Hey everyone! I got an idea for a fic a while ago and after allowing the idea to swirl around in my head for a while, I decided to post it. Hope you all enjoy it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Betas: Savari and NaminexSora lover
Sakura Haruno was not a popular person in high school.
In fact, she was one of those nerds that were never noticed by the popular crowds, and only managed to make it through the tough period by cherishing the fact that in a few years, she would leave this juvenile playground and enter the real world, a place where it was brains that made you on top and it didn't matter if you were part of the popular crowd in your teenage years.
Man, was she disappointed when she found out that real life was exactly like high school.
People were still able to live off of their parent's money. You could still buy success. Beauty could still get you places, even if you had the IQ of margarine. And bullying still existed: the only difference was that instead of getting pushed into lockers, your job would get taken away.
She had seen it happen before. Kevin, a friend of hers from high school, had a career in the real estate world. He was smart, listened to his client's desires, and was extremely good at bringing in money for the business that employed him. But the second a man named Dante came and applied for a job, Kevin was let go without a second thought. Why? Because, although Kevin was good at his job, he was still scrawny and pasty enough to be a ghost, while Dante was well muscled, tanned and had super model good looks.
Sakura was nearly devastated when she found out that people could still treat others like crap and goof off all the time, and still be able to get far in life. Her only comfort came when she learned that one of the girls that used to pick on the 'lesser beings' in the school, was currently working in a liquor store. That discovery brought a smile to her face for the remainder of the month.
Well, in all honestly she probably had two comforts. The fact that one of the popular, brainless twits from high school was now getting near minimum wage selling cheap beer, and the fact that she herself had achieved success.
The pinkette had come from a poor family. Her parents could barely afford the necessities and if it wasn't for her babysitting money, she wouldn't have gotten any new clothes after junior high (not that she could afford many new items anyway). Fortunately for Sakura, she was a genius. And because of her intellect, she was able to attend the most prestigious private school of Konoha, instead of going to the lesser known public school.
Many people would consider that to be a fantastic thing. But not Sakura. Instead of having many cliques like most high schools, Konoha Academy only had two. The people whose parents were rich enough to afford the tuition fees, and the people who, like Sakura, could only attend because they were smart enough to pass the entry test that the school gave out for people who could not afford to pay their way in. Those who could pass the test were given a huge discount of the fees, and would be able to keep that discount as long as they were able to maintain high marks throughout their time at the school. Lucky them.
The academy was obviously controlled by the first group. And they made it their mission to make life hell for the other group. On the plus side, if you were in the second group and you survived Konoha Academy, you could survive anywhere. Unfortunately, that was the only positive thing you could say about it.
In a way, the rich group of the academy were a lot like any other group of popular kids. Except for the fact that their parents were filthy rich. And with money comes power and influence. They could do whatever they wanted to the NG (nerdy group), whether it was forcing them to supply answers to tests (even if it was during the tests), 'roughing them up' in the halls, throwing things at them or simply publicly humiliating them by locking them in the opposite sexes' bathroom, or dumping their trash on them. And they could do all of these things in front of the principle and not have to worry about receiving any punishment.
The only teacher who had ever tried to stop them was a small female teacher named Ms. Aby. She had the audacity to give one of the rich kids detention for pushing a member of the NG into a locker. The next day, she was fired for having an alleged affair with a student.
Sakura was fortunate enough to not be entirely scrawny looking, not need glasses, and not be cursed with braces. So her looks did not scream 'make fun of me'. And she was able to strike a deal with Ino, one of the few rich kids that could actually be considered nice. The pinkette tutored the blond after school and in turn, Ino made sure that the rest of the popular clique would leave her be. So, Sakura was blessed with only being shunned and ignored throughout her high school existence, instead of having to worry about being mocked and abused every day.
The female had a special knack for rating and reviewing things. Whether it be restaurants, songs, clothing stores or books. Her friends would always ask her for her opinion on everything from stores in the mall to celebrities. So after high school, she decided to become a mystery shopper. She took the training required to become a gold shopper and started working.
At first things were slow. For the first few years it was difficult to pay the bills, and she had to do without having a lot of luxuries. But after she began to gain more experience, things became easier. Instead of looking around for ads that required her services, businesses would request her directly to review their services.
After she gained enough money to have a large savings account, she decided to take a risk and become a professional critic. She would write reviews of businesses that she visited and books she read, and sell them to newspapers and other media. Someone even published a book filled with all of her reviews. And it actually managed to sell quite well.
Her life was pretty good. Sakura made her own hours, chose the stores that she wanted to critique, and was beginning to become quite wealthy. The best part was that no one who read the reviews knew who she was.
Sakura never put her name on her work. Instead, she used the alias The Reviewer. And under that pseudonym, she became one of the best known critics in the world.
Being anonymous was probably the best move the self employed reviewer could make. She knew how businesses would bribe, or sometimes blackmail, critics into giving them a good review. There had been a story a while back about a business tycoon that had a critic get beaten up and had his house burnt down because he wouldn't give the business a good review. The pinkette didn't need to worry about that.
Unfortunately for her it was becoming more and more difficult to stay unknown. Her reviews could make or break a company. She could make a small business become famous, or cause a huge corporation to come crashing down. And because of this, big time businesses were spending huge amounts of money to find out her identity. They would question every media source that she gave a review to, and hunt through every critique she gave with a fine tooth comb, looking for any clue to her identity.
