Hey guys, my first fic and I decided to mix my OTP with my favourite story, so if any of you are fans of both SasuNaru and Skip Beat! Please leave a review and tell me how to improve because I really want to do these beautiful characters, and this amazing story justice.
"Long ago, God created a box ... A box with many locks ... So that it could not be opened by anyone but themselves. Every individual is given this sealed box from God, and then they are born into the world ... The contents of the box are still hidden inside."
- Skip Beat, chapter 1
"Naruto! The customer's on table three have been sitting there for five minutes and still haven't been served. Hurry up and get out there brat." Naruto, a 16 year old boy peeked out the kitchens and yelled back, "You've got to be kidding me, my section's full and you still want me to look after another table." Even having said that, Naruto had already started to make his way out of the kitchen knowing full well that no matter how flat-out he was, his work-efficient manger was still going to make him cover for the waitress that was now running twenty minutes late.
"Good afternoon ladies, I'm Naruto your waiter, what can I get you for today?" He greeted them with a charming smile. The girls who were in deep conversation with each other did an obvious double take when Naruto finished greeting them and stared at him wide-eyed. They eyed Naruto's unruly seemingly natural blonde hair and his whiskered cheeks. Overall, Naruto looked good in his white slightly unbuttoned shirt and black pants, or at least that's what he tells anyone who listens to him. Time moved slowly while the girls remained speechless, but finally after a minute of silence, the girl with the long copper coloured hair managed to get it together … And started to clumsily flirt with Naruto. "Good afternoon Naruto-kun, that's a cute name you have. How have you been today?"
On, and on, it went until his shift finally ended, thirty five minutes later than it should have because of the late waitress. "I'm so sorry Naruto-kun! The line-up for today's signing today was longer than I'd thought it would be." Naruto gave a small smile to the girl who looked so worried and assured her that it was fine, "it's alright, really, I needed the extra money this week anyway, I guess I should be thanking you, and the celebrity with the long waiting line." The waitress had looked so relieved, "thanks Naruto! It really means a lot to me that I got Sakura-chan's autograph." Instantly Naruto exploded, scaring the girl. "WHAT! Sakura-chan had an event nearby! Where was it! Are they still there? Do you know how long for?" Naruto crossed the room to his locker and started shoving on his orange jacket and reaching for his bag before the girl even realised he was no longer standing next to her. The trembling waitress stuttered out at last, "I'm sorry, I was one of the last to be …" She stopped when Naruto sunk to the ground in complete and utter dejection, "I can't believe this … I didn't know she was going to be here. Ahh! When am I going to get to see her!?" The waitress who couldn't believe that the overly energetic Naruto was literally wallowing in a sea of despair walked up to him and quietly asked, "Umm, Naruto-kun, were you perhaps a fan of Sakura-chan?" Naruto nodded, the air around him becoming darker and darker, "I've been a fan of hers since before she debuted with Namekuji-hime productions." The girl was startled, she didn't even know Sakura's label before she went to today's event. "Well, at today's event, there were a lot of Sakura-chan's advertisements, maybe you can ask the workers at Lyrics to give you something like a …" She hadn't even finished her sentence before Naruto ran out of the employees room shouting out his thanks.
The employee from Lyrics didn't even have time to process, let alone understand what the boy had loudly asked of him when he jumped over the counter and tackled him to the floor. "Ehh?" uttered the shaking employee. "Today … Sakura … anything Sakura … I want." Naruto had managed to breathe out in reply. The worker had reached out to grab a piece of paper that fell from the counter to the floor and explained, "Here, this was one of the pre-signed copies we gave out to the people that line-up but couldn't meet her. I swear, that's all I can give you." Naruto carefully reached out for the paper, a smile steadily breaking out on his face and held the signed mini-poster of Sakura giving a peace sign with care. With his personal mission done, Naruto began to make his way out of the music store and paled significantly at the clock at the exit that read 6:43. "ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME!" Naruto ran out the store, picked up the bike he haphazardly threw at the entrance of the music store and pedalled as fast he could to make his 7:00 shift at Ichiraku's.
