Disclaimer: See first chapter.

30 Kisses --- QianYun

10.

Summary: (SasuNaru) Most people go through their lives waiting for that one special someone. But when you find them and realize they are not who you hoped they would be, what would you do? Reject or accept? (pt 1 of 2)

Warnings: AU- allusions to canon (particularly Naruto's violent feelings towards Sasuke); switches between Naruto's 2nd and 3rd POV; slow shifting of genre

Unexpectedly

You spent most of your life in the dark. You shone in your own special way and brought the brightest of joys to the people who took their time to get to know you, but a part of you always remained in the dark.

Always.

You had wished, had hoped with all your heart that maybe some day, one day, you'll find a person who will see through the darkness you've lived in and reach in and take you away.

Now you've found that person.

But you're wishing you never did.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!"

Naruto stumbled from the force of the stranger's push and looked up to glare at the offender only to find himself face to face with one of the prettiest guys he ever met. He blinked in surprise and backed away from the other man. A sneer was growing on his face and Naruto scowled in response.

"You should look in front of yourself a little more instead of daydreaming, ass." Naruto bit off the sharp remark, already turning to walk away. But he was stopped by a tight grip on his wrist and trying to jerk his hand back only caused his wrist to protest in pain.

You want to escape because you saw something in the stranger's face that you never saw before.

"I think you should be apologizing to me before you start running your mouth, you brat," the man smirked with superiority and it ticked Naruto off a little more than it probably should have.

"I have nothing to apologize for, you-" he was cut off by the stranger's gesture towards the ground and he frowned at the sight of the scattered papers. Naruto didn't like the vibe that the man gave him, but he couldn't deny that the mess was partially his fault. With a groan, he knelt down and began to pick them up. He saw the man kneel down after a pause to collect the papers as well. A bit of shuffling later, they managed to gather all the papers and Naruto handed the other man the stack that he held.

He muttered an extremely quiet and unintelligible apology before quickly walking away towards his original direction. The blonde never noticed the business card the other man slipped into his pocket.

You want to forget that ever happened. Want to forget that fleeting moment of contact you had with him when you handed him the papers.

You want to forget the warm feeling you felt under his gaze.

You want to forget that you ever wished for your special someone.

By the time he got back to his apartment, he was dead tired and completely fed up with his new job. Naruto had moved farther out of the city just to make his commute easier, but with the way things were progressing, he wasn't going to stay at his job for much longer.

He took off his jacket and dropped it on his couch and made his way to the shower. He hoped that things would look better after he felt cleaner. An hour later, he left the bathroom feeling slightly more cheerful and totally ready to take on the world.

Which meant attempting to cook something edible with what little ingredients he had.

Naruto peered into his refrigerator and frowned at the lack of food. He had forgotten to go shopping that weekend, but he didn't expect there to be no food at all. With a sigh, he closed the refrigerator and reached into a cupboard to retrieve one of his precious packs of ramen. He stood there and pouted for a moment, he had hoped to save the ramen for a special occasion- namely, the day he felt moving was finally worth it. But his stomach overruled his plans and he set about making his dinner.

Done in ten minutes, he finished eating his meal in five. He flopped onto the couch after washing the pot and bowl and reached for the remote. Channel surfing for a moment, he settled on the Sci-fi channel, finding nothing else remotely interesting on a Tuesday night. He glimpsed his jacket from the corner of his eye and Iruka's voice came into his head, reprimanding him for not picking up after himself.

Naruto groaned out loud, his upbringing wasn't about to let him leave the jacket on the couch when it was supposed to be on a hanger in the closet. Glancing at the television and finding nothing interesting happening, he dragged himself out of his seat and picked up the jacket on his way to the closet. Swinging the jacket on his way there, he became puzzled at the jingling sounding from his jacket. He blinked at his jacket in confusion. There wasn't supposed to be anything in the jacket, he just had it dry cleaned over the weekend and not enough time had passed for him to stuff his pockets with junk yet.

He reached into the pockets with both hands (somehow) and one hand came up empty, but the other hand held a white business card and a toy plushie with a bell attached.

What the…?

You don't want to believe that you hold those two items in your hand because you recognize one of them from that morning and there was little doubt that the other one came from the same place.

You wanted to forget, but it seemed as if he didn't want you to.

Naruto examined the toy carefully. It was a fox, a nine-tailed fox that looked loved if its worn fur was any indication. He was surprised that he hadn't felt it in his pocket, it wasn't a large toy, but it was not small enough for him to have not noticed for so long.

"Hmph, I should just keep this and show him what he gets for being so rude to me," but Naruto didn't speak with much determination, he knew a precious item when he saw one, and it was obvious that this was what it was. He finally switched his gaze to the business card and he raised his eyebrows in surprise.

Uchiha Sasuke

Chief Executive Officer

Sharingan Inc.

He flipped the card to find a fax and phone number, as well as an address. In pen, hastily written, was a number that was obviously for a cell phone, if the area code was any indication.

