Previous Chapter Summary: Sasuke and Sakura become acquainted with a group of new but old friends as they sit together for lunch. The group questions them where they're from; but it seems like the two of them don't have a solid story for themselves yet. However, it's been decided that the theme they'll be going with for the welcome festival is a ninja cafe. Slowly but surely, they were moving along in this strange but exciting world.

A/N: This chapter was quite fun to do, even though it's a little longer than usual :'D I had a few giggles while writing this. Fun fact: Katsuya is actually a cat-spirit (bakeneko) yokai OC of mine, except I'm not sure why I decided for his eyes to be blue here instead of golden-colored, like it is. Another girl that appears in this chapter is a Kitsune of mine as well. If you creep my dA: kawaa-kari, you'll be able to find some art I did of them if you're interested in seeing what they look like (or not, if it ruins your current mental image).

Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto


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Tokyo Tempest

Part VII: Please Hire Me!

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Note to self:

Tokyo girls in high school washrooms move very, very slowly.

The girl with the viridian-eyes followed the group of females ahead of her in annoyance as they seemed to enjoy taking their sweet time to exit the packed ladies washroom of the school. Did everybody just decide to go to the washroom once the day was done?

As she observed them from behind, part of her felt like slapping them in the back of their heads while they giggled in loud voices that only seemed to irritate her further.

When they finally moved further, Sakura's thoughts decided to roam elsewhere. The second note to herself was the fact that high schoolers didn't need to do any work at all during school hours. According to Ino, this was false- apparently it was only because it was the first day of school so things were in introduction mode. She actually laughed a little bit at her for not knowing this.

As she reminisced through the day, she realized time went by a lot faster than it felt. It was only the first day of their venture and they had already made acquaintances with people, which was a good start.

When the group of senior girls finally moved out of her way, Sakura shoved through the rest of her path out of the chaotic group and into the clear hallway. Taking a long sigh of relief, her eyes wandered to the clock on the far wall, realizing that it was only 3:00pm. It was still relatively early. Tokyo schools were strange that way. People actually bothered to show up, confined inside a building for more than 6 hours a day. No missions or anything. Oh, if a Shinobi led this life back in Konoha...

She hadn't seen Sasuke ever since their class had been dismissed for the day. She didn't even see him leave the room, but that was probably because Shikamaru was too busy drabbling in front of her face for a solid 10 minutes before she could actually leave. Another note to self: tell Konoha Shikamaru that his alter ego was a lot more troublesome than anybody would imagine.

Shaking her head, Sakura clenched her fists in front of her chest, wearing a new determined expression. Whatever, who cares about Sasuke-kun right now. Let's go job searching, shannaro!

Moments later, the pink-haired girl found herself once again on the busy streets of Tokyo. She lifted a hand to shield the top of her forehead as she peered past the blinding sun into the clear, blue sky. Not a single cloud was in sight. From the street noises around her and the sounds of strange vehicles whirring, it was exactly like the moment she first arrived here. From this, she concluded that the city must've always been this lively. Now, where was she supposed to find somewhere to-

As she flickered her gaze back down, her eyes shined at a row of what seemed like retailers that lined up on the side of the road. She watched as customers walked in and out of the tiny stores, some coming back out with large decorative bags. There was bound to be a place there that would need her help!

Without further hesitation, the pink-haired girl jogged herself to the crosswalk, where a group of people seemed to be lining up to move. She found herself a bit confused by this, so instead of going on ahead, she eyed the individuals in front of her and waited for them to walk first. When they did, she took it as her cue to follow.

When she made it to the other side of the road, her eyes scanned the stores from left to right. All she had to do was choose one from here on out, right?

Narrowing her eyes at her options, the pink-haired girl paused as she felt a grin creep onto her face at the sight of a colorful store near the far right side. Her feet eventually brought herself closer enough to read the title.

"10/10 Apparel." She said aloud, noting the materials inside the store. It seemed like an assortment of bright colors in strange, frilly designs, but no doubt it was a clothing store. The mannequin sitting in the front showed off a long, neon green dress that had sheer, puffy sleeves and red sequins in the bottom of the fabric that created a gradient towards the top. The inside of the store was white and creamy, with rose-patterned wallpaper and square tiles.

Strange stuff. Well, as long as she didn't have to wear that.

As her attention darted towards a sheet plastered on top of the glass door, she walked closer to take a look.

