Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to the respected owner. No copyright infringement intended.
Beta: Kaya Kazaki
Welcome to the Rich and Crazy
Chapter 1
"Gaara I'm sorry but your twenty four years old." Temari my older sister apologized for the fifth time. "You need to get your life in order."
"So you're kicking me out." I muttered.
"Yes." She affirmed and handed me a manila envelope. "We've set you up in an apartment near the marina. First two months rent has already been paid and we've found you a job on the yacht club." She pulled me into a hug and kiss on the cheek. "This is for your own good Gaara, you need to learn to…well live on your own and not just sit around the house sulking all the time."
"Yeah, trust us." Kankurou, my older brother gave me half a hug then clapped me on the back. "But we aren't that cruel, we're still going to pay for your cell phone bill so…" He shrugged and walked backwards into the house alongside Temari.
"Better get a move on, it's going to rain soon." Temari sent me an air kiss before shutting the door, and probably locking it. With the deadbolt.
I sighed and turned around to stare at my second-maybe even third hand – silver Acura that's so ugly and scratched it's not even worth describing, filled to the brim with boxes of clothes, shoes, and basically all of my shit that I certainly didn't pack. But if it's one thing I can say about Temari it's that she's thorough so there's no doubt that every last one of my things, down to my boxers, are packed away in my car somewhere.
I suppose I should probably explain what's going on; my name is Gaara Sabaku and my brother and sister just kicked me out. Yes, I'm twenty fours years old and I've never lived on my own, never held a job longer than two weeks and never really cared to do much with my life. And why should I when all these years they've done everything for me? Now suddenly they want me to 'man up' and 'get a life'?
Something's changed, and I don't like it.
OOO
Temari and Kankurou set me up in a small one bedroom apartment with a kitchen, living room and bathroom. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't fantastic either; there wasn't much room in fact I think my old bedroom was bigger than this entire apartment. With a groan I threw down the first set of boxes and left to bring up the rest, better get it all inside before it starts to rain.
OOO
Sleeping was not enjoyable that night, I tossed, turned, cursed, counted sheep-which doesn't work you liars-and eventually dozed off sometime in the morning only to wake up a few hours later to that damn alarm shouting at me. Grudgingly I crawled out of bed, into the shower and was dressed and fed by four am.
Luckily I didn't have to drive to work-otherwise some poor sucker would have been run over-the club was minutes from my apartment but the length of time it took to find the stupid entrance made me late. So there I stood, ten minutes late in an office staring at a young man dressed in an expensive looking suit who looked none too happy at my appearance. "You're late." He stated tonelessly.
"Yes. I'm sorry."
"Who are you?"
"Gaara Sabaku." Something about him screamed 'snake', like he was a viper in the bushes. But who am I to judge? I'm a pale, skinny red head with dark ass circles under my eyes with muscles that don't belong. I look like I've been sitting in a back room locked away all my life with nothing but a chair and one lone barbell to occupy myself with and suddenly I was let out into an unsuspecting world.
Which honestly isn't too far from the truth.
"I'm Sasuke. You're boss." He stated and began flipping through the papers on his desk, which looked expensive as well. "Ah, here's the paperwork. I see, yes well you're listed as a 'hand' around here, which means you do whatever our members ask you to do." He glanced up at me with a cold smirk. "Think of yourself as a waiter."
"Alright." What else can I say? Was he expecting me to drop to my knees and kiss his shoes, thanking him over and over for this shit job?
"Go speak to TenTen at the desk, she'll set you up." And then he actually waved me away, as though I were a fruit fly buzzing around.
OOO
"I'm Gaara, Sasuke told me to see you for work." I spoke monotonously and stared at the woman furiously typing on the computer at the desk. I couldn't see her face through the computer screen but I could see that she was a brunette.
"Naruto! Take this man with you and show him what to do." She ordered without even looking at me. What's with people here? Do they not know what common curtsey is? How about acknowledging a person's existence? Is that really too hard? Would their brains suddenly combust if they showed a little human decency?
Within seconds a guy around my age with blonde spiky, messy hair and a dark tan jogged up. He was about my height and build but a shitload more energetic, like that damn energizer bunny he kept moving even while standing in place; swinging his hands, shifting his feet it was like he couldn't stand still if someone put a gun to his head. "Yes TenTen?" He addressed the woman behind the desk and glanced at me.
