Rated: K, T- English – Romance/Drama/Adventure Sasuke U& Naruto U.
Disclaimer: Naruto ain't mine..Isn't it obvious? * grumbling *
Warning: SasuNaru,Yaoi, violence, OOC, AU, OC''s, Angst, Mature themes...lemons(maybe)...
Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze is an extremely popular and successful writer, who is lonely, but scared of getting intimate with anyone, for fear of losing them...Enter Sasuke Uchiha, beautiful, intelligent and insanely rich..He has always gotten whatever he wants, and now he wants Naruto...Battle Royale begins...will our beloved Naru give in?
Author's Notes: Please forgive the rambling nature of this chapter, I just wanted to give my readers some background on the complex relationship Naruto and Sakura have. It's going to come play further in the story, and hopefully give more insight into the kind of person my Naruto is. The rest of the gang will show up sooner or later...
The background night scene I'm describing in the club can be found here: graphics/329752 It's used without permission, and I apologize to the owner of the picture..New York City really is a beautiful city at night, and it's where I currently live. Konoha, in this story, is set in a place similar to this...
Please let me correct a misconception in the story(all my fault, I apologize! * ducks thrown tomates and eggs *). Invitation to the VIP lounge is what is by invitation only. If you had to walk in, it would be exorbitantly more expensive than the regular cover charge. The owner does not discriminate, but wanted to encourage only well-behaved, upper class clientele-but if you started a fight, drama or anything like that, you'd be thrown out, regardless of how wealthy you were and the money you paid to get in is non refundable! * smirks *
Itachi & Sasuke's relationship is a more loving here than in other stories, although Sasuke is still a bit more jealous at the better way his father treats Itachi than himself. But he knows his mother and Itachi love him, so he tries
not to think too much of it...
Chapter 3: Meeting you..
Naruto glanced around the moderately crowded club happily. Having been shanghaied into placing the orders for everyone's drinks from the bar, Naruto was now slowly making his way back to the table he and his friends were currently occupying. He gracefully dodged the happily drunk revelers, overly familiar hands and coquettish ladies, who were batting their fake eyelashes at him, hoping he would find one of them attractive enough to take home for the night. Naruto politely ignored the hopeful ladies, but didn't mind all the antics in the least. He loved the energy flowing freely around him.
Nodding his head along with the moderately loud, pulse-pounding music, Naruto hoped he would get the chance to let loose on the dance floor soon. It had been awhile since he'd had been able to do so. Sighing happily, he was glad he agreed to come have some fun with his friends and get some downtime.
Swinging lithe, leather-clad hips in time with the music, the bronze-colored, tight, sleeveless t-shirt he wore clung lovingly to his broad shouldered, muscled torso. He paid no mind to or had any idea of the hungry, lustful gazes that followed him, other than the overeager ladies and young men that trailed him. It was a phenomenon he was used to, ever since he was in college. He didn't understand the fascination people had towards him. He admittedly was a people person, but had no idea why they always congregated around him. Like the words of his good friend, Shikamaru, it was "troublesome."
But like always, he took it in stride. Being a kind and compassionate person, he didn't insult anyone over it, though, and became expert at disappearing when he had to. If the people around him become too much of a pain, he left his friends, Kiba and Shino to handle them and didn't let it bother him to much. It was usually no trouble to the duo, since each of them were big enough and mean looking enough in their own way to handle anything that came up.
Naruto had no idea how eye-catching and charismatic he was, especially since he had coloring that was so distinctive. It brought him attention that he didn't know or care about, being a guy that never thought about such things. He had been told about it, but never considered it a big deal and thought nothing of it.
Tonight, though, everything in his life would change-hopefully for the better. He had caught the attention of someone special. Especially the dark eyed gaze of someone that stared hotly at him with hungry, predatory anticipation, as if he had never seen anyone or anything like Naruto before.
It had been a very busy, rough and long past year, with the non-stop business meetings, traveling around accompanying Tsunade to various business ventures and sitting in on her meetings to see what CEOs did, fending off movie offers for his books, undertaking book tours, signings & interviews his agent whined he absolutely had to do. In between all of this, he still had to work on his current book as well. He did have contractual obligations to fulfill after all, regardless of whether he had a stake in the company or not. All in all, it had been a hellish year that fortunately had been very fruitful and profitable. However, the resulting exhaustion had been so bad he had taken to falling asleep while standing, waiting for elevators to arrive.
It was his friend, Sakura, that decided enough was enough and took him in hand, after his executive assistant, Moegi, had worriedly called her and reported that she had found Naruto sound asleep in front of his desktop computer at the office at 10.00 pm at night.
She had forgotten an important file of some sort and decided to come back to the office to retrieve it because she had needed said item for the project she was working on. It couldn't wait until the next day because the presentation of the project itself was due the next day. Deciding to pop in and out quickly, she had been quite startled when she had spotted the light under Naruto's office door and peeked in.
Every employee at Sannin had been trained to be on the look out for corporate spies and espionage; Tsunade was paranoid like that. To Moegi's shock, it had been Naruto, happily drooling on his keyboard. She had quickly roused him, and made sure he made his way home-by calling a car service for him. He had been in no shape to drive. The next day, Moegi had called Sakura.
Sakura was one of Naruto's oldest friends; she was also the Vice President of Personnel & Human Resources for Sannin Enterprises, and one of the few people who was tough and stubborn enough and when pushed, intimidating enough to get Naruto to do anything...at least for a while.
Sakura had been outraged when she had heard what Moegi had reported to her; she knew Naruto had been very busy lately, but had no idea it had been that bad. Naruto had never mentioned he was that busy or exhausted whenever she got a chance to see or talk to him. She had expected better of Tsunade, who she knew loved Naruto to distraction. She wasn't surprised, though. Tsunade was notorious for skipping out on her duties; thank goodness for her trustworthy executive assistant, Shizune. Nothing Tsunade needed to do would get done if the young woman didn't brow beat, threaten and blackmail her boss into completing her work.
How the older woman had missed all the signs of exhaustion in Naruto, she had no idea, unless Tsunade was also concentrating too much on business and losing herself in her frequently induced alcohol dazes to deal with anything else around her.
Jiraiya was just as bad; he was never around long enough to worry about anything, anyway.
