Hi I'm back with my new chapter of the promise of romance hopefully you like it...
Descliamer: I don't own Naruto
Pairing: Sasunaru
A year and half had passed in the blink of an eyes since Naruto Uzumaki had come to London.
He had spent the first year in English language courses, but now he was pursuing his true purpose, studtying at an acting school. He could now easily handle daily conversations, but when people began running off at the mouth and speaking quickly, the language still escaped him.
Naruto had been active in the drama club the whole time he was in high school, and dreamed of going to a famous acting school after graduating with his best friend, Kiba Inuzuka.
He and Kiba had met in high school. The class seating arrangement had put iba in front of Naruto. He had been the one to teach Kiba everything the other boy knew about theater. It was only because of Naruto that Kiba became interested in the subject. But despite that, Kiba had applied himself and had gotten ahead of Naruto.
Naruto had though he was better than Kiba at everything better at school, better at acting, everything. But only Kiba had been accepted to thier dream school.
"I can't believe I got accept!"Kiba had announced gleefully.
Naruto would never forget the look on Kiba's face, the way his eyes had shone when he came over to tell Naruto the good news at school.
"I wasn't sure I'd make it," Kiba had gushed. "You were a shoo-in . Here's to another four years together!"
The possibility that Naruto might not have gotten in hadn't seem to ever enter his mind.
"Well, I messed up," Naruto had owned up. He had rallied all the muscles in his face, trying to muster a cheerful smile, but it failed miserably.
Kiba had looked utterly dumbfounded.
"What?"
"I didn't get in," Naruto had clarified.
Even acting had its limits. Throug he had tried to pull his face into the perfect smile, a single tear had escaped and run down his whiskered cheek.
Kiba had looked perplexed for a moment, then laughed, perhaps thinking that Naruto was joking with him.
It was humilitiating.
"Is it that funny that I didn't get in?" Naruto had shouted at Kiba before storming out of the room.
Even he had throught it was a childish way to act. Whenever he remembered that day, Naruto's face would go crimson with shame.
Talent determines an actor's place in the theater world. Naruto understood that. He'd throught he he'd done well on the entrance exams. But the fact that he had failed the practical section devastated him. The number of people who can suppport themselves by acting is so small, it's almost nonexistent, even for those who graduate from special training schools. Naruto hadn't felt arrogant assuming that he was one of those chosen few. His unrivalled love for theater had given him a sense of confidence. But there's certian spark to good acting that had been lacking in him, and he hadn't been accepted by the best school. And that dark time, he'd throught he would never be a professional, either.
Naruto had eneded up graduating without ever speaking to Kiba again. He'd also gone to his fall back school. Of course, he'd enrolled in the theater department. But it was nothing like the school he had wanted to go to, which had a reputation of turning out huge numbers of professional actors. All the other students in his new school had applied to that same school, and all had failed to get in. All the classes and everyone in them had an air of failure. Then there had been the students who were genueinely satisfied with thier lot and had never hoped for anything better. Naruto couldn't stand them, either still, he hadn't felt like taking the exams over again. His pride wouldn't allow Kiba to be his senior.
But Naruto had never been happy with his life at the college he never wanted to attend. Then one day, he'd discovered a book. It was a collection of essays by a famous theater actor who had studied drama in London.
"I'll go to London, too!"
By the time he'd finished the book, his heart was set on studying in England, the bithplace of theater. After all, even if he graduated with a theater degree, that didn't guarantee him a job. It would be much more useful to learn English while he took all the theater classes he liked.
He had now realized his dream.
The only real problem was money.
Not wanting to be a burden, he had cut himself off from his parent's support and fled Japan. But his money had evaporated during his first year at the language school in England. So it would be impossible to ask them to help pay his school fees now.
He was now managing to keep himself fed with a part-time job in a pub. But he was still in danger of dropping out because he couldn't afford to pay the tuition. And if he did ask his parents for help, they would probably just send him the money for a plane ticket home.
But his life here was just begining. He couldn't go back to Japan yet.
Naruto went straight to work after his classes were over. The pub's owner was a typically brusque Enslishman of few words. He glanced at Naruto's face and silently set a plate of food out for him.
The menu was standard working-class fare: fried fish and chips. Naruto had gotten a bit tired of it, but he was in no position to demand luxury. He ate in a corner of the pub, then went behind the bar. He would be working non-stop from now until midnight.
The pub was filled with the lively energy of laborers returning home from work.
Naruto's main duty was washing dishes behind the bar.
It was physically exhausting to work a part-time job after the demands of acting all day in classes, but he had so much fun listening to the rapid-fire conversations around him, the one thing that made his job enjoyable. And sometimes, the customers would treat him ro a beer.
When he had finished washing the first batch of dishes, he glanced up at the end of the bar. That was where Tsunade, a regular customer, usually sat.
In the course of his many conversations with her, he had been shocked to discover that Tsunade was only 10 years older than him. He had been sure she was nearly the same age as his mother. And even accounting for the idea that Westerners aged more quickly than the Japanese, and the fact that his mother looked remarkably young for her age, he still couldn't believe how young Tsunade was.
Apparently, she was not living a very comfortable life, dressed in second-hand out-of-fashion clothes. She would always order one beer and nurse it preciously before going home. She had told him that her parents died early and she had lived alone ever since. But that shouldn't have made her life so wretched. Never without a friendly smile for him, Tsunade always worried about Naruto's well-being since he had come all the way to England all alone. She had also been the one to negotiate with the pub owner to include meals in his pay. She was unusual among English people, who were usually stand-offish and reluctunt to infere in other people's businesse.
But Tsunade hadn't been by the pub in several days.
He remembered that she had been coughing constantly the last time he had seen her, and her started to worry.
"I guess she's really sick,"
"If you ever need anything, you can come see me." she had told him once. With no relatives in England, her words had strucks Naruto's heart, which was already strained by loneliness.
It must be difficult for her to manage by herself if she's sick and all alone.
Naruto decided to go see her.
to be continue tell next time... please review...