Fugaku Uchiha glared at his latest failed assistant. The man set a stack of folders holding candidates for his replacement. In the interest of his career, his assistant chose to look for his own replacement and transfer departments instead of being fired.

"These are the most qualified young candidates." He explained.

"Why young?" Fugaku flipped open the first folder.

"I only selected applicants with less than ten years of experience. Your eldest son suggested someone who was 'young enough to keep up with you,' sir." He didn't look him in the eye as he muttered this, good.

Fugaku dropped the first in the trash. A name caught his eye. He picked out a middle folder. "Hyuga?"

"Oh! Sorry, she wasn't qualified." The assistant moved to snatch the folder, but Fugaku pulled it out of his reach. The assistant retracted, dipping his head. "She had a good GPA, but her school is unimpressive, and she's only two years out of university, all temp work. She comes from a rather bland background. Her family has no connections. I thought about including her because he has the highest scores of the set, but with nothing else impressive, I meant to take her out."

Fugaku barely heard him.

Fugaku was transported to the past, just looking at her face. He could see her mother in her face, eyes, and roundness of her face, but her father in the cheekbones. His eyebrows furrowed at sour memories. "Bring her in." He tossed the folder.

His assistant immediately scooped up the other folders. "Are you sure, sir?" Fugaku shifted his glare from up to him, and the man simply bowed and left.

Fugaku knitted his fingers together if this girl was who he thought she was. He was going to make her life a living hell.

Hinata straightened her blazer. When she applied, she knew she had no chance of being interviewed. She sent it to bring up her hopes of having something better than temp jobs for the rest of her life. Even then, when she was called, she was even more surprised to find that she had applied for the wrong position. Instead of a manager's assistant, she applied to be a personal assistant to the company's director.

Hinata wanted to decline and admit that it was a mistake, but something in her told her that she should at least try. If only to get the interview experience in one of the hardest markets in the world. If she was rejected at the highest level, at least she tried, right? You could only go up from that.

Knowing she wouldn't get the job didn't take away all the nerves. Hinata forced herself to remember that she was doing this to improve. She needed to learn the process and find herself a good job. Hanabi needed to not worry about college. Hinata had to pay off her own college. Her father would need care eventually.

She needed a good job. Everything she had worked hard for was in service of that.

"Hyuga Hinata?" Hinata stood up straight, following the man.

He took her into a conference room, but they weren't alone. A man in an office chair was turned away from them. Hinata took a deep breath, ignoring it.

The interview was grilling. Challenging questions, scenarios Hinata had never heard of, needed to be solved. She answered the best she could. She asked questions only that she thought were relevant to the issue. She was grilled on her schooling, why she had picked such a cheap school, and why she had no extracurriculars.

The last one was the one she found the hardest to answer, even though the answer was simple. She was working two part-time jobs. She hadn't had the time.

That was why Hinata was most confused about being selected. People who got jobs high in a company's infrastructure young were usually from wealthy families. People with connections. Why was she chosen when she so clearly came from a family with no connections?

"Why have you come like this today." The man glanced pointedly down at her clothes.

Hinata looked down, feeling very self-conscious. She wore her best, conservative pencil dress and a blazer. They weren't expensive and a little big, but surely she didn't look that bad?

Hinata pulled together her lack of pride. "My clothes shouldn't be the reason to hire me."

He shook his head. "You will be representing the company poorly in that."

Hinata tried to keep a straight face. She felt thoroughly embarrassed, and she wasn't even sure why.

"I think we are done. You are excused."

Hinata stood, bowed politely, glancing at the back of the chair that had still yet to turn around or say a word. It was rude, and she had already been insulted enough.

Hinata turned to the chair, bowed to it, and walked herself out of the room.

Hinata missed the surprised face of the interviewer.

A knock came on her door. Hinata looked up from her phone.

Hanabi looked her over. Hinata was still in her clothes from the interview, minus her heels. She hastily pulled her hair down on the bus, hiding her upset face. "That bad?"

"I knew I wasn't qualified, but I wanted the experience anyway. It doesn't make it hurt less." Hinata grumbled.

"You'll get there," Hanabi assured her. "I finished my homework. Come watch a movie with me."

"I should get to bed. I have to be in the office tomorrow by five." Hinata was tired, she had been on a bus and a long train ride to get to the office and back.

"That place is awful," Hanabi whined. "It's 8'o'clock."

"It's temporary." Hopefully.

As Hanabi made a face and was ready to leave, Hinata's phone rang in her hand. "Hello?"

"Hyuga Hinata?"

"Yes?" Hinata wondered.

"I am from Uchiha Industries. You had an interview with me."

Hinata's breath caught. They don't usually call you for rejections. "Yes," Hanabi dove to press her ear on the other side to listen.

"We are offering you the position. We need you tomorrow at 6 am sharp." He told her.

"I… Yes, sir." Hinata agreed.

"Goodnight." He hung up.

Hinata didn't even take the phone from her ear until her sister shook her arm excitedly.

"You got the job!" Hanabi squeaked.

"How…?" Hinata wondered aloud.

"Who cares!" Hanabi screeched, hanging herself over her sister. "It doesn't even matter if you keep this job for a month. Passing an interview at a big company will get you a job anywhere!" Hinata hadn't told her what the company was called. Hanabi had never asked. Hinata was too embarrassed that she had put her resume into the biggest company in the city.

"Yeah," Hinata wasn't sure she would even last a day, though.