Alright so I reread my last chapter wondering if I could change anything but I really liked it other than it was long and the boys didn't meet each other, but I think there was some good information in there. Just to reiterate, I am referring to Naruto as Naruto when I'm inside his head, but when I am using another's voice i.e Itachi I will say 'she' or 'her' or the 'girl' I hope that clears it up a bit in case it wasn't crystal in the last chapter. Also I know I said that Shika was there when everyone was coming down stairs, but I didn't write the part where he showed up, so just think of it as some time passed and he came in and was just chill as per usual. And I know this update is a little late but I was hoping I'd get some more reviews and suggestions but seeing as I haven't I'm just going to trudge onwards! That being said, prepare for some sparks!
Sasuke looked at his wrist watch, just a few more minutes and the group would be moving into the dining room for dinner. He currently sat at the top of the stairs right in front of his door, from here he could hear everything that was going on below. Another advantage to the late entrance was that he got to skip the boring introductions and mundane routine questions about how the guests were enjoying their stay.
"blah blah blah... god why wont they just go to the table already?"
Shino gave a barely audible snort that drew the Uchiha's attention. "You could just go down already."
"Not my style." Sasuke smirked and ran his fingers through his hair. "But you already know that."
"True." Shino pulled out a small gold coin with his family's crest imprinted on it, and began threading it in and out of his fingers, so fast that it made the image look like it was moving.
"You can go down you know."
"And miss walking behind you with the opportunity to soak up some of the admiring looks you'll receive? Not in a million years." the teen tossed his play thing in the air and caught it between his index and middle finger without looking.
Sasuke lowered his head and smiled to himself. Shino was one of the few that saw through his bullshit and called him on it. "Lucky you."
There was a commotion down stairs that brought the Uchiha back to his present purpose. It sounded like Itachi was ushering everyone into supper at last. Now was the time Sasuke hopped to his feet and counted to ten, his entrance was key. If he messed this moment up the rest of his relationship with the girl, however long that might last, would be tarnished. When he felt his heart beat calm and was able to pull on his usual stoic mask he started down the steps at a leisurely pace. Timing was essential, he had to make the landing as they were passing by and given the size of the living room and the fact that the girl was probably wearing heels that gave him about twenty two seconds. He started at the bottom button when he hit the first floor corridor, by the time he was at the top of the grand stair case half of the clasps were closed. 'Perfect.'
Shino followed behind making sure that he stayed far enough away that he could safely observe the Uchiha's actions. It seemed like the brunette was deep in thought, every step carefully calculated and timed. Not that he hadn't done this plenty of times before, but there was something different about this one. She was an international super star and would probably be the biggest notch in Sasuke's belt if, more like when, he got to be with her. Of course there was always the chance that the girl would blow him off, or go for one of the other guys. Though that was highly unlikely, Sasuke had a very high success rate which Shino estimated to be at about 99.8%.
Sasuke had three buttons and seven steps to go,and from the corner of his eye he could see his brother just entering the dining room followed by a tall red headed man and Kiba. But more imprtantly he saw that Nao was just taking the step that would put her directly in front of the stairs' landing. Sasuke smirked, another plan perfectly executed. His fingers began to shake as he reached for the second to last button he'd take his time with this one, so that when he was standing in front of the girl she'd be treated to a small glimpse of his creamy pale skin.
His footsteps grabbed the Naruto's attention and his head turned, as if in slow motion, his eyes caught sight of the teen's shoes and slowly travelled upwards. Past the precisely ironed dark jeans to the messily tucked in white dress shirt, pausing momentarily on the long slender fingers that slowly fastened the top button, Naruto licked his lips as he saw a delicious sliver of alabaster skin disappear as the button found its place. His gaze roamed higher, up a long neck that looked as if it had been carefully sculpted from the purest pearly marble, over the chiseled but delicate looking jaw and chin, the thin dusty pink lips and not too pointy nose. He took it all in. Naruto's breath hitched when he made eye contact with deep pools' of onyx, this man's eyes were like nothing he had ever seen before, they swallowed Naruto whole and spit him out gasping for breath, and that's exactly what he did. Naruto gasped.
Sasuke swallowed hard, this girl was different than what he had expected, she had to be the most beautiful woman he had seen in his entire life. He had assumed the super star would be a dull pincushion like all the others he had met, but there was a dull light that seemed to surround her and it warmed his whole self. He was breathless and defenseless as her huge cerulean orbs plunged into his soul and scoured his being. His heart clenched and in that moment he knew this girl was going to be the best lay he'd ever had. His smirk etched deeper into his features and his eyes took on a sinister tint.