NOW HIRING PART-TIME EMPLOYEES!

New concept store. Fun, energetic, fashion-loving individuals needed.

Before she knew it, she exerted a single pull of the door and was inside. When she entered the store, she realized it was actually a lot smaller than it looked on the outside. The only thing that got a lot bigger was the amount of strange stuff.

As she took sight of a counter at the far back, she noted a feminine body crouched down with only the small of her back showing. That must've been the owner.

Putting on her best, confident smile, Sakura walked towards the lady. When she approached the counter, she cleared her throat to signal her presence. "Excuse me, my name is Haruno Sakura and I'm a high school student at Tokyo Gakuen. I'm looking for a part-time job, if you would be so kind as to hire me."

When the lady paused from shuffling a few boxes below, she stood up to face her new customer with a wide, unnatural smile on her face. However, this only made Sakura cringe- not the smile, well...actually, that too. Suddenly, the store name made too much sense.

"Tenten!?" Sakura bellowed, eyes becoming huge. Why is she even still surprised at these occurrences anymore?

The girl with the two asian buns in her hair loosened her forced smile, instead adopting a high-and-mighty grin. "It seems my name has really gotten out there. Welcome to my wonderful concept store!"

Yeah.. okay. Sakura narrowed her eyes in disbelief. Instead of her usual asian attire, she wore a strange deep blue dress that had foam fish sewed on it in weird patterns, complimented by... was that a fishnet shawl?

"A job, you wanted?" Tenten broke Sakura's train of thought as she walked out from the counter, eyeing the pink-haired girl up and down and carefully scanning her current outfit. After a few moments of awkward silence, Sakura opened her mouth to speak again, if she weren't interrupted by the Konoha weapon fanatic.

"I don't know. Your fashion sense is a little kinky."

The pink-haired girl felt a nerve struck in her forehead while Tenten shook her head in disappointment. "This is my uniform." Sakura explained through gritted teeth.

"Oh. Well is that so?" Tenten's expression of discontent soon turned mischievous, "Sorry, I only keep up with the latest fashion designs in VOGUE. In that case, what kind of stuff do you usually wear, besides this measly thing?"

At this, Sakura found herself becoming speechless. She thought about her red Shinobi uniform in Konoha, the one she wore everyday casually and during missions. Um.. there really wasn't much other than that since her lifestyle back at home varied lot compared to.. this.

Weighing her chances with that in mind, she decided it'd be more annoying to have Tenten go into a rant about how unfashionable she was. When she turned her back on the girl with the buns, the shop owner looked confused.

"Nevermind. Forget that I came here."

As the pink-haired girl exited the store with a single ring of the door chime, she paused outside of the entrance for a second in her thoughts. Her head started to hurt as she thought about the fact that her and Sasuke probably had to pay a lot of instalments for the rent of that apartment. And I already failed at my first attempt.

As Sakura glanced to her left, she noted the other stores lined up beside this one, some of them being furniture retailers and others also selling clothing. At least she had a lot options. That's right, there was no time for sulking.

As she took a few steps forward, she grimaced at the overall view of Tenten's store.

"3/10. At least the walls were cute."


On the opposite end of the street, the Uchiha paced himself down a crowded walkway filled with merciless people that pushed and shoved their way through the sea of bodies. He tried not to bat an eye at the amount of individuals that accidentally bumped into him, but it was a lot harder than he'd thought.

Instead, he tried to keep an eye out on any shops that would be suitable for him to work at. He would've waited for Sakura after school so that they could go together, except she seemed to be busying herself with the 'new' people they had met today. That and he didn't exactly feel like dealing with her right this moment. The more he thought about it- the more he couldn't make sense of it, this whole occurrence.

Why him and Sakura, of all people? Why not Naruto, the person he'd be fighting right now if it weren't for this? Hell, why not Shikamaru even, someone who's completely irrelevant to him?

Was it really just an uncanny anomaly of time?

.. What purpose does it serve for the two of them to be here?

Suddenly, Sasuke paused in his tracks, freezing in thought. He tuned out of the crowd in his surroundings, letting himself be the only human frozen in place of the busy street as bodies continued to swerve around him.

If anything, was it because he, towards Sakura-

Before he had the chance to ponder this thought further, the Uchiha felt all of his senses heighten immediately as a large hand placed itself on his left shoulder. In a swift twist of his body, he jumped back a few steps, landing in a defensive stance at-

A giant chicken. Wearing a red vest.

