Hanabi was asleep on the couch. Hinata didn't wake her. She was starving. She hadn't planned to be in the office past five, so she had only packed lunch. She would pack both for the next day. She had already sent emails rescheduling the meetings and scheduled an urgent appointment with the salon he had sent her while she was on the train home, as well as her address to the transport department.
Hinata grabbed something to eat while she set to work with the two folders she had been given. It felt like college all over again. Just because you got home from work didn't mean that day was done. After the first, she skimmed the second and decided it was best to handle it tomorrow.
Hinata opened her work laptop. She searched for local apartments. They were so expensive. She picked out the smallest one she could find, as close to the Uchiha district as she could. The salary for this job was nearly three times what her father made in a year. Still, Hinata didn't know how long she would have a job. She looked for an apartment that she might be able to afford if she moved to a temp agency in the center of the city that would pay higher than the one she had quit today.
Hinata rubbed her face, forcing herself to get up to make herself meals for the next day. She knew her father would be home any minute. She didn't want to face him, but she would have to tell him that she was moving out.
Before Hinata had even finished cooking, in the door, he came.
Hiashi took his shoes. "Hanabi says you have a new job."
"Yes, father," Hinata answered, trying to keep her hand busy to not fidget.
"Why was I not informed?" Hiashi scolded.
"I went to bed before you came home," Hinata explained. "I'm there on trial bases." She lied.
Hiashi face told her everything she needed to know. He didn't think she was going to last. Not his first disappointment.
Hinata braced herself. "I'm required to move into an apartment in the center of the city."
His face turned dark. "You have a responsibility to your sister."
"I will still be able to afford her schooling if I keep this job," Hinata answered quickly.
"If you don't, you now have an extra expense." Hiashi countered.
"If I am in the center of the city, I can find a better temp agency." Hinata reasoned. "I'll be near the business district. I could have two full-time jobs with that little commute."
Hiashi eyed her, unconvinced. "I will not bail you out, and you will not take anything from your sister."
"Of course." Hinata let go of her held breath as she heard his bedroom door slam.
Her father was been hard on her, but she remembered that there was once a time when he was happier. When her mother died, her father shut down. He lost his wife, and Hanabi was sick as an infant for ages. Hinata wasn't sure where they lived before or why they moved, maybe her mother's medical bills, but she knew it had been a bigger place somewhere in the city. Hanabi got better, but her father never recovered. Hinata grew up quickly. She took care of Hanabi when her father would lock himself away. After a while, he came to expect it, then he demanded it. She was expected to keep her grades up, her sister's grades up, the house kept, and work when she was old enough to.
Hinata wondered if he forgot she was his daughter too, not just a nanny he took in.
She could only hope to make Hanabi's life easier than hers was.
The next morning, a black car came to pick Hinata up, and she was so glad that her father had already left. She went through her morning duties, the morning review, received orders, and she handed in the folder he had asked to be reviewed.
Fugaku looked surprised. He eyed her, then opened it, glancing over her overview.
"Why is this handwritten?" Fugaku pulled out the piece of paper.
"I don't own a printer," Hinata told him. "I finished it last night."
"Type up reviews," Fugaku told her. "Print them when you come in."
"Sorry, sir." Hinata held her hand out for it, she would hurry to return it to him, but he just glared at her hand.
Hinata took her hand back.
"When you go to your appointment, you will do as they say. You don't get an opinion on what is done." Hinata wasn't worried before, but she certainly was now.
"Yes, sir," Hinata said, despite her now fearful heart.
"They are working on my express instructions." Fugaku finished looking down at her folder silently, looking over it for another few seconds before thrusting it at her.
"Send this to its department." Fugaku looked back at his screen. Hinata took a second too long to grab it. "Have them implement your conclusion."
Hinata didn't argue, but she also didn't understand. Was the director just going to trust she had done it right, or was this a test? If she made a poor conclusion in his eyes, she would be fired, so was it a test to see if she did her work well?
"Yes, sir." Hinata turned on her heel. She took a moment to hand it off to the correct department before returning to her desk to take a breath. She wasn't going to get a lot of them today.
After lunch, she was taken by another car to a luxury salon. With her name at the door, she was whisked to a chair where not only did a woman start treating her hair with something, but another told her she was having a manicure.
Within the next hour, her hair was treated, washed half a dozen times, and cut just past her shoulders. Her nails were filed and painted. Her hair was shinier than she had ever seen it.
Hinata was instructed on how to style it. When she said she didn't have a curling iron, she was given one. Her makeup was done simply and elegantly. She was given a small bag of makeup and brushes that were similar to the ones they used.
Hinata was sent to the fitting. Her measurements were taken. She was touched in every possible spot by an old woman with a stern face. She tried on what she was told for the hour, told how to wear them, then given her old clothes in a bag and told more clothes would be delivered by the next morning.
Then she was sent back to the office. She took a moment to look at herself in the mirror surface of the elevator. She looked… like she had it all figured out like she knew what she was doing. She stood straighter. That's what she was supposed to look like. People needed to have confidence in her that she would get the job done.
Her shoulders dropped.
… If nothing else, this made her more presentable for future work when this didn't work out.
Hinata came back to her desk to find a designer tote bag with a note. "The director wants you to use this."
The subtext was clear. 'Throw out your bag.'
Hinata transferred her things and stepped into his office just 5 minutes before his meeting.
Fugaku glanced up, studying her.
Hinata stood as tall and proper as she could, waiting for him to tell her she looked like a painted pig or something else insulting, like she had seen him snap in his meetings.
Fugaku nodded once, looking back at his screen. "Status."
Hinata shook her head to get a hold of herself, pulled out her phone, and reported the rest of his day. She followed him to his meeting and, while there, noticed she had an email approving her apartment location with the lease ready to sign from the landlord she hadn't contacted yet.
Hinata would have to figure out how she was going to move out. Her father wasn't going to help her. Maybe she would call her cousin. No, he was still away in the army. She pushed it aside as the meeting started.