"Absolute Freedom"
Chapter Notes:
The italic text at the beginning of every chapter is some kind of flashback to characters past and it explains many things.
Chapter 1. Naruto Uzumaki
Two young boys were sitting on the edge of a small bridge looking towards a beautiful sunset. Shiny sun light illuminated their little figures and played in their hair. The boys were laughing and talking about something from school. Suddenly, the boy with raven hair stopped laughing and said quietly,
- "I will miss you, Naru"
The said boy looked at the setting sun and asked,
-"Is it possible to live several lives? I mean, you are the Uchiha, I am the Namikaze. We know our future: where we will study, where we will work, who we will be, who will be our wives, etc. And we know, that we can't change this...our parent's depend on us…but what if it was possible to be someone else at the same time? Be yourself?"
- "I don't think it's possible"
-"It is! I'll show you, believe it!"
- - -
- "Yau! Naruto, look at this!" - The girl ran into her friend's bedroom with big smile on her face. - "Your name is on top of the most successful businessmen list in the FORBES magazine!!!"
- "Urrgh..." the boy hid himself deeper under the covers being disconnected from the loudmouth sleep breaker.
- "Oh, c'mon, sleeping beauty, let's celebrate it!" she started to drag the covers off.
- "Miyabi-chan…"- the man growled - "Have you ever heard the saying: if you wake up in the morning and see your name on the pages of the Forbes magazine, then you can sleep as long as you want?!? If you haven't then it's your problem. Now let me sleep!"
He took back his blanket and went back to sleep, but his roommate wasn't planning on giving up that easily. She sat on the armchair and started reading.
- "Look, they're calling you the most mysterious businessmen in history!"
- "Urrgh..Miyabi-chaaan!" Naruto whined, finally realizing that this girl wasn't going to let him sleep. He threw a pillow at her but she gracefully evaded it and continued.
- "They really want a personal interview and, quote: to see this undoubtedly charming man" She raised her pretty face towards her victim and asked,
- "Please remind me why you don't want them to see your face? You are cute." Her smile was innocent but Naruto knew her well enough to trust her crafty innocence.
- "Once again, I don't want a crowd of stupid girls following me everywhere asking me marry them, like the crowd that follows that bastard Uchiha, and I want to be free to go on the dates without another crowd of bodyguards!"
- "And what about my boss and yours "I don't want him to see me"?"
- "That's not it!"
-"Sure"
- "Wait, my name's at the top?! Does that mean I'm better than him?!? Yahoo!"
- "Yea, you did it. What did he do to you that made you dislike him so much?"
- "Um..." Naruto looked a bit puzzled, "he is a bastard?"
Miyabi couldn't hold back her laugh; she then jumped on the poor boy, hugging him tightly and kissing his forehead.
- "Ok, I'll tell Sai to give them an interview and then I'm off to work. But today we're going out to our favorite place!!!"
- - -
- "That son of a bitch!" A man threw the magazine forcefully to the other side of the table. His smooth chin rested on his knuckles with elbows on the hardwood. Raven locks fell on both sides of his head and covered his angry eyes. Now they were deep shade of red instead of his usual onyx black. His friend, Neji Huuga, was sitting opposite of him on the black leather couch and reading the same magazine.
- "Oh, relax, Sasuke! You're second place, and look! They call you the most handsome man and the most popular bachelor on the planet! And, as before, you are the richest man of Japan! This one needs more than five billion dollars to reach you!"
The secretary entered the office with two cups of cocoa, two pieces of cheesecake and ahuge grin on her face.
- "Gooood Morning, Uchiha-san, Huuga-san. My congratulations for the most handsome man on the planet! And greetings for the best friend of the most popular bachelor on the planet!" - She gave the cup and cake to Sasuke and then to Neji. Neji looked at the cup, then at the secretary and then, with fear, at Sasuke. Sasuke gave the secretary the famous death glare but she completely ignored it.
- "What is this and where is my black coffee?" was the low dangerous voice of the boss. The secretary approached the window and opened the curtains for more light. Very nervous, Neji waited for the moment when his friend would kill this girl.
