Oh look... clockwork went and started another story... she's a BAD authoress. Very bad. No cookie for clockwork. Alrighty well, shall we explain this tangled web of ribbon? I do not own either Naruto or any of Mercedes Lackeys excellent works of fiction.
Naruto characters, set in the Diana Tregarde Universe (with modifications... quite a number). I'm hoping it will not be at all necessary for you to have read the Diana Tregarde trilogy, because I'm not actually including any of her characters, just incorporating the setting and the ideas. Because Muse is a bitch. Skeletal character list here, it may get more information in it as the chapters go by... depends on how many people with actual IQ points are still confused:
Hyuuga Hinata (22): eldest daughter of the House of Hyuuga, more to come later
Yamanaka Ino (23): journeyman photographer of people, Hinata's childhood friend, liberal arts college loving made close friends with Ten Ten.
Liu Ten Ten (24): eldest daughter and Heiress of the House of Liu, very deep rooted metal working family, very much in the Light
Uzumaki Naruto (25): very good rapport with nature, tries to use it for photography, doesn't usually work, more to come later
Uchiha Sasuke (26): by day a political/science fiction writer, by night... more to come later
Yuuhi Kurenai (32): current Guardian of Guardian House (there being multiple Guardians in the city)
Hyuuga Hanabi (17): Heiress to the House of Hyuuga, Hinata's younger sister more to come later
Hyuuga Neji (26): Hinata and Hanabi's cousin, the Hyuuga's prodigy, more to come later
Shades of Grey Chapter 1: Slate
"Okay, now Hinata look a little to the left of where I am. Perfect." It was, Yamanaka Ino thought to herself as she snapped the picture, a huge crying pity that Hyuuga Hinata was blind. 'Mostly unable to see clearly' as Hinata would often correct her roommate. But still, only being able to see close objects (bigger than a bread box) moving, not even seeing what color they were, no clear details… It was so very ironic that her 'problem' gave her such uniquely beautiful eyes. And she was naturally very pretty. And given Ino's early penchant for dressing and doing up her friends like dolls… It wasn't really a surprise Hinata made a very cooperative model.
"Look pensive for me darling." Ino said, moving to get a better angle around the park bench. "Like your favorite author threw you for a complete loop. Fabulous." Ino snapped her picture. Hinata had been like this all her life, she had never seen her family's faces, she'd never seen her friends' faces; they were all grey blurs. She'd never seen the expression of pride on her daddy's face when she was finally able to write her name. She'd been eight before she had learned her alphabet well enough to spell. Even now, her handwriting was over-spaced and stick-like. But she tried so hard. Her sister and cousin had tried to help her… but Hinata refused to use the Hyuuga legacy for 'something so trivial'.
She'd never be able to see the joy on Ino's face when she managed to sell a photo of Hinata. She couldn't see the beautiful clothes Ino picked out for her to accent the quiet beauty.
Hinata didn't know how other people expressed their emotions, so her facial features often arranged themselves. It made her a unique visual study, and Ino usually had a lot of fun doing so. Like now, she'd taken out a couple of Braille books from the library and started posing Hinata. Hinata probably want to read her props at some point, but it was such a beautiful day, and Hinata could read in the dark later if she wanted to read that badly, Ino was busy.
"How well do you think you can do coyly innocent? Like if I said a really cute guy was staring at you."
"I wouldn't know if a really cute guy was staring at me Ino," said Hinata patiently, fingers coming to a halt over the page, "it's never really come up."
"That's why you'd have to take my word for it that there are a gaggle of highschool boys staring at us."
"Ino, look down and tell me what you're wearing."
"Just the red… ok, never mind. But there's a really hot guy our age over there…"
"You make it sound like we're in college. Or what I think college would sound like if you were still in it."
"You lived vicariously through my sorority days." Ino said cheerfully, arranging a hat over Hinata's dark hair. "You know you loved it when I came home."
"Neh, teme, I'm going to be gone most of the weekend. Photography type convention thing. Finally got my hands on a pass. Try not to party too hard without me. Oh wait, I don't think you could if you tried. Going to the usual Friday place, see ya!"
"Naruto, get the hell out of the apartment, NOW!" The man typing away diligently at his laptop was a hairsbreadth from screaming at his errant roommate. There was a laugh and the front door slammed. Sasuke listened carefully, and could make out the lock bolt slide home. The idiot had left; Sasuke was free from annoyance for a good four hours. And most of the weekend, thanks to this talk or whatever.
God knows what the moron would come home babbling about this time. Events were never good news. A new telephoto lens, a sweet tip that global warming had made the birds fly a little more north than usual, or worse yet, he'd been approached by another magazine. It made him insufferably loud for days on end, bragging to Sasuke, who honestly DIDN'T GIVE A DAMN.