"You could've just called to tell us you were running late instead of arriving half-dead a couple minutes after your shift started." Ayame scolded Naruto. "Sorry Ayame-nee, but you know I don't have a phone, and it's not like I can afford to use the public pay-phones on the day before payday." Ayame sighed, "Naruto, you're 16, working two full time jobs and living in an expensive, inner-city apartment by yourself." Naruto stilled at that, he knew he wasn't lying by staying silent, but he hated not being truthful, especially to those close to him. "Sorry for making you worry Ayame-nee, but I'm fine. Although, I better get out onto the floor soon, especially before the old man starts thinking he can take my end of shift ramen hostage." Ayame laughed and started to follow Naruto out of the storage area and onto the floor, "I'm serious though Naruto, Dad and I, we can't help but worry about you. And I'm sure dad's even made it clear that we have room available for you with us upstairs if you need it." Naruto stopped in mid-step and turned to face Ayame and couldn't help smiling at her, "Thank you so much Ayame-nee. That means so much to me." With that, Naruto couldn't stop smiling and laughing with the customer's and ignored how tired he was, because this was one of the rare times in his life where he felt safe and cared for.
Leaving Ichiraku's made Naruto feel uncomfortable, because where he was returning to now was definitely going to be an empty, dark and silent apart … Was that his apartment light on? Naruto's eyes widened as he begun making sure that the light was on, on the tenth floor. Naruto's heart began to race as he counted the light to be on the tenth floor. His legs broke out into a run and the excitement that flooded his body propelled him faster to the complex's lobby. Naruto scanned the building's security card at the doors and shouted for the elderly couple to hold the elevator. They didn't of course. Even Naruto realised his frantic appearance might make him look like a lunatic. Without a second thought, Naruto tore through the stairway, tearing through the flights of stairs towards his princess. Sakura.
Thinking about her being so close made his heart skip a beat. She was after all his most important person. His princess. His living fairy tale. Sakura, after all, was all Naruto had. She was what he lived for.
When they were growing up, Uzumaki Naruto didn't have a family. And if he had one, he certainly never heard about them. Neither, did he ever feel the need to ask about them. For as long as he could remember, his neighbour's, the Haruno's had treated him like their pseudo son and had never asked him to be more than what he was. Which was apparently an energetic knuckle-headed idiot that fantasized way too much about ninjas. Growing up with Sakura had isolated him from everyone else though, and at the time he hadn't minded because that meant more time he had with Sakura for himself. His friendship with Sakura caused many of the boy's in the school to pick on him for monopolizing their idol, and because Sakura never tried to make friends with any of the girls in any of their classes, Naruto never felt the need to either. He never felt alone, he was content that it had just been the two of them growing up in Sakura's family's medical clinic in Konoha. Always just the two of them, which was all they needed. So when Sakura asked him to leave Konoha for Tokyo so she could be the star she always dreamed of, he unhesitatingly agreed. Because if anyone could rise to fame in Tokyo, it was his princess, Sakura-chan.
"Sakura-chaaaan!" Naruto squealed as he threw himself into his apartment. He found her in the entrance's adjacent bedroom packing clothes into her pink and white Chanel bag. "Shut up idiot! I can't let the neighbours know I live here," Sakura had reprimanded him without even looking up from her packing. Naruto left his shoes at the entrance and came to kneel by her bedroom door. "Are you leaving already Sakura-chan? I mean I haven't seen you in such a long time." Sakura replied through gritted teeth, "I'm sorry Naruto. Did you want me to say I'll drop everything I have going on so we can play? Grow up Naruto, I've got a career to focus on." Naruto flushed, "You know I didn't mean it like that Sakura-chan, I'm just worried that you're working too hard, I mean, you never come home to eat or sleep." Sakura remained silent and started to zip up her bag. Naruto realising his time with Sakura was now coming to an end if he didn't think up something fast. But then again, he knew Sakura best in the world, so if he couldn't make her stay, no one could. With that thought in mind Naruto walked over to the fridge, careful to not make her suspicious of his actions and said out loud, "Ahh, Sakura-chan, I almost forgot that I bought anko dumplings last night and anmitsu. If you wanted, I could also make some umeboyshi stuffed onigiri." Five seconds didn't even have to pass before he heard Sakura enter the kitchen. Naruto was leaning casually on the fridge door when Sakura said, "I have an early morning, and you better not take your time making that onigiri baka." Sakura turned to the lounge room and started to wait for her late night treat. Naruto thrust his hand in the air in triumph and grinned like the pinstriped cat from Wonderland.
