Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
A/N: Hired Stalker was created in my brain during the Oscars. Watching all those movie stars made me wonder about their life, what they were thinking about, were they really happy, were they acting their joy in those speeches, what their life was like, etc. And out came HS.
This story is AU, and I'm posting this chapter out... for an experiment, you can say :). But don't worry, all the Sasuke Not Uchiha fans out there. SNU is still my priority right now. That's why this chapter is so short.
(P.S. I love to experiment with different formatting.)
Chapter One
The figure, dressed in all black, flitted out of the subway entrance. Her footsteps made not a noise against the concrete pavement, movements silent as the night around.
With speed and grace, the girl ran through the shady parking lots and across roads, under bridges and above trees. Still, silent as a stalking hawk, she traveled from the shady ends of alleyways and into the suburbs.
It was the houses of the rich and fancy, with every single building the same three-story-and-front-lawn like the others. For a second she stood there, paused in a confused sort of manner, before scurrying away once more.
Three-five-six-seven... three-five-six-nine... three-five-seven-one... There. The girl made it to the front of a paved down driveway, unmarred by cracks or weeds.
She took a moment to snort at the rich's over-expenses (seriously, were those retractable sprinklers she saw?) before trudging up the house.
The doorbell rang in two notes, ding-dong, and then there came a loud "I've got it!", followed by the trumping of stairs. Immediately, the girl pressed her back against the wall—but relaxed when she saw the door open to reveal her client's face.
A sour-faced teenage girl stood at the doorframe, though her eyes instantly brightened when she saw who it was.
"You have it?" she asked excitedly.
The taller girl nodded, reaching from her pocket to retrieve a photo (she'd printed it out at a local library from her precious camera), before it was literally snatched away.
The fangirl gave a dramatic gasp. "This—this is...! It's a picture of Tadeski Tensha, from Leaf's basketball team! Like, SHIRTLESS! OMG OMG OMG I can't believe this!" She squealed. "Oh god, Tade looks even hotter like this! This is, like, a totally dream come-true!"
Behind the mask, Sakura Haruno gave a wry smile. She didn't tell the other girl that, with the picture only covering the top half of the boy's body, the camera skillfully eluded Tadeski's lower body... where a pair of Hello Kitty PJ's covered his legs. What a way it would be to ruin the girl's fantasies.
But alas, this was a client, a customer—more importantly, a paying customer. If she took the opportunity and made her mad, the only thing it would ultimately ruin was Sakura's own "business".
She needed the money.
A stack of cash thrown her way, though the fawning over the picture never stopped. Sakura caught it with ease, and, before she could listen to another word about how handsome an gorgeous and hot (weren't those the same thing...?) dear Tade was. She was gone in moments.
Sakura never stopped running until she was well away from that neighborhood. Only when she arrived at the familiar dull gold thirty year-old Camry did she pause.
A window rolled down. "How was business, Forehead?" Ino Yamanaka greeted.
Too out of breath to argue with her best friend, Sakura merely opened a car door, and then proceeded crashing on that old, cracked seat.
She tore off her face mask. Sweet, cold air greeted her sweaty face. If it wasn't for staying anonymous, she would've ditched that uncomfortable mask long ago.
"Fine, I guess." Then she leaned forward, her forehead hitting the back of a seat. "...Ow."
Ino finished applying her makeup and raised an eyebrow in the mirror. "Why so emo, Billboard-Brow?"
She banged her head against the seat and moaned pitifully once more. "Nothing, Pig."
The blonde continued cheerfully, starting the engine, "I have some news you might want to hear. Interesting news. Wanna know?"
"You're going to tell me anyway, why bother—Whoa. Ouch," Sakura said, rubbing her head. She glared at Ino. "Remind me how you got your license again."
Her friend smirked. "I didn't. Anyway, as fascinating as the subject of me is, there's something more important that I need to tell you."
Now Sakura was interested. "Really?"
"Yeah... Remember Naruto Uzumaki?"
It began to rain, droplets falling rapidly against the windowpanes as streetlights flashed from outside.
Sakura paused for a second, hand on her chin with a thoughtful look. "Uh-huh. The one who left Konoha a few months ago to go after his psycho of a best friend, whats-his-name? Socks? Sauce? Sake?"
The flash of pain across Ino's face went unnoticed by the girl.
"Sasuke. Sasuke Uchiha."
When her friend didn't say anything else, Sakura said, "What about Uzumaki?"
"Huh?"
"Are you forgetting things at your old age, Pig?" she teased. "You know. You said something about Naruto Uzumaki."
"Oh, right... Naruto..." Ino shook herself a little, though her knuckles were noticeably whiter from her grip around the wheel. "He's coming back."
Sakura blinked. "To Konoha?"
"Mm-hm." There was Ino's usual smug grin whenever she got a piece of gossip Sakura didn't know about. "Tomorrow. I heard it from Hinata earlier."
"But—I thought he made it his life-long mission to save his 'brother' from the grip of darkness or something...? Wait," she sat bolt right from her seat, "you don't mean—?"
"I do mean." Ino smirked. "Apparently, Naruto has managed to finish his life-long mission in two months."
Sakura sat back, looking out the window. Her breath formed fog on the glass.
"Okay... So the most legendary students ever is coming back to our high school." She crossed her arms, knowing Ino could see her raise brow. "What does that have to do with anything, other than good gossip?"
The blonde rolled her eyes. "For a straight-A student, you really are slow, aren't you? Think, Sakura! Use that wide forehead of yours! The two most famous, most popular (yes, you'd be surprised at still how popular Mr. Socks is, even after that attempted arson he was 'supposedly' involved with), most gorgeous guys—"
Her mind made a connection between Ino's words and her earlier client.
Ino saw her look of realization and grinned. "Yes, Sakura. Fangirls."
A/N: The setting of this story isn't in Japan or the United States or anywhere like that. And, if you assume that this story was translated from whatever language it came from (including the currency and all that), it can explain the lack of "-san"s or "-kun"s and other suffixes. OC names would come in all sorts of language, not limiting to Japanese, and the character's name in dialogue will be written the same as non-dialogues: first name then last name, instead of the opposite way around. So, uh, if you happen to be fluent in Japanese and got a weird definition for a name, well, I most likely made it up. :) Sorry.