"S-Sorry to surprise you, sir!" The large white chicken also jumped back a step, startled by Sasuke's strange reaction.

A person trapped inside of the chicken? The raven-haired man narrowed his eyes, taking a single step further as he analyzed his new encounter, forcing a little gasp from the chicken and another step back with its large red shoes.

"I'm sorry! Here you go!" Sasuke watched as the animal shot a sheet of paper in front of him, letting it go before he even had the chance to take it. "Hope you drop by, haveaniceday-"

After rushing their speech, the chicken dashed in the other direction. Sasuke's attention darted towards the paper, which he managed to reach and grasp with his hand before it came into contact with the ground.

Upon reading its contents, he realized it was an advertisement of some sort. Three big letters decorated the front, and he read them aloud.

"K..FC?"

Raising an eyebrow, he looked up in the direction of where the large chicken ran. He noticed a tiny little store with a red banner hanging on top, an image of an old man with white hair wearing an annoying smile peering back at him. Also, more big white chickens on that side. Out of curiosity, he decided to go up and take a closer look.

Without rushing, he walked up to the store in a completely nonchalant manner, taking a peek inside the small area.

He noticed the backs of two workers on the far inside, pushing buttons on large machines behind them and taking orders of fried chicken into a bag, with several of them neatly lined up from behind. Several tables were scattered in the restaurant, most of in which were occupied by customers.

No doubt, it was a fried chicken store of some sort. Judging from the giant line in the front, business seemed to be very good. If he could land a job like this-

Suddenly, he remembered the giant chickens standing nearby the store, turning his head back to stare at one sourly as it bounced around and handed out fliers. But if I have to do something like that.. Surely, the Uchiha name was not made for a job like this.

In that case, nevermind. As he closed his eyes and turned himself around to leave, he found himself pausing at the sound of two people speaking- one yelling, actually, from the alleyway next to the shop.

"What do you mean you're quitting!?"

"Suna-san. I'm afraid I realized my love does not lie with selling fried chicken. Instead.. I wish to pursue a future studying the beauty of insects."

Finding himself unnecessarily intrigued by their conversation, the Uchiha scooted himself closer to the two, hiding behind the corner of the alleyway entrance. He shifted an eye outwards to notice a girl with long caramel-brown hair arguing with a boy.

"HAH!?" The lady bellowed, placing her hands on her hips. "Look- I don't care about what you really love, you can do whatever you want, but we need you for your shift today no matter what. The summer special just started and I can't have you quitting like this on me!"

The male shifts his dark glasses upwards, furrowing his eyebrows. "No. I'm sorry."

As the boy then shoved his way behind the girl, Sasuke ducks his head from their view. When his footsteps approached closer and closer, he watched as the male figure walked past him, completely unphased over the conversation with the woman.

Suddenly, the Uchiha narrowed his eyes, realizing that this was another person he knew. Shino?

As he watched the bug-user disappear from his sight, he fixed his gaze back on the girl in the alleyway, who now seemed to be in great distress as she proceeded to mutter a series of curses.

A new thought then ran through his mind. If somebody got fired just now, wouldn't this be the perfect opportunity to offer himself up? After all, him and Sakura still needed to find dinner tonight. A perfect chance like this probably wouldn't come up again.

It should be okay. After all, in this world.. it's not like the Uchiha name really held any meaning.

As the woman prepared herself to leave the alleyway, her stride came to a halt once her gaze fell upon the raven-haired boy, who revealed himself from his hiding.

She noted the sharpness in his eyes, though it wasn't long before he cut to the chase. "Hire me."

"And who are you?" She asks sternly. At this, Sasuke smirks.

"Uchiha Sasuke. I'm here to look for a job. I saw what happened just now, and it looks like you need help as well."

The lady raises an eyebrow, confused at the stranger's sudden assertiveness. What's with that high and mighty tone? So eager to work at a fried chicken store... She takes a few steps closer to the boy, eyeing him up and down. A high schooler? She observes. He isn't too bad looking, pretty good at that. It's a nice feature to have, and Shino did just quit on me..

After searching her face for a response, the woman sighed and started walking again, raising a hand for him to follow. He took the gesture as a yes.

In the next moment, Sasuke found himself going through a backdoor of the alleyway, one that seemed to connect to the inside of the store.

