Thank you for all my readers for Petals of War! This is one of the "modern day" stories I promised! Enjoy :P
"You're up."
Mitsuri put her name tag down and rose a brow at her manager, "My shift just ended."
"You're going on another shift, we have a VIP room that needs to be served."
"Isn't Aiko suppose to-"
A pony-tailed girl burst into the room with her face covered in tears, running mascara and of course, her hands. Her loud sob followed her until she sprinted into the bathroom that was connected to the room they were in.
Mitsuri rose her brow higher and stared at her manager dully.
The manager pretended to not see what just happened with Aiko, "Go now and you won't be fired," she hissed.
The dark-haired girl shot her a quick glare, then quietly picked up her name tag again.
"3 Asahi and 2 bottles of sake," her manager ordered and watched Mitsuri obediently go inside the cabinets to pick up the drinks.
She had been working at this karaoke bar for longer than she had wanted. It was one of those jobs that hired her quick, paid her enough to keep rent, and slightly more respectable than her other options, especially in the nightlife industry.
As Mitsuri made her way down the hall way to the VIP section, the karaoke noises began to drown down as she started to calculate in her head how much extra she should be getting paid. She stopped at the room with the gold painted door, the other doors had a small window through to see the people inside. But the special VIP ones were completely sheltered. She followed the company's rules by first knocking on the door, (even though nobody would hear her), waiting two seconds and then entering slowly.
As soon as the door creaked open a loud blast of metal music escaped.
A silver haired man was screaming at the mic as he lifted a leg up on the table. His circle necklace with an upside-down triangle danced on his chest as he moved sporadically.
"AHHHH! RAHHHH!"
She kept her head down and made her way to the large center table. One by one she placed the ordered drinks on the side.
"Finally, un!"
A blonde-haired man snatched a bottle of Sake out of Mitsuri's hands, popped the cap off and held the bottle pointing down vertically into his mouth. He only stopped when he saw his partner's gaze on Mitsuri.
"Oi Sasori, don't scare her off like you did the last one, un!" He said, patting Sasori's chest with the back of his hand. "I don't want to wait forever for my drinks, yeah?"
The red-haired man that sat next to him on the karaoke couch, Sasori, smiled. Despite the loud metal music that was destroying her ear drums, Mitsuri could read Sasori's lips as he said, "The last one would've made a better human puppet."
No wonder Aiko got so scared and no one wanted to serve this room. They were the infamous underground organization, the Akatsuki. They were rumored to be some of the worst criminals that were formed together, known to do almost anything for money.
There was also rumors that behind them, there was someone else that controlled them.
Despite all the powerful men in the room, in the midst of all of them, there was one man's presence that could not be ignored. He was featured on all the papers related to anything to do with finance, business and investment. Out of all the top and talented upcoming young entrepreneurs he was labeled by Japan's number one business magazine as "the one to look out for".
Madara Uchiha inherited the Uchiha Corporation at a very young age. The family business was originally a strong but humble one in Japan. After his rule, the corporation grew so large it has been taking over many industries and now going world-wide. There was speculation that he had some side businesses to help the Uchiha Corporation grow so fast, and being involved with the Akatsuki was one of those.
The metal music finally stopped.
"FUCK YEAH!" The metal singer did a final yell to finish off his song.
"WOO! HIDAN!" Some businessmen who sat on the side cheered and whistled at his performance. Even if they didn't enjoy it, they had to pretend they did. As another song came up, Hidan passed the mic to the next singer and sat down to drink.
Quietly, Mitsuri quickly got up to leave the room.
A man with what seems to be glowing green eyes leaned towards Madara and said something. Madara turned his attention to the new server that came into the room.
"You."
Mitsuri stopped in her steps, praying he wasn't talking to her.
"Come."
He was talking to her.
She took a deep breath and let it out before turning around taking a few steps back to the table.
"My friend here, Kakuzu, says he's seen you before."
She briefly made eye contact with Kakuzu's green eyes, "I've worked here for a while now."
"He meant he's seen you outside."
"…."
"Come closer."
She took a few steps forward, but keeping distance.
"Closer."
Mitsuri gulped and took a few more steps to Madara and Kakuzu.
Madara stood up and stared straight into her eyes.
She felt her palms sweat.
His face inched closer.
Her heart started to pound loudly.
"Kakuzu," Madara pulled away, "I think you've had too much to drink, how can that person be working at a place like this?"
Mitsuri sighed in relief.
"But with close examination…" She almost jumped when he grabbed the around the waist, pulling them close together.
All of a sudden, Madara began to lick her face gently and Mitsuri began to struggle out of his grasp. Then the licks turned into a slobber which caused her to shove his face away. Before she began to yell at him, he barked.
What?
As the barks turned louder, Mitsuri felt her consciousness rose out of her. She felt a rough tongue and a wet nose rub all over her face, as she opened her eyes and pushed it away, she saw a small dog panting at her.
"…Huh?"
She heard someone yawn as they walked into the room.
"Oh, hey. Sorry, Kiba left his dog here while he's on vacation...Did you have a good sleep?"
Mitsuri sat up on the couch she apparently slept on last night and almost fell off it as she felt a pounding headache, "Ino…What happened last night?"
"Last night?" Ino laughed a bit as she made her way to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water, "I was with some friends at the karaoke bar you worked at last night! Remember? We bumped into each other!"
She untwisted the bottle cap and took a few sips, "You were like, freaking out about being recognized or something? Then I was like so? Then I forced you to come drink with me!"
Mitsuri scratched her head with a grumpy face and looked down to notice she was wearing one of Ino's shirts.
"We had such a blast! You got so drunk you called your manager! It was so funny!" Ino opened one of the cabinets that stored pet food. Kiba's dog perked up and his paws tapped against the wooden floor as he swiftly made his way to Ino.
"What did I say?" Mitsuri grumbled, trying to fight through her headache as she tried to recollect her memories from last night. Before Ino responded, Mitsuri's phone buzzed and there was a preview of a text from her manager that wrote, "YOU'RE FIRED".
"Uh…Let's just say you should try your best at your new job interview today." Ino tried to flash a quick smile.
"My…What?"
"You know, the one at the new finance company you were telling me about?"
Oh dear.
Mitsuri ran through the streets in her new work heels, apologizing every so often as she bumped into people going past.
She almost ran past her interview location but quickly stopped herself as soon as she saw the building. Without hesitation, she ran inside and only caught her breath when she checked in at the front desk.
"Second floor, stairs are that way."
Mitsuri followed the directions and ran clumsily up the stairs, almost tripping over about 2 times, which one of the trips caused another worker to spill their coffee, she eventually made it to the interview room.
She burst in and met the eyes of her very unimpressed employers.
"You're late." The lady in the middle stated as she pushed her glasses up.
"I'm so sorry!" Mitsuri pulled down her shirt to straighten herself. "The bus was running late, and I was-"
"It's fine, take a seat."
She tip toed over the seat that faced right ahead of the 5 people. Mitsuri cursed at herself internally as she felt her potentially new employers watched her.
"So, we reviewed your resume and we were…Intrigued at your current employment history."
"Yes! So, I-" Mitsuri felt her voice weakened because of last night's drinking and quickly cleared her throat. "My employment history, um, that's because-"
The door opened and all 5 of them stood up in surprised, but quickly bowed as they saw the figure.
"Uchiha-sama."
Mitsuri spun around to look behind her and her eyes widened in shock.
"Oh no." She whispered.
Madara glanced over to see the new potential hire and smirked.
"I'll interview this one…Personally."