Making ends meet
Anko walked into the apartment where she was greeted by two other girls that looked to be a few years younger than herself. She looked around at the empty apartment, taking note of the lack of furniture they had, “you guys seem to have a lot of empty space her.” She looked at the girl who let her into the apartment, “did you guys just move in here or something?”
“Uh, yeah, we actually did move in here the day before yesterday when the old owner left.” Mai replied, “we are sort of on our own here, so we don’t have a lot of stuff yet, just the things we brought with us when we moved.” Mai glanced at her sisters a little nervously, she didn’t know what to say towards Anko knowing that she was a ninja and all. This was actually her first time talking to a ninja without being chased off of any reason.
Anko raised an eyebrow at that, “so where are your parents?” She asked, “you guys don’t look old enough to be living on your own just yet, hold old are you anyway?”
“Oh, me? I’m, uh…fifteen…” Mai said looking down, she wasn’t sure if that was old enough or still too young, but it was the first number that came into her mind. “Um, and these are my sisters, Hinamoto, and Chikage.”
Anko looked over to the other two, the one called Chikage stood up, “hi, nice to meet you…” she said awkwardly.
Anko looked the girl up and down, she also gave the other two a once over, “and how old are the two of you?”
“Um, I’m…seventeen?” Chikage said/asked since she wasn’t sure if she really wanted to be the older one here. She turned to her other sister, “and Hina’s… sixteen,” well, she figured that they were already in this deep, might as well stick to their story for now.
“And your parents?” Anko asked since she had yet to see or sense anyone else in the apartment.
“We don’t have…” Mai stopped herself from finishing that sentence, looking over to her sisters. She didn’t know if she should lump her problems in with hers since they actually did have parents that were around and probably looking for them at the moment.
“Don’t have what?” Anko asked wanting to hear what she was going to say, she looked between the three girls thinking that they did look pretty young. Being between the ages of fifteen and seventeen, they were pretty, and no one else was in the apartment with them. This made her think that the girl was going to say that they didn’t have any parents to begin with, that they were orphans. But Anko didn’t want to assume anything on her own since she had been wrong on these types of things before, she looked back to the girl still standing by the door, “are they at work right now?”
“We don’t have parents,” Chikage replied. She didn’t like the way things were going, they were hesitating too much instead of accepting and playing their roles as three young girls who happen to be running an apartment building on their own. Their first potential tenant was standing right here before them, if they were to turn into ninjas one day, they needed to get comfortable with lying to someone’s face. “We were orphaned by our parents when we were ten, we came to this village to have a fresh start and ended up becoming the new owners of this building just a day ago.” Chikage explained, “we’ve been trying to figure out how we’re going to do this since we’ve never run an apartment building before.”
“Whoa, whoa, okay, you don’t have to tell me your whole life story, kid,” Anko said waving her hand at the oldest girl. “All I wanted to know was why three kids were hanging out at home alone when it’s still morning. To be honest, I don’t really care what you do on your own, or who’s running this building really, as long as I can find me a place to stay fast since my old apartment kicked me this morning.”
“Why’d they do that?” Hinamoto asked getting to her feet, she had heard rumors about how Anko was evil and the daughter of the devil. If those rumors were true, then they would need to be careful who they let stay here since it would bring trouble to them later. Then again, they did need the money, and they weren’t in a position to judge anyone.
Anko shrugged her shoulders as she thought about what had happened at her old apartment grimly. “To be honest, the guy was a douche bag, he kept raising my rent for any reason, saying that I damaged thing while I was away on missions.” She rolled her eyes as she remembered the conversation, then smirked, “that’s why when I left, I gave him a nice black eye as my parting gift to repay all of his kindness to me in the past. Anyway, what’s the deal with that room? Can I get it or not?”
Mai smiled, she had a good feeling about Anko, he didn’t know how, but she felt that Anko could become a good friend in time. “Sure thing, let's get started by stepping into the office over here,” she stated closing the front door and walking over to the office door in the kitchen. Anko followed Mai and watched as she got out some paperwork that they both read through before Anko signed. They went through some terms and agreements while Chikage looked for the key that Anko needed to get into her apartment. They also talked about a price range that they thought would be reasonable for Anko since she wanted something that she could still afford on her chunin salary. The price they landed on was a cool six hundred a month which Anko thought was kind of fair since she would kind of fair for her. “Great, welcome to your new home,” Mai said happily, “if you need anything, you can call on us. Oh, by the way, the apartment might need some dusting since the former owner was not able to keep up with every apartment in her old age. We’ve also haven’t had time to do it ourselves since we just moved in as well, so you might need to do some dusting when you get down there.”
“Cool,” she took the key from Chikage and walked towards the door but paused because she remembered something important. “Oh, by the way, since I will be going on missions in the future, if I think it will take longer than a month, will it be okay to pay for two months upfront before leaving?”
