Falling in Love in Aisle 7
by sushicakes


Sakura woke up around 7, quickly taking a shower and putting on her uniform and found black shorts that went down to her knees. She had put on her black high top Converse, saying bye to Tsunade, Sakura headed towards the Konoha Supermarket for her first day of work. Entering the huge place, Sakura looked at the piece of paper that was in the uniform bag and it gave her directions to the training meeting spot. When she arrived, she could see a small group of people, most of them look like her age. As everyone waited a bit more, finally a girl with two Chinese style hair buns came into view.

"Hey guys, I'm Tenten and I'm going to be your trainer or foreman today. In this box, I've got name tags for all of you so when I call your name please come up."

One after another their names were called and finally Sakura's name was called. Sakura fixed her hair and walked up to Tenten.

"Here you go Sakura and please pin it to your left or right side, not the bottom," Tenten told her.

"Thank you." Sakura walked back to her spot and pinned it to the left side of her shirt.

As Tenten continued handing out the name tags, Sakura stood quietly but heard some people behind her talking about her hair. She tried to ingore them but they were getting on her nerves, even though she's used to this bullshit.

"Pink hair? Wow, so ridiculous."

"It's like a... whore colour."

"Oh my God Em, ew!"

"God, I bet she was forced into getting this job."

"Excuse me, yes you two girls back there. Can you please shut the hell up and not talk about other people's hair? You are lucky that this is just your first day or else you will have a strike #1 right now," Tenten said loudly and interrupting the two. Sakura grinned.

"Miss... what is this strike?" A boy asked.

"Aw yes the strikes. Alright listen up because this is important," Tenten paused for a second to take a sip of her water, man those girls were annoying, "There are three strikes like a baseball game. If you get all three, you're OUT! In order to not get these strikes, you must not do the following... hey lazy ass come over here!"

Everyone's head turned to the right and saw a guy with his hair tied up about their age also bringing over a white broad with writing on it. Tenten thanked him and he walked away into what it seems like the staff room, pointing to the list Tenten began to read them.

"Do not talk about others behind their backs, do not steal anything from the store nor anyone's things from their lockers, no socializing while working do this only on your lunch or breaks in the staff room, do not bring drugs or alcohol, and you are not allowed to go to the stock area this is only for those who are well trained and applied for the job." Tenten looked at her group and asked if there was any questions.

The same boy raised his hand and Tenten signaled him to speak, "Would these strikes ever get taken away? Like after a few months of good work and we don't have to worry about it?"

"Yeah, if you work here for a year or if Jiraiya sees you working well and up to his requirements," Tenten answered and seeing all of their faces at the answer and smirked. "Alright come with me, I'm going to saw you guys your lockers and around the store."

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As the group finished their tour around the market, Tenten assigned some people positions, most of them were at cashiers and the ones who applied for stock was taken away by a guy with long brown hair and pearl white eyes named Neji. Sakura noticed when he appeared beside Tenten and she blushed a bit when they talked a bit. Tenten sent the two girls to the flower section, the rest were put to go walk down aisles, some were helping customers get things or the vegetables and fruits section. Sakura was the only one left and Tenten walked to her and smiled.

"Um, I don't got much left... what would you like to do Sakura?"

Sakura blinked a couple of times and said, "I don't know..."

Tenten looked at her watch, Sakura took notice of it too and Tenten smiled at Sakura again.

"Well, it's almost lunch time, how about we go eat lunch?"

"Oh okay."

The two walked towards the small food court and Sakura could smell the freshly made food coming from the kitchen. They lined up and when it came to their turn, Sakura realized that she didn't have her wallet with her as they were ordering.

"Tenten... I don't have my wallet with me," Sakura said.

"That's okay. Employees get lunch for free."

As they reached the cashier, a blond hair boy with blue eyes spotted Sakura behind Tenten.

"Hi Naruto. Mark two please."

"Hey Tenten! Oh, hey who's this? You new?"

"Yeah, hi I'm Sakura." 'This guy is pretty hyper.'

"Sakura, this is Naruto, he's in charge of the food court along with Choji who mostly works in the kitchen," Tenten introduced them to each other.

"Cool, nice to meet you Naruto."

"Nice to meet you too Sakura! Make sure Tenten isn't working you too much!"

"Oh shut it blondie." Tenten threw a plastic spoon at him as the two walked away.

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Tenten and Sakura sat down and ate their food off a round table in the staff room. There were other employees in here who were also on their lunch break, reading a book or on their phones. Sakura checked her Blackberry and got no messages from her friends who she had texted earlier to see if any of them wanted to hang out later. As Tenten and Sakura ate, the door was swung open and Neji walked in and saw the two. Tenten looked at Sakura and gave her the 'okay keep calm look' and Sakura just looked at her weirdly.

"Hey, can I sit with you guys?"

"Sure." Tenten said and flashed a small smile as he sat down across from them.

"So how was your group this time?" Neji asked as he opened up his lunch container.

"Better than the last. These two girls were annoying as hell, I just wanted to give them 2 strikes for talking about Sakura."

"Sakura?" Neji tooked at Tenten and saw Sakura sitting beside her, "Oh, you're Sakura."

All Sakura did was wave at him and went back to her food and drank out from her water bottle.

"You know me Neji, I have zero tolerance for bitches like them talking behind other peoples backs."

"That's true," Neji took a bite from his rice and turned his head to Sakura, "So which section you working at?"

"As of right now... none. Tenten's trying to figure out it right now."

Neji grinned but it went unnoticed, he took a last bite of his food and packed it up. "Well ladies, have fun and good luck." And with that he left the staff room to go back to the stock area.

Tenten closed her container and looked at Sakura, Sakura was also finished her lunch.

"Neji rarely eats here," Tenten mumbles to Sakura.

