"I don't like surprises", I say as I cross my arms. "Something's obviously up. I'm not stupid. You're not showing me a picture of him, and you're giving me a shit load of cash"

"I'm glad that you're not easily fooled, and have the capability to question people in situations like this. I can understand why you'd be so suspicious of me, but believe me when I say this", he says sternly. "My brother is a very difficult man. He needs someone who can be a breath of fresh air to him...and when I saw you, I knew that you'd be perfect for him"

I scoff. Is this some type of joke? "You know nothing about me"

"Why do you think I was so eager to get to know you?"

I stare blankly at him before replying. "I honestly thought you were just a pervert"

He laughs, and it sounds less cynical than it usually does. "No, I'm not the perverted one. My brother on the other hand…"

I cut him off before he can continue. "You're setting me up on a date with a creep!"

"No, no, no, you've got it all wrong. He's not going to do anything creepy in public, but I must warn you, he's a little frisky when no one else is around. At least that's what I've heard"

"Oh, so is that why you're paying me so much to go on a date with him? Because he scares women", I stop to correct myself. "Because he scares men away?"

"He's actually quite popular with both genders, and does not care about male or female", he begins. "But he usually ends up in a relationship with some crazy women"

"So I'm here to break the cycle or something?"

"Hopefully", he says as he tucks a strand of hair behind his ear. " And I'm offering you a lot of money as a way to show you that I mean business. I do not want you to think I'm untrustworthy"

I bite the inside of my cheek before asking an important question. "What if he doesn't show up to the date?"

"Oh, he will", he says confidently. "And if you accept my offer, I will make sure you will too. I know your room number"

I scoff at the threat to make myself seem tougher. "First of all, I don't think that's necessaryl", I begin.

He raises a dark eyebrow at me, and his bodyguard looks at me as if I've just lost my mind. "And second of all, I'll get there somehow. You will not need to worry"

"So it's a yes?"

I swallow the thick saliva that was beginning to form in my mouth. "Yeah. I'm accepting your offer", I finally say.

"That's all I needed to here. The five minutes start now"

Adrenaline pushes through me, and I begin to feel the need to ask a few more questions. "Wait but-"

"I need you to do at least fifteen push-ups in twenty seconds"

"W-what?"

"Fifteen"

I slowly get out of my seat, and the bodyguard is giving me a look that's telling me to hurry up.

"If you take too long, I will tell you to stop and move on to the next demand"

I got on the floor and into pushup position. At first, I was on a roll, but I was extremely worried about my form, and started to get nervous. I also lost count because of this.

"Alright, close enough", he said sounding not too disappointed in me. "I need you to waltz with Neji"

The bodyguard and I exchange blank stares, but he eventually walks over to me. We lock hands, and I wait for some type of music or instruction.

"You will follow Neji's lead", he says before tapping the screen of his phone.

Strange music that I wasn't used to hearing begins to play, and I give Neji a look that says "I have no clue how to do this". But whether I was ready, or not, he made the first move and stepped on my foot while doing so. I've never waltzed before in my life! How many teenagers actually know how to do this?

I try my best to follow his lead, moving backwards when he moves backwards, and sideways when he moves sideways. As I expected to happen, my foot is stepped on again, and I try to look down to see just what the hell he was doing. Maybe if I just keep my head down the whole time, I'll figure it out. This time, I end up stepping on his foot and falling into his chest. The giant bastard did not look pleased. Nope. Nevermind.

"Alright, enough's enough"

He looks like he's about to burst out into laughter, and I don't blame him. It must've been entertaining to watch a short, clumsy, awkward teenage boy waltz with someone who was much taller and twice his age.

"Terrible footwork", I hear the bodyguard say under his breath.

"Well if your feet weren't so damn big!", I say furiously.

The argument is thankfully cut off by Itachi. "Naruto", he says sharply to get my attention "I need you to name a few things you can cook"

Neji lets go of my hand, and I blush, not realizing that we were still in waltzing position. "Oh! I love cooking! I can cook ramen!", I say confidently.

I hear the bodyguard laugh as he walks away, and I begin to feel embarrassed for being so proud of knowing how to cook a basic, low-budget meal. "A-and eggs, and hamburgers, and bacon, and sometimes pancakes!", I say enthusiastically. "I usually burn things though", I say nervously.