“Sure, it’s fine with us,” Mai replied walking her to the door. “Just let us know when you’re leaving ahead of time so we’re not wondering where you went.”
“No problem,” Anko did a mock salute to her new landlords as she stepped out of their apartment. “It was a pleasure doing business with ya,” she turned and headed down the walkway to the stairs with a backward wave at them. “You three take care of yourselves.”
“Thank you, same to you,” Mai said cheerfully as she watched Anko leave. Once Anko was out of sight, Mai went back into the apartment with her sisters and transformed back into Naruto who was grinning from ear to ear. “Guys! We just got our first tenant!”
Shikamaru and Chouji transformed back into their original selves as well, both smiling as well. “That wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” Chouji said excitedly.
Shikamaru chuckled, “maybe we can do this after all.”
Naruto nodded, he then looked at the sky, it was getting close to lunchtime and they had yet to eat anything. “You guys want to have an early lunch before heading to the library?”
“Sure,” Chouji and Shikamaru agreed as they were starting to get hungry themselves.
At the library, Mai, Chikage, and Hinamoto gathered around a table with stacks of books covering the table. Most of them were ‘how-to’ books on how to fix things, make and save money, and good spending habits. There were also a few that were about managing a healthy home-work balance, among other things. They looked up how to make a resume so they could continue to look for work as civilians even after they become ninjas, they thought it would be a good black up plan to earn money for the time being. After their resumes were printed, they decided to also get a library card to check out the books they found, wanting to study them back home. When they were done at the library, they took their books back home before they all took a quick shower, changed into their new clothes, and left for the bakery. They managed to get there just in time to meet the boss at the door, though it was still a bit earlier than when they came the day before. “Ah, so this is the young lady that made those delicious cakes yesterday?” The boss, a man in his late twenties, said as he spotted the three girls walking up to his bakery. “It is very nice to meet you girls, my name James, I am the owner of this place.”
“Hello, James-san, these are my sisters Hinamoto and Mai,” Chikage said gesturing to her sisters. “My name is Chikage, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“And you as well, my dear,” James said with a warm smile. “Now, I must apologies for putting you three through my little test yesterday, it’s just that when I started looking for new staff to join me before officially opening my doors, I was met with…an odd bunch. Everyone who came by to apply was all girls, much like yourselves, but unlike you, they kept on fawning all over me for no reason.” He sighed sadly, “not that I don’t mind the attention, but this is a place of business, not pleasure.”
“With a face like that, no wonder all the girls are fawning over him,” Mai whispered to Hinamoto who nodded in agreement. James was tall with a strong jaw-line, even though his clothes were loose-fitting, you could still tell that he had muscles underneath. He had a nice-looking face and a nice looking body, he reminded Naruto of Sasuke, but unlike Sasuke, he wasn’t a brooding Uchiha.
“Well then, now that we have introduced ourselves, why don’t we get to work then?” James said before explaining their job and their schedule to each of them. They would work in the evening from three in the evening to about ten at night, depending on how busy the day was. James didn’t come up with a uniform for his bakery yet, but he did have aprons with the name of the bakery on it for them to wear while they were working. James also told them about the other rules of the bakery and what was expected of them, when he was done, they started opening the bakery. Minho arrived a few minutes later, she was running late because of a family event that she let James know about before-hand. Chouji went back to working in the baking area with Shikamaru’s help while Naruto and Minho took up their spots in the front. James went between helping take orders in the front with Naruto and Minho, to helping with the baking in the back, the work flowed much quicker today since there was one more person working with them. Naruto was getting used to working with the register, he liked playing around with numbers, adding, subtracting, dividing, and so on always came easy to him, so he was happy to put that skill of his to good use. He had always been known for pulling pranks, but numbers were where he really shinned. Around half-past six, James came over to Naruto just as he was finishing up an order, “it looks like the store is starting to calm down now. Would you and your sisters like to take a little break now?”
“Oh, um, sure, but there are still people in line,” Mai replied unsurely.
James gave her his warmest smile, “yes, but you three have been on your feet since you got here. Why not take a break now? I’m sure that Minho and I can handle the front for a while until you three come back. Working hard is good, but not working smart is bad, so go on.”
“Um, well, since you put it that way,” Mai smiled up at him, “I’ll go get them.” James smiled back at her and took over the register, taking the next person in line while Mai went back to get her sisters. In the back, Chouji and Shikamaru were in the middle of putting some donuts in the oven, “Hey, guys, James said we can take our break now.”
The two smiled, “okay.” They took off their aprons and walked out of the store after letting the owner and Minho know that they were leaving. “Where should we go?” Chouji asked.
“I want to get something to eat,” Shikamaru said, “We only had bread with cheese for lunch. I think I want to get some more bowls of that ramen we had last night.”