A couple of days later, Sakura burst into Naruto's office, fuming.
"Naruto, this is ridiculous, you need a break." She stood directly in front of Naruto's desk, hands on her waist, her feet apart. This was her battle stance; she always took this pose when she was about to dig in her heels to get her way and kick ass.
"Huh?" Naruto replied intelligently, raising his blond head to stare at the pink-haired interruption. He had been concentrating on a scene in his book that had been giving him some trouble for a long time. He had finally gotten it to co-operate, and wanted to get everything down before his plot bunnies decided to hop away again and he lost his flow of words. He really didn't need the distraction.
"Naruto, you're working yourself into an early grave. You need a break. When was the last time you had a day off?"
Naruto raised his eyes from the computer monitor reluctantly. He sighed and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
"Are you asking as Sakura the friend or Sakura the Vice-President of Personnel & Human Resources?" he replied teasingly.
Sakura narrowed her green eyes at him threateningly.
Sakura was notorious and feared around Sannin Publishing. She took her job very seriously. Her philosophy was "The People Make The Company." She made sure whatever their workers needed they got(within reason of course). She went after supervisors and managers that had workers grumbling for any reason. When worker morale fell, the work suffered, was her opinion. She came up with various ways to boost worker morale, like creating awards for good workers, people with perfect attendance, people that came up with ideas that made work more efficient and so on. She lived for planning picnics and mixers that had regular workers rubbing elbows with upper management on a regular and frequent basis.
The only person who could gainsay her was her boss and mentor, Iruka Umino-and he was worse than Sakura. Upper management lived in fear of the duo.
However, she was also very notorious for going after people who refused to use their vacation time when appropriate. This applied to both Upper Management and regular workers. Her ire was especially reserved for people who liked to carryover their time into the new work year. It was a big headache for her and her staff, according to her, because it skewed their budget for payroll or something.
Naruto never really paid attention to her rants, he just nodded where appropriate, commiserated with her, and generally kept his opinions to himself, for the sake of peace.
At least he had gotten most of the plot difficulties in his book ironed out to his satisfaction and the words down. Sakura tended to be loud and persistent when she wanted something, and it was dangerous to ignore her-she had a very mean right hook, as his face & head could attest to from past experience, which he would prefer not to revisit, thank you very much.
"Uh, can't really recall...A couple of months? A year? I can't actually remember, Sakura-chan. All the days seem to run together, especially when I'm busy. I tend to have tunnel vision when I'm focused on something; you know that already."
Sakura sighed in exasperation. It was true.
People tended to underestimate Naruto, especially because of his easy going and laid back nature and attitude. They also always made the mistake of considering him an empty headed, absent-minded airhead, mostly because of his hair color-Yes, unfortunately, the blond stereotypes and jokes were alive and well, much to everyone's detriment. Many people thought he had it easy, since his relatives owned and ran Sannin. They were of the opinion that nepotism was alive and well at Sannin. Many also thought, wrongly, he didn't do a lot of what he had accomplished on his own.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
It was an image he actively and carefully encouraged. He also compounded the problem by pretending to be clueless and acted like an idiot a lot of the time, basically what people expected of him. However, he was frighteningly intelligent, and he deliberately hid his genius beneath an affable and cheerful exterior, mostly in order to make people drop their guard around him, which they realized too late. He especially enjoyed surprising people with his in-depth observation & analysis skills and his hyper-awareness of the things going on around him. These were skills Tsunade and Jiraya loved to exploit, especially during board & stock holder meetings.
Sakura supposed they were survival skills Naruto had found very necessary to develop when he was younger, in order to protect himself, especially while living at the orphanage he eventually left when he got accepted into college at the age of 18.
"Well, I think you need some downtime, Naruto. Hell, we all do! Hard work is all well and good in life, but it's a total waste if you don't live long enough to enjoy it, especially if you die from overwork and stress! Did you know Moegi-chan called me last week and told me she found you asleep in front of your computer?"
Naruto raised an eyebrow in askance. "That's no big deal, Sakura-chan. I always fall asleep in front of the computer on a regular basis..."
Sakura glared at him, a vein throbbing on her forehead. "At 10.00 at night in the office?"
Naruto cringed. "Oh..."
Sakura sighed again. One tended to do that a lot around Naruto. She waved a document she had been holding over Naruto's head.
"Idiot! You really need a keeper! Our records show it's been a year! It's a good thing your family owns the damned company, but we still have government regulations to follow. Are you, Tsunade-sama, and Jiraiya-sama trying to bring the Labor Department down on our heads?" Sakura shook her head and sucked her teeth in amused exasperation.
"Anyway, it's great that I have vacation starting soon, as well. I need a break, too. It has been a really rough year." Sakura relaxed from her stance in front of Naruto's desk and moved away. She slowly made her way to the leather sofa set at the side of the room and laid down. She almost moaned in ecstasy.
Sakura loved coming to Naruto's office, not just to berate him from time to time-which she frequently did. Naruto got on her nerves a lot because he played fast and loose with the company's regulations regarding time off.
He was very lenient with his direct subordinates, allowing them to take paid days off for little things and he also frequently used paid time off as rewards for a job well done-which was one of the reasons they loved him so much and were so loyal to him. But he rarely took any of his own days off. If Naruto decided to get a check for the hours he had racked up in terms of vacation days, it would amount to a freaking fortune-which he already had in spades, he didn't need any more money!
His antics with employee time constantly messed with the employee payroll budget and she was always having to deal with her direct subordinates, who were constantly in tears and hair pulling mode, having to always adjust and try to fix the nightmare their payroll became as a result. It wasn't very easy, since they paid their employees weekly. It was a damned headache that even had the gentle Iruka-sensei pissed off to the max. This was dangerous. As gentle and easygoing Iruka-sensei was, he had a volatile temper, and handling him while in a bad mood was no walk in the park. He threatened to strangle Naruto with is tie, once. He wasn't kidding at the time.
Sakura sighed. Naruto could try a saint's patience at times, but she wouldn't trade his friendship for the world. He was the perfect person to come to when one needed support, and he would give his "precious people" the world, which was why he was never lacking in friends and allies.
