Chapter 13

Team Meeting

Sakura awoke in a sweat, the warmth of the couch and blanket was hot, and the body heat from Madara made it an oven. She didn't know what time it was, and she didn't have her phone on her. She turned her head to see Madara sleeping soundly; the heat didn't seem to bother him.

She fished for her jacket in the dark, and grabbed her phone out of the pocket. No missed calls or texts, good. At least her phone behaved this time around. She pushed the blanket from the rest of her body and brought herself to a seated position on the couch. The time said it was 5:30am, she seemed to have an internal clock now that woke her up incredibly early these days. As she stretched and yawned, Madara began to stir with the sudden movement. She leaned over and poked him on the cheek with her finger. Madara twitched and shifted a little bit. "Hmmph…"

"Hey you." She whispered, and poked him again. This time he opened one eye barely enough to look at her.

"Hm, hey…what time is it?" He asked groggily, still not fully awake.

"Its 5:30." She replied. The response she got was nothing short of startling. Madara's eyes popped wide open and he sat straight up on the couch. "Did you say 5:30?" He asked, his voice was all alarms.

Sakura placed her feet on the ground, and cracked her back. The couch was not the most comfortable place to sleep. "Yeah, why?"

Madara jumped off the couch, nearly knocking her over. "I was supposed to be at the store half an hour ago!" He exclaimed. As he tried to maneuver away from the couch in the dark, he found the coffee table with his legs and the resounding crash made Sakura jump. She fumbled to find the switch on the lamp next to her and when she turned it on, she found it very hard to stifle a laugh. Madara had hit the coffee table so hard he careened into the side table of the chair opposite the couch. When he tried to get up his foot slipped and went straight back down. "Fucking table!" He mumbled, clamoring to one knee. He looked up to see Sakura giggling at him and scowled. "I'm glad my pain can bring so much joy…"

Sakura stuffed her giggling back down and tried to appear serious, and concerned, "No, no! I mean, I've just never seen that happen to someone before and…Are you okay..?" She asked, walking over to him. As he got to his feet and cracked his neck, Sakura gave him a peck on the cheek, "I'm just saying you're cute when you're clumsy!" She said cheerfully. He looked down at her and was about to reply when he remembered his reason for crashing into the table in the first place. "Ah shit! I'm late!" He started running down the hallway when he stopped short, turned back to Sakura, and ran back over to her. He gave her a quick kiss and dashed back down the hallway.

Sakura could hear a closet door open and slam, and drawers slamming as Madara was getting dressed at record-breaking speed. She had barely gotten her shoes on and buttoned her coat when she saw him coming back down the hallway. He was hopping on one foot and trying to tie his black steel-toe boot on the other. Sakura could see he was starting to lose his balance and rushed over, steadying him as he propped his foot against a cabinet door and finished his task. Sakura thought it was very odd, and yet entertaining, to see Madara so frantic and…normal? He was always so serious and put together at work, she was pretty sure no one else would ever see this side of him.

Madara folded his pant leg down to the boot, and straightened back up. He looked at Sakura, and sighed with a little chuckle. "Um…sorry for nearly knocking you down…" He said, trying to fix his collar at the same time. Sakura smiled and reached up to help him with it, smoothing it down. The aroma of his cologne hit her senses and oh, how she loved it. He had on the same black shirt, and dark jeans. She always appreciated the fact the store dress code was slightly more lax than other businesses, because she loved the way she looked in her own jeans, and Madara looked damn sexy in his.

Madara walked into the kitchen and Sakura followed behind him. He opened the refrigerator and pulled out two energy drinks. He tossed one to her and cracked open his. "When does your shift start, Sakura? He asked, chugging half the can in a few gulps. Sakura sipped gingerly on hers. "I go in at 8am." She replied. Madara set his drink down and looked at her. "…are you okay?"

Sakura didn't realize her face had betrayed her thoughts. These past three days with Madara were like something out of a dream, out of reality. But seeing him in his work clothes, wearing that cologne, and knowing they had to return to work and pretend they had nothing between them…she felt her little bubble begin to pop.

