A/N: First things first, I am insanely sorry for the long hiatus. After I posted chapter two last year I had an enormous writers-block while being in school in Japan, where I had too much work at my hands that I simply had no energy to work on the story. It never left my mind though, and as I have said earlier, i would never give up on a story until it's finished. On the other hand I've finally come to realize how some fic writers can suddenly come to a complete halt and not post something for months, even a year. Real life obligations just have to come first.
On this chapter I would like to comment that it will be chopped up into two, maybe three parts. The length will be a bit shorter than the other ones, but hopefully it will be a bit easier for me to post more regularly. That being said, I still have no beta so if anyone's up for the job and would like to have a go at it, i would be really grateful.
And as always, disclaimer: I do not own the characters from 'Naruto'. They are created and owned by Masashi Kishimoto. I do not make profit from this.
For the people who have reviewed so far and added my story to favorites (really? You're FABULOUS!), I deeply apologize for the long wait.
Now, read, and hopefully, enjoy chapter three part one "Copyright"!
On the Glossy Cover Chapter 3: "Copyright."
From: uchihasasuke
To: sabakunogaara
Subject: Meeting, Konoha UTC
Time: 08:43
Hello,
I met with Mr. Hatake Kakashi yesterday, and he told me to contact you on this address.
I'd be very pleased to finally get to meet you, and hope you have nothing planned for tomorrow afternoon/evening? If you are free I will have you flown in to Konoha International Airport tomorrow at 01:30 pm. A car will be waiting for you to take you to the Konoha Continental.
Please let me know if there's anything you're not satisfied with.
I hope to see you here tomorrow.
Best regards,
Uchiha Sasuke
Vice President
UTC
The 55m² apartment on Southern Anbu Avenue smelled of fresh coffee. Three sleep-sought young men in their twenties sat around the tiny kitchen table, quietly sipping their mugs, one of them fiddling subconsciously with a mini flash drive in his hand.
"Pass the sugar, will ya."
Naruto handed Kiba the cup of sugar in a most lethargic kind of way, not diverting his gaze from the sky-blue wall in front of him.
He and Shikamaru had lived there together for four years, and Kiba had moved in just last winter. Kiba sat on the short side of the table with his chair propped up against the stove. With Shikamaru and Naruto on each side of him it was painfully obvious that their 55 square meters was anything but enough. This was something Naruto usually thought about while drinking his morning coffee, but this morning there were other more pressing matters than the situation of their tiny home.
He'd written a 1500 piece for the story, a significant length of a story for just rumor speculation. He'd stilled a couple of pictures from the film Sakura had managed to shoot and with just the flick of his wrist both story and pictures would be pressed and ready for sale in no time. The only reason that kept him from sending it to the pressers was the sincerity of the Uchihas words. He was mentioning Hatake Kakashi in the story, but the focus was not mainly on Hatake but The Rinnegan Room as a hotspot for celebrities. For the picture he'd decided on a black and white shot of Uchiha Sasuke at the bar, drinking his whiskey. Surely, it could probably be enough for the Uchiha to get uppity, but when the main focus wasn't on Hatake, could he really be angry? Could he really go as far as making Naruto lose his job? As long as there were Uchiha blood running in a person's veins you could never be too sure, Naruto thought to himself.
"Naruto, you finished with that?"
Naruto snapped out of his train of thoughts and looked at Shikamaru, who was wearing a somewhat strained smile.
"That's the seventh sugar cube you're putting in your coffee.."
Naruto looked down at his own hand, apparently ready to drop another cube of sugar into his cup.
"Ugh.." he grimaced and shoved it away.
"Hey, hey, if you're not drinking it, can I have it?"
Naruto nodded and could not fail to see the striking resemblance between Kiba and an eager dog waiting for food. The stuff Shikamaru and Naruto left uneaten always ended up in Kiba's stomach and it was a mystery to all of them how he never put on weight.
"You're nervous about publishing it?"
Shikamaru always caught on quicker than anyone.
"A bit."
"It'll be fine, you know. Everyone's waiting for something good, you gonna leave'em hanging? Besides, this is your job, Bro. I want to have food to eat next week too."