Sakura sighed again. She would never admit it, but she used her constant presence in his office to take advantage of his particularly beautiful and comfortable office sofa in order to get away from the constant stress dealing with his antics created. She saw nothing bad in doing it, since Naruto was the one causing all the commotion. It was only fair he also paid for it.
She really enjoyed laying on the expensive piece of furniture because of how firm, yet soft and welcoming it was. It was so comfortable that it was an easy place to relax and fall asleep in. Sakura suspected it was custom made.
Naruto's office was much more bigger & cooler looking than hers, of course-Naruto was THE MAN, though he never acted like it. Sakura was constantly awed at his laid back attitude. The extravagance of his lifestyle never ceased to amaze her, but his "It's-not-that-big-of-a-deal" attitude amazed her even more. What was the use of being high on the totem pole if you wouldn't make use of the perks that came with your position? Hell, if she was in the position Naruto was in, she'd totally abuse her power and get the best of everything, too!
But alas, she wasn't. But she was on a mission to make sure her friend used his long overdue time off. Mostly, though, for him to get some rest and maybe get laid while at it! ^_-
Naruto eyed his pink haired friend cautiously as she settled herself on the sofa, trying to gauge her mood at the moment. He stared at her thoughtfully.
At one time, when they were younger, Naruto had developed a very big crush on Sakura. He would have done anything for her. Unfortunately, Sakura realized this, and while not feeling the same, took advantage of his devotion shamelessly. It was a wonder how they could have remained not just good friends, but best friends, after all the ambivalent history between them.
Looking back, Naruto realized that he probably had latched onto Sakura because she was one of the few people at that time that paid him any attention. He had been missing his parents keenly, and hardly had any friends. Heck, he still missed them and he was in his late twenties now.
While he had eventually met other adults that loved him and slowly helped him to deal with his loss and started him off on the road to healing, Sakura was the first young person to notice and acknowledge him, as a person, be friendly towards him without the fear and hostility he frequently encountered. Thus, she was the first girl his age he had felt anything for.
High school had not been easy for him at all. It was cliché, he knew, but he had truly hated school, especially because he had been ostracized. He didn't mind the learning, he had enjoyed that part, because his dad had nurtured the philosophy that all knowledge, no matter what it was, was worth obtaining. It had been the social part of high school he had failed at because he hadn't gotten along well with his peers.
He couldn't hang out with the cool kids(he had been considered a dork). He couldn't hang out with the Goths(he had been too bright in his personality), he had tried hanging out with the jocks. That didn't last long, either, because he always outperformed his teammates and they didn't like that. He couldn't help it, though, he had always been athletic, energetic and restless(he gotten that from both his parents)so somehow, he had always gotten kicked out of most of the sports teams he joined, except for martial arts and soccer.
Looking back, he figured many people had no idea how to deal with a traumatized young teen who'd had to endure such tragedy at a young age. They were either overly sympathetic or apathetic. Some were glad it hadn't happened to them, then felt guilty they felt that way and ultimately tried to stay away from him. Seeing him reminded him of his tragedy. Others were superstitious, and stayed away from him, hoping his bad luck didn't transfer to them from associating with him.
So when Sakura had come into his life, he had glomped unto her like a lifeline.
He had eventually come to the realization that both of them had been very emotionally immature at that time. Naruto, with his emotionally damaged psyche and Sakura, with her emotional immaturity & total distraction with the presence of some rich, "totally hot, cool" kid (her words) in their high school. She hadn't known how to tell Naruto she didn't feel the same way for him like he did for her, and totally went with the flow. She had appreciated having him as a good guy friend, though(friend-zone anyone?).
Heck, she was barely out of junior high school and enjoying freedom from over-protective parents for the first time in her life and also overwhelmed with the newness and intensity of puppy-love. What did she know about serious emotional feelings?
Naruto absently wondered where the rich, totally hot, cool kid Sakura had been enraptured and obsessed with at the time-was now.
But as time went on as it was wont to do, he had learned to recognize that maybe, he himself was being a bit too emotionally needy and demanding too much, too soon from Sakura(the psychology classes in college helped a lot), Naruto was able to put things into perspective and let his amorous feelings for Sakura go, for the sake of his self-esteem, confidence and sanity, and allowed his love for her to evolve into a very strong friendship.
Luckily for Naruto, he had applied himself to his studies, while in high school, even though he had despised being there. There was nothing else he could do-he had hated being at the orphanage, and he had never gotten adopted. He wasn't sure he had even wanted to be, either-he had loved his parents deeply and didn't want to ever forget them, so he had felt it was okay he was unsuitable for a new family. Many prospective parents had wanted younger children anyways because of their more malleable personalities-so his numerous after school activities, playing pranks on the orphanage bullies, working part-time and his studies occupied most of his time. His tenacity eventually paid off. He had gotten an all-expense paid scholarship to one of the best Universities in the country. Sakura had also gotten accepted to the same University, with a scholarship as well.
Although Sakura had come from a middle-class family, she had three additional siblings, and her parents couldn't afford the tuition for the expensive higher institution. They had wanted her to attend a college near home-it was more affordable, but Sakura had always been smart. She had persuaded her parents to allow her to attend the expensive college(Sakura could be very persuasive when she wanted to be and she had always known what she wanted). It would look great on her resume and there was a higher possibility of her getting a great, well-paid job if she attended an Ivy-League University. So her intelligence worked to her advantage. It would cost her family nothing, except her personal expenses, which her parents could afford.
Naruto on his part, had been ecstatic that at least he wouldn't be the only person from his hometown to attend the college. He wouldn't be alone.
Unfortunately, as soon as they got into college, Sakura had the misfortune of falling into the company of some other girls that Naruto did not approve of and was not especially fond of, either. They were fashion, looks and status conscious. While he never overtly disparaged Sakura's friends, he had learned too much the way the world worked, had met too many people that looked down on others, from being a ward of the state. He disliked snobs intensely, so he tried his best to stay away from them as much as possible. He had learned to develop his own interests outside of pursuing Sakura relentlessly.
