Marry for Love
Chapter 6-His Burden(Friday)
His pen swirled across the page, signing his name to agree to the terms that were set on it. Twenty more times he signed on the list of documents before looking up and sliding it back over the table of rich mahogany.
"Excellent, Namikaze. That takes care of the accounting departments. Now for the next group." A tall pale-eyed man spoke as he handed the documents off to Hinata who took it outside of the small conference room where they were seated. As Naruto waited, he stretched his fingers out, the cartilage groaning at him from the inside, looking at the visage of the man before him.
Hiashi Hyuuga. Hinata's father, and the current CEO of Hyuuga Intl; the man who Naruto was selling his company to. Naruto breathed out and reminisced how this all started.
His parents' health deteriorated after his senior year of high school, and he started helping out at Lightning Kunai, doing his best to ensure that people who wanted something shipped could do it with as little headache as possible. But then in his first year of college, his parents had fallen gravely ill, and he had to take up their medical life at home, and took full control of the company in their name. His father always wanted to do the paperwork, even though his eyes couldn't read the pages clearly, while his mother just asked if he was getting enough sleep, or some time to find a girl for them to meet.
Naruto grimaced at the memory. Right. Like he had time to meet a girl and introduce her to the headache of his life. Their death a few months later, sleeping beside each other peacefully, had the whole company down for a week of silence.
That's when the real work began. With his parents' shadows hanging over him, and a company in need of leadership, he dropped out of college; giving him the hours he needed to take care of their legacy to him. The company was being attacked on all sides, with more competitors, new technology, and the accounting was off by ten percent in the hole. He went to work on it.
He didn't leave the site for maybe a year? He bought a new accounting system to manage it all, fired two guys who were deliberately sabotaging their brand image, and spent god knows how long learning about new technology and adding them himself to his fleet of shipping trucks.
He was fortunate it turned out, as the economy slumped for two years, but his business began to boom. He hired Sasuke and his brother and their burgeoning company, whose algorithms could detect the best routes and what the competitors were about to do, as if predicting the future. He got it all up and running and that was the first year that they were in the black.
He hadn't hired a single person before then. He'd kept the same crew that his parents had during those first two years. He hired about ten as they began to grow, bringing the total to sixty. That's when he saw it five years ago. The huge trend upward in growth. His workers started feeling the stress building as their days grew long, but they knew his parents, and they had seen how hard Naruto was working for them and the company, noticing how he was the first to arrive and the last to leave. He didn't lose anyone and increased their benefits and pay as he saw them struggle to do their jobs. All Naruto could think was that he had to take care of them. How could he let them down when they were working so hard? Willing to push their bodies beyond what they had to do, day in and day out?
That's when Hinata entered his life; she was calm and calculated and offered him a deal with Hyuuga Intl, to ship within the city of Konoha. He took the chance and signed the deal, thinking it was a good bet. It was a month after that when Hinata had asked him out, saying how she had watched him in college and fell in love with him. She had seen him struggle and found that struggle titillating.
The deal with the monolith that was the Hyuuga was too good of a deal. They doubled their shipments within a year, and Naruto started asking his team for overtime beyond their normal work. Hinata came by more often, dragging him to these fancy balls and plays, introducing him to influential people, and getting even better deals. His stress soared as his company tripled from when he started just eighteen months prior.
He hired en masse, with forty more employees, but it didn't help curb the overtime; he bought an entirely new fleet two years ago, and it made everyone happy at the investment of new equipment. He'd even had enough money to almost double the new pay for his employees, praising them for all the hard work these last six years. They were grateful; even if they knew that he was hiding the fact that he needed them to work overtime almost permanently. No one backed down from the overtime; they were given anything they ask from their owner, and their morale was soaring while Naruto held in his ensuing panic that he couldn't solve.
And that's how Hinata found him; trapped in his office at five in the morning, no one else but the guard at the front, working hard to finish a report that should have been done two weeks ago to the IRS. The offer; that threw him off his game. She knew he didn't love her like that. They got along well, they could sit beside another for hours without words, but he had told her how he just didn't love her like that. And yet…she accepted him as he was.
Maybe she just liked having the power to see him struggle. She had told him how she'd been working with her father on a deal. To alleviate his burden, Lightning Kunai would merge with Hyuuga Intl, becoming their main leg for shipping worldwide. His parents legacy around the world. And all he had to do was marry her.
"Naruto, are you alright?"
"Yes sir!" Naruto exclaimed before grimacing at the man before him. "Just recalling how I got into all this."
"A good man knows his past, Naruto. A great man uses his past to make a great future. I know you're worried about this deal and I can assure you that this deal is a great one."
"I-I know that, sir. This has been such a strain on me, I don't know what I'll do when it's all over."
"Well, you'll work here of course. Being a Hyuuga by marriage after all."
