Summary: Can love change a person? Sakura Haruno works as a secretary for her boss, Sasuke Uchiha, a ruthless egotist who has no respect for anyone or anything but his own success. Sakura needs a job, so she puts up with his endless demands. Until one day her boss asks her to pretend to be his girlfriend. The new employment contract now says - mistress and fiancée. But how is she supposed to fake love for him when they both hate each other?
Prologue
-XXX-
SASUKE
He turned to face me in his swivel chair, and as I tried to remain calm and suppress my anger, I expected the arms of my wooden chair to snap at any moment, which I gripped so tightly in my hands. The air in the room grew heavy and I stared in disbelief at the person sitting in front of me. I suppressed the urge to start shouting at him, but I didn't let my voice betray my uneasy feelings. "What did you just say? I must have heard wrong."
Danzō Shimura, my current boss and CEO of the company, leaned back in chair in his horribly painted office and sighed. He didn't pay the slightest attention to my bad mood. "You heard right. Neji Hyuga is going to be promoted to Vice President of the company."
I grabbed the glass of water that was on the table to my right, hoping my grip wouldn't cause the glass to shatter all over the room. "I've been promised a promotion to Vice President of the company for six months now." I drank my water as quickly as if perhaps the answer to this situation lay at the bottom of it.
Danzo just shrugged his shoulders and out of habit began to grind his cane, which he obviously wouldn't get very far with. I had thoughts of ripping it from his grasp and just...
"Circumstances have changed." He said in a firm voice.
"I've worked my ass off for this company, and thanks to me you're making over 10 million a month in profits. And six months ago, you told me that if the sales go to 10K, I'll become a VP of the company." It was clear from his expression that he wasn't interested in my reasoning.
"But Hyuga has profits of over 12 million." Suddenly, I got up from my chair, which rolled over with a good thud, and slammed my fist on the table in frustration. No matter how unprofessional it was. This old man here isn't going to make an idiot out of me! "That's because that spineless bastard took over an important client of mine. I had the idea for the glasses campaign in the first place and he stole it from me!" I crossed my teeth and felt sick at the thought of that arrogant prick.
"That's what you say, Uchiha."
"Bullshit! That's bullshit!" I exclaimed before Danzo could take another breath to speak.
"The Council has already decided, but keep trying. Next year may look more promising for you." He turned in his chair with his back to me, facing the window, and it was clear to me that the Council would not change its mind.
"Is that your last word?"
"That is our absolute word. But you'll get a generous bonus." A bonus? You can shove that up your ass. I didn't want a goddamn bonus, I wanted a promotion. It should have been me.
I straightened up, my silhouette towering proudly over the old man I refused to lose to. "Be careful, Uchiha. Here at ROOT Inc. we are as one man. And you're part of our team, so it's not good to be arrogant."
A team that's all about backstabbing their teammates and throwing them under the bus!
"Team? All right..." I coolly met his gaze as he turned to look at me, and I quenched the urge to tell him to fuck off. I shook my head at the whole thing and walked away.
…
I walked angrily towards my office, stopping outside my door at my secretary's desk. My personal assistant was looking at me in horror, and a chewed rice cake almost fell from her mouth into her lap.
"What the hell did I tell you about eating at your desk?!" I snapped at her because it pissed me off how I had to keep reminding her.
She quickly jumped to her feet, food still in her hand. "You went to the director..." She stammered. "I was doing your financial records and it was lunchtime, so I thought..."
"Then you thought wrong." I reached across the table and snatched the dry rice cake from her hand. I looked skeptically at what she called lunch. "Can't you buy a proper meal with the money I'm paying you?" I don't even know what pissed me off. I probably needed to vent the anger that Danzo had ignited, and my secretary was the closest person to a wound. I mentally cursed as bits of rice fell on my suit and left a stain. "Perfect..."
She looked at the crumbs I had wiped directly on my shoes and her already pale face turned a little green. "Mr. Uchiha, I'm so sorry! I'll take these to the dry cleaners right away."
"Hn..." I took off my blazer in frustration, emptied my pockets, and threw it on her desk. "And grab me some tomatoes on the way."
She blinked in surprise. "I thought you were having lunch with Mr. Shikamaru Nara earlier."
"That train of thought of yours is wrong again. Bring me tomatoes and dark coffee. And call Uzumaki Naruto." She continued to stand motionless, staring at me.
"Are you deaf?"
"What should I do first?"
I reached for the door handle to my office. "That's your job, figure it out. Just get it done." With a slam of the door behind me, I disappeared into my office, where I hoped no one would annoy me for a while.
…
15 minutes later, there was a bowl of tomatoes and a cup of coffee on my table. The intercom just buzzed and my secretary's voice came on. "You have Uzumaki Naruto on line 9."
I silently picked up the phone. "Hey, you idiot. I need to talk to you."