But Sakura's new college friends' influence hadn't done her too much good, either, as hanging out with them influenced Sakura's personality in a negative way and almost cost Sakura her scholarship. The only good thing, in Naruto's opinion, that Sakura gained from interacting with them was the fabulous sense of style, in terms of fashion. Other than that, she had developed a tendency to be very shallow, persistent and loud, especially if she felt she was in the right. She also developed the very bad habit of enforcing her point of view with her fists.
It was a very good thing that she was also very intelligent, because her so-called friends made a habit of skipping classes. But at least she had been able to maintain an awesome GPA, which saved her from getting kicked out of the university.
It had taken a very spectacular, drag down, violent argument between them before she stopped using his head as a punching bag. She had gotten so used to having Naruto at her beck and call because of his feelings for her, that she had taken him for granted. He had felt very bad in hurting her feelings at the time, but he had to put his foot down at some point. The fight they had also enabled him to point out the bad tendencies she had developed from picking her friends unwisely and had brought her to her senses.
By this time, Naruto had also made plenty of other friends on his own that made him see how Sakura had been taking advantage of him. After their fight, he had ignored her for a couple of months(this included not answering her phone calls, refusing to speak to her except to say hello and goodbye. It had taken the intervention of some of the mutual friends they had made, and a sincere apology from Sakura herself before he would relent(Naruto could be notoriously mean and stubborn when he wanted to be).
From then on, their friendship resumed, improved and evolved to what it was today, in which they watched each other's backs, insulted each other, encouraged and protected each other and so on.
What many didn't know and Naruto would never tell-was that Naruto was the consummate nightmare-a very talented prankster. It was a talent that, unfortunately, he had inherited from both his parents. Even with all her class, beauty and dignity, Kushina had been a fun-loving, teasing, prankster. Things were made even worse when she met and married Minato, a man who was naturally fun-loving and tended to take everything in stride. Thus, Naruto had gotten a double dose of trickery ingrained into his genes. It made angering him very dangerous enterprise and made him a nightmarish adversary.
Not in malicious way, of course-he reserved that kind of ire for bullies.
But Naruto had made Sakura's life hell, after their fight. It was for this reason-she had gotten tired of screaming and squealing from finding frogs and harmless garden snakes in her room and bed, solutions that turned her hair & skin into weird colors and her friends crying and fighting with her that she had tried to chat up their boyfriends. Sakura figured that she was out of her league-she knew what Naruto was capable of, she knew he was the perpetrator of these pranks. But she couldn't prove it. She had swallowed her pride, called a couple of mutual friends to mediate between her and Naruto, and they made up.
The late Minato Namikaze had encouraged his son's high spirits and taught his only offspring everything he knew on how to cause and evade trouble. Including how to fight dirty.
But he also taught him how important it was to be kind and protective of people that couldn't protect themselves.
"Naru..." Minato had addressed his son while having some father-son time with Naruto while he was still alive. "You better learn how to do this, you never know when this knowledge will come in handy!" And he proceeded to teach Naruto how to evade bees while stealing their honey(you have to be faster than they are!), how to get a dog to chase you and make them lose your scent while messing up their sense of smell, (run through water, and make sure you have some bleach with you!) how to make animals to fall in love with you(offer them the food they like!). He also taught his son how to set traps that caught his quarry and left them tied to tree while naked(knock them out gently!), and how to scramble up seemingly unclimbable trees(make your own handholds!).
Tricks that had saved Naruto many times while bearing the brunt of bullying in the orphanage.
While at the orphanage, the many bullies around had made it their lot in life to terrorize the younger children, which they didn't need. Children had the capacity to be very cruel.
It was bad enough the younger children were already traumatized by the various issues that brought them to the institution. Of course, their caretakers did their best; some even genuinely loved the children, but with so many to take care of, they where always overwhelmed, and underpaid. It had been so bad, that some of the workers used their own money to help the children. It was inevitable that some fell through the cracks, especially if said child needed a little more care than others. Things had now improved tremendously, thank goodness, through the efforts of an anonymous donor, who had taken the city of Konoha to task by exposing the travesties going on in the various orphanages in Konoha and an influx of a tremendous amount of money to improve the quality of care of the children in those places that needed it so desperately.
Naruto had needed a lot of care, love & attention. After having such loving, attentive parents, it was bewildering to abruptly lose it all, especially so suddenly. For a good 6 months after his parents died, Naruto couldn't talk without crying hysterically.
But his parents had also instilled him an innate sense of justice that wouldn't allow him to indulge in being sorry for himself too long; the cruelties the bullies visited on the other kids got him out of his self-imposed helplessness and misery at losing his whole world.
When he decided to start standing up for himself and especially the other children, it turned the bullies attention towards himself. Which was what he wanted. He could handle them; many of the other children could not.
After having angry bees pursue you because your clothes were doused with honey half an hour after fighting Uzumaki, or having hungry dogs chase after you with pork chops hanging off your clothes(at least the smell of them) a day after stealing Uzumaki's lunch, falling into the midst of angry, scratching feral felines after smelling catnip on you(they thought maybe you refused to give it up to them, the damned little druggies!) after stealing Uzumaki's lunch money, or being bitten by a swarm of disturbed soldier ants in your bed after tripping Uzumaki the afternoon before, the slow learning bullies finally learned: Bad things happened to you after bothering Uzumaki.
narunarunarunarunarunaru
Naruto finally saved the document he had been working on when Sakura had burst into his office. The chapter he had been struggling with was now finished. The whole book was done, except for cleaning up the current plot line here and there, and maybe adding an epilogue in order to bring closure for the characters in the story. He typed in the last line of the story, saved the document to his computer hard drive and USB drive, shut down his computer, sighed, stood up and stretched stiff muscles.
He wasn't sure why looking at Sakura had brought on his past reminiscing, but he supposed seeing her had made him come to the realization that he was glad he had people around that cared about his well-being. He knew, of course, Tsunade-baa-chan and Jiraya loved him, but both individuals were also extremely busy with running their company, and barely took time for themselves, either. There was no way they'd notice he was running on fumes unless he literally fell on his face in front of them, and weakness could not be shown while in the midst of obnoxious, stuffy board members and stockholders.
