole day walking from stores to malls to small carts on the sidewalk, hoping that someone would hire her, but she had absolutely no luck.

Every single job in Konoha was taken.

Neji was going to be really disappointed in her when he found out that she was coming home without a job, or even any solid leads to one. Who knew that searching for employment would be so hard?

Maybe she could bribe Neji. She could tell him that she would prepare all his meals, wash all his clothes and keep his apartment so clean that he could eat off any surface and in return he wouldn't force her to go to work. The world was a scary place.

But Neji was always so clean already. She would have to bribe him with something more appealing. She tilted her head and put a finger to her chin and attempted to think harder.

"Hey Hinata," Naruto bellowed from behind in his oh-so-annoying, yet charming voice.

Hinata nearly fell out of her seat as she heard Naruto's thundering voice.

"H-hi, Naruto," Hinata responded quietly. Even though she had gotten over her obsessive crush on Naruto a long time ago, she was still nervous around him.

Naruto ginned and placed a hand behind his head. "Why do you look so sad, Hinata?"

"Me? Oh… umm, don't worry about it."

"Come on Hinata! I want to help you, tell me what's wrong."

Hinata tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "No, r-really, I'm okay."

Naruto continued to look at her with determination and didn't move an inch. Under any other circumstances, she would have applauded his determination, but right now it was making her extremely anxious and she could feel her palms sweating. Telling him wouldn't hurt, right?

"I can't find a job," Hinata finally said in a dejected tone of voice. "I spent the whole day looking for one, but no one wants to hire me."

Naruto looked at Hinata and tilted his head and rubbed his chin as if was in deep thought.

"I GOT IT!" The blond boy screamed loudly.

Hinata looked around to see if anyone was looking at them; no one was. No one seemed to care about his loud outburst; they were probably used to it by now.

"That Sasuke-bastard has been looking for a maid," Naruto said in a surprisingly quiet voice, darting his eyes back and forth to make sure no one was listening to them.

"A maid?" That didn't sound too good.

"Yep, a maid. He put me in charge to find some girl who isn't in love with him to help him keep his house clean," Naruto replied. "You're not in love with him, right Hinata?"

Hinata blushed. "What? Of course not."

Naruto scratched his head. "You never did pay any attention to him when we were in school together as kids, did you?"

Hinata was glad to see that Naruto was still as dense as ever. He still hadn't figured out that he was the one that she harbored a crush for. Oh well, some things were never meant to be.

"No, I didn't," she answered honestly.

"You're perfect for the job then. But you have to keep it quiet cause if girls like Sakura and Ino find out, they'll beat me to a pulp," Naruto whispered as he looked around with nervous apprehension.

"I still don't know," Hinata slowly placed her fingers on her lips, "Sasuke and I have n-never really talked and no offence, but he sort of s-scares me."

"Don't worry. I'll be there on the first day and if Sasuke says anything bad to you, I'll kick his ass!" Naruto jumped out of his chair and started punching and kicking thin air.

She would defiantly feel more comfortable and safer with Naruto around.

"Okay, thanks Naruto. You really did help me," Hinata said happily as she stood up. She was so happy that she found a job, she couldn't wait to tell Neji.

"No problem. That's what friends are for. Sasuke will be back tomorrow from his mission, so we can meet in the afternoon right here, okay?" Naruto said excitedly.

Hinata nodded her head as her lips curled into a smile and waved, "thank you again Naruto! See you tomorrow."

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TBC