SIX

"Hey, Sakura."

Lewis Hamilton greeted as he walked past his friend, who was the team principal at AlphaTauri.

Sakura Aoki looked like hell.

Dark circles were evident underneath her eyes, even when they were covered with makeup, they were still visible, so Lewis knew that something was definitely wrong with Sakura or more importantly, the Red Bull family.

'Family'.

Sakura would never call them that, because they weren't. It was a bunch of entitled men who had hired a woman in order to look good in the media and vowed that she was in charge of her team, but in reality they were trying to use her as a puppet.

"Hey Lewis, is Toto around? I need to scream at him about how much I hate the bosses."

Sakura Aoki spoke in a rather rushed tone, a frustrated glare evident upon her face, her fists clenched tightly together, her jaw so tight that she wondered if it would dislocate or break from the pressure.

Her off the shoulder sweater was almost falling too far as she moved her body quickly, her light blue denim jeans being one of the only things that kept it from flashing her abs from where she had lightly tucked in to, her dark brown hair tied back in to a ponytail that swished around wildly.

"Of course, he's just come off a phone call, so I'm sure that he'll happily listen to the drama." Lewis chuckled lightly, pointing his friend to where his boss was, barely able to finish his sentence before she had vanished, heading straight for the Austrian.

"Can I punch them?"

"Excuse me, what?"

Toto Wolff was forced to cough as he swallowed his coffee, the liquid having gone down his windpipe by accident, his eyes wide, his face concerned and confused.

"Old spice and horny spice."

The lips of the Wolff man light up in to a bright smile as the nicknames hit his ears, a small chuckle leaving his lips, which quickly morphed in to an amused laugh, wrinkles forming around his eyes from its brightness.

"Sorry, Sakura. I shouldn't laugh, but that's very funny. I will never refer to them as anything else now." The Austrian man gently placed his hand on to her shoulder. "What did they do?"

"They've spoken to the owners of both teams to see about replacing me because apparently, I'm not doing what's best for Red Bull." Sakura vented, rubbing her hands over her face in fustration.

"I'm not working for Red Bull, I'm working for AlphaTauri, and I'm sick of rolling over for them whenever they want me to. They wanted me to get rid of Pierre, and I refused. This has to be their way of punishing me for going against them."

"Do you want to know my opinion, Sakura?" Toto spoke up softly, keeping his voice soft and gentle in order to help calm and soothe her, the stress being incredibly visible on her face.

"You know that I always respect your opinion, so yes, please."

"They're trying to get rid of you because you're a threat. You manage the sister team better than Horner manages Red Bull, and they want to make sure that you can't replace him. It is purely jealousy, that is all." Toto gently reassured her, placing the both of his hands on to her shoulders to comfort her, easily able to see how much she was stressing.

"Yeah, but pure jealously could get me fired." Sakura grunted in annoyance before taking a seat so that she didn't get too worked up, her fists clenched so tightly that her knuckles were turning white.

"I'd like to see them try. You're the kind of woman that I would imagine would have no problem in destroying everything that's been built just as a protest. You're stubborn and determined, and I love it. I'm not the only one."

A knock sounded on the door frame in order to signal that somebody was there, a small throat clearing cough causing the both of them to turn their heads abruptly to meet the eyes of both of the Mercedes drivers.

"It's none of our business, and obviously, we weren't listening... but it's called a development team, and yet you helped them achieve a win with Pierre. The bosses would not get rid of you, no matter what they said. You're too valuable and too good at your job." Lewis Hamilton interrupted softly, his teammate standing behind him, almost as if he was a little bit scared to interrupt.

"We were not listening, I swear."

Valtteri Bottas rushed out quickly, his face lightly flashing with a small glimpse of fear, his hands shooting up in a defensive manner.

"If I can't keep my job, just know that I will have nothing to do with the information leak that Mercedes will receive about their rivals..."

The Japanese woman trailed off quietly as she glanced up at Toto, seeing an amused look within his eyes, his signature smile beaming back at her.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." The Wolff man shot her a small wink as she began to exit his teams garage, his drivers reassuring her just before she disappeared out of their line of sight.

He didn't want Sakura to lose her job, he would miss her a lot more than he would have liked to admit, because she was great fun to be around and would always be nice and friendly.

Plus, she made great food.

But, they would have to see.

________________________________________________

"I'm not going anywhere."

Sakura Aoki spoke in a bold and conf8dent tone as she walked in to the Red Bull garage, seeing the team principal and other high ranking members of staff staring back at her.

"What?"

"You can't get rid of me. You'll be damaging the teams image as well as your own, the productivity, and the performance of both teams. I know that even you are not stupid enough to take that risk." The Aoki woman glared strongly at a group of staff, at least eight people, including the Red Bull boss.

"You're a valuable member of our family, Sakura. We would never."

"Yeah, and I was born yesterday." Sakura rolled the dark of her eyes, the smallest of smirks evident upon her lips. "If I go, so do my drivers, half of the team and sponsorships... plus you'll lose the engine supply of Honda. Is it really worth trying to get rid of me just because I can manage a team better than you?"

Without saying another word, Sakura spun on her heel and headed back to her garage where her drivers were waiting patiently for her, big smiles full of pride evident upon their lips.

"You know, I don't think that it's possible for me to have a better boss."

Yuki Tsunoda grinned as he watched his team principal return to their garages, his eyes sparkling with happiness and pride at having known that she was standing up to the people trying to get rid of her.

"Yukino, what did I say about your workout?" Sakura released a small amused laugh, one of her eyebrows raising slightly.

Pierre Gasly released a loud wheeze like laugh at the way that his teammate rapidly ran back towards the gym equipment in order to finish his intense workout, having stopped less than halfway through.

"I take it back! I take it back!"

A/N

I am back, I am motivated and I am determined,

What do you think?

Anyway, I hope that you all enjoy this chapter and I'll see you all soon for the next one,

I'm so proud of all of you, my loves

Love you all,

-RUBY 🇵🇸🇨🇩🇸🇩🇸🇸🇺🇦🇾🇪