"Weird."

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After lunch, Tenten decided to just have Sakura walk around with her as she checked the rest of the group at their sections. They even went to the stock area and Sakura took notice on why Tenten said only stock people are allow in there. The place was huge, half the size of the supermarket, boxes were on top of each other on one side and the other side was like the pick up area of Ikea. There was machines that helped move things around also. Leaving the place, they headed towards the cashier label #1 and Sakura saw it was the 'lazy ass' guy counting the money near the register.

"Hey Shikamaru, how are your newbies?"

Shikamaru looked up and said, "Good, they learn fast which is good."

Tenten nodded at Sakura who was carrying the clipboard and checked off the people's names with the word cashier next to them.

"Alright thanks, see ya later tonight!" Tenten waved back to him as the two walked away and headed towards the manager's officer. After handing in the clipboard, Tenten asked Sakura if she would like to come tonight to a party.

"Where and when?"

"After work, meet at the Cherry Park at 9. Wear something cute or whatever."

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Since it was Sakura's first day like everyone else, they all got off at 5 while the other people are getting off at 8. Sakura headed home to take a shower, ate a bit of dinner and went back upstairs to get ready for the party tonight. Sakura opened up her closet and ran her fingers through her dresses and pulled out a cute gray dress with ruffles, put it on and as she put only mascara on her lashes, she noticed it was already 8:20 and since she lived near Cherry Park, it wouldn't take her long to get to there. She didn't do much to her hair since her hair was in a bun and when she took it out, her hair was a bit curly. Heading downstairs, she wrote a note on the white board on the fridge saying she was going out. Putting on her red flats, Sakura checked herself once more in front of the mirror that hangs near the front door.

As Sakura reached the park, she saw Tenten and Naruto sitting on a picnic table near the playground, Sakura walked to them, they saw her also.

"Sakura! Wow, you look cute."

"Love the dress."

"Thanks."

As they waited, Sakura asked them a couple of questions about them. What she learned from Naruto was that he's 16 and goes to the same school as Sakura. How come she never seen him before? He started working at the supermarket at 15 when he moved in with Jiraiya. He explained how after his parents had died in a car crash, Jiraiya took him in after reading the will that Naruto's parents had written if anything were to happen, Jiraiya should be the one taking care of Naruto. Sakura noticed Naruto's smile turned into a frown as he spoke about them but soon flashed smile again.

Sakura learned that Tenten is 17 and due to her hard work with customer service and she had mostly worked at every section, she was put into training the new people. She is currently living by herself in a small apartment downtown, and she likes to be more in the middle of a tomboy and girly girl. Tenten also goes to the same school, she was suppose to graduate but unfortunately, she's missing 3 credits.

Soon a girl Sakura has not met yet come into view and Naruto was waving madly at her to come over to where they are, the girl was blushing. Sakura learned that her name is Hinata and she is Neji's cousin, no wonder their eyes are like the same. She also goes the same school but usually is in the library helping putting away books. After Tenten introduced them to each other, the four headed for the party which was near by.

They walked into the front door they could hear music was blasting as they got further in. Sakura noticed a lot of people from school and they all said hi and she said hi back. The DJ switched the song to IDGAF by Breathe Carolina and everyone around the place were all dancing and some were well, grinding even though the song isn't really a grinding song. Sakura thought maybe they were high or drunk. Tenten grabbed Sakura's hand and led her to the kitchen where she saw a group doing shots. Tenten reached into the fridge and pulled out two beer cans and handed one to Sakura but she shook her head.

"Oh come on Sakura, loosen up. I've seen you at school, all goody-goody."

Sakura didn't know whether to take that as an insult but shook it off and accepted the can. "You're right, let's go have fun."


Two days pass since the party, good thing Tsunade was home when Sakura got home because she felt a hangover coming. Tsunade laughed at Sakura for finally letting go and had fun. Now feeling all better, Sakura went to work and is at the customer service with Tenten. Mostly sorting out coupons to put up around the place, Sakura basically had free time today.

Taking an early break, Sakura walked around the supermarket and saw the flower section, walking to it she didn't see those two girls but just a girl with long blond hair tied up working on a bouquet for a couple. When the couple walked away with their purchase, the girl behind the counter lifted her head and Sakura recognized those sky blue eyes, it also seems like the girl had noticed Sakura looking at her. Putting up a small little sign, the girl exited her section and walked over to Sakura.

"Well well well, what do we have here?" the girl said in a bitchy tone.

"Ino..."

"What are you doing here Sakura?"

"Working... looks like you are too."

"Problem?" Ino asked and raised an eyebrow.

"I thought you'd be working at some fancy clothing store," Sakura said.

"And you should be in the library studying your nerdy brain off." Ino shot at her before Sakura could speak again, Ino interrupted her, "Whatever, I have no time to deal with you. I gotta go on my lunch."

Out of all the people she had to deal and work with and see, it has to be Ino! Ino! Her former best friend, the one who ditched her to hang out with the "popular" crowd even though Sakura was all up for making new friends but she didn't feel it was right to change everything about herself to fit in. At that time, it seemed like Ino understood Sakura but she also wanted to hang with her and her new friends. Though that didn't last. Later on their freshman year, Sakura and Ino grew apart and there were times when they argued.

Sakura walked back to her work and sat down on the chair in front of a computer. Tenten had left her a note on the screen saying she'll be back later and with that Sakura took a comic book that was laying near the binders, read it and of course paid attention to her surroundings.

Hours passed and all Sakura did was sell some bus passes to people, helped two old ladies find cat food and Naruto had stopped by dropping off two small sushi boxes for her and Tenten. Noticing the time, she said bye to Tenten and Sakura walked to the staff room's girl's change room to change out of her uniform, punched out and went home.