"Yes sir." Naruto smiled tightly. He wouldn't have to truly work here at all. Hinata was the next in line for the CEO after maybe twenty years so he'd just be a regular worker with an office and maybe one or two guys underneath him.
"Here you go, Father." Hinata spoke as she reentered with the next stack of forms. Naruto began to sign again, his mind numbing along the way as he read more and more. This is what he'd be doing all day. Signing for documents and passing them along. He wouldn't have to worry about an employee's personal life anymore, about their lives at all. He'd be rid of all the weight that was burdened on his shoulders without his consent. And yet…
"Y-you know," Naruto spoke up, interrupting the father daughter moment in front of him. "Maybe I could still work at the warehouse, you know? Work with the people there."
"Sweetheart," Hinata moved forward to rub his face. "We talked about this, didn't we?"
"Well, I mean...you told me that...but I didn-"
"Your company will grow too big for that single old warehouse. We'll need teams for it once it grows that large. I don't want you stressed over that."
"But-"
"Besides...I can't have my husband traipsing away like a commoner at work."
"...A commoner?" Naruto quirked his eyes. "They're not-"
"Yes yes, I apologize. Now please just sign." Hinata rolled her eyes and nudged the pen into his hand.
Naruto gulped back his retort and looked back down. "...So what is my role after the wedding?"
"Silly." Hinata cooed as she kissed him deeply. Naruto responded, though not very much. They parted as Hinata cooed happily. "You'll be married to me. You can do whatever you want. Go on vacations, exotic places, anywhere you want. Do anything."
"Oh…" Naruto went back to signing until he got to the last page where his eyes squinted over the words. "Hyuuga-San."
"Yes?"
"This section doesn't appear right."
"What's wrong with it?"
"Well, this section says that all my employees with five or more years get golden parachutes for their time and service."
"That's right." Hiashi nodded, looking over his copy of the contract.
"But that's wrong." Naruto leaned forward, pushing the page forward. "It's for all of my employees, regardless of when they started at Lightning Kunai."
"Naruto, it's just a few employees." Hinata tried to shrug it off. But Naruto's eyes grew jaded as the stress bubbled out from his throat.
"It's not just a few employees, Hinata. Jaime's in college and needs to graduate so that she can pay for a nurse for her little brother who's paralyzed. Ricky will have a hard time keeping custody of his little girls without a steady job. Bobby -"
Hinata's glare frightened him, as she set her teeth on edge. "Naruto. They're just not worth-"
"I'll have it changed to correct it."
"Daddy!" Hinata spun around, her face in shock as Hiashi turned to face her stoically.
"My dear, your fiancé is correct. He did say all his employees. Now it is we who assumed he meant tenured, but we should have asked to clarify. We'll make the changes, Naruto. I apologize for the mix-up."
Another two hours passed before Naruto had signed over the majority of his company away to Hyuuga Intl. Shaking the CEO and his future father's hand, Naruto grinned tiredly at the smiling man.
"I never thought that I'd be selling 10% of the company to you, Naruto."
"You and me, both sir." Naruto nervously shrugged. 10 percent of voting shares within a global corporation. That should mean that he was transcending entire pay gaps into the upper elite. But it wasn't. It was just a temporary measure. Once he married Hinata, the shares would go back to the both of them, being married and all. It was really for a symbol to hold for his company's future, and current worth. The shares were easily worth their weight in gold, five times what his company was worth.
As Naruto stepped out of the office, a huge web of guilt plagued him. His workers didn't want him to sell; he had kept them in the dark; he hadn't shown them just how backlogged they were. His friends told him that the marriage was a sham; it was just business. Besides, Hinata was a nice girl with a good upbringing, and a knockout body. Wouldn't any guy be happy with getting the hot girl and more money than he ever needed?
"Hanabi?" Naruto uttered as a younger girl stepped out of an office, and the girl grinned happily as they turned towards the approaching party of three. "When did you get back?"
"Just last night, Naruto." The young woman shrugged and lightly hugged her upcoming brother-in-law. Naruto smiled at the younger sister of his fiancée. She had a good head on her shoulders, family oriented, but humble and sweet. "I didn't know you'd be in today. I would have canceled my plans for lunch."
"Just signing the papers. Sister." Hinata butted in as Hanabi frowned at that.
"I really don't see the need for it. He's joining our family anyways."
"It's symbolic sweetheart."
"I understand, Father."
"By the way, why are you back?"
Hanabi gulped. "They uh...they needed more time to think on it."
Hinata and Hanabi's father shivered in anger. "And they sent you back? So inefficient."
"Don't be angry, father. The deal will only be stalled until the wedding."
"My wedding?" Naruto questioned aloud. Hanabi smiled at him.
"Yes Naruto. You have a brand new fleet of freight and such, and for the first expansion, our partnership in the land of Mist is in much need of more supplies. Right now, we simply don't have enough to send supplies as fast as they'd like."
