~Bulletproof~ SasuSaku Mafia Story

Chapter 33 ~ Exposure Therapy

Sakura woke up early that morning as she had no interest in sleeping in. She had to admit, she was actually excited for this assignment. There was something quite gratifying about figuring out how to reduce real-world problems down to coding questions. This was applied data science at its best, and it induced a lot of adrenaline in her.

Today, her task was to find an optimal way to turn years and years of business records of some Zoldyck family into a streamlined dataset. Then, she had to find out a way to detect anomalies in trends and patterns. She jumped out of bed, got dressed, and groaned when realizing she couldn't brush her teeth without going into Sasuke's room. She didn't even know if he was awake yet. But, he hadn't exactly shown her where the other bathroom was. He only said 'downstairs', which was not nearly good enough.

She peaked out of her door and heard lots of footsteps walking around the house.

*Must be the guards or something... Damn it, no way I'm wandering around this house looking for a bathroom with so many random men downstairs...* She braced herself and knocked on Sasuke's door. He opened the door in his hoodie and sweatpants, and leaned on the side of the doorway.

"Hey, um, can I use your bathroom?" She was not used to seeing him in clothes other than suits or formal attire, so Sakura was definitely surprised at how normal he looked.

"Good morning to you, too." He moved over so Sakura could walk by him, she rolled her eyes and  entered past him.

"Well, I would have said good morning, but you look grumpy as always," she teased. Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"Cut the attitude, will you? I just woke up."

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to wake you, just wanted to brush my teeth."

Sasuke sat down on his bed as Sakura walked into the bathroom. She brushed her teeth, combed her hair and came out to Sasuke already fully dressed in his usual suit.

"You ready to start the day? I expected you to sleep in more, it's only eight."

Sakura shrugged.

"Yeah, I'm ready. I just feel so energized."

"I'll take you to Madara." He turned around and led her downstairs to a large office with big windows overlooking the beach. Madara sat at his desk, which was right in front of a big wooden table with several men dressed in identical uniforms seated around it.

"Oh, you two are here early." Madara smiled at the duo. "Did you enjoy dinner? I apologize for abandoning you!"

"It was fine. Is everything okay with you and Izuna?" Sasuke walked in and sat on the little couch in the corner by the desk, and Sakura sat by him.

"Yes, yes, there was a small clerical error but we fixed it. We are good to go whenever Sakura is ready." He  turned to her with a big smile, but his eyes didn't seem to be smiling.

"I'm ready." She met his eyes.

"Alright then, the files are over there," he pointed to the pile in the middle of the wooden table. "These are my IT men, they will help you with whatever you need, but also keep an eye on the process for security reasons. Do you need anything else to get started?"

Sakura stood up and walked to the table. She leaned over some of the workers to grab a file from the pile. She flipped through it to make sure it was in an appropriate format. She looked up and nodded at Madara.

"I'm good to go."

"Alright then, my dear. Sasuke and I will go finalize the contracts with Marcus. Oh, we also have to go pick up Juugo, he arrived later than expected!"