Chapter 5

Naruko could hardly wait when she stepped out of the limo and onto the dark red carpet that led them to the club's doors. Naruko beamed, looking around. However, she stopped staring and started wincing as all of the flashing bulbs nearly blinded her. And although she heard many of the paparazzi call out for her, she, for the sake of her eyesight, ran quickly inside of the club.

Once inside, it took her a long moment for her eyes to adjust; the contrast of the light was so different, it almost gave her a headache. When she (finally) could see, she gasped. The club was unlike anything she had ever seen before. It was big, much bigger than she expected. And there were neon lights flashing in every which direction, though they weren't nearly as bright as the cameras outside. There was a DJ's booth that was to one side of the club, and a large, elegant looking bar on the other. There were booths scattered throughout the room, which were already beginning to fill up with people. And then, in the middle, of course, was the large, bare section that Naruko assumed was where people danced.

"You like what you see?" Hideaki asked with a grin. When Naruko nodded, he sighed. "It gets smaller once you've been here a lot. You'll get to know it like the back of your hand."

Naruko laughed. "It's funny – almost every person I've run into tells me that a certain place gets smaller after I've been around it for a while."

"Then it must be true!" Hideaki exclaimed, making Naruto smile. "Come on, Akira-sama wanted me to show you to him when you arrived."

"Ew," Naruko grimaced. "Where is the old dingbat?"

"VIP lounge, of course," Hideaki replied, like it was the most obvious thing. "Trust me, Akira-sama wouldn't be caught dead down here with all the 'hooligans', as he likes to call them." He grabbed Naruko's hand and expertly led her through the crowds. When he had finally reached the door to the VIP room, he stopped.

"Hey Taro-san," he said with a smile. "This is Naruko – Akira-sama's model he was asking for. Would you mind if I escorted her in?" Taro peered into Naruko's face for a moment before waving the two through.

"God, doesn't he look like a gorilla on acid?" Hideaki whispered to Naruko as soon as the beefy man was out of earshot.

Naruko covered her mouth with her hand, her shoulders shaking with laughter. "Wow, I don't think I've ever heard a better comparison than that just there."

Hideaki grinned. "Okay, you see that door up there, at the end of this hallway? That's where Akira-sama is, and that's where you need to go. I've actually got to run downstairs for a few moments – I'm meeting the boyfriend, and I don't want to keep him waiting."

"You have a boyfriend, huh?" Naruko asked with a suggestive smile. "What's his name?"

"Daisuke," Hideaki said, his eyes shining slightly. "And oh my god, you wouldn't believe how cute he is. I'll be sure to introduce you to him; he's dying to meet you, since I've told him all about you."

"You told him about me?" Naruko asked. "I'm honored."

"But of course," Hideaki laughed. "Give me twenty minutes tops, okay? Then I promise I'll come and join you again. Sound good to you?"

Naruko nodded, giving him the "nice guy" pose. "Thanks, Hideaki. I'll see you then!" Naruko then turned and walked towards the doorway.

The VIP lounge wasn't much different than the main level of the club. The only real differences Naruko noticed were the size, number of flashing neon lights, and lack of blaring music. It appeared that the lounge was more of a place to converse, rather than to grind up on each other. However, that didn't seem to stop two scantily-dressed women who were sensually sliding up and down a pole that was positioned in the middle of the room. How pathetic. Naruko couldn't resist wrinkling her nose at the sight.

"So I'm guessing it would be useless to ask if you were at all interested in dancing up there." Akira laughed heartily, coming up behind Naruko, after seeing her expression. "Don't worry, that's not what I have in mind for you at all."

Naruko forced a grin. "Akira-sama, hello there. So, uh, Hideaki said that you requested my presence." Naruko decided to get straight to the point; she didn't want to loiter in the room longer than she had to.

"Yes, that's indeed true," Akira nodded. "Oh – You look beautiful this evening, by the way." He cleared his throat. "But, the reason I requested your presence is because I have someone, a very close friend, I'd like you to meet: the current owner of the cherished Icha Icha series, Sen Iwao."

Naruko almost felt her jaw drop all the way to the floor.

"EEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHH?!?!?!?!??!?"

"I'm not sure if you're familiar with the name Jiraiya, but he was the original author. After his tragic death almost two years ago, however, the series came to a halt. But, thankfully, Iwao was able to pick it back up, and sales are going better than ever."