Why would you tell him that?! "But if I pay attention to what I'm doing, and follow instructions, I can manage to make what I cook look decent", I sputter out.

"Wow, definitely housewife material", Neji says in a tone that screams "sarcasm".

"I'm not that old, okay!", I yell at him in defense. "And what makes you think I want to be a housewife anyways?! I'm not a girl!"

"Stop bickering. Both of you", Itachi says impatiently.

"He can't dance, he can't cook", the rude body guard begins. "His push up form wasn't on point either"

"I do not want to hear you say another word Neji", Itachi demands. "Be quiet"

It was very clear that Itachi was angry, and it sure as hell shut Neji up.

"My apologies Naruto, it's not easy for some people to act their age"

I glance over at Neji, and can tell that Itachi's comment made him even more irritated. "It's fine"

Itachi looks at his watch, and seems a little surprised. Is my time up already?

"I need you to bend over-"

I blush out of anger at the request. "I don't think so! You just said that I didn't have to do anything se-"

"And touch your toes", he says impatiently.

"Oh", I say before scratching the back of my head.

He sighs, and I slowly bend over, trying my best to reach my feet. Surprisingly, I come pretty close to doing so.

"Good job", he says with a smirk. "Now, I need to know if you own a tuxedo"

God, this questions is so random.

I stand up straight and hesitate before answering. "I don't think so"

"What colors do you typically wear?"

I give him an odd look before I reply. "Orange and blue"

He glances down at his watch again. "How are you doing in school?"

Not a good question for me. "I'm doing...alright"

"Good to hear", he says with a smile. "What is your best subject"

"English I guess. It's pretty easy"

"Are you in any honors classes?"

I feel as if he was expecting me to say at least two, but I decided to be honest with him. "Only one", I murmur.

"And that class would be…"

"English"

He nods his head, and his watch beeps. "My time with you today has unfortunately come to an end", he says with a frown.

Thank god! Now hand over the cash!

"It was a pleasure getting to know you Naruto", he gets off the bed and hands me a card he took from out of his pocket. "I'm trusting that you will not have transportation issues"

"What's this?", I ask curiously.

"Read it"

My eyes scan the small print on the index card. Oh. Just the time and location of the date.

"I hope you like coffee"

I don't...

"Eh", is the only reply I can give.

Neji escorts me out the door, and before I leave, he hands over the briefcase as well as the key.

"Don't forget to dress to impress", Itachi reminds me.

I snort mentally, before giving the desired reply. "I will"

As usual, I woke up late the next morning and rushed to get ready for work. My hair was twice as messy this morning, and I knew Iruka would scold me if I didn't fix it. So without much of a choice, I attempted to tame my spiky blond hair. After that, I put on my work clothes, making sure I to tuck in my shirt so Iruka wouldn't scold me like yesterday. The case.

I suddenly remembered that it wasn't hidden and the maids were coming in soon. Curiously, I walked over to it and opened it, even though my intention was to hide it. I pick up a stack of thick green paper and eyeball it carefully. This feels so weird. I begin to rub my other hand on it, just to know how it would feel. Wait a minute...is that?

At the bottom of the case I see a white envelope. The necklace? Sure enough, after pulling it out and opening it up, the necklace he'd bought for me was inside. He must really want me to keep it. I put the accessory on, and walk over to the mirror. Wow, it really does look good on me!

There's a soft knock on the door, and I stop admiring myself for a moment. I guess they're early. I slide the case underneath my bed, and rush to open the door. The mais greet me with bored faces, and I couldn't blame them. It's not like they had the best jobs in the world. "Room service", a woman says with a heavy spanish accent.

"Right", I say as with a smile as I invite them in. Time for me to leave. I make my way down to the lobby to start off my work day, reporting to my boss first thing as usual.

"Glad to see that you're on time"

There's mockery in his voice as usual, but I never let it bother me. "I try to be", I reply dryly.