Standing up from his beloved leather chair, Naruto made his way to the little but well stocked kitchen in his office. He knew Sakura loved herbal tea, so he didn't bother asking her what she wanted to drink. He made her tea and grabbed a bottle of apple juice for himself and made his way to the love seat placed opposite the leather sofa Sakura was reclining on. Placing the mug of tea on the glass center table between them, Naruto smiled slyly at the picture the pinked haired young woman made. He knew Sakura always came to his office not just to hurl verbal abuse at him(which he mostly paid no mind to, anyway)but to also take the opportunity to lay on his sofa.
"So," Naruto began, sipping his apple juice, "What do you suggest we do on our days off?"
Sakura turned to lay on her side, facing her blond haired friend. Her eyes widened at his easy acquiescence. It usually took a lot of arguing, yelling and a threat of physical violence to get Naruto to do what he didn't want to do. When she saw the mug of tea on the table before her, the steam slowly and lazily curling up into the cool air of the office, she was further surprised and very pleased. She gave Naruto a sweet smile in appreciation She sat up and leaned over to pick up the mug slowly and carefully, so as not to spill any of the hot liquid on herself or the expensive furniture.
Sipping the hot tea carefully, Sakura answered. "Well, I came across this two week cruise to the Caribbean. It's an all inclusive cruise, you know, food, entertainment and such included. There'll be stops at different ports and we'd have time to go ashore, visit the various tourist traps, go shopping etc. I thought it'll be a great way to get some relaxation in, instead of having to deal with airports, security issues and lost luggage. I hate that stuff."
Naruto laughed. "I know, I hate airports, too. All that waiting around in seats that make your butt numb, and worse the leg cramps you develop."
Sakura harrumphed. "At least you don't get felt up by overly familiar security guards! And what seats make you numb? You're always in first class, and before getting on the plane, you're always in the VIP lounge!"
Sakura seldom had to travel with Naruto, since she wasn't his direct subordinate. But she did have to travel for work sometimes, and the company always sprang for business class for their employees, so they could travel comfortably.
Tsunade hated the expense of maintaining a private jet, although she saw the necessity. She almost never gave approval for its use, unless it was needed for a dire emergency. She may be super wealthy, but she felt she had better things to do with her money. While she also hated having to fly commercial and deal with all the drama that came with it, she bore it, reasoning it was infinitely cheaper than owning a private jet that was in use all the time.
Sakura was unfortunate to have had a harrowing experience with an overly amorous security guard while traveling by air once, and on top of that, she lost her luggage. Everything had eventually worked out, though-but not before Sakura had slapped the guard and punched him for good measure. Luckily for her, everything had been caught on tape, and her luggage was eventually found, intact. It had been mis-routed, but the airline had been able to locate it due to a competent & honest employee. Sakura had personally sent the employee a personal thank you card and signed copies of two of Naruto's books that were hard to get, since they were out of print-anonymously, of course, when she found out the employee was a big fan of Naruto's books.
But Tsunade had not been pleased when she had heard about incident-it could have easily escalated into the guard pressing assault charges against Sakura and suing the company since she had been on company business at the time. Tsuanade had warned Sakura to control her temper next time and conduct herself accordingly.
Sakura counted herself very lucky to have only been verbally chewed out and not written up for the whole thing. Tsunade's bad temper was legendary. It always paid to have good friends in high places. This was what made Sakura hate air travel passionately.
Naruto had almost bust a gut laughing at Sakura's troubles, since he had always warned her about her tendency to get violent when angry. Sakura couldn't even bop him in the head, since it was the same reaction that had gotten her into trouble.
Naruto snorted. "Yeah, the VIP lounge may be comfortable, but it's always filled with snooty high society assholes that always try to provoke a negative reaction out of you so they could keep you "in your place", especially if they feel you're beneath them. IT IS kinda hard not to react to their bull shit, since they whisper loudly about you to your hearing and wait for you to blow your top. Luckily for them, I come from the school of hard knocks. It'll take a lot more that to move me. They also act as if they're too good for you to talk to. I hate that shit, you know I do."
Sakura nodded in agreement. She was usually the person that accompanied Naruto to a lot of the high class society parties that always inevitably sprang up, since Naruto was not involved with anyone, for now. She had also accompanied him to a couple of the publishing to-dos, and it was cut-throat. Sakura shuddered. Walking sharks, the lot of them.
Naruto leaned back into the love seat. "A cruise doesn't sound bad at all. I've never had the opportunity to go on one, though I've heard a lot about how cool they are."
He sipped his apple juice. "I've always been too busy."
Sakura stared at him in amazement, pink eyebrows raised. " I'm surprised to hear that, Naruto. I've always thought that there isn't anything you haven't tried."
Naruto snorted. "When? You know since Baa-chan and Ero-sennin found me, they've been grooming me. I didn't mind, though. I've always loved challenges."
Sakura nodded in agreement. Naruto was a consummate adrenalin junkie-intellectually & physically. He hated being told he couldn't do something. Telling him that only made him all the more determined to do whatever it was that people said he couldn't do and prove them wrong. Since he was naturally hyper and restless, he needed a constant input of stimuli to keep him busy.
As he grew older and more mature, the needed lessened, of course. But he still enjoyed learning new stuff and being bombarded with new experiences.
Having finished his bottle of apple juice in one gulp, Naruto placed the empty container on the table and leaned back into the sofa, placing his long legs on the glass table.
"Okay, so when do you want us to go? I know we're almost done with the signing up of new writers and the negotiations of new contracts with our old writers. Even Baa-chan was moaning and bitching about needing some downtime, and she was getting too old to handle this crap. So she won't mind if a bunch of us disappeared for awhile. Even Shizune-nee-san was shocked, and Ero-sennin was as happy as a perv in a porno shop when he heard that." Naruto smiled, remembering how his great-aunt had finally broken down and admitted that she was thinking of taking a break.
Sakura scowled at Naruto's admittance and at his irreverent referral to his great-uncle. "So you've been thinking about taking a break then? So why did I need to come yell at you about your days off and getting some rest then? And don't talk about Jiraiya-sama in such a disrespectful manner."
Naruto laughed, winked at his friend and quickly tried to placate her. "Take it easy, Sakura-chan. I figured Baa-chan will probably just head out and leave everything to me, like she usually does. But your coming to yell at me about it just speeds up my leave taking, is all. This means I can disappear before she leaves me holding the bag. It's great, actually. Those lazy assholes she has as upper management will finally earn some of the over inflated salaries they're being paid. And don't worry about Ero-sennin, he knows I dig him. And he is a perv, after all. What's wrong calling a perv, a perv?"