Naruto saw it, the transformation from impassive to predatory that washed over the younger Uchiha's face. He wanted to gasp but managed to hold it in and force his own facade to melt into an impassive glance. Luckily the whole exchange had taken less than ten seconds and he was able to pass it off as a casual glance. He continued to walk, at the same pace as if the brunette hadn't even phased him. When he thought about it the blond made sense of the whole thing, after all Gaara had spilled the beans on 'Sasuke's' entrance tactic. It was supposed to awe him and while it may have worked for a moment, Naruto would be dammed if he got played by a snotty pretty boy.
Shino watched the Princess' expression change from pleasant to surprised to admiring to indifferent and it dawned on him that perhaps Sasuke would have a little more trouble with this one. He noticed the tension spread through Sasuke's back and shoulders, he had seen it. Not a surprise the Uchiha was almost as observant as himself, almost. Shino smirked and took another step successfully snapping his friend out of his daze.
"Seems she might be a challenge, no?" he gave the other teen a gentle nudge to the shoulder and continued his way down the stairs and into the dining room.
"Doesn't matter, I get what I want." Sasuke rolled his head to release the tightness in his shoulders, "She's no different."
(**)
The table was big enough to seat each of the guest, including Jiraiya, comfortably. Itachi motioned for Naruto to take a seat in the middle on the right side and then directed Kyuubi to the chair opposite her, Jiraiya didn't wait for an invitation he slid into the spot next to Naruto. Itachi smiled and took his own seat at the head of the table, the place his father usually occupied, but since he was out of town the position of power fell to him. Naruto watched as Sasuke waltzed into the room and took the chair at the other end of the table across from his older sat to his right, next to Naruto, and the boy who had yet to introduce himself sat on his right. Kyuubi nodded to the stranger and bristled when Kiba sat on his left, Shikimaru took up the last seat on the other side of the table on Itachi's right. The Hyuuga boy sat next to Jiraiya clearly upset about something.
Itachi informed them that they would be enjoying a five course meal and then the table fell into a companionable silence, during which the eldest Uchiha observed his honored guests. Nao was doing her best to look at everyone but her manager, and when her eyes would flick to the man her head whipped to the side so quickly it looked like her neck might break. Itachi leaned his elbows on the table and rested his chin on his laced fingers, 'interesting' He also caught the security guard throwing angry glares at the red head whenever the man was occupied. There was definitely something going on within their small group and the brunette wanted nothing more than to rip the veil apart and reveal the trio's secrets. His eyes wondered to his little brother, Sasuke looked as emotionless as ever, too the untrained eye that is, but Itachi saw the flexing of his sibling's jaw and the dim angry light that flashed in his eyes whenever they flicked to the blond. 'very interesting'
"Dinner is served masters." the butler held open the door that lead to the kitchen and out poured ten man servants carrying silver trays, a salad adorning each.
The first course passed by with little talk but half way through the second Kiba opened his mouth and started spewing every random question that popped into his head. Naruto answered calmly with a polite smile and a gentle laugh that made the boy blush.
"What do you want to do after you're done with acting?" Kiba winced as he took a big spoonful of soup, forgetting it was hot, and singed his tongue. Itachi shifted his gaze to the blond and watched her reaction.
"Oh I don't know, there are so many choices."
"Indeed Nao is far too focused to be thinking that far into the future." Kyuubi didn't even look up from his bowl as he was sure he had ended the conversation.
"Well think about it now." Itachi cocked his head to the side innocently and gave the girl a small smirk.
Naruto hesitated, he knew kYuubi would not be happy with this topic and later he might suffer for it. Then again Jiraiya was always with him, so why not? It was worth a shot. "Well I think I'd like to do something normal."
"Normal?"
"Yes, as an actress I have to travel everywhere and maintain weird schedules and I can never do anything fun." he stopped and held up his hands, "Not that this isn't fun!"
Itachi chuckled, "Of course, I understand." he continued eating, never taking his eyes off his guest.
"Well like become a teacher, or own a ramen shop or something." Naruto shrugged suddenly feeling self conscious, it wasn't often that he got to speak so freely without being shut down. He risked a glance across the table, to find Kyuubi silently bristling.
"Well I'm sure you've made lots of money and you can do whatever you want someday!" Kiba gave his idol a peace sign and slurped the rest of his chow.
"You'd think..." Naruto went wide eyed, 'did I just say that out loud?'
"What do you mean?" Kiba stopped mid slurp to give a question look.
"No I..."
Kyuubi put his spoon down a little too forcefully, "That is not a proper topic to discuss with strangers. Moving on."