Uchiha Sasuke was a cocky, egotistical man.

Naruto was intrigued.

You thought that there was something different about him. But no matter how interested you are, you don't want to take that step out… do you?

Naruto kept the business card near him throughout the week. Once in a while, when he got bored at work, he brought it out to play with, twiddling it around his fingers while he wondered if he should call. The fox had not left his side since he discovered, he actually developed a habit of picking it up on his way out of his apartment and slipping it into whatever pocket he had. When he got tired and brought it up to his face, he could detect a faint smell from it. One of those smells that only came from being around one person or place for a long time. He couldn't pinpoint the exact smell, but whatever it was, it comforted him, just a little.

A sharp rap on his cubicle wall startled him into awareness, "Uzumaki, you're wanted upstairs."

Naruto turned around quickly to look at the speaker. Aburame Shino was a quiet, almost sullen guy who was the floor supervisor. They hadn't spoken since the first day he arrived at the building and his words surprised Naruto to his core. He had yet to establish any sort of relationship with any of his coworkers, but he was in the break room enough to hear the gossip about the higher floors.

No one, absolutely no one on the floor he was on and several floors above had gone to the higher floors before. The elevators they took to their floors didn't even go up that high. The company was one of those extremely exclusive ones that brought in so much money that the company officials had their own VIP elevators. There were tons of rumors about the extravagance of the rooms up there as well as the officials most of them never saw. The few workers who did see them always gushed about their appearance and their otherworldly attitude.

Those descriptions only added fuel to the roaring fire.

So when Naruto heard those words, his mind jumped around frantically, wondering why anyone from the higher floors would ever want to see him.

Shino gave him a side glance before leaving his area, "You better get moving; they don't like to be kept waiting."

For some reason, there's this instinct you have that tells you that you're going to see him again. It's irrational, it's unexpected, but it's there.

And you don't know whether you should run away from him… or run towards him.

Naruto stood anxiously in the elevator, staring at the numbers jumping up by fives on the LCD screen on the panel. There weren't any buttons on there, nothing to push to indicate which floor to go to. There was only a card slot and a small camera eye next to the screen. He bit his lip in a fit of nerves; the stories were slowly gaining more and more credibility. The elevator wasn't even normal! Who knew what the actual floors were like?

Before he could panic any further about what was going to happen to him, the elevator made a musical chime (a chime! A freaking chime! Not even a regular ding!) and the doors smoothly slid open to reveal a smartly dressed woman holding a file in her hands.

"Uzumaki Naruto, I presume?" she titled her head to look at him through her glasses and Naruto tried exceedingly hard not to make a smart-aleck comment about how impossible it would've been for someone to get up to that floor without being invited.

He only succeeded because the woman gave him a bright smile that totally threw him off balance as she did not look like the type to smile so freely.

"Please, follow me," she gave a little half-bow before turning and walking down the hallway. Naruto stepped out of the elevator and walked straight down, it was the only direction available to him. After walking a few yards, he passed by two doors, one on his right, and another on his left. What seemed like a few minutes later, he followed the woman around a corner and was blown away by the design of the doors in front of him.

Naruto was never one to appreciate art unless someone forced him to, but even he could see the painstaking work and care put into the doors. Phoenixes, dragons and wyverns decorated the door as both paintings and carvings. It was a surreal scene and he wouldn't have noticed it was a set of doors if it wasn't opened just a crack.

The woman, he presumed it was the secretary, placed her hand on one of the dragon's claws and opened the door further. She slipped inside, giving a little wave to Naruto that he took to mean as a signal for him to wait.

The blonde let his eyes wander over the door again and he followed a red-orange phoenix onto the wall to the right of him. His mouth fell open when he noticed the painting on the wall that he had missed before. It was an incredible giant of a painting exploding with reds, oranges, and yellows. It was decorated with vibrant greens and dull browns and royal purple.

It was the perfect picture of a legendary nine-tailed fox.

It showcased the fox's sleek fur and powerful legs; each tail was painted in motion and as Naruto continued to stare at it, he almost felt the painting move, almost felt the wind that blew through the trees in the forest the fox stood- no, prowled in.

He didn't know what drew him to the painting, but something about it called out to him. Before he could think about how crazy he was sounding, the secretary poked her head out from the door and gestured to him. She opened it a little wider and led Naruto into the room.

He stepped past the doorway, his anxiety returning again. He didn't love his job, that was true, but it was still a job he had been looking forward to since his interview months before. He couldn't help but think pessimistically- there was no way he was getting through this meeting without something going horribly wrong.

The room he had walked into was exactly how he imagined it to be. Expensive leather couches and armchairs, glass tables and marble counters. There was a bar at the far left of the room and a door offset to the right across from the doorway he just came through. A massive LCD television was embedded into the left wall, near the bar and a long row of bookcases lined the entire right wall. He followed the secretary to the door and waited as she knocked before cracking it open a bit.

Naruto was surprised when she didn't say anything to announce their arrival, only glanced around a bit before grinning widely.

