Previously...

Hinata might just believe that she could do this.

Currently...

There was no way on this great Earth that Hinata could do this. What was I thinking? She held her purse in a tight death grip, and the secretary bow of the elegant, lavender silk blouse she was wearing felt like it was cutting off her air supply.

She stared at the room full of job applicants, terrified out of her wits. There were so many people! Dozens of students milled around the large lobby of ROOT Corp's building, some dressed as elegantly as Hinata was, in her silk blouse and linen pantsuit, whereas some were dressed as casually as Tenten was, in a plaid button-up and slacks. Some of them looked a little arrogant, some of them looked fairly calm, and some even looked a little nervous, but Hinata was sure none of them felt as much bone-deep terror as she did, in that moment.

She was so scared, she didn't realized she'd become an obstacle to the people coming and going until someone bumped into her frozen form from behind.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" A beautiful blond girl dressed in perfectly-tailored, business formal attire apologized. "I didn't realize you'd stopped."

"I-I-I'm sorry," Hinata apologized as well, a little befuddled.

"No, it was my fault. I'll be more careful next time," with a smile, that girl waved and walked off towards the reception desk. As she left, Hinata realized that her two friends had also already walked to the desk and were looking for her.

Get yourself together, Hinata. It's just an interview.

Hinata hurried to where Sakura and Tenten were waiting, as they joined in the long line to check in with the front desk.

"Did you see who's here as well?" Tente whispered to them, "The pretty blond girl!" Surreptitiously, she made significant eye gestures to the blond head three people ahead of them in line.

"Who?" Sakura asked in a more normal volume, obviously just as confused as Hinata was.

"It's Yamanaka-san! The girl who beat you out for campus beauty!" Tenten whispered, "Although I still think she won because your picture was blurry and out-of-focus."

A look of annoyance flickered across Sakura's face before she tried to change the conversation, "Isn't she in business? What's she doing interviewing here?"

"Th-They're probably interviewing a bunch of different interns today," Hinata offered quietly, "Tenten, you put our resumes and cover letters in for QA right?"

"Yep, Quality Assurance," Tenten said cheerfully, her voice returning to a more normal volume as well. Hinata noticed that by then, Yamanaka-san had already moved away into the lobby to wait to be called for her interview.

I really hope she didn't hear us talking about her...

(ノωヽ)

Sasuke could tell that Naruto was about ready to roll his eyes and snort. The idiot had made a heroic effort not to, but Sasuke hadn't known the guy for three and a half years for nothing. He was actually kind of impressed Naruto had managed to last this long.

Good thing we didn't bring Kiba and Chouji with us today.

Sasuke almost wanted Naruto to lose his temper. He was reaching the end of his patience as well - if he heard one more idiotic platitude about how student teams often failed... But that would defeat the purpose of coming here today.

"Uchiha-san, Uzumaki-san, we hope you'll seriously consider our offer today," GM Shigaraki finally wrapped up his little speech, "It really is very generous, more than what most fledgling companies can expect in an acqui-hire."

"We understand and appreciate your generosity," Sasuke said, cutting off Naruto before the other guy blew up in a spectacular fashion, "We will seriously consider your offer. But you understand, we weren't expecting such an offer today when we came to discuss a joint partnership, so we'll have to take it back to our partners to discuss."

"Yes, of course, take all the time you need!" The GM's typically gloomy face was all smiles now.

"In that spirit, could you maybe give us a quick tour of your gaming department? Sasuke asked.

Shigaraki hesitated. Sasuke could tell that this wasn't a normal request but...

"Just so we can get the lay of the land and meet some of your people," He wasn't above some clever misdirection. The other man brightened. He must've thought that the request meant they were very close to accepting ROOT Corp's acqui-hire offer.

"Of course, of course. Sai-san-," Shigaraki tried to draw the other, younger man in, but just as he was about to voluntell the team leader, a professionally dressed assistant poked his head through the door.

"Team Leader Shimura, the interviews for this year's summer interns are about to begin. They're just waiting for you."

"I'll have to excuse myself, GM Shigaraki," The wan, androgynous man in a business suit got up, "My apologies, Uchiha-san, Uzumaki-san. I'm sure we'll have more time to discuss in the future." He flashed them a photoshoot-ready smile before he left the room with the assistant.