"Naruto, Gaara. Gaara, Naruto. He's new, help him." Was all she directed, her eyes never left the computer screen.
Naruto turned to face me and smiled. "Hey, nice to meet you man." He reached out to shake my hand which I met in a firm clasp. "Alright so you should get suited up."
"Already am." I muttered and shrugged off my black jacket to revel the standard issue grey jacket and pants and only further showed how little they think of people who do manual labor for a living.
At that he chuckled and pointed down the hallway. "Prepared, that's good. Well some lady spilled her smoothie in the lounge. You can clean that up alright? I'm working in the snack room washing windows so I can't help you sorry." He directed me down the long hallway and to the left which opened up into a large, empty room except for a few chairs, tables and the smoothie spill. "It's too early for most members to be here but there a few, so best get to work man."
I nodded and sighed, this looks like a world of fun. "Where do I find the supplies?" I tossed my coat onto the back of a chair and looked around for a cupboard or wash bucket but everything was neatly packet away, waiting for the club members to file in for the day.
"In the supply closet in the hallway." He answered automatically and began walking away. But before he actually left he stopped and his tone of voice dropped. "A word of advice Gaara," He waited till I turned to face him. "Keep your head low; you don't want to piss anyone off around here."
OOO
If you think cleaning up a smoothie is easy you're an idiot. Its milk with bits of banana and shit all mixed together and it smells horrible. I can't really use the mop because that just makes the problem worse so I had to get down on my hands and knees with a washrag and bit by bit clean up the smoothie.
Despite my complaining everything was going fine, no one bothered me and I was almost done until I heard a loud 'click' followed by a woman clearing her throat. "Well well, who are you?" I didn't know if I was suppose to answer or not, no one really gave me much of a briefing about what this job exactly was; plus Naruto gave me that ominous warning about keeping my head down so I might as well just do that.
Personally I thought it was a brilliant idea, just continue to clean and not look up at this person and-
"I'm talking to you." Was all the warning I got before a red wedge high heel shoe slammed down on my sleeve.
I followed the red heels up a short leg, hips and flat stomach, large pert breasts to the bright green eyes of a young woman with bright pink hair piled high on her head. "Do you mind?" I growled, annoyed that this stuck up brat-no doubt she's living off of her rich daddy-decided she could just step on my shirt.
"Who are you?" She asked, enunciating 'who' as though I was some mutant creature that fell from space and shit on her car.
"I am just trying to do my job." I hissed and tugged, but that wedge had my shirt snagged.
"So someone actually hired you to work here?" She raised an eyebrow and snorted. "I need to talk to management, their dropping their standards." And then she removed her shoe and walked away without looking back.
Fucking hell I'm here less than two hours and already someone's trying to get me fired? Are you fucking with me? I didn't even do anything, here I am just cleaning up someone's smoothie they decided to just drop on the floor and that-that bitch just decides to fuck with me!
That is the perfect example of injustice!
But I couldn't let this haughty bitch get the better of me, just keep working because there's no way in hell I'll be able to find a job on my own. This is my one shot to get money and I'm not going to mess up on account of some rich-
"There he is. Who let this lowlife in here?" That same annoying voice from before spoke. I glanced over my shoulder but didn't stop cleaning. It was the same pink haired woman from before but this time she was not alone; beside her was another women, someone from management.
"Sakura please don't refer to our employees as 'lowlifes'." The manager gently chastised, apparently she was several years older than Miss Prissy and actually knew what manners were. "Gaara will you please stand up?"
"I was not referring to all employees as such TenTen. Merely this one."
Wordless I did as she asked and stood up, patting down the standard dark grey pants and jacket before looking at the manager, who I believe is the same TenTen from before who didn't even look up from her computer. She was indeed older than the snooty woman named Sakura with brown hair tied back out of her face, brown eyes and absolutely nothing remarkable about her. In short she was almost the exact opposite of Sakura who was loud, rude, has pink hair, green eyes and is surprisingly short considering the fact that she's glaring at me like I was a disgusting toad.
I'm not by the way. Ugly I mean, in fact personally I think I'm rather attractive but that's beside the point.
