Chapter 2: Sunrise

The sun came up the next day in the cold blue sky of December, shining through the first clouds of the morning and directly onto Fujie's face. She opened her eyes with difficulty, completely blinded. In an attempt at getting up she threw the quilt off, only to tangle herself even more in her bed sheets. Successfully rolling off her mattress while trying to get rid of them, she banged her forehead against her night table. She finally got up rubbing the sore bump that had newly appeared and directed herself towards the bathroom on her staggering feet.

Teeth chattering, she had the unpleasant surprise of discovering that the people in charge still hadn't taken care of the hot water in her apartment, and that meant she had to wash her long hair with icy water. She flipped her head upside down in an attempt to shake off some of the water in her red hair, but in doing so she banged her head against the sink. She contented herself with styling her curls, and, holding her enormous fluffy towel tightly around herself, she made her way back to room with the little dignity she had left.

Suddenly, a thought flashed through her mind. 'Sunrise is only around eight in winter. What time… Oh no. I'm going to be late.' She had to rush through her wardrobe to pick clothes that would be convenient for a first day at work, throwing pieces of clothing on her bed in the process. 'And how about this?' She wondered, holding up a red sweater. 'I can't match it with my hair! Why is this even in my stuff?' She panicked a few times because feeling she had nothing suitable, but finally calmed herself down with some black pants and green turtle-neck.

'I hate red and green together. It's like I'm the Christmas spirit walking around.' She thought to herself irritably, grabbing her colorful purse and keys.

It was a very cold month of December that year. At least a couple of feet of snow had fallen a few nights ago and bone-chilling winds rushed through the streets of the village in such manner that it made her opt for a woolly coat, a hat to cover her still humid hair and a matching navy blue scarf. She preferred being too hot rather than too cold -after all, her family had moved up from the South, even if that was twenty years ago and her body should have been adapted to the current weather by now.

Finally leaving for work, she hurried down the stairs. Because of her carelessness, she tripped over her feet and crashed with force onto the floor in a mass of knitted fabric.

'What's is wrong with me? It's just a first day at work!' She huffed, reprimanding herself. 'This is not a sign, today will be just fine.' she tried to convince herself, finally setting foot outside and pulling unconsciously her coat closer to her.

Her grandpa had teased her incessantly about her heliolatry, but she wondered if she didn't enjoy the snow on equal grounds, in spite of her sensitivity to the cold. It was rare for it to snow in Konoha, especially during the beginning of December, but she felt it was going to snow again, if not in the next few days, the week after. That thought brought up her mood on her way to the Information facility, separated from the sector of interrogation for safety measures.

Suddenly, she felt very nervous : she thought of what she had heard on Ibiki Morino from her coworkers, Head of Interrogation, a sadistic man with a terrible past. Although that last fact had her intrigued, she was horrified by some of the stories. She tried to push those thoughts aside, gathered her strength to enter the large building, stretching over a couple blocks towards the village's hospital. Inside, she oriented herself towards the security desk. Ibiki's main office? Top floor, she was told.

"Hold the door!" A man with spiky blue hair yelled, arms full of dossiers and running towards her. She put her hand out and prevented the doors from closing. He made small talk about being on the sixth floor, the Encryption Room, and being the dogsbody of everyone because it was his first year here. He said a few words on Ibiki, describing him as unpleasant and spiteful man, but quickly tried to make up for his mistake after seeing Fujie's face turn to worry, saying that it was only with the people he disliked. She didn't change the look on her face, so he ventured the fact that even if it was so, it wouldn't last more than a couple of months.

The elevator stopped on the twelfth floor, letting her in a five square foot corridor leading to a huge set of double doors. Timidly she took one step, then another, and finally she knocked twice on the door, ignoring the burn in her stomach. Fujie didn't forget to check a mental image of herself to verify if she was presentable and wouldn't miss the chance to make a good first impression. The result : she was able to push some of her hair over the fresh lump and bruise on her forehead and brush off her coat for any dust. She waited a couple seconds but preferred to enter before she was told in an attempt at asserting herself in some way.

"Hello? I'm Oda. Oda Fujie, I was just transferred here." She said, taking another step inside the enormous office. Her gaze swept the office: a couple people were whispering loudly near the coffee machine in the far left, not noticing her presence or not caring, while two of the five workers at their desks looked up briefly from their work to check on the intruder. The whole office stretched onto her left, bordered with large double windows and big desks set in front of them. There were at least eight of them. Finally against the right wall, she saw the largest desk, what appeared to be the head of the office, set as to see the whole workplace just by lifting one's head, and there she saw Ibiki Morino.

Or rather, Ibiki Morino's back, for the tall man was carefully looking at a map of the Fire country on the wall behind his desk. The window to his left was half-opened, blowing lightly his long coat.