"Well, I can just give you the tour, if you young fellows don't disdain this old man," GM Shigaraki smiled awkwardly.

"It's our honour," Sasuke bowed. As GM Shigaraki picked up his things to leave, Sasuke slipped Naruto a note.

Behave. I'll explain tonight.

ლ(ಠ_ಠ ლ)

Tenten really had to go to the bathroom.

This is the last time I take Sakura's advice ever again about bringing a water bottle into an interview with me. Take a drink of water every time you have to think of an answer to a question - that only works if you don't have a small bladder!

"Well Higurashi-san, your academic background and your side projects are well-suited to the QA role," The gently smiling man who'd been the last to join the interview said to her. "We just have one more question for you: do you play any MMO Games, and if so, which ones and what's your username?"

"MMOs?" Tenten panicked. I haven't played MMOs since middle school!

"Massive Multiplayer Online games," The lady with the round glasses explained, misinterpreting her panic as confusion, "These days we expect our interns to have some familiarity with our products."

"I haven't really made time to game since I entered University," Tenten admitted sheepishly. I can still make time to read the school gossip forums though... Oops... "I think the last time I played an MMO was... Nin-pets?"

".... I'm not sure that's exactly what we meant, Higurashi-san."

╮(￣ω￣;)╭

"I am never bringing a water bottle into an interview ever again," Tenten declared as she walked out of the stall, joining Sakura and Hinata at the sinks in the lady's bathroom.

"Never mind your tiny bladder, tell us how your interview went!" Sakura demanded impatiently, "What kind of questions did they ask you? Any weird ones?"

"It went OK," Tenten shrugged, "The questions were all fairly standard behavioural ones, like the stuff we practiced."

"H-How many interviewers were there?" Hinata asked.

"Three, two from the game development team, and one from the software development team. They all have pretty good poker faces. There's one guy who gives me the willies though."

"Wh-Which one?" Hinata asked.

"I forget his name. He just kept smiling," Tenten shuddered.

"Oh no, a smiling interviewer," Sakura rolled her eyes, "How could you forget names, Tenten-chan? You still have to write the thank you email!"

"They gave me business cards!" Tenten protested, pulling the three slips of crumpled, stiff paper out of her back pocket. "Let me see... this one. Yeah, he was in the gaming department. Team Leader Shimura Sai."

"Hmm," There was a silence as the three of them passed around the business cards, when Tenten suddenly remembered something.

"They did ask one weird question, though," Tenten said thoughtfully.

"Wh-what?" Hinata asked nervously.

"If I played an MMO and if so, what was my username," Tenten said, trying to remember exactly.

"Hmm," Sakura wasn't too bothered by it, but Hinata panicked a little.

"Wh-what am I going to do?" She said, "I-I don't play MMOs, and I don't have an account!"

"Oh that's easy enough," Sakura tried to reassure her, "You can just use one of my side accounts for Way of the Ninja. It's by Bloom, and the side account is SakuraBranch, on the Hidden Leaf server. If they ask you what your favourite part of the game is, just tell them it's meeting new people while doing missions. You can say that the Land of the Waves Quest is a particularly good example of it. I don't use my side accounts anyways, so no one will know who that particular username is."

"O-Okay. S-SakuraBranch, H-Hidden Leaf server, Meeting new people... and missions. G-gotcha," Hinata repeated, trying to commit the details to memory.

"Hey, Sakura-chan, isn't your main account SakuraBlossom? Won't it raise questions if they're too similar?" Tenten asked with a furrowed brow.

"S-SakuraBlossom?" Hinata asked, confused.

"We can just say we started playing together and had a common theme as roommates. That's totally natural," Sakura waved it off Tenten's concerns. "C'mon, Hinata, it must almost be your interview time. We better get back out there."

The three of them left the bathroom, Sakura and Hinata continuing to dissect Tenten's interview experience. They may have thought they were leaving an empty bathroom behind, but after they left, the stall door nearest to the exit swung open...