Sakura tried to fight the laugh that was threatening to burst from her lips. She couldn't hold it anymore, through, and the laughter did burst out.
It was true, though. Jiraiya Sannin was famous for being a pervert, though not in a way that was threatening or distasteful in anyway. He did not harass his female employees in any manner, being professional in his dealings with them. Instead, it was the female employees that chased him relentlessly. He had eyes only for Tsunade, whom he had known for over 40 years. They had studied under the same business mentor when they had been in University and Business School, and the ties between them had become even tighter, since members of their families intermarried. For some strange reason, Tsunade never gave in to Jiraiya's pursuit of her.
Sakura wiped the tears of mirth from her eyes. "Okay, I see what you mean." She tapped thoughtfully on her chin. "Well, since you're not adverse to a cruise, do you want me to go ahead and book it? It'll be expensive, you know?"
Naruto lifted a blond brow. "So? Since when has that ever been an issue? Sakura-chan, remember I know you too well. You're obsessively organized. You would've made sure you had the funds to pay for it well ahead of time. You wouldn't have even told me about it if you weren't able to take care of the expense yourself." Naruto smirked. "You know what? It's been too long since the gang's been out together. We're all always so busy with this and that. Baa-chan is such a slave driver...Ask if the others have vacation time as well. We'll go as a group." Naruto got up from where he was sitting, walked around the table and leaned over Sakura, his face almost touching hers. Her eyes widened at his invasion of her personal space. "And Sakura, I'll pay for the whole trip myself. Don't put it on the company's tab and don't you dare try to protest or try to use your own money in anyway. That goes for the rest of the gang as well. Use your funds as spending money." Naruto kissed her cheek quickly, pulled out a platinum credit card and placed it on the glass table. And before the stunned young women could protest in anyway, he darted to the door of his office, and looked back at her, smiling. "Consider it an apology for all the crap you've had to deal with because of my idiocy. And like I said, don't even think of trying to use your own money. I'll find out." Naruto quickly left his office.
Sakura was so surprised, she could barely utter a word in protest. She lifted her hand and touched her cheek where Naruto had kissed her. Tears came to her green eyes, and she struggled to keep them from falling.
More than once, she had regretted the way she had treated Naruto when they were younger. Of course, it was now too late to go back, so she tried to make amends for her past immature behavior by making it her business to keep an eye out for his well-being.
Naruto had grown and matured into an extremely hot, beautiful man. He was charismatic, overly generous, kind and loyal to those he considered his friends and family, sometimes too much, as those that were his friends and those that worked for and with him could attest to. But it made them love him all the more.
Of course, he was human, so he had his flaws as well, as did everyone. He could be stubborn and mean as hell. But usually, the person deserved it, and only if the person had gotten on his last nerve. But he was perfect lover and husband material since he also adored children. Sakura had missed her chance making him hers, due to her stupidity. She only hoped the person he ended up with cherished and loved him the way he so much deserved.
Sakura sighed and got up, She had better go and find the rest of their mutual friends- "the gang" as Naruto referred to them, and start making arrangements for their trip.
Sasuke arrived at Club Akatsuki about half an hour after leaving his mother's party. Pulling off the road to park opposite the club, he eyed the building neutrally.
The club itself was located in a plain, big, converted warehouse. The name, "Club Akatsuki" was written in big, black cursive script placed between a beautifully depicted carving of a red moon and red dawn, respectively . The building itself was lodged in the warehouse district, far enough away from residences and the commercial district that any noise violations wouldn't be a problem, but near enough to the city center that one did not need to pass through crime ridden, depressed areas to get to it.
The whole area was surprisingly clean & well preserved, considering where it was located. Sasuke supposed overly monied patrons being assaulted in the vicinity after they left the club would be bad for business. He eyed the huge, hulking guards discreetly placed at various intervals around the building. They were actually very hard to see, unless you knew what you were looking for. It seemed the set-up was such that, they weren't supposed to be seen, unless it was too late for the unfortunate criminal.
He had heard murmurings and quiet rumors about turning the whole area into a tourist area, so he wasn't surprised. Tourist money brought in big money and jobs, especially foreign tourist money. And every city could always use more jobs. Unemployment equals poverty, he thought, which in turn leads to higher crime rates.
Turning his thoughts away from business at the moment, Sasuke noticed there was valet parking. That brought a sigh of relief from him. He hated hunting for parking spots, especially at night. While he could definitely hold his own in a fight, it was extremely hard to dodge a bullet, and avoiding being knifed by a drug addled crack head was not something he made a habit of doing on a regular basis. Not only was it hard on clothes, having to deal with questioning police and signing stupid paperwork was not on his to-do list at the moment.
Sasuke made a quick u-turn in the middle of the street and pulled up in front of the club.
Almost immediately, a valet quietly appeared at his window, bowing his head respectfully. Sasuke slid out of the driver's seat quickly and gracefully, handing the valet his keys. The young man handed him a gold colored disk, which he pocketed. The valet pulled off efficiently, leaving Sasuke to find his way into the club.
There were two entrances into the club. One entrance had a beautiful red carpet that ran from the special entrance until it reached the edge of sidewalk where Sasuke had paused a for a moment, The VIP entrance. It was also roped off. He stood for a moment, looking around.
He had decided to visit Club Akatsuki at the spur of the moment, while at his mother's ball, He was admittedly bored. He came here to see if he could get some stimulation, even though he knew from the rumors swirling around at the company that entrance into the exclusive VIP area was invitation only.
For regular people, you had to pay a cover charge of at least $250. The amount guaranteed and covered unlimited free drinks and delicious food, as well as top of the notch entertainment. Because of this, the club was extremely popular. But it was exclusive and expensive enough that the typical riff-raff couldn't afford to be seen there. But most people that visited were willing to pay the exorbitant fee. Some even had to save a while just for that one night visit.
It seemed the rumors were true enough as he could see the other entrance had a line that reached almost around the block. At least the unseen guards would make sure any criminal element would stay away.