"I'm fine its just …how are we going to keep this a secret from everyone? Particularly Sasuke and Naruto and…well, everybody. Eventually Sasuke is going to show up here and if he sees my car-"

Madara poked her cheek with his finger, "Do you think you can do this?" he was being playful, but she could tell he was also being very, very serious.

"I said I could, so I will." She said, trying to sound as adamant as possible. He seemed to believe her because he smiled and folded his arms, leaning against the kitchen counter. "Then it shouldn't be an issue for you. I'm not saying it won't be easy…honestly this is new territory for me too. But at work, we are doing just that, working. You're right about your car being out in front of my house, so we'll talk about that later…when I'm not late." He added the last bit while looking at his phone. When he glanced up at Sakura he noticed her looking down the hallway. She looked back at him and asked, "Those pictures on the wall, I was looking at them a few days ago, there's one of you and another person, but I noticed you were dressed as a police officer…?" She asked tentatively. There was a small silence before Madara replied.

He sighed and took another sip of his drink, "A long time ago, I was a rookie cop. Didn't work out, and then I got a job at a grocery store." he didn't seem to want to venture further into the topic…

But Sakura wasn't satisfied with that answer and pressed her questions. "You look about 19 in that photo, but Sasuke said you've been at the grocery store since you were my age. so you weren't a cop for very long…"

"Nope." Replied Madara tersely. She realized she was walking a fine line, but kept going.

"What happened?" She asked slowly.

Madara finished his drink quickly, and crushed the can, tossing it behind him. It landed in the trash can with a "swish". He turned to face Sakura, his face placid, no emotion. "I hurt somebody very, very badly, that's as specific as I'd like to be." he said plainly. Obviously she had pushed the topic long enough. She swallowed nervously and walked around the counter. She wrapped her arms around him in a warm embrace. At first she could feel that he was tense, but then his muscles relaxed and he returned the gesture. "I'll…tell you sometime, I suppose, but not right now, its not a topic to touch on when I'm heading out the door… But moving on, let me ask you something now." He said, pulling back and looking at her. She nodded and waited. Madara's mouth betrayed a grin and he crossed his arms. "What music do you like?"

Sakura raised her eyebrows, surprised at such a simple question, "Oh…I like all kinds of music, from Rihanna to Metallica…"

Madara grabbed his keys from the counter, eyeing her as put them in his pocket. "Rihanna? Ugh…you get a free pass with the Metallica part. Okay, I am now…very late, wonderful."

Sakura walked over the coffee table and grabbed her keys, when she turned around, Madara was standing behind her. He wrapped his arms around waist and kissed her on the cheek. "I don't do well with words, but…thank you." Sakura looked up at him, curious. "Why?" she asked.

His voice was low, and kind. "For thinking of me… staying the night with me." He released her and made his way to the front door. Opening it he waited for her. She made sure she had her phone and keys and followed him out. When he locked the door behind them he stood there, staring at the lock for a moment, thinking. Then he looked at her, smiling, "I know that we are taking a huge risk with this, but I am starting to believe that this is a risk worth taking for me. I have a lot more to lose, but you are…quite something else."

She blushed a little by that last statement. Then she recalled something. "We don't have each other's phone number…can I have yours?" She asked, holding out her phone to him. Madara hesitated for a second and then he took it, and opened the dialing screen from the lock screen. He punched in his number and called it. Sakura could here his phone buzzing in his peacoat pocket and then he hit "end call". When he passed the phone back to her he had an eyebrow raised. "You had a text from an "Ino" pop up… Friend of yours?"

When he said "Ino", she snatched the phone from his hand, a little more frantically than she would have liked. She looked at the text message quickly, hoping it wasn't what she thought.

"We need to hang out again soon. I'll be at your store this afternoon, see ya there!"

Sakura breathed a sigh of relief, at least it wasn't suspicious. But when she looked back up at Madara, he had his eyebrow raised, his gaze incredulous. He had noticed how quickly she snatched the phone. Sakura stowed her phone and laughed nervously, "Yeah, she's my best friend, I just thought it might be something embarassing, so I panicked a little, heh."

Madara expression remained incredulous. "..Does she know?" Sakura stuttered. "O-of course not!" Madara's eyes softened and he turned to start walking down the steps.