"Of course, so do I but I'm not sure this is so good, though."
"You still have another week and a half to get that interview the old hag's talking about, better to start somewhere, no?"
Shikamaru poured Naruto a new cup of coffee to which he was grateful. He finally managed to put down the mini flash drive and took the cup in both hands.
"You're probably right."
From: sabakunogaara
To: uchihasasuke
Subject: RE: Meeting, Konoha UTC
Time: 09:06
Mr. Uchiha,
Thank you for your quick response; I'm happy to hear you want to meet so soon.
As for tomorrow I have no other plans, but I'll save you the hassle of flying me in. I'll take my own jet, but would still appreciate a car to take me to the Continental.
Do let me know if there's anything you want me to bring from Suna.
I look forward to finally get to meet you, in private for a change.
Sincere regards,
Sabaku no Gaara
With staggering steps Naruto entered the office with the flash drive tight in hand. He hadn't been able to get much sleep debating with himself whether to do this or not, but he figured after all that Shikamaru was right. This was his job. And even if it wasn't the most glorious kind of work, he was expected to take it as seriously as any other job. He expected it from himself too. Just within a couple of weeks he'd been thrown head-first into a much bigger project than he'd ever worked on before in his career, and for the first time ever Naruto was very reluctant when handing the drive over to Sakura.
"How much is it?"
"Not too big. It's rather short, but there's the pics and…"
Naruto gnawed his lip and resisted when Sakura tried to take the flash from him.
"And..? Naruto, what's the matter? Please give me the flash, we're due to deadline in ten minutes!"
He let it go with a heavy sigh.
"Sakura.. Last night at dinner, Uchiha told me if I wrote something that would put him in a bad light connected to Hatake, he would see to that I lose my job… Now, the stuff on that file is probably something he wouldn't want out so soon before his wedding, but I… I don't know, for the first time after I started working here I'm really unsure of what will become of this. Of course, it'll sell, but… That guy has power, Sakura. Huge influence on this whole city, no, the country even. I'm a mere journalist for a gossip magazine. I'm dirt. No-one will notice if I was to disappear, there would be a new journalist taking over and-"
"Naruto."
Sakura put her hand on Naruto's shoulder and smiled warmly at him.
"Don't talk like that. You're our best journalist. This isn't like you! Where's all that bad energy coming from, huh? It's a threat, alright, and I know he's a powerful man, but… You've been threatened a thousand of other times, you managed to get out of trouble in one way or another, and I'm sure you'll do it again. I have faith in you. Tsunade Chief has faith in you, we all have. And that bullshit about no-one noticing if you were gone.. Ok, so we have other good journalists too, but none of them have your guts."
"Sakura…"
Sakura's words planted a good, warm feeling deep into his chest, the one he always felt when the people around him praised him, or appreciated his things that he did. He felt the weight on his shoulders lessen up, if only a little.
"Thank you, Sakura."
She started running down the corridor with his flash drive and waved at him.
"Don't thank me, Naruto. We're all a team here."
He watched her go until she disappeared through the doors. His pulse pounded hard in his whole body, well aware that there was no turning back now. Well, the good thing about just delivering a story meant he would have time for some rest. He'd go by Tsunade's office to let her know he'd handed in, and then go home to get some sleep. The magazine would be out in stores early the next morning, and his next step would be figured out together with Tsunade after the next sales evaluation meeting.
He thought about asking his boss about his future as well. Things were starting to look rough, and though his friends were there encouraging him, he would have to find out what to do in an absolute worst case scenario.
With his hands in his pockets he went to Tsunade's office, walking slowly.
At the other end of town a glass of whiskey on the rocks was put down on a smooth mahogany desk, there was a sound of fingers across a keyboard and a slight smirk that settled on the perfect, pale face of Uchiha Sasuke.
It wasn't really there, but in Naruto's mind there was a happy tune playing as he cracked his eyes open to greet his first day off in weeks. Yesterday when he'd gone to Tsunade's office she had been so happy about the story and allowed him a day off in thanks for his hard work.