Naruto sunk lower into his seat, yep he was in trouble. No one was supposed to know that his manager took fifty percent of his profits and that the rest went to maintaining his image. Those serums and hormone shots weren't cheap after all. In the end Naruto never saw a pay check. Not even Jiraiya knew, sure he picked up on the fact that Naruto wasn't throwing money around, but he didn't know that it was because his client had none to throw. But that was okay as long as his secret was kept and his father was taken care of. 'Dad'
The table went silent, Kyuubi tensed Kiba and Jiraiya leaned in Gaara and Sasuke looked up and Itachi smirked, "Did you say something Nao?"
"Did I?" he feigned a blush and waved off the curious looks he was getting. "I'm sorry, I'm just a little tired, I was up all night updating my blog. Do you read it Kiba?"
"Of course! You're so funny it's really..."
Naruto zoned out, he really was tired, not because he had been up late last night but because this whole outing; being surrounded by all these sexy men and having to control his 'still there' male instincts to get a chubby. It felt like his heart was beating so hard everyone at the table could hear it, but as long as Kiba was talking he was safe. He ignored Jiraiya nudging him in favor of looking down the table at the younger Uchiha. He was just sitting there, not eating, with his elbow propped up on one of the arm rests and his chin resting on his fist. His depthless eyes staring dead ahead, as if he was glaring at his brother, but when Naruto turned he saw that the teen was looking out the window at the beautiful spring day. Naruto really wanted to go outside.
"Nao?"
"What?" he snapped out of his daze and looked over at Kiba. "I'm sorry, what?" he threw in a little bat of the eyelashes and all was forgiven.
"Perhaps our guest is tired of answering her fan's questions?" Itachi signaled for the next course to be brought in.
"I'm sorry, but yes." Naruto avoided Kyuubi's look of disapproval. "I'd really just like to shoot the breeze with you guys." he shrugged and smiled brightly, it wasn't a lie after all. He wanted to act normal and be seen as a normal guy, er girl.
"Oh cool!" Kiba sat back, he had been on the edge of his seat since the meal started, in an attempt to look more relaxed. It only made Nao giggle though and he rubbed the back of his head shyly.
"Tell me about your school."
"Sasuke should do that, he is the student counsel president after all." Itachi was pushing his luck and he knew it, but at the same time he knew that his brother wanted to get into the girl's pants and would keep his cool until the guests had left.
Sasuke grit his teeth, he hated that bastard. Itachi knew he hated talking more than necessary it made the few things he actually did say seem less important. Couldn't the jack ass see he was in the middle of mind fucking the princess? "Well I'm a lot like the king," he paused smirking at Gaara who raised an eyebrow, "in that I'm just a figure head. It's not like I have any power or anything."
"So what's your school like?" Naruto looked at the Uchiha, truly unimpressed at his attempt to be humble, he could tell that the brunette was more than seventy-five percent hot air.
Sasuke smirked, she was funny at least in the way her expressions changed. He couldn't wait to see her face twisted in a look of pure ecstasy as he pounded her, and then the shock that would be written all over those pretty eyes as he tossed her aside the next minute.
"Our school is ridiculous." Gaara supplied seeing as Sasuke was clearly lost in his own thoughts. Nao laughed and he went on, "All of the teachers are over paid and the curriculum is hainus. It's one of the top school's in the country but in my opinion that's debatable."
"That's just because you're so smart." Neji spoke up, in a purely sarcastic tone, it was part of their game after all.
"Yes well I just can't help it can I." the red head rolled his eyes in mock exasperation and cut into his steak that one of the butlers had just put before him. "Truthfully our school is a very good one, but I still think they could push us harder."
"There is a plan for next year, to test the students on a regular basis to measure their progress, not just normal tests but accumulative ones." the kid with the bowl cut, Lee spoke up for the first time, blushing as Nao turned to look at him. "Forgive me."
"None sense Lee, you're the one that actually pays attention to what goes on there." Gaara smiled at his friend and tuned back to his meat.
"Are you part of the counsel too?"
Lee looked up, all his shyness vanishing as the princess talked to him directly, "Unofficially. I just like handling information actually, though I'm not sure what kind of career will come of that."
The rest of the meal went quickly as Naruto relaxed and just chatted about a little of everything. He got to know which boy held which seat in the counsel, a little more about Itachi's business and a few embarrassing secrets about everyone at the table. Kyuubi attempted to talk about business but was halted each time when Itachi held up his hand and said 'later' It clearly bother the red head that he was being bossed around by a younger man, or another man in general, but he did his best to grin and bare it which Naruto appreciated because he was truly having fun. Maybe the next few weeks would actually provide some kind of entertainment? He crossed his fingers under the table and hoped with all his might that at least one of these boys would become his friend. Now if only that hard on he was getting would go away...
Ok so there you go they finally met. And I decided that since this chapter took so long I'm probably going to do a time skip to monday when Naruto goes to the boys school. What do you think? let me know! R&r