( o__O )

Blinking at the stall door that had opened itself, Ino Yamanaka clambered down from where she'd been kneeling on the toilet seat, her ear pressed to a vent. Thank god that happened after they'd left. Otherwise, that would've been awkward. The snazzy business suit was a bit worse for wear after her adventure, though, but nothing a seasoned fashionista wouldn't know how to deal with.

Ino had one of the last interview slots for the day, so knowing she'd have to wait at least a couple hours before her interview, she'd decided to go to a cafe to sit and prep her answers, when nature called. Right after she'd finished her business in the toilet, however, a muffled noise from the vent in her stall nearly made her drop her phone in the toilet bowl.

Instead of doing the rational thing and walking away from the probably haunted vent, Ino, like the dignified young lady she was, got right up in there to try to hear what those sounds were. Instead of something calling for her blood, she'd heard an interview being conducted. In fact, she'd heard that girl's - what was her name again? Ten-something? Ah, I should probably forget anyways - interview being conducted.

It's probably a little unfair, but it's not like I'm doing anything no one else could have done if they'd found this toilet stall first, Ino rationalized it to herself. I just got lucky.

Her mind made up, she took a piece of gum out of her bag, chewed it slightly, and crammed it into the lock of the bathroom stall so it wouldn't open by itself again.

┐('～';)┌

He so obviously has no clue what he's talking about. Why the hell are we wasting our time here? Naruto tried to control his facial features. He really did. But from the looks Sasuke was giving him, he wasn't doing a great job. Luckily, he was walking behind GM Shigaraki the whole time, so it probably didn't matter much...

Right? Ah, who cares anyways? It's not like we're coming back here. So why is that asshole wasting our time? I got games to play and ramen to eat!

"if you think any louder, someone will overhear you," Naruto nearly jumped when he heard Sasuke's low voice in his ear.

"What's that?" GM Shigaraki turned to look at them.

"I was just telling Naruto that you have a nice office space," Sasuke smiled.

Naruto snorted. That asshole's usually better at lying.

"We're very proud of the office. We invited the very best to design the perfect open-air concept office plan..."

Naruto tuned out the rest of his boring architectural digest. The people! I want to meet the people! And what kind of game company doesn't have any merch or art from their properties on display?

Right as they were about to turn into a kitchen with free food, Naruto got distracted by a very familiar map on a screen. Is that...? Way of the Ninja? Hang on, what the heck are they doing playing a rival company's game at work?

"Uzumaki-san?" Shigaraki asked him.

"Right behind you," Naruto joined them in the kitchen before that bore of a GM could see what he was looking at. I wonder if that's why...

That asshole! He could have just told me before we got here!

('皿'＃)

This is horrible. Torture. Hinata complained to herself as she nervously sweated through her silk blouse.

"Hyuuga-san, can you give us an example of when you overcame adversity, and how you handled it?" Hinata didn't know which interviewer had asked the question because she hadn't been able to raise her head the whole time, but she did her best anyways.

"U-uhm, when I was i-in high school and I-I was applying for U-Universities, m-my family was very insistent on wh-which programs I should apply to, b-but I really wanted to study c-computer science," Hinata started, "S-So I asked a g-guidance counsellor at my sch-school for help. Sh-she gave me the recommendation, w-walked me through applications, l-let me send all the papers to her address i-instead of my parents, and i-in the end I was accepted to K-Konoha University, my dream program. I-I hadn't gotten into any of the p-programs my family w-wanted me to apply for, so m-my father h-had to allow me to attend K-Konoha U. I-It was difficult, b-but I got my desired result."

Hinata looked up in confusion when none of the interviewers said anything and met their eyes for the first time. She flushed in shame and embarrassment when she saw the pity and compassion in their gazes.

Team Leader Shimura, seeing her discomfort, smiled gently to cut through the awkwardness, "That's excellent Hyuuga-san. From your transcript, I can see you're doing quite well in Konoha U. It's a top-level program."

"Th-Thank you," Hinata said, surprised by his comments.

"And for our last question today," Team leader Shimura consulted his paper, "do you play any MMO Games, and if so, which ones and what's your username?"

:I-I play W-Way of the Ninja, and m-my username is SakuraBranch."

Sai's hand froze over the paper, "SakuraBranch? Not on the Hidden Leaf Server?"