There really wasn't anything else quite like it, waking up graced with gentle sunbeams on your face and hear the bluebirds chirp on the outside of your window. He smirked at his alarm clock mockingly as its red, digital numbers told him it was 11 in the morning.
"Thought you was gonna get your way with me today, too? Not today, you stupid, mechanic piece of shit. Not today."
"Stop talking to your clock, man, you sound like a complete loon."
Naruto turned to see Kiba in the door to his room. Clad in his slacks and the worn t-shirt that said "You say 'LOL' but sometimes I wonder…", he presented his room-mate with a crackling frying pan loaded with eggs and bacon. Naruto never really understood what the message on Kiba's t-shirt was supposed to mean, but seeing as Kiba was so into all kinds of internet memes, it was probably related to that. The deep, salty scent of bacon made him forget about it quickly, and he heard his stomach growl.
"Why are you still here? You have a day off too?"
Kiba scoffed, turned and walked back to the kitchen as he whined to Naruto over his shoulder.
"So, that's the gratitude one gets from making breakfast to a friend.."
Naruto rolled his eyes and knew for a fact that Kiba would probably eat more than half of it anyway. He rolled out of bed, put on a t-shirt and headed after his room-mate. On the kitchen table was one huge serving of eggs and bacon and a glass of orange juice. Kiba sat down right in front of it and almost inhaled the food.
"You were just lying about making me breakfast weren't you?"
Naruto was eying the crisp, juicy bacon like a haunted man taking farewell with his loved ones.
"Yep. Thotalleh, fogoh t'was yarh day owff. Sowwy.", Kiba said with his mouth stuffed, tiny pieces of food landing on the table top. He dried his mouth off by the back of his hand and pointed his thumb to the cupboards.
"I bought some more cup noodles, though."
Naruto immediately brightened up, bacon completely forgotten. There was nothing in the whole wide world Naruto liked more than ramen, and even though these were the convenience store kind, they were pretty good. Once every month when he got his salary he usually treated himself to his favorite ramen place in Konoha, but only when he felt he could really afford it. Rent was soon due, and he wouldn't get his pay check for another two weeks, so cup noodles would have to do in the meantime. At least the ones Kiba had bought were chicken flavored, so he couldn't really complain.
"So what are you doing today? You're usually the one up early, hunting out the juicy stuff. Nothing cool going down tonight?"
Naruto saw Kiba look straight at him, ripping the bacon to shreds with his sharp teeth. He gave Naruto a slightly amused look before laughing gently, answering him.
"Really, dude? THE biggest stuff is going down tonight. Right here in Konoha. But nothing's happening until at least three hours, so I'm here saving energy."
"Sounds dope. Anything big?"
Naruto slurped half the cup into his mouth, giving more attention to his food than to what Kiba was saying.
"Hell yeah..! Weird you haven't heard about it yet.. Thought this was kinda your case.."
Kiba's words drowned as Naruto's cellphone went off. He flipped the screen up, and his stomach did a slight twirl.
Kiba perked up and saw Naruto's face suddenly looking tired again.
"Oh, I know that look. It's the 'Omfg-NOES-boss-is-calling-on-my-day-off'-face.", he said sneering at Naruto, who only waved him off, turning to the window and with dread building in his stomach he answered his call.
"Uzumaki here."
"Hey Kid, it's your boss here."
"Hi boss.."
Kiba snorted behind him.
"Now listen up, kiddo. You and Sakura did a good job on the Rinnegan Room coverage, the photos were really smooth. It's also good you wrote a little bit about the Room as a place for the hip and cool celebs and all, and I saw Sakura did a full fashion coverage on what Sasuke was wearing. Great. Good job. But kid, where is that getting us? The mag was out nine o'clock this morning and I'm expecting a sales report in two hours, but still, hey, we're professional amateurs here. This shit won't sell. You know that much, don't you?"
"Yes, ma'am. I do."
"So where's all the juicy stuff, kid? You reported Hatake was there, and that they disappeared to a private suite and stayed there until closing hours, but come on, kid! Uchiha's wedding is two weeks away, and if we wanna cause a riot before Barbie and Ken says 'I do', we have to get cracking."
"Yes, ma'am."