"I'm great, thanks for asking, teme." Came my friend's annoyed voice from the other end of the line.
"I'm not in the mood for this right now. When are you coming over?"
"I already have a full schedule for the day..." Whined the grown man who has insisted for years that he is my best friend.
"Cancel it, dobe."
"But I'm out of town, Mr. Impatient. The earliest I can get to Otogakure is around seven in the evening." I didn't even have to see him in person to know he was annoyed.
"Fine, meet me at Ichiraku. Our usual table." I didn't know whether I was glad or irritated that the ramen shop Naruto loved had branches in every city. I hung up and pressed the intercom. "Come here."
The door opened and my secretary barged in. She literally burst in, and now she was rubbing her knee on the floor. I didn't even bother to mask my annoyance. I've never seen anyone so clumsy in my entire life. This woman could trip over air.
I waited until she scrambled to her feet, grabbed her notebook and found a pen on the carpet. Her cheeks were red with shame and her hands were shaky. "Yes, Mr. Uchiha?"
"The usual table at Ichiraku. Seven o'clock. And I want my blazer."
"I ordered an express cleaning. You know... it'll be an extra charge..." She stammered, her eyes fixed on the ground.
I raised an eyebrow at her reaction. "You got it dirty, you pay for the dry cleaning." Her cheeks turned even redder, but she didn't object to my order. "I'll pick it up for you in an hour." I waved my hand at her comment, not caring when she will pick up the blazer. As long as I had it ready for tonight.
"Mr. Uchiha?"
"What?"
"I need to leave from work at 4 PM today. I have to go to the doctor. I emailed you about it last week."
I tapped my fingers on the table and watched her closely. My secretary, Sakura Haruno. The curse that befell me. I've tried everything to get rid of her, but I haven't succeeded. No matter what I gave her to do, she always miraculously managed to do it. All my humiliating and embarrassing demands she fulfilled without talking back or complaining.
Trips to the cleaners? Done. Make sure my restroom here at work is stocked with my favorite cosmetic brands? No problem. Organize my files alphabetically? Right away. Polish my kunai collection? A piece of cake, and she even wrapped them in cellophane and put them in appropriate boxes when I "changed my mind" and had them delivered back to my house. She didn't say a word.
Day after day she sat at that table by the door and was never a minute late. She rarely left work before me, except to run errands or to go to the kitchen to eat her rice cakes brought from home, because I forbade her to eat at her desk.
She made sure no one came into my office, answered my phones, was in charge of my daily schedule, kept an eye on my calendar, organized my files alphabetically the way I like it... In short, everything is damn perfect. From what I hear around the company, everyone loved her. She never forgot a birthday or holiday, and she baked absolutely wonderful cookies that she occasionally brought to colleagues. For someone who never had a sweet tooth, I would secretly eat her cookies when no one was looking. She made them soft and not at all extremely sweet, as apparently everyone is used to baking them.
She was simply flawless and I couldn't stand it.
This woman represented everything I hated about women. She was short and petite, with short pink hair and emerald green eyes. She wore simple costumes, bland but neat and tidy, albeit old-fashioned. She wore no jewelry and, from what I could see, no makeup. She was humble and shy, never asserting herself or making trouble. Her looks made her impossible to overlook in her own way, even though she was the grey mouse of the company. My ideal in women was on the other side a female who was strong, feisty, headstrong, and maybe a little crazy. I had to smile at the thought.
But there was no way I could get rid of this Miss Haruno.
"Okay, but don't get too used to it, Miss Haruno. We're busy here." For a brief moment, her eyes seemed to flash, but then she merely nodded in understanding.
"I'll pick up your blazer in time and leave it in your dressing room. At 2 PM you have a conference that I have prepared and at 4 PM you have a meeting in the conference room." She pointed to the folders she had placed on the edge of the table earlier this morning probably. "All your notes are here."
"And what about my expenses?"
"I've already processed them all, and here, in this orange folder labeled 'expenses', they're waiting for your signature."
"But you still need to take the previous year's records down to the file room and put them on deposit there. I told you about that before." Well... I made it up and didn't tell her anything, but now I'm definitely going to get her.
"I already did that last week. As well as records going back another 5 years. Anything else it will be, sir?"
Damn, she's good.
"All right, you can go."
She stopped at the door and turned back to me. "Have a nice evening, Mr. Uchiha."
I didn't bother with a reply.
-XXX-
End of Prologue
Disclaimer: The plot does not belong to me, but to the writer of The Contract by Melanie Moreland. While reading her book, I wanted to write AU Sasusaku fanfiction on her book. So I used her book for new AU story with Naruto characters. Plot and premises belong to Melanie Moreland and characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto, Shonen Jump, Studio Pierrot, Viz Media and others. I do not own Naruto or The Contract. This is just for fun, not for profit. + This amazing cover picture author is Ni23ku.