"But I only have 40 drivers, Hanabi. That surely doesn't make a dent."
"Maybe not right away, but you made a deal four years ago with the Mizukage district, right?"
"Yes."
"So your brand is already established there." Hanabi smiled smartly as Naruto realized her goal.
"I...I see." Naruto nodded mutely. He didn't really understand brand recognition or how it was won over, but that was Hanabi's field with a double masters in marketing and strategic operations. She knew her stuff, and if she had been older, she might have been the next in line for the company chair.
"You are correct, Hanabi. Simply a…." Hiashi groaned as he held a grip over his chest.
"Father?"
"I'm fine." He wheezed. "It simply a form-"
"Father! Don't push yourself!" Hanabi rushed forward, holding her father as he coughed up a storm before his secretary rushed over, bringing some water for him, as well as a pill.
"Damn heart again."
"You know mother worries about you."
"Yes." He sighed. "I know."
"Well!" Hinata spoke louder, looping her arm around her fiancé. "We should get going. Shall we?"
"Y-yeah."
"Hey Hinata? Can we talk about this again?" Naruto called out from the bedroom as his fiancée emerged from the bathroom, wearing a slim black dress with her cleavage spilling out from the top, her hair up in a bun, and six inch stilettos on her feet.
"Naruto, I'm tired of it. You signed the papers. It's done."
"I just...maybe I'm just wanting to stay where I am, you know?"
"Oh Naruto." Hinata cooed as she strutted over and kissed his cheek. "I don't care what you do right now. Once we say our vows to another, then I'll demand everything. I get it alright? You're used to being in charge."
"That's not actually-"
"I like being in charge too. I spend every day yelling at inept workers who need to be pushed and told to not drag their feet. No one likes to lose control, Naruto. We're a team, right?"
"...R-right."
"Good." Hinata smiled and pecked him on the cheek for good luck. "Now I need to go or I'll be late."
Naruto grinned sarcastically. "You're always late."
"Fashionably late is not late at all, Naruto." Hinata smiled. "I'm just letting the other girls have some of the spotlight is all."
Naruto shrugged; he could never win an argument with his fiancée. Some people would say that girls always won in the relationship, but for Hinata, it was a matter of pride. Naruto could delay it, but over weeks and multiple talks, he'd eventually agree with her side. There was just no point saying no anymore. A few minutes later, he heard the door to the penthouse close and he was alone. It wasn't long before Naruto found himself on the couch in the living room, with a bottle of wine in front of him, watching some terrible movie that he didn't even care about.
His fiancée was out partying with her trust fund friends, partying and doing whatever they wanted. They could be buying luxury cars, buying the fanciest of clothes, and doing the most ludicrous of things. They were used to this life.
And yet here Naruto sat, in this multi million dollar house on top of a skyscraper in the middle of the city and he was dead inside. Is this what life was really about? Getting all the money and spending it as fast as it came in? Is this what he would find himself doing after he was married?
A small smile graced his face. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad once he had kids of his own. Little rugrats running around for him to spoil and take to school. To see them grow and make sure they grew up right. The smile however began to fade. Hinata would insist on getting a nanny and a tutor and anyone else to raise the kids for them. She had grown up with that after all. Naruto sighed out his depression. Wasn't there anything better he could do on a Thursday night?
"...I bet Sakura's kids would be beautiful…" Naruto uttered into the great expanse of a room.
Slowly, Naruto sat up, and reached towards the coffee table. His hand slid underneath it and twisted a small knob, before a secret compartment opened up. Hinata knew about the space so it wasn't truly secret, but she never hid things anyways so it was a tiny place where he could store stuff without leaving it out in the pristine sterile environment that was his home.
Feeling the hard paper fall into his hand, Naruto leaned back into the couch, lying into the deep foam that threatened to swallow his inebriated self up for the night. His hand pulled the paper up towards the ceiling, cast against a backlit bulb shining down on him.
His tired eyes looked up at the eerily soft glow of the light and focused on the business card in his hand. His ex's handwriting lay on it, drawing him in with the perfectly precise scribble that made her look fancy and alluring. His fingers slowly twirled it around, his mind twirling with it as a rogue thought entered his mind.
It was a stupid thought; she was probably mad that he hadn't called her right away. He had embarrassed her in the worst of ways, rejecting her after they had already gone so far. And yet the need to see her had not left him. He wanted to see her. But maybe he could just...hear her voice. He could apologize, and they could do what this card asked. Friends. Naruto's other hand typed the digits into his phone and pressed the message button to type.
His eyes drifted to the floor to ceiling window, the view jutting out over the city to the last rays of sunlight passing over the horizon. They were still friends right? Heart and all...
Hope you all enjoyed that. R x R!