An hour of walking around barefoot and hauling boxes in and out of elevators later. With an exasperated huff, Alicia deposits the last box of paperwork none too gently in front of Izuna Uchiha's door. She had scowled when she'd seen that name on the door, the two Uchiha's she'd met so far were both egotistical and obnoxiously self-important. Why did she have a strong feeling those traits were inherent in all Uchiha men? A heavy sigh escapes her lips as she wearily knocks on the door.
The man who opens the door looks exactly like the typical Uchiha: fair skinned, dark eyes, and spiky black hair. Unlike the other men of his family, Izuna didn't greet her with the haughty trademark smirk which she'd deemed an inherited trait. It both worries and intrigues Alicia that the man before her is smiling, a full fledged, unrepressed expression of glee which meant one of two things: either he is actually a genuinely nice and more normal guy than his relatives or he is more deranged than Madara and has even more miserable tortures planned for her. She makes a mental note to tread carefully incase it's the latter.
"Alicia-san, I take it?"
She nods respectfully. "And your two ton delivery," she adds jokingly, testing him.
Much to her relief, Izuna laughs looking over her haggard form and the 5 large boxes. His eyes land on the tall heels she'd quickly slipped on before knocking. She doesn't miss the quick glance that runs up her legs before he raises his eyebrows questioningly.
"You brought all these boxes down here wearing those? You deserve a medal. How the hell is your ankle not sprained?"
It's Alicia's turn to laugh as she feels herself relax in his calming presence, though she doesn't completely drop her guard. Izuna actually seemed like a decent guy and working here would be much easier if she knew at least one person that was friendly.
"Well I might have cheated," she grins. He returns her look with a mischievous wink.
"Don't worry your secret's safe with me, Alicia-kun." He waves her inside, only bothering to grab one box which he of course lifts easily with one hand. His office is quite large and decorated in a similar fashion to Madara's. She notes he is probably in a management position as well so it wouldn't be wise to shit talk Madara as much as she wanted to. Izuna drops the box lazily by his desk and motions to a coffee maker as he pulls up a plush sofa chair for her to sit in.
Alicia gratefully makes herself a cup, she missed coffee but everyone here drank tea so she went without.
"So tell me," Izuna asks as she sits down across from him. "What do you think of the company? And feel free to be honest, I'm not a tyrant by any means" he chuckles as if reading her thoughts.
No of course not, that's my boss, she sighs mentally. Alicia figures if Izuna wanted her honest opinion, he wasn't interested in some sugar coated bullshit.
She taps her chin thoughtfully, trying to think of a delicate way to tell him the company was run horrendously by degenerates. "Well I think for one thing, the company focuses way too much on profit." She hesitates, gaging his expression before continuing. Izuna gives her a bored look like he's heard that a million times.
"Explain. After all, immense profit is the reason one has a corporation," he smirks.
"Well for instance, the recent venture of trying to acquire Konoha Inc. That failed because Uchiha Corp doesn't put enough effort into keeping a good public image. It's no secret employees here have no or poor medical plans, few vacations, and all production labor is outsourced to child sweat shops. I don't know if it's the same here, but where I come from some people and investors don't give money to companies with such a...lack of compassion. Then there's Madara. He is the figure head of the company and should symbolize what it stands for yet he doesn't care about anyone's opinion of him and comes off as an apathetic, promiscuous, and even petulant rich as- ... guy with no remorse."
She pauses noticing Izuna is now smirking at her near slip up and his eyes are thoughtful, she hopes she hadn't offended him as she continues. "I think it would be wise to clean up the company's image with a "new leaf" campaign: donate to charities, offer better benefits, hell even make Madara look like a family man or faithful boyfriend even if it's just a ploy for good publicity." Though she highly doubted that would ever happen. If someone were to trace back his family line she was sure the origins of stds and concubines would be found.
Izuna leans back in his chair looking at her with new respect. He had been trying to convince his brother for a while that good PR would benefit them, that Japan was becoming more modern and being an "Old Rich" family wasn't enough to command the respect the company deserved, it also no longer gave them immunity from the paparazzi who took any chance to bring down anyone important or newsworthy. Madara specifically turning over a new leaf would be immense, it was true that he was the image of his company and though many people respected him, it was merely because he was the inheritor of the Uchiha Estate and Company. A public company overhaul starting with Madara could improve their stock value and possibly win over Konoha Inc as well.