"I see that you at least tried to do something with that unruly hair of yours, and you remembered to tuck in your shirt"

"Yes, I made sure to follow the dress code so you would not have to constantly remind me"

He smirks, and hands me a broom and dust pan. "Good. I see that you are slowly progressing", he says sounding slightly impressed. "Now sweep the floor in the kitchen. I've been getting complaints from the chefs"

I nod my head and take the cleaning items before heading off to the kitchen. He's right, this floor really needs to be swept. Luckily, breakfast was over, and dinner didn't start until around five, so all the chefs were gone. I begin to drag the broom across the floor, sweeping with very little enthusiasm. This is so boring! I hear the door open, and look up unconsciously. I see a man a little older than me with blood red hair and mint green eyes holding the same cleaning utensils as I am. Apathy radiates from his presence. Guess I'm not the only one stuck with this shitty job.

I watch him as he begins to sweep with the same level of enthusiasm as I had when I was sweeping. Stop staring. Get back to work.

Taking my own advice, I begin to sweep again, lollygagging whenever I got bored. Which was often. I was barely getting any work done, and instead, started picking up random kitchen utensils and playing with them. I stop horsing around when I realize the red head is staring at me. Shit, now he thinks I'm weird. Which is true. This isn't how I wanted him to find out.

"You must really hate this job, don't you?"

The question comes out dry, almost like a statement. "Yeah", I say nervously. "I really do. But it's good pay...for me at least"

He nods his head and continues to sweep the floor. "They should raise our wages", he complains. "We really should be earning more than ten dollars an hour"

Compared to what we could get for our jobs, I don't think ten dollars an hour is that bad. "That's understandable. Last week, when I first started working here, I worked five days for nine hours and got ninety dollars", I say as I continue to push the dirt from one spot to another. "Now I work only nine or ten hours and the same amount of days as last week...but this is the highest paying job I've ever had, so I don't have much to say"

He scoffs, and I'm beginning to get slightly irritated with his attitude. He's so moody...I don't like my job either, but it's no reason to complain about it.

"You have a very positive attitude. You must not be from here"

I take the dust pan over to the trash can and poor dump out the contents. "I'm from California. We don't really stress about stuff"

I see a smirk appear on his face, and that's when I really started to get annoyed with him. "You wait. I guarantee after two weeks you'll turn into everyone else around here"

I snort at the bold statement. "Ha! There's no way in the world that would ever happen. I bleed west coast, that's how true I am to where I come from", I say proudly.

"You've got a lot of confidence for someone who's only been working here for a week. You wait and see, more and more guests will come to this hotel and you will get so sick of them", he begins. "School isn't even over yet for the bratty teens in Connecticut and upstate New York, but in around a week and a half, this hotel will be full of them"

"No big deal. It's not like I've never had to put up with bratty teens before", I say calmly.

"California brats are much different from east coast brats", he begins. "All the kids that venture up here are downright rude"

"I can handle it. Don't worry", I say to dismiss the issue.

"If you say so. Just watch out for this kid Sai, he comes here every year for the summer and he'd probably hit on you"

"Girls never hit on me", I grumble.

"Sai's not a girl", he says blandly.

Oh.

We sweep in silence, and once we're sure the area is clean, we wipe the sweat off our foreheads in relief. "You know, we actually did a pretty good job"

I felt that the positive comment was needed. I at least wanted to say one uplifting thing before we parted, but unfortunately, he ignores the comment and walks out of the kitchen. Can't get a smile out of everybody. I follow him out so I can report back to Iruka.

My whole day was busy as usual. I had a ten minute lunch break, and then got right back to work. I was sure by now that every task I had been assigned to was one hundred percent complete.

"So you cleaned the bathroom sinks?"

"Yes, sir"

"And wiped down all the tables?"

"Yes sir"

"And finished mopping the tiles around the pool"

"Yes, sir"

He gives me a suspicious look before shooing me off. "Alright, I guess it's too late for me to give you any more tasks"

You got that right.

I take the elevator up to my room. When I finally get inside, I couldn't feel anymore relieved. Not home, but better than working for any longer. I flop onto my bed, and feel all the stress flying away. That guy I met in the kitchen sure was weird...now that I think about it...I don't even know his name….He kinda looks like a Jeffrey.

I roll over on my side, and continue to think as I slowly drift into a peaceful slumber. What if Sasuke is ugly? I begin to imagine a much less attractive version of Itachi, one with a big nose and elf ears. Highly unlikely...But what if he's a total jerk? Now that was possible. Rich people were often douchey and shallow. Or what if he thinks I'm boring?...nah...nobody ever thinks I'm boring. I can feel my body relaxing. Maybe I should show up and just blow the whole thing off. It could avoid him asking me out on another date.