"Yes?" Hinata panicked when she saw the peculiar look on Sai's face. Does he recognize the user name? Oh no! Did I accidentally use Sakura-chan's main account?

"You don't happen to have any friends who play, do you?" Sai asked.

"M-My roommates and I all started playing together a couple months ago," Hinata lied. Her palms were sweaty.

"I see....," Sai made another note on his clipboard. "Well, thank you very much for your time Hyuuga-san. We'll be in touch."

"Th-thank you," Hinata bowed to the panel, before she fled from the room as fast as she could.

ε=ε=┌( >_<)┘

Sakura was less surprised than she should have been when, right after her interview finished, Hinata blurted out, "I-I'm so sorry, Sakura-chan!"

She sighed. Hinata really needed more confidence. "What happened? I'm sure it's nothing that can't be solved."

"I-I don't think I interview very well," Hinata admitted, starting to tear up a bit, "A-Also, I-I think I a-accidentally used your m-main account, a-and I think Team Leader Shimura might have recognized it."

"Oh Hina-chan," Seeing how distressed the other girl was, Sakura suppressed all of her questions about the interviewer who seemed to recognize her and just focused on consoling her, "Don't worry about the username mix up, I'll just use my side account. That's a small thing. And I'm sure the interview wasn't as bad as you thought it was."

"I-I talked about how I disappointed my parents as a challenge I faced," Hinata choked out.

Sakura winced, "It was a challenge for you, though!" Help, She signalled Tenten with her eyes

"Yeah," Tenten sighed, "C'mon Hina-chan, it's all over now for you anyways. You've done what you've done, and there's nothing more you can do."

"That's not comforting, Tenten-chan!" Sakura growled subvocally.

"But it's true!" Tenten protested, "Since there's nothing else you can change now, worrying's not going to help!"

"Tenten! Sometimes people just have anxiety!" Sakura hissed.

"S-Sakura-chan, Tenten-chan, don't fight about it," Hinata sniffed, pulling a tissue out of her bag, "Y-You both have your points, and I understand you're both trying to make me feel better."

"Are we succeeding?" Tenten cracked.

Hinata's smile was a bit watery, but it was there, barely, "A little."

"Good," Tenten grinned, "Just remember, too, an interview is a two-way street. If you're a unicorn, but the company is looking for a bear, it doesn't make you any less fabulous."

Even Sakura laughed at this crack. "Thanks, Tenten-chan," Hinata started rifling in the small handbag she'd brought, looking for some tissues.

"Haruno Sakura?" A well-dressed receptionist called Sakura's name. She got up, gave herself a once over to make sure there were no tear stains to mop up, and put on her game smile to face the panel next.

(＾◡＾)

"You have quite the transcript, Haruno-san. What do you do for fun?" The woman with light, straw-coloured hair smiled at her. She'd introduced herself as Team Leader Nono earlier.

"I spend time with my friends and family. Recently, I've been playing an MMORPG with my roommates," Sakura was pretty sure the smile was about to fall off her face any minute. Yes, I know you're not supposed to lie in interviews, but so long as we all play together afterwards, I'm not technically lying that much? Just... getting the time a little out of order.

"You're a gamer? With your grades?" Team Leader Yamato asked, raising an eyebrow.

Not this again. Sakura's spine straightened, "I prioritize and manage my workload very well, and one of the things that work so well about Way of the Ninja is that it's very forgiving if a player needs to take a break. I believe gaming is an evolution of media and story-telling that can surpass the limits of what writing and art can do, creating a nearly perfect medium to preserve the culture and break the limits of human geography. It's worth making the time for."

The three interviewers stared at her in silence. Shannaro! I did it again! Sakura blushed when she realized that she'd gotten on to her old soapbox again.

"That's very true, Haruno-san," Team Leader Shimura smiled at her, "Which one of our games best embodies your vision?"

Sakura flushed, caught off guard. She knew of ROOT Corp.'s games, but she hadn't actually played any of them. They were all mobile clicker games that were glorified Skinner boxes. I can't very well come out and just say that, though. "My apologies, I'm not as familiar with ROOT CORP's games," As soon as the thoughtless words came out of Sakura's mouth, she knew