- "Uchiha-san, today is a big day, and you need to be in a good mood. Cocoa is the perfect for the beginning of the day! Don't worry; I've made it not so sweet, but tasty. And the cheesecake was made especially for you by my friend, you'll love it. I hope you'll love it too, Huuga-san".
With this she left the room. Cold sweat stood out on Neji's forehead, he knew his friend was furious, and now he was the closest person to vent the fury on. Sasuke sighed loudly and took a little drink from the cup. With trembling hands Neji started drinking the cocoa and wondered about the pleasant flavor. When Sasuke called for the secretary again, Neji smirked 'that's it, he's gonna fire her'. When the lady entered the room, Neji was ready for a show.
- " Miyabi Namikaze-san," Sasuke started with his unemotional voice. "Remind me again why I hired you?"
The girl smiled. That was the usual scenario they played every day, but as each day passes it becomes more fun.
- "You hired me, Uchiha-san, because of my experience, professionalism and loyalty?"
- "Not good enough."
- "You thought I knew many secrets about the most famous businessmen, because I was employed by them as a secretary?"
- "Good, and why I haven't fired you yet?"
- "Because of my experience, professionalism and loyalty?"
- "Don't think so."
- "Um… I act like your mother?"
At this Neji choked, Sasuke smirked.
- "Ok, you may leave now".
This girl was amazing. She has been working about two months and this was a complement. All previous secretaries didn't work more than a week. There were cases when he fired a secretary immediately after morning coffee. And a real torture was that all of them weren't working for money or a career, they were working for a chance to get into his pants. He already tried to hire men but they were even worse.
And then Namikaze Miyabi entered his office with the same problem. She was very pretty and tried to find a job without being sexual harassed. He even remembered her ad in the local daily paper:
A young secretary is looking for a good boss.
Requirements: good working experience,
fair treatment with employees,
the absence of perverseness,
knowledge of English is welcomed.
Salary questions - on meeting.
Contacts: ....
Maybe there was something in her surname that made him call her immediately. But that didn't matter, all he knew was that she did her job well, extremely professionally, and he could depend on her in almost everything. After she started working in his office, he became calmer and more focused. When he had a meeting she was a good secretary, when he felt alone she was a good friend. But every single day she gave him occasions to fire her (like today), but every time he found himself on the thought that he just didn't want to do so. He was sure that she was the best he could find. She was nice and didn't have a stupid crush on him like all other women and that was what he liked the most.
- "Um, Sasuke?" Neji's voice broke the silence in the room. "What do you think about that Uzumaki? What are you going to do about him?"
- "What's with the strange question, Neji? Why should I be interested in this man?"
- "….um… You were so mad, I thought you gonna kill him or something. But now..."
Sasuke, all of the sudden, dropped his head on the desk with slight thump.
- "Shit. That little witch used chamomile water…again" He groaned. "Miyabi! I'll kill you!"
(Outside the girl only smiled and continued her work)
Neji couldn't hide his laugh.
- "Man! Ha-ha she did it! Ha-ha-ah! I mean...ha-ha...funny…" He saw an angry look on Sasuke's face and started laugh even harder. "Stop glaring at me like that, Sasuke, I know no one can be angry after chamomile water!"
- "Neji, stop it! I'm not angry, but I'm not in a good mood right now. So shut the hell up and let me think!"
Sasuke stood and came to the window. This man, Naruto Uzumaki, was an enigma. He came from who-the-hell-knows-where six months ago and become the most successful businessman in the world. Who is he? Where did he come from? What has he done? And what does he want? Sasuke really wanted to know him better, wanted to ask him questions, maybe have a dinner with him…whoa! Where did that come from? He just needed to know more about this man. Yea, that's it.
- "Miyabi!" The secretary immediately entered the room.
- "Yes, sir"
- "I need you to find out all about Uzumaki Naruto. All you can find, as soon as possible. Understand?"