She opened the door all the way and walked in, nodding at Naruto to indicate he was to follow her. He did so and was led to a comfortable looking chair in front of a huge polished oak table. Naruto sat down and nearly groaned at the softness of the chair, nearly sinking into it, but not quite. It was, after all, meant to be in a business office, it couldn't be that comfortable.

"Would you like anything to drink, Uzumaki-san?" the woman said this with a pleasant smile, but something about the way her eyes twinkled disturbed him.

"Ah, no. That's okay. Do you by any chance-"

He was cut off by her words, "Sasuke-sama will be out momentarily. Please feel free to make yourself comfortable." With that, she set the file she held in her hands on the table and walked back to the doors. But if he looked carefully enough, he could say that she was… skipping.

You start to feel uneasy about the whole thing because the weird secretary just confirmed your suspicions. He called you up here.

You want to know who he is, to be a CEO of such a company, except you're pretty sure that you weren't hired by Sharingan Inc. You want to know what made him contact you.

You want to run.

"I apologize about my secretary. Sometimes I suspect she has MPD, but she's a good secretary and she knows her place, so I can't do much about it."

Naruto snapped his head over to where the voice came from and despite the suspicions he already had, he couldn't help but feel surprised that Uchiha Sasuke actually stood in front of him.

Shirtless.

Well, not completely, he was slipping a shirt on even as he walked towards the desk. Naruto swallowed hard and mentally shook himself, 'Get your act together', he thought.

By the time he regained his composure, Sasuke had put on his suit jacket and sat down on the leather chair on the other side of the desk. He folded his hands together and placed his elbows on the desk.

"I'm sure you're wondering why you're on this floor?" For some odd reason, Naruto had an urge to punch that smug smirk off Sasuke's face. In order to rein that feeling in, he simply nodded, pressed his lips together and clenched his fists on his lap.

"Speechless? I'm surprised; I thought you would have a lot to say. You have quite a reputation, you know."

Naruto knew about the reputation he was talking about. He was a good worker and did his job perfectly, but he rarely gave his superiors the respect they expected without good reason. And that included voicing his opinion on anything and everything, whether they cared or not. But…

You feel uneasy around him because you can tell he's going to change something.

He's going to change your life the same way you always wished for.

But you don't want him to do it.

Really.

Sasuke gazed at him intently, slightly puzzled by his silence, but with a shrug he continued, "As you should know this company screens their employees very carefully and needless to say, it came as quite a surprise when your interviewer recommended you for this job with high remarks. Now-"

Without any regard whatsoever for his superior, Naruto interrupted him with a sharp question, "Why exactly is it that you are the one speaking to me about my job? For that matter, why are you even here? Aren't you CEO of Sharingan Inc? I know that I was not hired by them."

He could tell the other man looked amused, but he couldn't help his confusion.

"Although this is not public knowledge, I expected you to know this. Either way, Sharingan Inc is the parent company to a number of other significant companies around the world. Its control over the individual companies is not broadcasted publicly anymore than it is legally required. We take great care to bury our name underneath piles of legal paperwork in order to gain as much profit as we have. Furthermore, since Sharingan Inc is directly involved with all the companies under its control, the job that was given to you was only possible by the allowance of those on the board of the parent company."

"I'm assuming, from your long speech, that you're basically telling me that I only have this job because you and the other higher officials are letting me?"

"Precisely."

"So what is it that you want from me?" Naruto could feel a headache approaching, that gut instinct that he always trusted was blaring red alerts at him now. Sasuke was up to no good, he could just feel it.

"Your introduction to this very private world is completely based on your past merits and the impression you made on our board. However, your continued presence in this company depends completely on the opinion of your supervisor." Sasuke paused here for dramatic purposes, almost hoping that the blonde would catch on.

"So whether I stay or not depends on Aburame?"

He did not.

"Because of the work you have done in your previous jobs and what we have learned of your private life, your supervision has been moved up to the highest of officials so that we can determine whether you're really worth it. In other words," Sasuke stood up and walked around the desk, slightly sitting on it and leaning towards Naruto, "from this point on, your life… is in my hands."

You're in deep shit now.

To be continued…

QY- I figured that it's been a week, I should give you this in hopes of keeping my readers itnerested in this story until the 25th. Not only did I get writer's block a page before the end of this part (keeping in mind this was supposed to be a one-shot), December is apparently when my professors decide to pile final projects and tests on us. Because I am a procrastinator, this means everything that I had days to do, I did in hours. And I'm still not done.

Hopefully this will keep you satisfied for now. And never fear, after the 20th, I'll be making up for all the ones I haven't posted/written. Which further shows that I do not expect a lot of reviews from this fic since I will be mass-posting.

But I love the ones I have and I'd like to thank you all for reading/reviewing/faving/story-alerting.

You guys make my day (especially after all the calculus and chemistry).

Written: 12/04/06 8:45 p.m. to 10:02 p.m.

12/11/06 11:35 p.m. to 12:10 a.m.