Alicia is uncomfortable with the silence. "Hey, look I'm sorry. Please don't say anything to Madara, I didn't mean to offend you or the company, I was just being honest like you asked."
Izuna is amused by the forced tone of her apology as if she thought him incompetent for being seemingly uninterested in her idea. He could tell she is both proud and intelligent which made him wonder why his brother had chosen her to intern. Madara always brought in bimbos with DD's and no morals to amuse himself with until he grew tired of their stupidity. Izuna didn't complain because once Madara was done with them, they came crawling into his lap, which was always a fun time. However, this girl didn't seem impressed by Madara or the company, she even held a certain disdain that he'd caught in her tone when talking about Uchiha Corp.
Izuna peeks at the contents of the box she'd brought him curiously, suddenly wondering why his brother would bother her with such back breaking work. He is surprised to see the international internship application forms he'd had dropped off at Madara's office yesterday.
Much to Alicia's horror, Izuna starts laughing uncontrollably. His laugh is a little shrill for a man, but hysterical to watch as his body convulses. Once he's caught his breath he looks at her with a new gleam in his eye that Alicia doesn't know what to think of.
"I see now why Madara chose you. You see his typical choices for your position usually have no thoughts on anything...regarding the company." He sees her eyes starting to roll before she controls herself. "I for one, think you have the right idea, however it would probably be best for him to hear it from me seeing as I'm his brother and you don't appear to be in his favor at all right now," he gestures to the files with a grin.
Alicia's eyes widen, she'd almost called Madara an assholein front of his own brother. She'd assumed they were related somehow, but she didn't think that closely, the Uchiha's were supposedly a rather large family and she had never heard of Madara having siblings. She proceeds to bang her head on the desk.
Izuna smirks as he strides through Madara's office door. The elder looks relaxed and particularly satisfied even as he scowls at his younger brother's intrusion.
"Apparently everyone thinks barging in here is acceptable today," he growls, though he's so sexually relieved he can't even muster the proper annoyance. Madara hadn't felt this relaxed since before the idea of attaining Konoha Inc. had come into his mind. The two college girls had been more than willing to succumb to his every want and desire, and two was always better at that than one.
Izuna chuckles, sensing his brother's elated mood as he sits on the desk leisurely. Madara's eyes narrow, but he says nothing as Izuna relaxes. "Is that what Alicia-kun did to deserve such a torment as doing man's work? Or was it because she had absolutely no interest in seeing what's behind man thong number one," he glances at his brother's still slightly unzipped pants with a knowing, Uchiha smirk.
A punch passes through where Izuna had been sitting only a second before, but he stands unharmed at the other side of the room. Madara sends his brother a death glare, Izuna had always accused him of being conceited enough to wear such things, but that accusation only slightly irritated him. It was the mention of the American girl who he'd fucked out of his system for the afternoon that relented his repressed frustrations.
Izuna's smirk is now an evil grin. "So tell me dear brother, did she reject you from the start or was it only after she saw the other two? What a shame, she really is quite beautiful, such an exotic look to her. I think if you don't win her over I might be the lucky one this time." He knew he was poking a very unstable tiger, but he couldn't resist, it was quite amusing when Madara didn't get his way. It happened so rarely that when it finally did, the man was always in an absolute fury. But much like Konoha, Alicia was not just something he could throw his power and influence at to win her affections.
Madara's eyes turn a threatening shade of red, which catches Izuna off guard. He is slammed against the wall by his throat in the blink of an eye. Izuna lets out a choked chuckle as little black symbols dance across Madara's iris in a dangerous display of power. "Careful Izuna. We may be blood, but-" his voice is an icy hiss. "I will teach you some proper respect, much like that the girl will soon learn." He releases his grip on Izuna and walks over to the wall sized window behind his desk overlooking the city.
Izuna rubs his neck gingerly. He knew he would receive some retribution, but he hadn't been expecting such pent up rage. This girl had quite an interesting effect on his brother, which would make his plan all the more amusing.
Madara doesn't turn to look at him as he speaks. "That girl will be mine Izuna. If you so much as touch her, I will rip those eyes out of your head. When I'm done with her, I don't care what you do, but until then you would be wise to keep your distance, brother."