"I'm Suna, by the way. I manage things around here."

"Aa." The Uchiha signified his acknowledgement as he followed her from behind, navigating their way through the storage room of the restaurant. Crates of boxes were stacked up high all the way to the ceiling with large containers scattered messily on the other side.

When she opened another doorway, the noise from the kitchen spilled out into the silence, new sounds of metal clanging and loud voices yelling about in the air. A bunch of people ran and scurried about, grabbing pieces of newly fried chicken into a little basket and packaging it into small boxes.

"Right now, we have a new summer special going on. That's why we're extra busy today, not to mention the fact that we're short on people. You like KFC?"

Taken aback by this question, Sasuke decided to go with a safe answer, even though this was the first time in his life that he's ever seen a place like this. "It's good."

"Good. Familiarity is good." Suna turned around suddenly, stopping him in his tracks and flashing a smile. "Let me grab someone to train you. Gaara-kun, can I borrow you for a second?"

At this, Sasuke froze when she turned around to call a very familiar name from behind the tall metal counter. When a red haired boy appeared from the front cashier area, Sasuke nearly felt sick to his stomach.

"Ah! Who's this, Suna-chan? Where's Shino?" The Kazekage doppleganger widened his dark eyes at the sight of the new member, his face giving off way too much expression than Sasuke had last remembered.

Suna scoffed at the mention of the bug-users name. "He's the new Shino. Sasuke Uchiha is his name."

"Ahh? Shino-san left already?"

The manager sent the sand-user a glare, silencing him in an instant. "Nevertheless, this is your new friend from now on. Show him the ropes, and make it quick for now. We don't have time to do comprehensive training for the day. Get him to do what he can."

"Yes, mam!"

Sasuke watched as the girl with caramel hair disappeared into the back storage, coming back out in a few seconds with a bright red shirt marking the uniform of store.

"Put it on and get to work." She said, throwing it in the air as he caught it with ease. After watching her disappear into the tiny office area beside the storage, his gaze traveled back to the human Kazekage in front of him.

He studied his appearance carefully- only to conclude that it indeed was the sand-user from the wind village. He was a small person, though only a little bit shorter than he was, and he still had the "love" character printed on the side of his temple. Ah, still no eyebr-

"I'm Gaara!" The red-haired boy grinned, raising a hand to salute towards the Uchiha with a cringe-worthy shine in his eyes. Definitely creepy. Doesn't suit people like him at all. "Like Suna-chan said, we're in rush hour at the moment so I won't be able to tell you everything you need to know right now. For now, how about you just help me give out the orders?"

It sounded fair enough. After shuffling his blazer off of his shoulders and pulling the uniform on top of his dress shirt, Gaara proceeded to spend the next few minutes explaining to him how to package the orders with the help of order lists on the side. For a split second, Sasuke wondered if this was going to be okay. What the hell are popcorn nuggets?

As the red-haired boy stepped aside to help with the cashier, Sasuke began to put together the first order. Luckily, this person had only wanted a bucket of drumsticks.

When he finished, he placed the bucket on the counter along with the customer slip, and it wasn't until he looked down that he noticed a little boy peering up at him from the counter.

"I-Is that mine?" The boy with a tiny scruff of hair pointed at the bucket, eyes wide.

It's a kid. Sasuke thought, looking down at the unattended boy with narrowed eyes. In that case...

"Where are your parents?"

The little boy flinched, letting out a little squeal at the sudden fierce expression of the Uchiha. In his tiny eyes, it almost seemed as if a huge dark aura had overtaken him as he continued his glare that could probably cause the death of a village.

"I'm sorry little guy, is this grumpy big brother scaring you? How about you take your bucket to mommy and daddy waiting for you?" The Uchiha glanced at Gaara, who had leaned over to give a little peek at the situation. He sent his most sincere wide-grinned smile, one that made the little boy giggle as he then took the bucket in his hands and scurried off towards two adults on the side.

Disgusting. The Uchiha thought, nearly feeling himself throw up a little in his mouth at the Kazekage, who acted totally out of his character. Instead, the red-haired boy sent him an unpleased expression.

"Hey. Why did your face look so constipated back there? You'll scare away all the customers!"

At this, Sasuke gave a little grunt. Instead of making an effort to retort back, he turned himself away to work on the next order. Gaara watched closely for a second, then sighed in defeat.

"Alright. I guess we'll work on that later."


