CHAPTER TEN

FIRST DAY

Monday morning was utter chaos. They all, by some coincidence, had to be at work at 10:00 in the morning. The group of twelve had set their alarms set for 8:00. They wanted to have time to get showered, dressed, and eat breakfast. Twelve people, five bathrooms, and no one liked to cook. It was a recipe for disaster.

Ren sat back with a cup of coffee watching the scene before him. He had woken up at 5:00, as was usual for him during the weekdays. He told the guys to wake up earlier than the girls, now they were all waiting for one of them to get out of the shower. Ren stood back up, his break over, and headed back down to the shop. On his way out he handed Naruto an envelope.

After about an hour and a half, they group was finished with their morning routines. Some were excited, some were nervous, and some had no feelings for their first day of work. Everyone left, heading to cross the interstate to get to the mall. They all couldn't help but wonder what their first day of work would be like.

"Okay, class!" Jade clapped her hands to get the attention of all the people gathered in the room, though most of them continued their conversations in hushed tones. "Today we're going to be doing something different." That seemed to get their attention. "One of my very good friends, is going to be taking over for today. If anyone happens to like what he teaches, you'll be able to sign up for his new class, which will be held in room 4, the room across the hall." With that she motioned for Deidara to step forward and address the class.

"Hello my name is Deidara, and I'll be taking over for today," he said a bit nervously. Jade gave him a thumbs up, from her seat behind the desk at the front of the class. "Instead of your usual class, where Jade teaches you all how the basics of sketching, I will be teaching you all how to sculpt. Does anyone have any questions?" He let his blue eyes roam over the classroom. One woman decided to speak up.

"So, this is going to be like pottery?" How dare she confuse my art, with pottery! Katsu!

"No. Sculpting is different from pottery. We will not use a spin table. Any more questions?" When no one else spoke up, he started with the lesson. "In front of you all, should be a few packages of sculpting clay. Before you all start molding, be sure to press out any and all air bubbles. If there are any air pockets in your finished product, it will explode when we place it in the kiln to harden."

"Can you show us an example of one of your sculptures?"

Deidara smirked his boyish smirk. He walked over to the front desk, and picked up a lump of clay. Making sure not to use his hand mouths, he started pressing out all the air bubbles before molding the clay. When he was finished, he held up a very detailed dragon. Jade was proud.

"Remember class. Art... is a bang!" The class started clapping, and immediately got to work.

"Excuse me, miss. Do you think you could help me out a bit," a woman had asked her, looking confused.

"Alright. What do you need," Sakura replied, excited to be helping her fist customer of the day.

"You see, my daughter's birthday is coming up, and I was wondering if you could help me pick out an outfit for her."

"I would be happy to help," she smiled. "Do you know what she likes?"

"If I did, I wouldn't be asking," the woman replied smarmily. "I only have an hour lunch break before i need to get back."

"Of course," Sakura replied, her left eye twitching. She could not be rude to a customer, so with a forced smile like she was instructed to do so as she continued, "How old is your daughter turning? What size does she wear?"

"Well she'll be turning seventeen. I would say she is about the same size as you. The only difference would be that her chest is far more developed than yours."

This old hag! Why I oughta, Inner Sakura made her appearance, shaking her fist in rage at the rude customer.

"If you would come with me this way, I can think of a few things she would like," Sakura said in a sickly sweet voice smiling at the woman. She led her around the store picking up articles of clothing, until she had assembled a complete outfit. She checked out the woman's things and waved off. When the woman was out of sight, Sakura danced around sticking her tongue out.

Unfortunately for the girl, her manager had seen her rude gestures as the woman left, and Sakura received a stern lecture and a warning.

"Hello, Gorgeous," a man said walking up to Hinata.

"How can I help you, sir," Hinata replied politely, eager yet nervous to assist her first customer of the day on her own.

"Drop the formalities, and call me *Mitch," he replied with a flirty smile. He leaned over the counter. "Do you think you could help me find a new pair of shoes, Gorgeous?"

"Of course," she once again replied politely. "What style of shoe are you interested in?"

"I'm thinking of trying something different from my usual," Mitch said, with a suggestive wink.

"Please take a seat, and I'll bring you some shoes for you to try on," Hinata said a bit awkwardly, before walking to the back. She took her time picking out different pairs of shoes, then walked back out to the front towards Mitch. "Here try these on."

"Why thank you, Gorgeous." With that he took off his shoes. That was when an awful smell reached Hinata's nose. She looked around everywhere, searching for the source of the smell. She located the source. It was Mitch's feet. He finished trying on his shoes. "I'll take these two."

"Follow me so I can check you out," Hinata said, leading the man to the check-out counter. She picked up something on the way over. She scanned all his items, and told him his total.

"Wait. I didn't put in any flip flops," Mitch said, noticing them for the first time, as Hinata bagged his shoes.