The owner was definitely guaranteed to make back all the money he put into the club and his profit margin was definitely not hurting.
Sasuke strolled towards the VIP entrance. Before he could get halfway there, however, a beautifully dressed, eyeglasses wearing red headed woman approached him. He stopped, eyeing her warily. As the lady walked towards him, something flashed in her eyes, but it was gone so quickly, he couldn't tell what it was.
She stopped before him, bowing slightly. "Sasuke-sama?"
"Who wants to know?" Sasuke eyed her suspiciously.
She smiled, showing small, even white teeth. "My name is Karin, and I was asked to escort you into the club."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow. While he was aware of the power he wielded as an Uchiha, he was very paranoid about unknown favors. He never accepted them, not knowing what kind of payment he had to give in return.
"Who asked you to do this? This is my first time at this establishment, I am unaware of who the owner of this club is. I don't need an escort or unknown favors in order to find my way into a club. I can walk there on my own, thanks very much." Sasuke promptly ignored Karin, and made his way towards the VIP entrance.
Karin sighed lustfully. She had heard from her boss that his brother had attitude problems. His behavior was evidence of it, But damn, he was fine. He was so fine.
Karin had no problems with men that had attitude. She came from a family that had a whole slew of them. She also worked with the type on a regular basis. But Sasuke Uchiha was on a different level, entirely. She sighed again.
Karin quickly caught up to Sasuke. "Anou, Sasuke-sama, I'm afraid you won't be let in without an escort or a pass. I'm here to provide you with the escort for now. Your pass will be provided once you enter."
Sasuke stopped and glanced at the young woman again. "By whom?" he asked stubbornly.
Karin grinned. "By Itachi-sama."
Sasuke started in surprise. "You know my brother?"
"Yes, I do. I work for him."
"In what capacity?" She had been warned of the beautiful man's stubbornness, so she didn't take it personally.
"As his secretary. He described you to me, and said to make sure you were escorted directly to the VIP lounge as soon as you showed up."
"Hn."
Karin took that as assent, and quickly led the way to the VIP entrance.
As they entered the club, even Sasuke had to be impressed. He stood a moment in order to analyze his surroundings.
The club was even bigger on the inside than the outside, than he thought. It had three levels, from what he could make out. Decorated with a dark marble that almost appeared black, the walls looked like they could be smooth to the touch. He couldn't tell because the club itself was slightly dark, except for the seating areas on the first and second level that had lamps placed in the middle of the individual tables. Their color could be dark blue or black, he couldn't tell. They seemed to be colored to match the motif of the walls.
The first level dance floor, where he and Karin were currently walking through, while teeming with people, still had enough space that it was not choked up, hot or smelling of sweat and sweltering bodies. The various sitting areas were set along the walls, out of the way of the gyrating dancers. Instead, the dance floor itself was on a slightly raised dais, lit and decorated with different colored led lights that illuminated the dance floor from beneath. The rainbow coloring made the club have a playful atmosphere, and switched colors at the feet of the frolicking dancers every 5 seconds or so. The overall inside temperature of club itself feel cool, which was a relief, since outside was so humid. Sasuke supposed it was done that way to cool down the dancers, who were moving and gyrating with gleeful energy.
A hidden smoke machine pumped sweet smelling smoke into the air, making the room appear to be in a light fog. The fog wasn't too thick, but it made the club environment slightly mysterious. There were no disco balls anywhere(Sasuke was very glad, he had always thought they were tacky, anyway). The music playing was the latest pop tune, that seemed to come from numerous, hidden speakers set in different angles from the club, making it seem the music was coming from thin air.
His escort, Karin, continued further into club, not stopping at the first level as he thought she would. Instead, she led him down a short hall located slightly to the side of the dance floor dais. The hall itself was roped off, and manned by two tall, hefty guards. It seemed the area was off limits to the general population. The hall led to a discreetly located elevator set into the wall of the club itself. She placed her hand on a side panel set into the wall, and doors the same color as the wall, slid open silently.
Sasuke followed her into the elevator, a little tense, but Karin did not start any conversation nor ask any questions, as the elevator slid silently upwards. Sasuke was relieved. There was nothing he hated more than inane talk. He experienced too much of it personally from the business meetings and formal parties he attended.
Finally, the elevator slid to a quiet stop, and Karin stepped out, moving to side, bowed her head slightly and lifted her hand, indicating Sasuke to proceed ahead of her.
As Sasuke walked into room, he stopped and lifted an eyebrow at the scene before him.
It seemed they were on the third level of the club, and the VIP lounge *was * the whole third level. The lounge was decorated like an expensive restaurant, tables set here and there, and there was even a sectioned off area for those that wanted even more discretion and privacy. It made Sasuke think of people that brought their secret lovers here for a good time, but didn't want the world to know about their secret assignations. But the whole area was decorated in a simple but extremely expensive manner. It smacked of good taste. Sasuke recognized the decorative pattern. It seemed the owner used the same decorator his parents used.
To his left, was a huge, window scene of the backdrop of Konoha at night. The building itself was located near the mighty river of Konoha(think the nightscene of New York City). It was impressive, even he could attest to that
Karin whispered in his ear. "Sasuke-sama, please proceed to the sectioned off area, I will join you momentarily. Please forgive my rudeness for leaving so abruptly."
Sasuke nodded, shrugged and walked over to the area Karin had described to him.
The whole third level had been used as the VIP lounge, and it was huge, so it took him some minutes to get to the aforementioned area.
As soon as he made his way around the exquisitely carved lattice, he was taken aback. Being an Uchiha though, he didn't show any emotion at the scene before him.
Seated at a table overlooking the whole club, surrounded by people he supposed were his minions, was his older brother, Itachi.
Turning back from the brief conversation he had been exchanging with one of his workers, who promptly disappeared quietly at the approach of the younger Uchiha, Itachi smiled and waved his brother over. "Ah, there you are, Sasuke! What took you so long? Join me."
Sasuke took the seat opposite his sibling, raising an eyebrow. "What are you doing here, Nii-san? I thought you were at Mother's ball."
Itachi smirked. "I did the same thing you did, Otouto. I put in my prerequisite time, made sure the parental units saw me and left as soon as it was polite."
"Hn."