They gave each other one more hug, and a kiss goodbye, and headed separate directions to their vehicles. She cast one more glance on him as he pulled out of the driveway in his big Chevy. She could hear the muffled lyrics to "Alone" from "I Prevail" playing as he blasted the stereo. She saw him wave as he sped by. Sighing and dropping her phone onto the passenger seat, she buckled herself and turned the key. She realized in that moment, why she felt bothered the second she woke up.

How was she going to keep a secret? Ino, Obito, Rin…they all knew; Ino knew more than the other two, but still. How was she supposed to keep all this under wraps? Worse than that, Madara wasn't aware how many people knew about it. He didn't seem like the type who trusts anyone quickly, and he trusted her, and she just lied to his face. The gnawing feeling of guilt began creeping through her, wrapping its fingers around her chest. It's not fair…This isn't fair to him..I really am a selfish person.

It crept from the back of her mind, a voice. The voice of reason, the voice of condemnation. You're lying to him. You'll destroy him.

Her mind shifted to the other thing that struck her, was how defensive Madara was at her questioning. When he said he had hurt someone badly, he made sure to halt the topic then and there, with a promise to tell her later. She wondered about asking Obito…but that wouldn't be a good idea, She already knew far more about Madara than he had told her himself. The weight of the "risk" Madara warned her about began pressing down on her. She didn't realize before, but now it was sinking in. She was a selfish person.

Sakura exhaled sharply and pulled away from the curb, turning on some music and cranking the volume. Of course this wasn't going to to be simple….

She sped off down the road, heading home to shower, change, and get ready for work. She surpassed the emotions running all at once through her mind, trying to focus elsewhere.

We'll see how day one goes.

Spring was hiding, it seemed, from Konaha this year. This month should have been flowers and a heavy influx of bugs to welcome the Springtime. But winter was holding on bitterly, blowing cold wind and icy rain from clouds rolling from the North.

Sakura stepped out of her car and drew her coat closer to herself. She loved the cold weather, but enough already! Subconsciously she scanned the parking lot for Madara's truck. She smiled when she saw the big blue Chevy parked several cars down. She took a deep breath, mentally prepping herself for the day. The same mental prep she did every day, but with one additional note. No one can know. Keep your mouth shut and eyes forward.

She repeated this mantra to herself over and over again as she walked through the big automatic doors to the store. She saw Sasuke at the time clock, looking rather bored. He did, however, smile when he saw her. She approached him, greeting him generically and waited for the three minutes to pass until her shift started, and she could clock in.

"How was your weekend off?" Sasuke asked, yawning.

"It was kind of boring, but I did get a lot of sleep, so that's good." She was careful to act as casual as possible. Sasuke nodded in acknowledgment.

"Madara was out sick for two days. Obito's been zipping around like a hummingbird in shoebox."

That created an odd mental image in Sakura's head and she giggled. "Ha…I hope it hasn't been too hard on him." She replied.

Sasuke shrugged and punched in his employee ID. He backed away to allow Sakura to enter hers. "Oh, in case you didn't know, don't run off to your duties yet, we have a "team meeting" upstairs starting."

Sakura raised an eyebrow, confused. "Team meetings? When did we started doing that?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes, apparently not very happy about it. "Hashirama decided it would be best for employees to get together and discuss improvements for the store, and any complaints to be discussed together with the management."

Sakura blanched a little, "I can't imagine Mr. Uchiha was very happy about it."

Sasuke actually laughed out loud. "HA! That's an understatement, he just found out 15 minutes ago. I heard him yelling on his phone. This should be fun. Hashirama is going to "sit in" on it. I think my uncle almost had a coronary…"

"What about the cashiers and all that?" Asked Sakura, following him up the stairs.

"Its just the floor employees at this meeting. The front end employees don't have to attend till later." Sasuke replied.

They continued up the steps together and headed for the break room. It was a large room, with two large tables and chairs. Sakura peered into the room before entering, and saw Kakashi, Kiba, Naruto, Obito, Temari, Shikamaru and a couple others she didn't know very well, seated already and waiting.