"I'm glad we're on the same wave, Naruto. Work hard, kid. I expect you to deliver something we can really dig our teeth into by early tomorrow morning-"
"Tomorrow? But today is my-"
"..so we can print before the Weekend edition. See ya, kid!"
The line went dead.
"..day off…", Naruto trailed off to himself. As on cue, a bird took a shit on the window in front of him. No more nice day, no more day off. Naruto let his shoulders slump down and sighed overdramatically.
"Kiba, please tell me why my life sucks?"
"Because you use too much cologne and you're a celeb mag journalist, what do you expect?"
"Hey, what's wrong with using a little more cologne than the average man? At least I use it, compared to a certain other who smells of cigs and wet dog, here."
Kiba scrunched up his nose in question and sniffed his own armpits. Naruto watched and mentally screamed when Kiba just shrugged and continued eating.
"Well, Tsunade forgot it was my day off today, so-"
"She probably didn't forget, she's just like that y'know. 'er mood changes as quickly as the wind turns.", Kiba interrupted.
"Sadly, so, so true. Anyway, I guess I will have to head on out and try to get some work done. See you later, man. Have fun hunting."
Naruto got his old leather bag, his notepad and pen, his cell phone and a can of iced coffee before he left their apartment.
The weather was too nice to have to work in. Naruto regrettably started thinking about all the things he would have used this marvelous day for, as he walked down the stairs of their apartment building. He put his headphones on and stepped onto the warm pavement, when suddenly something hit his head. He stared down to see it was an empty chicken flavored ramen cup. The one he'd just had his breakfast from. He looked up and saw Kiba hanging halfway out their kitchen window.
"NARUTO! Shikamaru just called and he says he needs me to help out with a photo shoot, so I have to cancel the other gig I had planned for today."
"Yeah? Well, gee, that must suck. I'm just here on my day off and suddenly IT'S NOT MY DAY OFF!"
"That's why I was thinking you could do my gig, then you'd at least have something to do? C'mon man, it's a pin up photo shoot with the girl that won the Miss Rock Country competition! I NEED to go help out."
Naruto pictured being in the same room as Miss Rock Country and almost melted just by the mere thought.
"I want to help out, too. Take me with you."
"Hell no. But listen up, go to Konoha International Airport in two hours, and just hang around at 'Arrivals', and hey, bring this."
Kiba disappeared for a brief second and Naruto didn't even have the time to scream as he saw Kiba reappear and throw Shikamaru's newest camera out the window. He managed to catch it by the strap, the lens swaying mere inches from the burning asphalt.
"ARE YOU INSANE? Shikamaru would have thrown you out the window if he saw that!"
"Whatever, just do as I told ya. Gotta go take a shower, see you tonight!", Kiba waved, closing the window.
"Wait up! Hey! Kiba!"
The window opened again and a mop of the spiky, brown hair appeared for the second time.
"What?"
"Who am I supposed hunt at the airport, who am I writing about?"
"Jeez, I told you when your phone rang earlier! I don't know any details, but apparently Mr. Swagga-Dagga-Ding-Dong is picking somebody up at the airport, and it's supposed to be completely hush-hush, so this could mean gold for us."
"..Mr. Swagga-who?"
"Uchiha! Uchiha frickin' Sasuke, you noob!"
Immediately Naruto regained some energy and he felt a tiny flame was set ablaze in his blood once again. The timing couldn't have been more perfect, and Kiba had literally given him the best trail to go after.
"Thank you, Kiba! Gotta run!"
He dashed off down Anbu Avenue to find a taxi. On his way to the airport he got his notepad out, scribbling down the date and time and where he was and what he was planning to do. He would go to the airport an hour early to try to ask around for starters. Suddenly it wasn't so depressing to have to work on what was supposed to be his day off; He felt lucky. And hyper.
He wouldn't disappoint today, he could just feel it. The world was his again.
- fin Copyright part I -
Please review, and once again, I'm incredibly sorry for the long break!
A/N 2: as some of you may see I have no knowledge of the world of journalism whatsoever, so if you do happen to study media or journalism and see all my mistakes and faults, just laugh and see past them will you? 3