"No, I put those in. They say airing out your feet every once and a while helps get rid of the smell," she replied sweetly. The man paid for his items, and stormed out of the store. When she heard him utter 'bitch' under his breath, she couldn't help the cute smile that pulled at her lips. It would seem that all that time spent with Kiba's sister had corrupted her.

Nagato was having a blast exploring all the merchandise. He unleashed his inner pervert. Konan would get angry if she saw him, but his late sensei would be so proud of him. That was what he told himself through all the gag gifts, and giggling like a school girl. Nagato had the whole store to himself, and he loved every minute of it.

"So you did take my job after all," a voice said from behind him. Nagato turned around. He came face to face with the man who had quit, and gave his job to him. He really hoped that man didn't cause any trouble.

"I see you've come back," Nagato stated in a clipped tone.

"WHO THE HELL TOLD YOU, YOU COULD JUST TAKE MY JOB," the man shouted, starting to throw things at him. Nagato dodged everything that was sent his way, making sure to catch everything and set them calmly on the counter, which only served to further enraged the man. The man made a move to attack him, and Nagato side stepped, hitting the man on the temple, causing him totally to the floor unconscious.

"Sir is everything all right," a security guard asked. The man took a moment to case the scene before his eyes landed on the heap of a man on the ground.

"He's only unconscious. He left me no other choice than to defend myself," Nagato explained. Even though the man was no danger to Nagato himself, the man could have endangered one of the other customers or his fellow employee. The security guard woke the man up and pulled him away.

Sasuke groaned. Kim had been shooting glares at him all weekend, and part of the morning. The stores they worked at were directly across from each other, and the check-out counters had perfect views of the other. When she would be putting something up on the racks at the front, she would turn and glare. Who knew that older sisters could be so difficult?

He hadn't meant to do it, he was just frustrated. Even in a different dimension, he couldn't escape his fan girls. Now because of them, the girl he thought of as an older sister hated him. Though that was about to change. The night before he had gotten some advice. He had cracked and had gone to Sakura for help. She had told him to be nice, and apologized to her. After a bit of arguing with his former pink haired teammate, he decided that he would apologize, no matter how much it pained him to do so.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled, standing behind Kim. She turned around, hiding a smirk.

"What? I couldn't hear you."

"I said 'I'm sorry'," he replied louder. That made her smile, as she engulfed him in a tight hug. He squirmed a bit, trying to escape before he just gave in. He then handed her the pineapple-coconut slush he had gotten her as a peace offering.

"So... who forced you to apologize," Kim questioned, taking a sip.

"Sakura," he said, glaring at nothing.

"You don't like her much do you," she questioned, remembering how the girl liked to be around her younger brother. She thought they would make a cute couple, but if he wasn't interested, there really wasn't much that could be done.

"She's annoying." Kim nodded in understanding.

"You should get back to the store, before you get into trouble," she stated, pushing him away.

It was as she was refolding the shirts on the display table, that a man about a year older than her walked up behind her. When she didn't look his way he picked up a shirt at random, and when that didn't work he cleared his throat.

"Excuse me, but do you think you could help me pick out a gift for my younger sister," he said, folding a shirt. Kim smiled, and took the shirt away, placing it in the middle of the stack.

"You don't have to do that, and I would be happy to help." She looked up at the man. He had tan skin, jet black hair, and sea green eyes. It was like Percy Jackson had walked out of the pages of the book. He was smiling at her, which made her blush, and he smiled wider. Kim then led him around the store, asking him about his sister, all the while trying to keep her heart from jumping out of her chest.

"Okay, I lied," he said rubbing the back of his neck. Kim turned to face him. "I don't have a sister. I just needed an excuse to talk to you. Can we start over?" She nodded, but before she could say a thing he walked away, only to walk right up to her again. "Hi. My name's Jake. What's yours?"

"Hello Jake. I'm Kim," she replied holding back a smile.

"How would you like to go out on a date with me," he asked with a kind smile of his own.

"I would like that. How does Friday night sound?"

"I can't. My brother's always complaining that I don't spend much time with him," he explained.

"How old is your brother?"

"Sixteen, but what does that have-"

"How would your brother feel, if you got him a date with a very pretty girl. I just happen to now a certain sixteen year old girl that's still available."

"Really now. They do say, that the prettiest girls travel in pacts, and if I got him a date with one. Well... he would worship me," he smirked. "Me and my brother will meet you two at Waterlou Park at 6:00. Sorry, but I have to go." Kim smiled wide as she watched him walk away.

"All you have to do is clean the animal cages, and give them food and water," the manager explained. He was showing Hana around the store, and explaining what she had to do. "Alright then. Now get to work."

Hana nodded and got straight to work. One at a time, she took the animals out of their cages, cleaned them out, put them back in, and continued on to the others. Then she went around giving them each their respective food. She finished early, and had a few hours to spare before she could go home.