She pulled up a chair and sat down between Kiba and Kakashi. Kiba was stuffing his face with a donut, his headphones in. She turned her gaze from the gross spectacle and looked at Obito. To her shock, Obito's missing arm…was no longer missing. "Obito! Wh-what's with your arm?"

He grinned and pulled up his sleeve. Where there had been no arm before, there was a high tech, bionic arm attached to the stub at his elbow. "Pretty cool, huh?" He flexed the fingers on the arm and pulled the sleeve back down. "I'd show you more but I don't want Kiba getting jelly donut all over it." He motioned to his left at grazing Kiba, still chowing down.

Sakura got up and gave Obito a big hug, it was weird to feel two arms hugging her. "Congratulations, Obito! When did this happen?"

"I told you, the day I went to the doctor; its a clinical trial for this company that makes artificial limbs for amputees. I waited for 6 years, but it seems to be a success so far."

Kakashi piped up from behind a book he was reading, "She wouldn't know when you went to the doctor Obito, Rin only told us online the night before." Obito coughed in realization, and cast his eyes back over to Sakura, who was staring at him, waiting for him to remove the foot from his mouth. He coughed again and inserted a save. "Oh, yeah. I forgot. Anyway, it felt really weird at first, but it uses impulses from the brain to move just like my left arm."

"Okay, shut up." a voice interrupted. The deep, serious voice of Madara. He appeared in the doorway, with a scowl on his face. "That's his "I'll kill you" face…" She noticed Madara was still wearing his peacoat indoors, unusual for him.

"Alright…let's get this over with." he sighed with exasperation as he sat down in the chair at the end of the table, dropping a full clipboard onto the table and eyeing everybody in front of him. He opened his hands in a seemingly disarming fashion. "Hashirama has decided that we don't talk enough, or see each other enough…or discuss store and personal matters enough. I disagree, I think we spend an appropriate amount of time together." His eyes briefly flicked over to meet Sakura's before looking back to everyone else, and she felt herself blush slightly.

"But, it is apparent that my say means absolute shit, so here we are….aaand speak of the devil…."

Everybody looked up towards the door, Hashirama Senju walked in, with a big smile on his face. Sakura couldn't really understand why Madara hated him, he seemed so nice. He had long brown hair and he was actually quite attractive. Not like Madara, who had that edgy attractive quality; Hashirama had the "nice guy" cute thing going for him.

Hashirama took a seat next to Madara, and Madara inched his seat further down a foot or two. Without acknowledging him, so Hashirama made introductions for himself.

"Good morning everyone! Most of you know me, but for those who don't, I am Hashirama Senju, District Manager. I'm looking forward to hearing all of your input and suggestions tod-"

Madara cut him off. "So…lets talk about what I walked into this morning…".

Naruto shrank somewhat into his seat.

"The one time a virus finds its way into my body and wreaks havoc on me for two days, I am forced to leave the running of the store to all of you. And what do I find?" They all recognized this to be a rhetorical question, and kept their mouths shut. Even Kiba took his headphones out.

"I walk into the store, Kakashi is hitting on some chick by the baking isles, Kiba's tangled in packing tape in the back, Obito's playing Candy Crush, and Naruto's getting distracted by a butterfly."

Naruto leaned in towards Kakashi and whispered, "It was enormous…" He saw Madara shoot him an icy glare and he sat up straight in his seat. Hashirama interjected with a disarming laugh. "Oh, Madara, its okay! We can work around this, right? My concerns are primarily with call-outs. I know you had to call out for two days, its hard to run a ship without the captain!" He finished with a laugh, and Sakura realized why he got under Madara's skin so much. Hashirama was insufferably cheerful. Madara looked at him, and barely above a whisper threatened to sneeze on him. Hashirama patted him on the back and continued talking, not even noticing how he bristled at the contact.

"Look, there are too many call-outs happening, not just with this store, but throughout the district. This store just happens to have the most. If we are going to improve productivity, it cant happen when employees don't show up to work." Everybody nodded attentively, obviously using Hashirama as a buffer against Madara's wrath.

Madara picked up the clipboard and lifted one of the sheets, scanning it quickly. "Oh…Shikamaru?" The man with a ponytail and black hair looked up lazily from his zoned out state. "Yessir?"