"Sit." he ordered without taking his eyes off the map.

As she did, standing the way he was, she realized he must have been at least a foot and a half taller than she, and his broad shoulders made him all the more impressive. She recognized him immediately from the different descriptions she had heard.

"Oda Fujie?" he said, asking the same question as the young genin the previous day, before she could open her mouth to also inquire his name.

"That's correct."

She had answered a bit too loudly, probably because she was trying too hard to cover up her anxiety by showing enthusiasm. She immediately corrected her tone.

"I only received the notice yesterday, I wish I had gotten it a little more in advance... Are you Morino Ibiki?" she asked, putting up her best smile.

And while the rest of the workers gazed at her, she wondered if her voice had been shaky.

"I also received the news yesterday, it was untimely delivered for the both of us." he stated flatly, successfully destroying the attempt she made to build a friendly interaction.

"Your desk is this one." he spoke again, pointing to the first one next to his. "I need you to file, and rewrite the notes that are unclear, and order everything chronologically." he added, waving to a messy stack propped up to the side of his desk, set on the floor.

Fujie sighed inwardly, trying to keep looking as motivated as she could. She picked the pile up with difficulty, setting them on her new desk. She thought that in two hours, she would be able to get some coffee and a chat with the people she will from now on refer to as coworkers, and started her work with that in mind. Every now and then, she would steal a glance in Ibiki's direction, very curious about his character, equally afraid of him and his looks, but nonetheless remained concentrated on her task.

She discovered that he had written most of the letter responses that came in the folders, and that he had a large, slanted, scruffy looking handwriting that was difficult to read, the kind of handwriting used when knowing no one will read what is being written. After a little while, she got up and stepped in front of his desk.

"Morino-san, is it okay if I have a coffee break?"

She wasn't used to asking that kind of requests, nor did she know if she was supposed to ask.

"You can have one without asking." he replied, not even bothering looking up from the report he was currently writing and that she would surely have to copy later on. "As soon as you finish with the letters to return for the applicants, go to the third floor so that they can send them out."

Ibiki watched as she made her way to the coffee machine. She would be a little helpful in the paperwork area, he thought, more useful and quicker than a typewriter, but hardly saw her beginning shyly a conversation with Izumo, who he thought was the friendlier looking in the office, and he happily chatted away with her, pointing to the different people in the office. For the next five or ten minutes, he looked as he was filling her on whatever gossip was going on, pointing to the different persons, and then Kotetsu joined his friend in talking with the little redhead that had arrived earlier. Her cheeks were a bit pink, but she had a big smile on and was gladly building the conversation.

"He looks a little bit rough... Is he always like this, or do I have a special treatment because I'm new to the department? " she inquired, looking sideways to check any sign of Ibiki listening to her questions. She decided not to let Izumo answer and spoke up again. "What is his story, anyway?"

"He was caught by the enemy during the war. He...underwent some tough interrogations and..." He lowered his voice even more. "That left him with some... Scars."

Ibiki's ear twitched and he gave his men his coldest glare, one that sent shivers up Fujie's spine. She swallowed hard and made her way back to her desk to finish quickly, and left for the Mail Room.

Kotetsu and Izumo, neither affected by Ibiki's dirty look, kept chatting after she closed the doors. They were wondering how long it would take for her to just give up because of the hard time their scary boss would give her, after all, they knew it would take some time for their superior before he got to tolerate her. The others kept alert on what they were saying, even Ibiki.

"I heard she's been transferred because she couldn't her previous job right. It's like a demotion, she's basically a human typewriter now."

"Well, I heard it's because she did her job a little too well that the Hokage wanted to move to a less busy area."

"What did she do, anyway?"

Kotetsu shrugged, raising his eyebrows, "She was some kind of paperbug, but other than that, I have no details."

Ibiki's voice boomed again in the office.

"Alright, you two, back to work. Slackers."

The last word was uttered under his breath because he didn't need the paperwork for this day to get any slower. He guessed that that red-haired 'Oda' would speed up in the next few days or else they would never get anything done and be clear to go on missions. He directed towards the two underlings, eying them with dark eyes.

"Enough with the gossip break already;" he paused for a second "and other kind of special breaks" he added to Midori and Youji, who were pretending they didn't know what he meant.

She looked over to her boyfriend, winking with the eye Ibiki couldn't see from where he was. Unfortunately, nothing escaped him.

"You do know, Tanaka, that I can see your reflection in the window behind you."

He gave out a small chuckle at her surprised look and got back to filing reports, all the while thinking of the new girl at work. She didn't seem very confident, and surely wouldn't cause him any problems, but with his recent struggle with discipline in his own lines, he thought it was reasonable to intimidate her a bit so that she would stay calm.