"My apologizes Gaara but Miss Haruno here has filed a complaint against you. What is it you have done to her for her to act as such?" TenTen asked clipboard and pen poised and ready to write.
"Nothing." I answered automatically, because really I have done nothing to this short, bitchy woman to warrant her drama.
Sakura snorted and tapped her foot. "Liar. He nearly killed me with all…that." She gestured vaguely to the mop, soap bucket and smoothie on the ground. "He didn't put out the required warning sign."
Un-fucking-believable. This is my first day on the job, it hasn't even been two hours and this is the bullshit she comes with?
TenTen frowned and looked around; indeed there was no warning sign out. "On that point yes, you are right Sakura there should be a warning sign but also, this is Gaara's first day and he is now learning." She scribbled something down on her clipboard before looking down at Sakura. "That doesn't warrant him being fired." TenTen then turned to face me and smiled kindly. "You're doing an excellent job here Gaara but for the future, please remember to put out the warning sign. I know it's your first day and you're nervous so I won't write you up."
"Yes Ma'am." I nodded and watched as she turned on her heel and walked away.
"You better watch yourself." Sakura hissed as soon as TenTen was out of earshot. "There's a certain level of people we have here." She stared up at me, her eyes probing every inch of me she could see. "And you don't meet the criteria." With that said she spun on her heel and stomped out.
OOO
My day got somewhat better after that encounter; I spent the day sort of following Naruto around like a puppy and he taught me what it is we do around here. Essentially we do whatever we're asked, if a member asks for a drink we get it, if they ask us to clean their ship, we do it, no questions asked. I didn't see that Sakura woman after that, but then I counted my stars too soon because right when Naruto and I were taking a break for lunch she appeared. With friends.
"That ladies is the scum I was telling you about." She hissed and glared down at me as she walked past our table with two women in tow. "Look at how far the bar has fallen around here."
I bit my tongue to stop from telling her off; I couldn't let her get to me even if she was begging me to do it.
"Sakura that isn't nice." Naruto stated, loud and clear which surprised me because I thought we weren't aloud to talk back to the members? If we could I would have given this spoiled bitch a piece of my mind the second she opened that little mouth of hers!
Sakura stopped and stared down at him. "Naruto I wasn't talking about you." She sighed and shook her head. "I would never call you that."
"I would." One of the women beside her muttered. She was taller than Sakura with long blonde hair and a side fringe; she had the looks of a model but her nose was scrunched up so she looked like she smelt a fresh load of dog shit.
"Sakura that really wasn't a nice thing to say." The other woman spoke up; she was shorter than the blonde but taller than Sakura with long violet colored hair and a freakishly pale complexion. This girl looked like she's never seen the likes of a sun in all her life, which is fucking weird because she's a member of a damn yacht club. "Let's go, I'm getting hungry. Can we have Italian today?"
Sakura stared down at Naruto and me for a few seconds before huffing and walking away, her friends going with her. "You know her?" I asked immediately after she left. I had to know if this mildly annoying but nice guy was friends with that Queen Bitch from Hell because if he was, well shit I needed to keep my distance.
Naruto sighed and opened his bottle of water. "Yeah…she's…wait why did she call you scum? Oh hell you didn't piss her off did you?" He glanced at me a pleading look on his face, like if I did do something I could have gone back in time and changed it? For fucks sake what am I? A time lord?
Rolling my eyes I opened my water bottle and drank down half of it, it was a childish thing to do knowing he was waiting for an answer but he didn't exactly answer my question either. Asshole. "I didn't exactly do anything to her. She singled me out."
Hearing that he sighed and shifted around before standing up, taking his sandwich with him. "Look man, you did well today so you can take off early. I'll talk to TenTen for you." He stared down at me, as though trying to read my mind-which was uncomfortable-then, groaned. "I'm serious. Take off! Half a day's work and a full day's pay, I'm being nice here!"
So I did what any other sensible man would do given that situation. I left.
But I'm not stupid, some weird ass things are going on here, but my only concern was figuring out why my darling sister and brother put me in this situation to begin with; and in order to do that I'm going to need to keep out of trouble for awhile longer. I only hoped that that Sakura bitch would just leave me the hell alone. I don't care what her problem is; just don't take out her frustrations on me. I'm just a guy trying to sort out my own issues; I don't need anyone else's.
OOO
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