"You have the end of the day to assign the overtime hours scheduled for next week."

Shikamaru nodded but Hashirama held up a hand. "Oh, those were cut in half, I sent you an e-mail but I didn't know you were out sick, Madara."

Madara looked over at him, and Sakura could see he was trying to curb his tongue. "Cut in HALF? We need that OT allotment for the stupid yearly shrink assessment next week!"

Hashirama shrugged casually and smiled, "Well, that came from corporate, I don't have control over that."

Obito chimed in, just as surprised, as he had not received notice of it at all. "Well how do they expect this to get done before the deadline?" His voiced his question in exasperation. Madara followed up with his own brand of sarcasm. "Exactly, what am I supposed to do? Dance down the yellow brick road and ask the Wizard to give me more manpower?"

The table snickered at the comment, and Hashirama even laughed. "SO humorous, Madara! Well, I did pull a few strings and you will be receiving an employee being transferred from Tobirama's store. He seemed really happy to lend him. I think his name was…Hidan." Madara blanched when the name was mentioned.

"Well no wonder Tobirama was "happy to help" that Hidan is batshit crazy, I got him transferred him out of MY store for a reason!"

Hashirama laughed…he did that a lot. Whether in genuine mirth or an attempt to diffuse tension. "Oh he's fine. But he won't be available till Friday, after that he'll be here for next few months." Obito leaned over to whisper in Madara's ear, "Yeah, I'm sure he's busy burying dead bodies in his backyard…"

Madara laughed out loud, "Probably…" He replied,

Madara sighed in resignation. He grabbed his clipboard and looked at the people at the table like he forgot they were there.

Sakura had been listening the whole time, her eyes fixed on Madara as he spoke. He didn't look well, like he was still sick, and doing his best to cover it up. Probably why he wearing his peacoat indoors. She had to resist the urge to reach over and wipe the bead of sweat from his brow. Madara grabbed his clipboard and stood up, "That's all for now. Meeting adjourned. I can't wait till next week to have more of these "magical" moments." He remarked using air quotes, and then stood up and walked out of the break room , taking a sharp right towards his office. Hashirama said goodbye to everybody and followed Madara out of the door.

"Madara!" He called out. Madara stopped and threw his head back in exasperation, "Ah, jeez, what?"

Hashirama walked further till he was standing next to him. "I'd like to speak to you in office, right now, if you please." His voice was a bit more serious than his interactions at the meeting. Madara sighed and they both walked into his office, while he muttered under his breath, "As if I have a choice…"

Sakura watched the interaction and wondered what Hashirama wanted to talk about. A paranoid thought entered her head as she hoped dearly it wasn't what she thought. She turned to Obito, the last one to leave the room behind her. "What's Hashirama up to?"

Obito fiddled with the sleeve covering his new prosthetic arm. "Probably nothing good. I don't know if you noticed, but Madara does not offer him any respect, even in front of employees, I think he stepped in it pretty far this time. Normally he keeps that pretty tame in front of others…I wonder what's wrong with him."

Even Obito didn't know. Sakura suddenly felt a defensiveness rising up in her. The thought of Madara getting reprimanded was actually making her angry. She knew how much Madara did for this store, but did the DM? Obito tapped her on the shoulder as she was heading for the stairs. "Hey, come to my office for a minute, I need to give you some inventory forms before you head to the cold box, the scanners are malfunctioning."

She followed him into his office, briefly seeing Madara sitting at his desk with his arms folded and Hashirama standing by one of the chairs. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but she could tell by Madara's expression, he was suppressing a volcanic eruption. When she entered Obito's office she sat herself down in a chair and waited as Obito fished around a mountain of paperwork for the right forms. They both jumped in surprise when loud voices erupted from the office next to them.

"I know you don't respect me Madara! I got this position over you, and you've never gotten over it! Like you don't think I ever deserved it!" Hashirama's angry voice was actually kind of scary. Then followed Madara's signature bite back. "I don't know how I can make it more clear these past years how much I don't think you deserved it!"

Hashirama's voice dropped slightly, but still loud. "I got it because YOU are not good with interactions, Madara. Especially talking to humans! You called the CFO's wife a horse!" Madara scrunched up his face. "Her nose entered the room before she did."