Naruko narrowed her eyes, slightly suspicious about where he was going with this.

"Wait, and you want me to talk with Iwao because?"

"We want you to be the star of the new Icha Icha movie!" Akira exclaimed, a wide grin on his face. "We've looked at the photos you've taken with Masanori, and we also have taken some of our own shots out of the studio."

"You mean like you've been stalking me?" Naruko asked, aghast.

"No, don't look at it as stalking!" Akira corrected her. "We were simply… doing our homework, that's all!"

"Ah, yes. Homework indeed," a voice agreed with Akira. Naruko peered around Akira to see a tall, strongly-built man who looked to be in his early fifties or so. Naruko guess this was Iwao. She smiled at him nicely; despite the fact that the man was a pervert, he still deserved a bit of respect. Well, for now at least.

"Sen Iwao," he introduced himself, although Naruko hardly needed to hear it again. "Naruko-chan, it's a pleasure to meet you; and, my god, you're as pretty as Akira described you to be. The way he spoke of you you'd think he had seen an angel."

"That's kind of weird," Naruko said honestly. "I think I resemble a well groomed fox, to be honest. Well, on some days, at least." She trailed off, her brow furrowed in thought. "Hmm, actually, I can't remember what Sakura-chan said I resembled. It might have been a fox. Or, then again, it could have been another sort of rodent-like thing…"

However, Iwao didn't notice Naruko's confusion as he threw back his head and let out a loud laugh. "I like you. Here, do you want a drink? Let me buy you a drink!"

Naruko grinned. "Oh, that'd be peachy." Who was she to turn down some free sake?

"Good girl," he praised with a smile. He looked at Akira for a moment before saying, "Akira, my good friend, would you mind accompanying me over to the bar?" Akira agreed wordlessly. "Good, good. Now, Naruko-chan, don't run off; we'll be right back."

"Goody. I really can't wait," Naruko said sarcastically, her eyes following the two men as they strolled away from her and towards the bar. She looked away from them, and crossed her arms nervously. She jumped about a mile high when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Hideaki," she let out a relieved breath. "Thanks for coming back."

"I said I would, didn't I?" He said with a smile. "Why are you standing here all alone? Where did Akira-sama get off to? And what did he want with you?"

"He's accompanying Sen Iwao, who is currently getting me a drink." Naruko sighed. "And he is the reason Akira-sama asked for me."

"Isn't he the man who took over the whole Icha Icha bonanza?" Hideaki asked with his face scrunched up in thought. "Ooh, I get it now. They want you in the movie, do they?"

Naruko nodded. "I've never read the books, but as far as I'm aware of, they're all complete smut. Is that true?"

Hideaki nodded. "Sorry to break it to you, but yeah, that's about all the books are: smut. You could always turn down the role, you know. It's not like you have to do it."

Naruko let out a groan. "But that'd be terrible for my reputation that I don't even have yet, right? God, I never ever in a million years thought I'd ever be making a decision like this one." Naruko looked out the only window in the VIP lounge, and wondered nostalgically what her friends in Konoha were up to; she wondered how they were all doing: obaachan, Sakura, and all the others who were close to her.

And then her mind wandered, of course, to Sasuke. It was like she could never go more than a few long hours without think about him. Some way or another, he always seemed to find his way into her thoughts, whether she wanted him there or not. And, most times, it was 'not'. She wondered what he was up to; she assumed he was probably training with that team of his. He was probably miles away from her, living his life he always wanted to, not once thinking about the blond he had destroyed and left behind.

However, she couldn't have been farther from the truth.


"Damn, I'm never going to get over how sweet these lights are," Suigetsu grinned, taking a sip of his water. "How much do you think they are? I want to buy one for my room. I'm thinking blue, or maybe green. What about you, Karin?"

The red-haired girl shot Suigetsu a death glare, before angrily turning back to her soda.

"What the hell are you so pissy about?" Suigetsu asked, rolling his eyes. "You were the one who suggested going out to a place like this, and now you're acting like you'd rather be anywhere else. You'd better make up your mind, woman, before I decide to remove your brain completely via my sword. God knows how inspiring that would be…"

Karin gritted her teeth. "When I said we should work on team bonding, jackass, I wasn't exactly referring to you. I was talking about me and Sasuke-kun." She looked out of the corner of her eye at the bitter looking Uchiha who was staring uninterestedly at the dance floor. He hadn't even touched his drink. "Sasuke-kun, do you want to dance?" Karin asked hopefully, seeing him eye the dancing people.