- "Yes, sir"
She was a bit shocked, and it wasn't surprising - how often does your boss tell you to collect data about your friend and brother? She decided to find out how much the press knew about him, and then to complete the data with her own personal experience. After several hours of research, she concluded that no one could say more than three sentences about her friend, and ended writing it all by herself.
Sasuke was staying near the window when she finally came with files about Naruto. Neji had already left and he felt himself relaxed, but a bit nervous about the reason why he wanted to know about Uzumaki so much. Impatiently he took the folder from Miyabi's hands and started reading.
- "Miyabi, take a seat." She was looking at her boss with surprise; he never got so interested in something. But inside she grinned evilly, her plan was working fairly well.
- "Ok, what we know: Naruto Uzumaki, 23 years old. He's young, maybe that's why he doesn't want anyone to see him. He's either good-looking or unacceptably bad-looking. Which one do you do you think is right, huh?" He smiled, looking at the secretary.
- "I'm absolutely sure he's extremely sexy." She smiled at the image of the blond in her mind, "and cute. Maybe he's smarter then you and just doesn't want a crowd of fan girls following him everywhere?" After a little pause, she asked him,
-"I think you'd love to know what he looks like. Ne, Sasuke?"
- "… business field: Asian food restaurants … " Sasuke suddenly found the files very very interesting.
- "Undoubtedly" She smirked.
- "…he owns about 80 restaurants all over the world. Mostly concentrated in Japan - in Tokyo, Kyoto and several small cities...was noticed six months ago at the opening day of the third restaurant in Tokyo. At that moment he'd already possessed 20 restaurants all over the country. How could anyone not notice him earlier? And for how long has he been in this business?"
- "As far as I know, since he was 18, or something like that it."
- "Five years…hn…no one knows what he looks like. That I know…urgh…Sai Shuo is his right hand and personal assistant, always gives interviews and meets with clients. Who is this Sai? I need to know all about him too, by tomorrow morning..."
This feeling; he didn't know what it was, but he already didn't like Sai. He didn't like even the sound of his name. Naruto. Sasuke knew the name Naruto. He liked this name. It's soft, and sounds nice. Sai seemed to be the only one who personally knew Naruto and he didn't like it. Ignoring this feeling he began reading further.
- "There is a rumor that he saw all his customers and partners personally, as a waiter, a secretary or even as a cook, but always carefully so he would not be noticed… smartass..." Something strange was in this sentence; he re-read it several times and finally understood, "a rumor…saw personally…not being noticed…no one knows…except..."
- "Miyabi…" He literally growled her name. Under his cold glare she immediately realized her mistake, and a sudden feeling of shivers down her spine forced her to gulp down a lump in her throat.
- "Yes, sir..." He was looking at her as a wolf at pray.
- "Stop playing games with me..." He said it very slowly "You do know him, don't you?"
- "Err.." Naruto will kill her, and it would be a very slow and painful death. She needed an idea, quickly. "N-no… I-I don't know him p-personally; b-but I know a l-lot about him. A-and..."
She couldn't help but stutter and needed time to calm herself down. In the very short time she realized that her boss very badly wanted to know about Naruto and Miyabi just couldn't let it go just that easy. There was a moment to move her plan in a final stage.
- "And…"
- "I know someone who knows him the best." Sasuke looked at her with surprise.
- "Is it that Sai?"
- "No! He is a singer at a night club" Naruto definitely will kill her, but that was for his own good, she knew this a priori.
- "Ok, I need him in my office tomorrow. You may leave" He wasn't happy about another close friend of the person who he was interested in. This Naruto was extremely friendly, and he didn't like it. As he didn't like it earlier… he remembered. Sasuke was so lost in his thoughts that missed an evil smile on the face of his secretary.
- "No, Uchiha-san. There is only one way to talk to him" Those words distracted his mind from the thoughts and he looked at the secretary again.
- "And what is it?"
- "You have to meet him at the night club" She smiled innocently, knowing that her boss hated places like that.
- "No" He refused even think about it. But Miyabi knew which buttons should be pushed.
- "Once he told me, Uzumaki is a constant guest in the club…" She saw sparks in the Sasuke's eyes and smiled.
- "What club and when?"