8:45pm.

The pink-haired girl stared at the pitch-black sky from her spot at the couch, her head hanging upside down from the arm rest as she let out a sigh. She felt mentally and physically worn out from everything that had happened today. On top of that, she hadn't any luck in finding a job at all.

Also, it was already 8:45pm, and Sasuke-kun hadn't arrived at home yet. For the past few hours, her mind came up with an endless amount of possibilities as to why that was.

Maybe he really did get tired of her and decided that it was best he stayed elsewhere. Maybe he found a way back to the Shinobi world already. Maybe he got kidnapped.

Anything was possible, considering-

Suddenly, she flinched at a click of the door, pulling her body back up so that she faced the doorway. It's Sasuke-kun! Instead of bouncing herself off of the couch, she paused, half annoyed at her immediate reaction. Am I a dog or something?

While pondering her unnecessary attention, she realized things were still a bit awkward between the two of them after their little bicker. She completely told him off during that conversation and she didn't know what to say to him after that. Aside from the group lunch today, they hadn't conversed much at all. Maybe he was still mad.

With these matters in mind, she quickly plopped herself back down on the couch, closing her eyes.

Despite so, the familiar sour face entered through the doorway, immediately noticing the pink-haired girl's immovable body on the couch. After what happened today, she still had the nerve to put on annoying facades.

"You're still awake." She hears him say, more like a fact rather than a question. Exposed, she gave a little pout as she slowly moved herself back up.

As she was about to make a witty comment in response, she noticed the Uchiha placing a bag onto the countertop of the kitchen, settling it down along with a brown envelope. "That's..."

"It's dinner." Sasuke explained cooly, "I already ate. Also, this is our money."

Sakura scrambled herself to her knees on the couch, placing a hand on the backrest as she propped her body up from her legs. She continued to eye the unfamiliar contents on the counter, until her eyes became wide in horror. Immediately forgetting the fact that they had fought, she went on in a drabble.

"Sasuke-kun, did you steal those!? Stealing is wrong! We're in a human's world and it's a huge crime to steal! Did Orochimaru teach you that? God, even in Konoha-"

The Uchiha furrows his brows, though his voice didn't seem to be as irritated as his expression suggested. "You're noisy. I didn't steal it, I worked for it."

At this, Sakura felt her mouth drop open. "You found a job? Where?"

Sasuke pursed his lips, suddenly aware of the fact that perhaps he wouldn't tell her this very moment that he was now selling fried chicken with Gaara. Knowing Sakura, she could go on forever about that, and he was already quite tired. "A restaurant."

"I see.. well, congratulations." The pink-haired girl drowned out, eyes becoming hooded in thought.

She was glad that he managed to find a job here. She expected no less from Sasuke-kun. After all, he did prefer to do things alone from the very beginning. He made that very clear from the start. Because of this, she couldn't help but be reminded of her own failure. Again.

At this rate, maybe it was better after all that they did things separately like this.

His eyes flickered towards her droopy face, noticing how quiet she turned all of a sudden. "What is it?"

"I tried looking for a job after school today, too." She said cooly.

Sasuke continued to observe her downcast expression, not a hint of joy present. As much as he wouldn't like to remember these things, he couldn't erase the fact that over the course of their companionship, he became an expert at analyzing her behaviours. That's why, right now, he couldn't help but think she was as easy to read as ever. Didn't something like this happen when they first got here, too?

However, when he really thought about it, part of the reason why she was feeling so discouraged with herself was probably because of him. He had a feeling that if she were here alone, she would've gone by fine. Also, if he hadn't made such a big deal about her becoming the president, the two of them probably would've been able to go job-searching together.

As partners.

Comrades...

"You'll find one."

Sakura widened her eyes, lifting her gaze up at the raven-haired boy who turned around so that she couldn't see his face. He leaned himself against the counter, right behind the bag of food and money.

Again, he continued, placing a hand on the back of his neck in a stretch. "From what I know, you're a smart person, aren't you?"

The pink-haired girl took a moment to register his words. "Well, I guess so." she replied in a quiet voice, feeling her face becoming hot. What's with him?

A following silence commenced in the air as she got up from the couch, slowly walking over towards the counter where he stood. Without turning around, he knew from the sounds of the bag ruffling that she opted to start on her meal.

Even though neither of them spoke for the rest of the night, the silence was more than comforting.