Hashirama rubbed his temples with his fingers. "And you wonder why I got the job over you…"

Madara started sneezing and hacking, and he was sweating more. Hashirama leaned forward and noticed how pale he looked. "You weren't ready to come back to work, were you?" But the dark-haired store manager was not about to be pitied by a rival. "I'm fine. Perfectly *cough* fine."

Hashirama opened his hands in exasperation. "Madara, we were friends before. We can work together on this issue with the store. You know these problems are not MY doing, right?"

Madara looked up from chugging a bottle of DayQuil. "Meaning?" he asked. Hashirama furrowed his eyebrows. "You were at the board meeting, last year. Remember Kaguya? The COO (Chief Operations Officer)?" The Uchiha blanched. "Yes…I remember her."

"Well she's the one putting all this pressure on those down the ladder, its not enough that she's unpleasant."

Madara considered that. "Well, that's… true…honestly Kaguya is so cold if she was sitting across from me on the subway I'd think she was dead." Hashirama laughed. More of a "guffaw" because Hashirama's emotions were always extreme. "Still that sense of humor, Madara. Okay, I'll leave you be for now. But think about it, if we can actually work together, we can force that she-beast back into Pandora's Box."

Madara raised an eyebrow, but didn't respond. He was tangling with the thought of cooperating with someone who ripped a promotion right out from under him, and the fact that he knew deep down, Hashirama was not the real bad guy. In this moment, however, the only thing they could agree on was their mutual disdain for COO, Kaguya. But even considering all that, his ego only allowed him to reply with a "Hn."

Hashirama's face suddenly went serious. "Madara, there is one more thing…but I'm going to be discreet about it. For now."

—

Obito and Sakura listened in as much as the wall would allow. He pulled back with a confused expression on his face. Sakura looked up at him, "What's up?"

Obito shrugged, "Well, normally about this time Madara would have insulted Hashirama's face and mother, and Hashirama would have thrown a shoe, but, I'm hearing a civilized conversation here… Weird, and a little disturbing…"

The voices from the other office died down, and neither of them could make out any more of the conversation, though they could hear murmuring. Obito walked back to his desk and sat down. He searched around and found the forms for Sakura, and as he handed them to her, there was a knock on the door frame.

Hashirama poked his head into Obito's office, surprising them both. "Hi guys! Sakura Haruno, is it?"

Sakura nodded, Obito stayed quiet. But Hashirama continued like he wasn't there. "So Sakura, just putting it out there, I have been paying close attention to your work. Your numbers are fantastic. I'll be speaking with Mr. Uchiha about putting you up for department head over Dairy and Frozen."

Sakura felt a well of pride rise up in her. She'd worked really hard to be a good employee, and Kiba was, well, Kiba. He hated his position as a stand-in department head. If Hashirama, the DM, put her up for a promotion, Kiba would love nothing more than to have less responsibility. She beamed inside, and thanked him graciously. "Thank you Mr. Senju! That's incredible!" Hashirama smiled and told her they'd be in touch soon. When he left, Sakura said goodbye to Obito and walked out too. Passing Madara's office, she popped her head in, he was sitting at his desk, resting his head over crossed arms on the desk. "Mad- I mean, Mr, Uchiha?"

Madara turned his head slightly, one eye peering at her over his arm. "Yes?", He asked, his voice muffled.

"Will you be heading home?"

"Hm…I don't know. We'll see." He said, turning his head back to its position buried in his crossed arms.

She looked behind her, making sure no one was in the vicinity. Walking over to his desk, she made sure to keep a certain distance. "I hope you feel better soon, Mr. Uchiha." She turned to walk out when she heard him reply quietly. "We'll see…BladedBlossom."

She stopped dead and spun around, his eye was peering at her, the other blocked by his hair. He smiled, but it was very much a cheshire cat grin. "Rin and Hashirama's Wife are pretty close." He said, his voice low.

Sakura mind hit a wall. Her mouth opened but nothing would come out.

But Madara already had a question prepared, "So…would you like to talk first? Or do you want me to tell you what I already know?"