"No," Sasuke said bluntly, looking away from the crowded dance floor.

"Who would want to dance with you, ugly cow?" Suigetsu taunted with a bad-mannered grin on his face. After he noticed Karin's face quickly becoming the shade of her hair, he looked away from her, a satisfied smile on his face. Opening her mouth, she prepared to retort. However, before she could get a word out, she was interrupted by a colorfully dressed and troubled looking man.

"Hi there, I'm sooo sorry to butt in, but I was just wondering if you've seen my friend around." He bit his lip and scrunched up his face, thinking. "She's like, a little shorter than me, and she has blonde hair. And she's tan, with simply a gorgeous complexion. And the prettiest blue eyes you'll ever see. She's wearing an orange dress, too. Oh! And she has the most adorable little whisker-like scars on her cheeks. Seen her around by chance?"

"No, now go away," Karin snapped promptly with a frown.

Suigetsu sniggered. "Oi, dude, are you mad? You shouldn't go around talking like that unless you want to be labeled as a total homo. And then people will want to kick your ass."

The man stopped and looked sternly at the boy. "Firstly, my name is Hideaki, not dude. Secondly, I can say whatever I please, because where I live, we're granted freedom of speech. And, thirdly," his green eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. "Whoever said that there was anything wrong with being homosexual?" Suigetsu's smile instantaneously slid from his face and awkward silence fell upon the table.

"We haven't seen your friend," Sasuke broke the silence, his eyes glued to the ceiling. "But if you're that desperate, we'll be of assistance."

All three of his team members looked at him, their expressions full of shock.

"We… will?" Karin asked slowly with a confused expression. "Why?"

"Yeah, says who?" Suigetsu challenged. "I don't want to help out this flamer."

Juugo didn't say anything, but merely looked at Sasuke curiously.

"I wouldn't want you to annoy other people like you did us, or someone might actually kick your ass," Sasuke said uninterestedly. "Besides, sitting down at the table is boring, and the view isn't all that great."

Karin, who was sitting across from him, felt tears form in her eyes; she found it heartbreaking how she would never be good enough for the sole man she'd eternally, sincerely love. Oh yes, heartbreaking indeed.

"Move, Suigetsu," Sasuke said coolly, giving Suigetsu a look that wordlessly cautioned him against protesting. Finally, Suigetsu grudgingly moved out of the way, allowing Sasuke to get up from the booth.

"Thanks so much," Hideaki said with a large smile. "She was in the VIP lounge until we left, and that was about five minutes ago; these old guys were making her feel way uncomfortable."

"Hn," was Sasuke's reply.

"Right, well, I guess we can split up, and then meet at the front of the DJ booth in ten minutes. You remember my description of her, don't you?"

Sasuke gave him a look, before walking past Hideaki and into the sea of dancing people. Hideaki made an unpleasant face before also fighting his way through the crowds, heading in the opposite direction.


Sasuke thought warily as he easily dodged yet another girl who attempted to dance with him. Although it didn't make sense to him, he knew that the man must've been talking about Naruto. Sasuke highly doubted that another human being had 'little whisker-like scars' on their cheeks.

The man had also mentioned blonde hair, tan skin, and blue eyes, which Naruto was also well-known for. However, the only thing that confused him was the dress, and the fact that Hideaki had been calling Naruto "her".

Of course, it was entirely possible that Naruto was in his Sexy No Jutsu form. And Sasuke wouldn't put it past him, either. However, although he had tried more than once, he was, mysteriously enough, incapable of sensing Naruto's chakra at all. Because he'd grown up with Naruto, he could easily detect the boy's charismatic chakra. Now, however, he couldn't distinguish one that could possibly be Naruto's.

Sasuke glanced at the clock. He had been searching for his target for almost six minutes now, and he still hadn't found anything. He scowled, deciding to just head back to the table. It was the truth why he'd gotten up; he was tired of sitting across from Karin, who unfortunately resembled a lovesick puppy that needed to be shot multiple times in the head until it was totally unrecognizable. He ran his fingers through his hair, and turned around. However, before he could get more than a step, he heard a voice that stopped him dead in his tracks.

"Teme?"