Itachi raised an eyebrow. "Eloquent as usual, aren't you?"
Sasuke ignored the comment.
Itachi sighed, sounding put upon. "You are such a social deviant, Ototou."
A vein bulged in Sasuke's temple. "You are so not the person I need to be hearing that from, Nii-san. At least I don't spend my time manipulating the people around me."
Itachi smiled slyly. "But it's such an amusing past time, ototou-I gain much pleasure from seeing the various reactions."
Sasuke scoffed. "And you call me the social deviant?"
Itachi laughed. He always enjoyed sparring verbally and physically with his younger sibling. Sasuke was one of the few people willing to take him on, his mother being one of the few others. Then again, both he and Sasuke inherited that aspect from her.
Itachi leaned forward, his elbows on the table in front of him, placing his well-shaped jaw on his clasped hands, staring at his brother.
He and Sasuke looked almost exactly alike-except that he, Itachi, had two lines that extended from the inner part of his eyes downward to the sides of his nose. He shared the same dark eyed, pale skinned look. For some reason, all the Uchiha shared a similar look. They were all dark eyed and pale skinned.
He had always thought Sasuke was more good-looking, but the lines on his face didn't detract from his looks(unknown to him) and attracted just as much attention as his younger sibling's did. He had his own share of googly eyed fans.
While Itachi contemplated his younger brother, Sasuke stood up and took off his tuxedo jacket, and draped it over the chair next to him, ignoring his older brother as he made himself more comfortable. As he sat back down, he eyed the expression on his older sibling's face suspiciously. "What is it, Nii-san?"
Itachi sighed. Sasuke stared at him, hiding his surprise. That gust of air was something he rarely heard coming from his brother.
"Nothing in particular, Sasuke. Nothing at all. Anyway,what do you think of this place?" Itachi raised his hand, and immediately, a well dressed waiter materialized with two menus. He placed the menu on the table, giving one to Sasuke.
Sasuke looked around. "Impressive, Nii-san. Well decorated. I like the simplicity."
Itachi nodded, pleased with the compliment. "Yes, that was the idea..."
Sasuke rolled his eyes at his brother's comment. "Please don't tell me you own this place..."
Itachi smirked. "Very well, I won't tell you I own it.."
Sasuke stared at his brother and shook his head. "Why am I not surprised?"
sasunarusasunarusasunaru
An hour and a half later, Sasuke stood on the second level of the club, leaning on the railing and staring down at the first level where the dance floor was located. He would never admit it, even on the pain of death, but he was enjoying the ambiance and atmosphere of the club. It had been awhile since he'd had the chance to let loose and just enjoy doing something other than work.
The dinner with Itachi had been great. He very rarely just hung out with his brother-they had different interests, after all, and ever since he had been old enough to start working at the family business, their paths very rarely crossed, especially since he had left the family mansion to live on his own.
Itachi still lived with their parents, though he had an entire wing of the residence to himself for privacy and when he eventually decided to have a family. He didn't even need to see their parents if he didn't want to. But Itachi didn't mind-why waste money when he could live there for free? The place would become his and Sasuke's anyhow-and it made their parents happy.
Sasuke had changed his clothes into something less formal and comfortable than he had been wearing. He was now clad in a tight, close fitting dark blue long sleeved shirt and black close fitting slacks. He kept the black formal shoes he had been wearing. Around his throat was a black choker with the Uchiha family crest-a red and white fan that sat directly on his throat. He had completed the ensemble with an earring that had a dark blue stone.
Itachi had a suite ensconced somewhere in the club, furnished for when he had to stay overnight and tend to business as need. The suite even had closets filled with men's and women's clothes and shoes, with different sizes, for clientele that needed emergency clothes changes(in the event of wine spills, drunk customers and so on). Sasuke shook his head. It was no wonder Uchiha Inc was even more successful than when their great uncle, Madara, had held the ropes of the company. Itachi was always three steps ahead of the competition, and he knew how to manipulate situations and people the way he wanted to get what he wanted. Like Sasuke said, he was a worse social deviant than he was. But he had great taste, just like their mother.
Sasuke shook his briefly to get away from thoughts about his brother. He peered down at the milling, dancing crowd, appreciating absently some of the well dressed, beautiful people that danced.
As he stared at the crowd, something or rather someone caught his attention. Hmm...
A rather bright headed person was crossing the crowded dance floor. It seemed he was coming from the bar, as he had some drinks in his hands. How he was able to move that gracefully without spilling anyhow, Sasuke had no idea. But the club had waitstaff so the journey was totally not needed. A gaggle of young men and women trailed in his wake, even with how crowded the dance floor was.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow. He was intrigued. He recalled Itachi's comments.
"Sasuke, you know, it would do you good to go downstairs and mingle some." Itachi brought his chopsticks slowly to his mouth. He used his teeth to quickly grab the shrimp he had gotten from his plate and chewed. He swallowed delicately. "You never know, you might even meet someone fairly intriguing."
Sasuke stared at his brother. "Not interested." He brought some sashimi to his mouth and ate it with delicacy.
Itachi smirked. "Little brother, you were always too picky. It's not only sluts and whores that come to clubs to have a great time. Regular people come, too."
Sasuke scoffed. "I know they do. You just have to be careful who you come with. Can't go depositing your seed anywhere."
Itachi chuckled. "I actually got that. Never knew you could use innuendo like that. You're finally actually getting a sense of humor."
This time, it was Sasuke who smirked. "I always had one. You never were around long enough to appreciate it."
Itachi laughed and sighed. "I know. Our father always was a slave driver. I can't wait for him to retire."
Sasuke stared at him. "Don't think you can play hooky when he does finally decide to retire. I won't let you leave me holding the bag. You'd probably be just like Uncle Madara. Implement ideas and won't stay around long enough to see them come to fruition."
Itachi laughed at the outrage in his younger siblings' voice.
The banter between the brothers went back and forth, until Itachi suggested Sasuke change into something less constricting in case he wanted to dance, while Itachi went to do his host thing with the more wealthy clientele. Sasuke saw no reason to disagree. One could not dance the lasted dances in a tuxedo without looking like a fool.
Hours later saw him at the second level of the club staring at one the most interesting looking characters he had ever seen.