Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Naruto characters featured in this reading. Furthermore, I do not make profit from them and they are a copyright of the Naruto manga and Anime Viz Media. Creator Masashi Kishimoto-sama.

Warning: No, this will not be in first person. This is merely a prologue. Sasuke won't tell the entire story. I will.
Beta: I don't have one yet so don't nag for the errors!

Sasuke: 19
Sai and Naruto: 18
Everyone else: It varies

Working Late

Chapter I
(Day 1 July 20 8am

I don't know how I fell so hard. I woke up this morning and got ready for work, just as I always do on Saturdays. No, its not because I chose to.

It had been this way for four months now. The company I worked for was going through a major stock crisis and our numbers were falling faster than the rain outside my window on this particular early morning. My schedule was hectic now that I had acquired a higher position in the human resources.

I have little time to see my friends, not that I'm very social. On my days off I just sleep and try not to think of how my life could be better than it is. I should be happy. I have a place to live, a good job, and someone who loves me very much. Even if I only get to see him a few times a week now. Our schedules clash and as a result we argue more often than usual. This causes him to spend the night in the other room of our small house.

Yes, my day had started out like any other. Only this morning when I woke, Sai was next to me, curled up in a small bundle inside the covers with his head on my shoulder. I leaned over and kissed his forehead, apologizing silently for the fight we'd had the night before. I had been working late again and he suspected I was doing other things. He didn't trust me because I came home at one and two in the morning. Smelling like coffee with my shirt half unbuttoned. I suppose he had a reason to assume but he would be wrong if he did. I belonged to him and that was the answer I always gave when he would ask me,

'Sasuke, where have you been?'

As I paraded around through the house trying to find my good white collared shirt and a pair of slacks that weren't dirty, my watched beeped loudly on the nightstand next to my bed. Sai stirred and rolled over, opening his eyes and then throwing the covers over his head. He didn't say anything so I wondered to myself if he had forgiven me yet but I didn't ask nor did I apologize for my watch waking him. He needed to get up soon for school anyway.

I didn't say goodbye to him as I left but I could see him standing in the window of our bedroom looking as pitiful as a house wife who watched her cheating husband leaving to screw his assistant on their anniversary. He waved to me but I ignored him and left the safety of our driveway. Today, Sai was the last thing on my mind.

When I finally got to my job I was 15 minutes early, just like I was every morning. I got my first cup of coffee and headed to the third floor board hall. There was a mass meeting at 8:45 and all the employees were to make an appearance in the next 10 minutes. I had known about the meeting for weeks now. My company was letting go of 75 percent of the workers to create a stable economic balance. Meaning, they had too many workers and no way to pay them all equally.

I waited inside as the room started to fill with my coworkers. Each of them with a cup of coffee to get them through the long day. I hated the auditorium. We sat in there like guinea pigs waiting to be taken out of the cage and tested for hair dye chemicals.

'Please make sure you listen carefully. I'm only going to say this once and very quickly. I'm cutting the team into three groups.'

My manager was stout and he was going bald. I hated him with the life in me but I needed the money and worked my ass off for it.

'I'm sending twenty workers to Suna, twenty workers to Kiri-'

He paused and looked over in my direction. Then he looked elsewhere. I didn't know at the time but soon I was going to wish I had called in sick or at least had been sitting in a different place.

'-and one lucky person to be an executive manager in Konoha.'

I could hear the whispers of the people around me but I didn't know what they were saying. The man started calling off names in alphabetical order. I was among the end so I didn't listen for my name. It took him forever to get to me anyway, and by the time he did, everyone was staring at me. Twenty works to Wind City, twenty workers to Mist City and-

'Uchiha Sasuke, my office. Meeting concluded.'

I remember walking down that long hall to my superior's office. It was the longest walk I had ever taken and I was on the verge of turning back. It was almost as overwhelming as the first time I had ever had sex with Sai. Exciting, frustrating, frightening, and yet, something I couldn't live without. That's how my walk felt. Like I would die if I ever reached the end.

'Have a seat Sasuke.'

He said that to me in one of the most horrifying voices I'd ever heard him use. I declined and he shrugged it off. He began to speak no sooner than I had shaken my head and said, 'No thank you sir.'

'I'm sure you know why I called you in here Sasuke.'

I nodded and folded my arms, thinking I should have sat down when he offered me the chance. Slowly I was beginning to feel very nauseous.

'I have chosen you to lead the managing position in Konoha. However-'

He took a second pause and I could hear my heart beating against my chest. I could just feel the lies building around him. There was a catch to something he was going to tell me. Like with the position I had to give him one of my own legs in exchange. I braced myself, not knowing what he was going to throw at me next. The sweat beaded on my forehead and the burning in my eyes made me blink uneasily several times. I waited, and he laid it out thick, enough for me to suffocate.

'You're the one I'm terminating. The Konoha job is a farce. I used it so the other employees wouldn't be scared and cause a hassle for the VP. You understand.'

I did. I understood that two years of waking up early and going to bed late was all for nothing. I understood that working the graveyard shift and becoming damn near an insomniac was only a game. I understood that because of this I wouldn't be able to afford my mortgage. I understood that I had skipped out on college for this job. I understood. I understood that, I had nothing left.

'My sincere apologies Sasuke.'

He said it like he was the reason for it all. There were over a hundred employees and I was the ONLY one who got picked for downcast?

"You're sorry?" I said and nodded, smirking to his displeasure. "You're sorry!" I shouted, walking over to his desk and grabbing him by the collar of his neatly steamed corporate latter shirt. "I should kill you!" I hadn't really thought about what I was saying, or what I was doing. I needed this job! I was going to lose everything. I saw myself punch him but I couldn't stop it. My knuckles collided with his nose and then I saw blood. The door behind me flew open and I was tackled as I cursed out my 'ex' manager.

I spent that night in jail, holding really. I called Sai and he made me stay the night in my cold cell. I hadn't told him the entire story. He knew I had a temper and I needed to be taught a lesson. That's what he said before he hung up on me.

So here I am, in jail. And if I hadn't have called Sai and told him where I was, he would assume I was…working late.

End PrologueChapter

A/N-Ending…Err….I'm not sure about which side couples to pair for this fic so if people have suggestions on their favorite Naruto couples they'd like to see then so be it.
Review…or you can wait until the chapter II which I'll be putting up in like 10 minutes, but I like reviews anyways.