“I second that,” Naruto led the way to Ichiraku ramen. “We’re back, old man!” Naruto called out as they entered the shop.
The owner looked up from the large pot he was stirring, “oh, so it’s you three again, back for more already?” The owner asked with a smile on his face, he remembered these three customers from last night because when they came in, they looked to be starving. He felt a little bad for them and gave them a discount on their meal since they were first-timers to his shop. They started talking and he found out that they were new in town as well, he knew there was a reason why he didn’t remember them from around the village. Ichiraku gave them each a menu to look at, “so, what will you guys be having tonight, or should I just bring out the same thing as last night?”
“I’ll probably have the same as last night,” Mai said before closing the menu and handing it back. She looked over to her sisters, “what about you guys?”
“I’ll have the same too,” Chikage said.
“Me too,” Hinamoto said as they both handed back their menus.
“Coming right up, ladies,” the owner said taking back their menus and getting to work. While the three were waiting, two ninjas walked into the small restaurant, both had grim looks on their faces.
“Can you believe that Yoshino blames me for Shikamaru not coming home last night too?” Shikaku grumbled miserably, “this isn’t like Shikamaru to not come home for so long. He didn’t say anything about spending the night at someone else’s house, not that he has any other friends other than Chouji and Ino. That I know of, that is.”
Chouza nodded his head, “yeah, same with Chouji. The only friends he has are Shikamaru and Ino, so I don’t get why he’s taking so long to come back home. It’s not like he doesn’t know the way.” Shikaku nodded, they both took a seat next to the three other customers in the small restaurant. Chouza sat next to him with a sigh, “don’t you think it’s kind of strange that we can’t find them, Shikaku?”
Shikaku nodded, his gaze falling on the menu on the wall next to the three girls. He was deciding on what he wanted, but he also couldn’t help but notice the girls who also fell into his view. He had not seen their faces before, then again, this was tourist season, so there were bound to face that he didn’t recognize walking around. He picked out something from the menu and turned back to his conversation with Chouza about their missing son’s whereabouts. “You know what else? They didn’t bother showing up for school either, it’s already been two days of the missing class.”
“Hm, I wonder where they could be right now,” Chouza said upset. “What could they be thinking? If they start plaining around now, they could be held back a year. Everyone who has been to the academy knows that missing more than a week of school means an automatic set back in their graduation.” He shook his head, “I hope they come to their senses so.”
Shikaku chuckled, “yeah, maybe while they’re at it, they can grow up a little and learn some responsibly. Enough to make us stop worrying about them.”
“Yeah, well, hopefully, they haven’t been corrupted by that demon brat. He better not be the reason behind them missing two days of school,” Chouza grumbled with his arms crossed.
Meanwhile, Hinamoto and Chikage were silently shaking in fear that they would be found out since both of their fathers were sitting right there. Mai glanced over to Shikaku and Chouza, she was getting a knot in her stomach from those two being so close to them, but she knew that if they panicked now, they would surely give themselves away. She didn’t want to be found out so easily. Thinking quickly, she called out to the owner of the little restaurant, “um, actually, I just remembered that we have to get back to work soon. If we don’t hurry we’ll be late getting back,” she said as calmly as she could, dropping the hint so that her friends would get the message.
Chikage quickly came to her senses, “that’s right, we should get going right now. Ah, but the food,” she looked back to the man preparing their meals.
“It’s fine, we can just get it to go,” Mai said looking over to the owner, “excuse me, Ichiraku-san, may we get those orders to go please?”
“Hm? Oh, yeah, sure, you three in a rush to go somewhere?” Ichiraku asked as he poured the contents of the ladle into a bowl before covering it.
Mai nodded, “yes, we only came over to get something to eat on our break.”
“Break? Do you mean you three actually found a job that quickly after moving here?” Ichiraku asked in surprise as he fixed the second and third bowl for the girls to take back with them, “I must say that I’m impressed that you three were actually able to pull it off.”
Hinamoto shook her head, “it was nothing but luck, honest.”
“Well, luck or no luck, it’s still impressive. If I knew you guys were looking for work already, I probably would have asked you to work here,” he said as he brought over all three bowls in a takeout box.
Chikage, Hinamoto, and Mai looked at each other, “oh, um, are you looking for someone to help around here?” Hinamoto asked curiously.
“Yes, actually,” Ichiraku said with a grandfatherly smile on his face. He leaned on the counter casually as he spoke to the three girls, “you see, my granddaughter is currently in cooking school, she has to pass before she can actually help me out in the kitchen. She still comes by after school to help me out, but what I really need is help setting everything up in the morning.”
“Mornings?” Chikage thought about the timing for a second, their schedule with the bakery will give them about half an hour to get there after school is done for the day. “What time in the morning?”
“Oh, well, I don’t want to put you girls out. You just started a job, you shouldn’t take on too much, too soon,” the elder said in concern.