The manager had motioned for her to go over to the chatty woman's station. Hana was wary. The other employees had warned her of the woman's gossiping habits. She didn't need to be told that. She knew from their first encounter, when she was still a cat, of her love to gossip. So, with a groan of displeasure, Hana made her way over.

"Sweetheart," the woman exclaimed, when Hana approached. "How has your first day been so far?"

"It's been good. I really like working with the animals," Hana replied truthfully. The woman smiled kindly. She then turned her head, and stared.

"Hana, do you see that woman over there?" Hana nodded. "Well, she and her husband..." Hana tuned her out. It was such a great day until, the old woman decided to talk her to death. Hopefully someone soon would come in with a dog that needed to be trained.

"What do you mean you've never played these games before," the store manager asked in shock. Naruto had just finished telling him, that he had no clue how to play any of the games. "You're a teenager! You're supposed to know these things!"

"Heh. I've never really had much time to play games. I was always busy tra-s-studying to do anything else, 'ttebayo," Naruto replied, internally sighing in relief having caught himself in time. He didn't want to know what would have happened if he had accidentally exposed them all. He shivered at the thought of what Sakura might have done to him.

"Alright. Because I don't want inept employees. I want you familiarize yourself with all the games," the manager stated.

"Really, Mister!" Naruto was excited. He was going to spend his first day on the job, learning to play games. It was turning out to be a good day for Naruto. He walked over to one of the games they had set up to play. "How do you play that," he asked the guy that was standing there.

"It's really simple, see, you just..." The rest of the day continued like that, until he got the hang of it. The day was going good for him, that was until a customer his age came in. The two sixteen year old boys argued about which game they thought was better.

Konan was just sitting behind the counter, reading one of the many magazines that the other girl had stashed in one of the drawers. Only a few men and women had gone in to look at the jewelry, and only a handful had actually gotten piercings. They were all simple things like the ears, the lip, and the nose.

"If I buy something I can get the piercing for free..." the man whom was browsing the selections, questioned. He was a thin man with pale skin, dark hair, and lovely emerald green eyes.

"That only applies to the basic ear piercing. Meaning only one piercing per purchased item. The price depends on the type of piercing you want," Konan explained. She had gotten up from her seat, and was showing him the varying prices that were printed on a poster hanging on the wall.

"Okay," the man replied, continuing to look at the displays. When he found the perfect pieces of body jewelry, he went up to Konan.

"Done with your search," she questioned politely. The man nodded and handed Konan the jewelry, which she proceeded to check out. He paid, and she led him to the back room. "What kind of piercings would you like. From your purchases, I can tell you want three."

"Yes. I want my nipples pierced and a *Prince Albert," the man replied. Konan blanched. His nipples? She did not know what a Prince Albert was. The blue haired female walked over to a desk. She took out a book. Flipping to the right page, she paled even further. If a shinobi was ever captured and had that specific piercing, his captor could pull it out as a form of torture. The same could be said about the nipple piercings.

Itachi was going to die. Again. As if dying the first time wasn't enough. Maybe it was karma. He had tortured his younger brother for most of his life, and now he was being tortured by heavily perfumed women. There was a swarm of women around him. They were all asking him for his opinion on which scent he liked the most. Pushing, shoving, and shouting is what they were doing, and Itachi was at the center of it all.

He looked over to the neighboring store. The two stores were connected by an open wall, and separated by a stand. It seemed as though Kakashi was having the same problem as Itachi.

"What do you think about this," a woman asked. She sprayed the body mist right when Itachi turned his head to look at her. He accidentally inhaled most of the mist, and started coughing. He had to try hard to not let his bloodline limit activate. He started to feel dizzy.

"That smells okay," he replied, shaking his head. The women squealed in glee. They had finally gotten his opinion. All the women rushed to pick out lotions and body mists of that particular fragrance.

Kakashi had just turned his head over as Itachi fell, causing the women to gasp in horror. He rushed over to check the oldest Uchiha's vitals. Soon the manager rushed over, and called mall security to take the fallen man to the in-mall infirmary. She shooed off the frantic women, and sent Kakashi back to his station.

Everything had been slow since Itachi had been taken to the infirmary. The manager had to put up a sign saying 'Please Do Not Use Employees as Fragrance Testers.'

Kakashi was getting bored. He was sitting behind the counter playing with the pens. A few giggling teenaged girls had tried to flirt with him. He gave them all bored looks and directed them to the female employee that was there. When all attempts at ending his boredom failed, he pulled out his trusty orange book.

"Excuse me, but would you mind helping me pick out something for my trip?" He was getting excited at having a new customer. Maybe she would want to try on a few of the more daring pieces. He put his book away, and turned around. Behind him was an older lady. He prayed to Kami, that she did not want to try on some of the more daring pieces.