Izuna smirks, he is not stupid enough to defy his brother when he was so hell bent on something. When Madara had something in his sights, he would do anything to have what he wanted.
"And what if she doesn't warm up to you? It's not hard to say she is far from impressed, especially when you have her doing unnecessary and maybe even slightly sadistic manual labor." Izuna knew there had been no need for those files to come back to him, typically Madara would have ordered a grunt to dispose of them since there was no reason to keep them around any longer.
Madara turns to his brother with a sadistic glint in his eyes. "You know I can't stand to lose Izuna. Alicia-kun will be my lover. Whether it's compliant love making or not will be up to her, but I will make her an offer she can't refuse."
Izuna had suspected as much. He'd never known Madara to force someone into sleeping with him, but he knew his brother wasn't above the act. And being the playboy he was, everyone would think some girl crying rape would merely be a scheme for some frivolous lawsuit.
"Aside from being your new...playmate. She could provide useful to the company as well." Madara's silence encourages Izuna to continue. "She is level headed, humanitarian, and well spoken. We discussed improving the image of the company and its head figure."
Madara raises his eyebrows, his brother was not one to come up with such ideas on his own. Izuna typically stayed out of the public business matters and managed their more secretive programs. His brother was in fact a very dangerous man and Madara didn't trust him to keep his sadistic tendencies out of the public's eye. Moreover, Madara had never cared what people thought of him because influence and power had been all he'd ever needed to attain his desires. Though they didn't seem to be helping him much recently, he reminds himself.
Izuna begins pacing the room. "We should attempt another civil measure at taking over Konoha, before the matter is handed to me. We don't need anymore rumors circulating about our alternate operations, but having Konoha is essential to the plan. However, if we are investigated because it comes down to us taking what we want by force, my field might be terminated for a while and you know how I hate not being able to work."
Madara remembered all too well what had happened the last time their company had come under scrutiny and Izuna was barred from his usual duties. Izuna needed work to keep his blood lust under control. Madara could vent sexually, but Izuna had always needed a more violent approach to tame the raging desire to kill they both felt. For the sake of his brother's sanity, he would try this plan, as disdainful as hiding his true nature was.
"To what extent Izuna?" He had a feeling this was also going to cost him more money than he'd care to depart with.
Izuna laughs, sensing his brother's silent displeasure and compliance. "Well you dear brother are the most important piece. The company is reflection of you so you must be the one to pull off this charade. Give the public a reason to like you, become less intimidating, less distant. Make yourself known to all as a generous, kind, caring, individual, that is what people want to see, what Konoha needs to believe. An interesting idea our Alicia-kun had was for you to appear a loyal mate and family man."
Madara sneers. "Is that so? How nice of her to volunteer for the position." He purrs as he imagines the expression of horror on her face at the prospect.
"That was the idea, I think she would be well received by people. She has a way about her that is quite endearing and honest, exactly the opposite of you. She could keep you in check," Izuna mocks.
5 minutes later Izuna is on his ass outside the locked office door. He rubs his sore back as he laughs to himself. Things would fall into place quite nicely at this rate. It would be easy for Madara to control such a helpless girl into aiding their cause, once he'd broken her.
Alicia sighs as her sore head hits her pillow. She'd been so busy running errands for Izuna that she hadn't even checked her phone which now showed 22 missing text messages from Ino:
Hey Alicia guess what? I got an internship at Konoha Inc I am so excited!
5 minutes later
So how's it going?
4 minutes later
u there?
5 minutes later
Hello?
3 minutes later
Hellloooooooo?
3 minutes later
Earth 2 slut bag!?
2 minutes later
...r u doing what I think ur doing?
3 minutes later
...ur boning him rnt u...
5 minutes later
kerjgauieghaowefjlwakefjefwet
2 minutes later
Do u think we cud trade interns?
2 minutes later
I hate u
Alicia clicks her phone off, unable to deal with anymore of Ino. Though she silently wishes they could trade internships, maybe that'd be possible if they talked to someone at Konoha Inc. before approaching Madara with the idea. She could only pray as she drifts off into an uneasy sleep, unaware of the pair of red eyes watching her.