“Actually, it’s not really a problem if we can have some extra money coming in,” Chikage replied.
“Yeah, and we kind of need the money right now,” Hinamoto replied.
Ichiraku leaned back from the counter as he thought, “well, I usually get here at about six in the morning to prep everything. The prep work and opening the shop only takes me around three hours to do alone. Although, if you do agree, I won’t be able to pay you much right now.”
“Oh, then we can definitely help you out, old man,” Mai said happily. “Even though it’s not much, it will still help out both of us in the end.”
Ichiraku nodded his head, “you’re a very decisive girl, Mai-san. Alright, you guys can help me prep for the morning shift if you like. You can come by tomorrow morning for a test run.”
“Sounds good to me!” Mai said getting off the stool she was seated on before putting the money for the food on the counter for him. “We’ll be there bright and early!” Chikage picked up the food as she got off the stool as well, Hinamoto also got up and followed her friends out, “see you then.” Mai waved good buy to the owner as they left.
Ichiraku waved back until he couldn’t see them anymore, he chuckled to himself as he looked over to Shikaku and Chouza who had been patiently waiting. “So, what can I get the two of you?” He asked as he turned back to making more ramen.
“The usual for me,” Chouza said with a smile.
“I’ll just have a duck soup with some kimchi on the side,” Shikaku said in a tired voice.
“What’s the matter with the two of you? Your wives not cooking for you anymore or something?” Ichiraku asked, a slight frown on his face when he glanced up at the clock, seeing the time, he knew it was already getting close to dinner time.
“You could say that,” Shikaku said grimly.
“Hm, so still no luck locating your sons?” Ichiraku asked as a way to make casual talk.
“Not a single clue,” Chouza said upset. “It’s like they disappeared off the face of the earth or something.”
Ichiraku shook his head, “no, no, I’m sure those boys will turn up sooner or later. You know how boys are, they run off and cause trouble for a while and come back as nothing happened. Meanwhile, they have their mothers worried sick, and their father’s getting the full brunt of their wives’ rage of not having all of their children home safe and sound.”
Shikaku chuckled, “don’t I know it.”
At the same time, with the supposed missing boys, Naruto, Shikamaru, and Chouji were all sitting on the steps near the bakery’s doors eating their ramen. “Oh man, I don’t think I’ve ever been so nervous in my whole life,” Shikamaru sighed.
“I know, they were right there, they could have caught us right then if we didn’t leave soon,” Chouji mumbled around his noodles.
“Hm, but they didn’t, so we should be fine for now,” Naruto said feeling a little happy that they were able to get away safely. “But that’s the issue here guys.”
“It’s not?” Chouji asked still mopping about in his ramen.
“Then what is?” Shikamaru asked suddenly feeling ten years older.
Naruto looked at his friends seriously, “you heard what they said back at the shop, right? If we don’t go back to the academy soon, we’ll be civilians forever. Not only that, but we also have to make sure that we don’t miss any more days of the academy so we don’t get held back a year.”
Shikamaru sighed again, “but would that be so bad, though, Naruto? If we’re ninjas, we’ll have to go back to how things were before. If Chouji and I go back home now, they’re going to think that it’s your fault, somehow, I guess, and we won’t be able to remain friends anymore.”
“Yeah, I get that, that’s why we can’t get caught.” Naruto replied obviously as she finished his ramen, “look, so far, we have a whole apartment to take care of, it has multiple rooms that haven’t been cleaned in a while. We also have to keep up our schedule with the bakery to have a steady flow of money coming in for food and stuff. With that, we’ll be fine with essentials.”
“If we’re already good on money, then why did you say we would help that old man every morning?” Chouji asked a little confused.
“Oh, wait, I think I get it, the money from the old man will be for us, right?” Shikamaru asked, Naruto nodded, “and the money from the renters will most likely go towards the building, and the money we get from the bakery will be something like a backup or something. Emergency money or something, right?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Naruto nodded excitedly, “but we won’t get any more people to rent our rooms if we don’t clean them up first. So, tomorrow, we’re going to clean up every last room and start advertising.” The blond was getting excited at this point, he was imagining how stable they could be on their own once they settled into their new routine of working and going to school. “The best part is that the building kind of runs itself, all we have to do is make sure to fix anything that breaks.”
Chouji was already getting tired thinking about how much work they were going to have to do in the near future. “If we’re going to be going to school while we work, we’re going to have to make sure that we don’t fall behind in class.”
Naruto waved off his worries, “don’t worry about that right now. We just have to go with the flow, ninjas take on multiple things at once during missions. If we can get through this now, then we’ll already be ahead of the game when we graduate.”
Shikamaru shook his head at the blond, “you might as well give it up, Chouji, once he gets this excited, there’s no stopping him.”
Chouji sighed again, “that’s why I’m worried.”
To be continued