Hi! Long time no see! If you're here from 'Cracked', I welcome you and thank you for sticking with me so long! I've been playing around with the idea for this story in my head for a very long time. You may notice some parallels to 'Cracked' in this story, but it is not the same! I just in-cooperated some of the ideas I felt the old story did no justice to. I hope this story makes up for the discontinuation of the other and more!

This is more or less a prologue, setting the scene for the story so no one's totally lost. Since the story focuses a lot around business life, I figured I needed to throw in a bit about how it worked so everyone isn't totally lost! I guess this is a bit of a teaser. I hope you all enjoy and remember to review letting me know what you think!

"The secret to getting ahead is getting started"

-Mark Twain

{Prologue}

Hinata heaved out a sigh. The sun had long gone down and was getting ready to rise again yet the girl hadn't gotten a wink of sleep. Thoughts about her rapidly changing future sped at her and away, too fast for her to sort out, for hours on end. With the sudden death of her mother a week ago, things were wrapping up and her 'mourning period' would be over at sunrise.

She hated to admit the policy was efficient in any way because from the eyes of the innocent, giving a daughter 7 days to mourn her mother, then throwing her into a lead seat on one of the biggest companies in the world was the wrong thing to do. But, from the eyes of the successful, it was the only thing to do, because mourning lack of any productivity and lack of any productivity, no matter how slow, was equivalent to failure.

Hinata had come to the realization in the past few days that no matter what had seemed like the right thing to do, it wasn't. Upon finding about her mother's death, the 18 year old student had expected time to at least absorb the reality of the situation, but only a few hours after receiving the news she was dragged to the courthouse, then to a lawyer and mindlessly signed countless papers. Everyone kept telling her that this was a good thing for her, that she had inherited her mothers (almost) everything. From her sleek black Ferrari 458, to her favorite heels, to, most dauntingly, her position as the head of a major Hyuuga branch.

Now Hinata had vaguely understood the way her family's company worked before the tragedy, but her father focused more on Neji learning the ropes, and with her schooling and her own future plans, she didn't pay the neglect of her inheritance much mind. Now that her mother was gone, and had, through Shikaku's words "all but picked you up and put you in that chair" to insure the girl got her blood deserved position, Hinata had spent her week of mourning becoming well versed in the basics of how the company works.

She had ran the talk with Shikaku through her head one thousand and one times, but that didn't stop her from doing it again. The company had 2 main branches, one ran by Hitomi, her mother, and the other ran by Hiashi, her father. Her mother handled the newer aspects of the Hyuuga franchise- movie production, music labels, and her most recent project was a fashion line- one that would never be released now. Her father on the other hand, handled less media focused (but more important) affairs. He ran the aspect of Hyuuga that the company has had its roots in for over 200 years- the medical industry. Hospitals all over the world, mass research and production of pharmaceuticals, all under the control of one man.

Though that was the basics, Hinata had learned a bit more on the business side of how things ran (kami bless Shikaku). She had essentially inherited 28% of the company, which didn't seem like much to her at first, but when Shikaku broke it down, she understood she had a lot more than she had bargained for. Typically, the clan head and their spouse were to run the entire company together, both owning 28%. The clan elders held another 28% divided by the three of them (the public owned the rest in stock). This was done to create a balance of power- the elders held power over the heads, but not enough to stop them, essentially they could be vetoed but wouldn't go down without a fight. The heads of the clan couldn't make a decision without the participation of either their spouse, or the entire board of elders. This idea was implemented during the feudal era to demonstrate that one single person shouldn't have power over the entire clan, then transferred to their later developed company.

Shikaku was also helpful in explaining that Hinata's mother was the one who pioneered the split of the company. Even though the media aspect of the company was only going on 30 years old, her new ideology caused it to flourish quickly. She essentially turned the Hyuuga into two companies, under one cooperation. This meant that the head ran the medical aspect with their 28% and the spouse ran the media aspect with their 28%. Decisions were ran by each other or the elders, whoever agreed first, and if the third part had any complaints or suggestions, they were taken into consideration. With her pioneering of one brain on one task at a time, rather than two brains on two tasks at a time, while maintaining the deep rooted balance of power, the company welcomed it's first break of tradition for the first time in a century.

Hinata thought again about what this meant for her. This meant that she would be the 28% running the media aspect. She would be the one calling all the shots in all of the companies film making, music production, and much more. The idea terrified the shy girl to no end, but she had a job to do now. After years of hearing hushed voices harshly say that she wasn't worthy of being a leader, she now had the position and no one could change that, not even her. All she could do now was embrace it and prove everyone wrong. She just had to make it in 'the real world'. But it's never that simple, now is it?

Once again sorry it's not very long, but remember its just an opening. Also sorry the tone is so serious and kind of dark, but I promise it won't stay that way, I love writing drama's but I can't do anything in life without a little humor! Remember to let me know what you think and the next chapter will be on the way!