"You know Sakura, this might take a couple of minutes, we do have a TV you can watch in the meantime," Naruto called out. Not too long after, the noise of hundreds of women cheering filled the lounge room as Naruto heard the TV presenter introduce Sasuke to the show. Naruto stopped making the onigiri and entered the lounge room with anmitsu and anko dumplings. Needless to say that he wasn't too surprised to see Sakura so close to the TV screen and grinning like an idiot. "Do you still have your school girl crush on him? I had thought that would've gone away by now." Sakura stopped ogling at Sasuke's smirking face to glare at Naruto, "stop being jealous Naruto. And besides it's not a crush … it's something more." Naruto clenched his hands at glared at him through the TV, wishing that someone would just knock that smirk off the smug bastard's face. "Well, I'm just saying, I don't understand what's with his hair." He knew he sounded pathetic, but Naruto thought it was all because he missed Sakura so much. Sakura slapped the backside of his head and rushed to the defence of Sasuke's misshaped hair. "It's cool Naruto. It's stylish. You're a hundred years too early to complain about the fashion of Japan's number one celebrity." Naruto grumbled, his stomach seething in jealous. Sakura quickly looked back at the when the TV presenter asked Sasuke to present the next segment. "Thank you very much. And now, I give to you, this month's top 15 female entertainers." The camera focused on the board that that Sasuke had pulled out from behind him and scrolled up from 15th place to 1st place. Sakura's eyes glowed red when she found herself in seventh position and started jumping around and swearing when she found Hyuuga Hinata in 1st place.
Naruto, tried to calm her down, "It's OK, you only made your solo debut recently, you've done well considering how long those hags have been in the industry." At that time, the TV presenter started to engage Sasuke in some conversation over the rankings. "Don't you think it's such an amazing story that Hyuuga-san has found herself ranked first place, for the seventh week in a row, despite her being the youngest amongst these entertainers?" Sasuke nodded in agreement, "yes, her talent must definitely be a force to be reckoned with considering how she only had her debut earlier this year." Naruto's heart began to race, and his palms began to sweat, really, out of all the things they could have said. "Maybe her boobs?" Naruto suggested, Sakura instinctively growled when she heard that, Naruto had yet to figure he was in dangerous territory with Sakura. "Think about it, there is a higher population of men than women in Japan, and with that huge chest of hers, she's probably just getting the votes from all the creeps." Sakura turned to face and walked towards him until he had no choice but to slide down the wall when he walked back into it. "Are you trying to say that against her body, mine is no contest?" Naruto shook his head rapidly saying "of course not, as a guy, I can honestly tell you, that your body is definitely better." Oh no, he should've just kept his mouth shut. Naruto began racking his brains, trying to remember any bit of gossip that concerned Hyuuga Hinata which would hopefully calm Sakura down. He watched Sakura as she began to start shaking with anger, as if the presenter's commentary was a personal insult to her, then Naruto remembered. "She probably just used her family's financial status to get her this far. She is the one named as heir to the Hyuuga zaibatsu after all. I'm sure you remember reading about it in the paper some time ago." Sakura turned away from the TV once again and glanced to Naruto to find him with his arms crossed, sitting cross-legged, nodding his head with his eyes closed as if what he just said was the end of it. But of course, it wouldn't end that easily. The TV presenter had just gone on to say, "While Hyuuga-sans split from the Hyuuga zaibatsu has become a regular frenzy in both the media and in the financial world. Today the idol was stunning in her white ARmandy summer halter dress when she announced that her latest project was to be the female face of ARmandy swimsuit line alongside Sasuke."
Naruto no longer had any feeling in his body. He lost Sakura before she even made it out the door. When he was able to stand, he went up the TV to turn it off just as Sasuke stared backed at the camera making it look like he was able to watch the audience that what was watching him. Naruto shuffled silently to his room, fell to his knees when he was on top of his futon dropped him face into the futon and screamed. It was all because he had said to turn the TV on that he was alone again.
The next morning, Naruto called Sakura's phone from the work phone. Naruto figured she was still busy with the morning job she mentioned last night when the call diverted to voicemail. "Hey, Sakura, I know you're still pissed about last night, but I'm really sorry the world doesn't see you as you truly are. You're insanely strong, talented, and beautiful. But I just wanted you to know, that even if the world can't see that about you yet, I do. After all, I'm your number one fan."
Naruto went back to work, quieter than usual. He had this horrible sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach that something was about to go woefully wrong.