Sasuke, like Naruto, had deadlines. Sasuke, like Naruto, usually tried to keep them. Sasuke, unlike Naruto, usually made them. However, Sasuke was a popular writer operating under a pseudonym; Naruto was just a freelance photographer who every now and then sold a photo to several magazines. And now… thankfully… he was gone for the majority of the daylight hours. Hopefully he'd be too tired to do more than fall into bed by the time he got home at night. Unless of course Kakashi needed them for something… Hopefully nothing dark and evil started threatening the city. Though the chances of that happening and requiring Sasuke's… help were slim.
Sasuke got back to typing. He promised himself if he could get his chapter finished, he'd let himself go for a… walk tonight. He was starting to feel his blood itch.
"Hey Hinata, Blondie. How was the photo shoot?" Their other roommate, Liu Ten Ten, was lounging on the couch with a catalogue of raw materials. Ten Ten liked using her family's metal working shop… to make weapons. She knew how to use them too, but it was making them that let her shop for shiny objects.
"Pretty damn amazing, if I do say so myself." Ino declared. "The light at the park was just so pure, and Hinata in that sundress with the gold stuff you made her? It has to sell some where."
"And if it doesn't?" Ten Ten asked without looking away from her magazine. Hinata had already taken the opportunity to flee with her books to find some quiet. Probably upstairs in Kurenai's apartment. Evil wasn't the only thing Kurenai protected against. Rabid roommates seemed to also be under the Guardian's jurisdiction, because Ino could recall three separate occasions within the past month when Kurenai had whisked Hinata away, ostensibly for training. Ino and Ten Ten knew better than that. One of Kurenai's weaknesses was the tea Hinata made. Even blind she'd been trained how to make it properly. And she was, after all, a Hyuuga.
"Well it's not my fault not enough magazines peddle the innocent look."
"Uh huh. I still think that picture of Hinata in the kimono was one of the best. One of the few times you didn't prescript the pose, and it still turned out beautiful."
"Yes well, it was still my genius that captured it, so nyah." Ino stuck her tongue out at the disinterested girl, before flouncing away to the closet she had turned into a darkroom. Mostly she liked her digital camera, but some days just called for oldschool film and silver chloride.
"You're Yamanaka Ino?"
"Guilty as charged." The blonde bombshell sipping at her Evian bottle looked quite at home in the bustling hotel. She'd been surprised to be invited to the photojournalism talk, but she sure as hell wasn't going to turn down the free pass. "How can I help you? I'm not taking drinks from guys I don't know."
"Good, 'cause I wasn't offering." Naruto looked mildly uncertain at the indifference with which the woman brushed off his insult. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto."
"Think I've heard of that name." She looked slightly more interested, pointing to the chair next to her.
"I'm in a couple of nature type magazines. I like taking pictures of animals." He took a seat, resting his elbows on his knees, trying to keep the plush chair from swallowing him.
"Name association only gives me scenery." Ino said. "Drop dead gorgeous scenery, but no animals of note."
"I never said I was very good at it." She had to laugh at that. "I don't usually find very many animals when I go picture hunting. I think they know I'm coming." Usually they weren't the only things.
"I could say the same of some magazine agents." Ino glared at a retreating back before returning her attention to him.
"You're a popular photographer, Yamanaka-san."
"I like taking pictures of pretty people. More market for them than for woodland creatures. But sometimes I have problems selling the photos I think are good. Like these." She pulled out a few snapshots, mostly of Hinata, where her innocence really shone through. "Magazines don't want these… she's a girl trapped in a woman's body, and that's not what they want to sell."
"But they're amazing photos."
"Don't I know it. But Hinata's not a professional model, so it doesn't matter to her that her pictures don't usually sell." Ino made a small moue.
"Yamanaka-san, where are you?" The call across the humming lobby cut through like a knife.
"Sounds like I've got to run. I'll see you around sometime, cutie. Toodles!" She disappeared into the ballroom, blonde ponytail swinging.
"Yeah… see you sometime." Naruto muttered to himself, staring at one of the pictures on the coffee table. Ino had her arm around the girl he assumed was Hinata, who was squished between the blonde and a brunette. It seemed they were celebrating something because the brunette had her arm around Hinata and a bottle tilted toward the camera that had to have been in Ino's other hand. Ino looked prettily mischievous, and the girl in the middle was laughingly uncomfortable.
Oh well. He slid the pictures into his pocket and stood, maybe he'd find some other popular photographers to get his name around.
-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-
"Cosmopolitan."
"Thought you said you didn't take drinks from guys you didn't know." He gave her an easy grin, telling her it was perfectly fine if she fell in love with him in less than twelve hours.
"I know you well enough to take your money. That's all that really matters."
Well... that was the first chapter... I don't know whether or not I like what I'm doing well enough to devote lots of time to it... Don't ask me any questions about this till I decide whether or not I will keep at it. You can tell me you like it... but I may start cursing out people who ask me questions.