But Sakura made sure that her identity was kept a secret. She would use her nickname whenever she gave a review to a publisher, and never allowed her real name to escape to any of them. The pinkette never told anyone about what store she was going to review next. In fact, barely anyone actually knew what her real job was. Most people that knew her simply assumed that she worked in some sort of clinic. The pinkette didn't like the fact that she had to make most people believe a lie, but if she wanted to remain anonymous in her reviewing, she didn't really have a choice.
A small hand grasped a small coffee cup and lifted it up to meet soft lips. After allowing some of the fluid to flow past her mouth down into her throat, Sakura placed the cup back down on the small table. She was currently seated alone in a small cafe in uptown Konoha. Although the pinkette was inside of the small business, the intense summer heat caused the employees of the establishment to open the windows, allowing all the sounds of the outdoors to filter into the cafe. Cars were whizzing by on the roads, people were happily walking along the sidewalk, and the occasional bird flew by in the sky.
Sakura, however, was not paying attention to any of these things. She was completely focused on her notebook. It was small and black, probably only worth a few dollars. But to the pink haired woman, it was worth so much more than that. It was where she kept most of her information about her reviews.
Despite being a genius in school, the female was not that good with computers. Well, that wasn't exactly true. Sure, she wasn't great with them, but that was probably just because she used the devises as little as possible. The pinkette was too paranoid about someone finding out her identity by tracing her computer or email.
So instead of going 'high tech', Sakura kept track of her information the old fashioned way; with pen and paper. She kept a notebook for everything; from background information about companies, to old reviews, to the notes she took after visiting a business, which she used to write her critiques.
This particular notebook contained her schedule. It showed what places she was going to review and when she was going to do so. Considering the fact that no one aside from her knew exactly when she was going to review a business, it was one of her most valuable possessions.
Her emerald eyes were currently focused on a list of the next places she would be reviewing. There were a few minor companies, and one new business that was quickly gaining popularity. However, there was one other name on the list that stuck out to her. Uchiha Electronics.
It was one of the world's top electronic companies. At one point in time, it only had merchandise and it's products were sold in other stores. But then it began to have its own outlets, and after a while, the stores became a worldwide chain, and their high quality merchandise was only available in Uchiha stores.
The company had another feature that stuck out to Sakura. A feature that made her eyes narrow and her small mouth form into a frown. It was currently owned by Sasuke Uchiha.
The two had attended Konoha Academy together. However, the two were anything but friends. Because of his family's wealth, Sasuke was automatically placed into the first group. And obviously because of Sakura's brains and lack of riches, she was put into the NG.
Fortunately for Sakura, the two rarely interacted with each other. Sasuke had his place and she had hers. Despite this fact, she despised the dark haired male far more than almost any other of the rich kids.
In truth, the Uchiha really wasn't worse than any of the other people in his clique. In fact, in many ways he was better than a lot of them; he rarely mocked those who were 'below him,' and he had a tendency to keep to himself rather than join his group whenever they decided to gang up on an innocent nerd. He also had a reputation as a heart throb. Known for his well muscled physique and dark good looks, he unintentionally attracted more than half of the female population at the academy. Even Sakura had a small crush on him for a while.
Both her crush and her decent opinion of him quickly changed during the last few days of their senior year. The pinkette had been walking to her calculus class when she saw a group of people standing in the middle of the hall, all with shocked expressions. After walking closer to the scene, she discovered with horrified eyes the reason why everyone was flocking around the area.
Malcolm, one of her closest friends and current boyfriend, was lying down on the floor with Sasuke standing over him. It had been obvious that poor Malcolm had been beaten up. Considering that her boyfriend was part of the NG, that wasn't what was surprising everyone. The fact that Sasuke rarely fought with, or even acknowledged someone from the second group, wasn't what was shocking them either.
No, the reason why everyone looked horrified was because of the extent that the Uchiha had hurt him. Malcolm was unconscious and had blood pouring out of a broken nose. All of his visible skin was black and blue, and it looked like he had a few broken bones. Even the rich kids thought that Sasuke had taken it too far.
Sasuke didn't even look like he was finished yet. His eyes were still darkened and his fist was poised upwards in preparation to deliver another punch. But Sakura wasn't about to let him finish the action.
Without a second thought, she ran in front of her boyfriend, thereby protecting him from Sasuke's punch. "Hey, leave him alone!"
Sasuke immediately halted his action and lowered his arm back down to his side. His nigh deadly facial expression however, remained. "Move." He commanded.
"No." If the pinkette wasn't so focused on protecting Malcolm, she might have felt nervous about how everyone in the hall was now watching her.
Sasuke glared at her, but then finally relaxed his facial expression and appeared to be finished with his assault on the other boy.
As soon as Sakura was sure that Sasuke wasn't going to harm her boyfriend any further, she fled to Malcolm's side and picked him up slightly. He looked bad and she needed to get help soon. But before she called for the nurse, she glared at Sasuke. "I don't know how, and I don't know when, but someday you are seriously going to pay for this."
Sasuke snorted. "I doubt it."
Sakura's relationship with Malcolm ended shortly after that. But her hatred for Sasuke remained. And now she was going to review his company. It seems like our roles have switched Sasuke. She thought wickedly as a smile grew on her face. I'm now the one with the power to make your life miserable.
She shut the notebook, got up from her chair, and left the seating area. The smile remained on her face as she walked away from the table. Payback's a bitch isn't it?