I had to call in sick the next morning in order to go on the date. Somehow, Iruka had decided to cut me some slack and told me to get well soon. It was awfully nice of him. Maybe he's not so bad after all.

I tore up my whole closet searching for something nice to wear. It seemed all I had were basketball shorts, t-shirts, flip flops, sneakers, cargo shorts, sweatpants, and a few pairs of jeans. When Itachi said dress nicely, did he mean that I had to wear a tuxedo? I look back down at the card before shaking my hand. No way. Who the hell shows up to a coffee shop in a tuxedo?...unless it's a really fancy coffee shop.

I put on my best pair of jeans, an orange polo shirt, and my newest pair of sneakers. Not bad. I manage to make my hair look pretty darn good, and cram the piles of clothes on the floor into a few drawers. Can't be late.

I take the elevator downstairs, but head out the back door so Iruka won't see me. I sort of felt guilty lying to him, but it was for the best. I wanted to keep my twelve thousand dollars.

I walk across the busy street and call a cab. I slide into the seat, and find myself being next to the most attractive looking man I've ever seen. His jet black hair matched his obsidian eyes and stood in contrast to his pale skin. Everything about him was perfect, and even when he shot me a dirty look, he still looked attractive. Dirty looks were not supposed to be attractive. What's his deal? I haven't done anything to him! No matter how attractive he was, I wasn't going to let him give me dirty looks with out giving one back to him, so I give him a sneer before pouting and looking out the window. Now that I think about it he kind of looks like the guy I'm supposed to meet to day...I glance back over at him. He looks a little like Itachi too….could he be...

"Where to?"

The cab drivers voice is raspy and foreign. It reminds me of the kind of cab driver voices you'd hear in movies.

"Fifth Avenue", I say sounding surprisingly rude and demanding.

He immediately takes off, and I feel like I made him really angry. Maybe I should apologize? Or does he not care? I'm sure he's used to it. Wouldn't surprise me if almost everyone treated him this way.

"Hey...I know you might not care, but sorry for being so rude", I say loud enough for him to hopefully hear me.

To my surprise, he laughs at me, and I begin to feel flustered. "Thanks kid, but I couldn't care less how people in this city treat me. I've gotten used to it", he begins. "And the fact that you apologized makes me wonder if you're from this place. The people here aren't very modest"

I smile, feeling relieved that he was a pretty laid back guy. "I'm from California. It's very...different from here"

"I'm aware of that"

I can hear that he actually enjoys talking to me. I'm not sure why though, I'd expect him to think I'm some bratty kid that's not worth talking to like the guy next to me.

"You know, you look pretty nice today. Got a date or somethin'?"

I laugh nervously and scratch the back of my head, the guy next to me glances over at me, and looks away once I notice."Yeah, I usually never try to look this nice"

"An attractive young man like you doesn't have to try"

I wasn't sure if he was hitting on me. It sure didn't sound like it. I think he was just trying to be nice. As pathetic as it sounds, I think he's the nicest person I've met since I've arrived in this city.

"Thanks...I feel a lot less nervous now"

We stop at a red light, but it was a pretty rough stop. Our heads jolt forward, and I could tell the guy next to me was extremely pissed off.

"What the hell are you doing? Are you trying to get us killed?"

The cab driver doesn't reply, and I find the situation to be funny. I can't help but chuckle a bit. Can't handle a little thrill ride, can he?

"Why do you find this funny?", the man snapped at me.

"Will you relax", I snap back at him. "You gave me a dirty look when I got in the cab, and now you're yelling at me for a stupid reason"

"We could have gotten into an accident", he scolds me. "And I thought you were some bratty kid when you first got in here. I'm not very fond of children"

"I'm not a child", I say sternly. "You know damn well I don't look like one either"

He rolls his eyes at me. "Hn"

My head was ready to explode. I couldn't put up with this prick any longer. "Be nice back there. We're almost where you guys need to go", the driver warns us.

"Fine", I say bitterly.

The car stops, and both of us step out. Oddly, we end up walking to the same coffee shop. Hm. That's weird. What a coincidence. I look around the shop for anyone who could be my possible date. None of these people match the description except...I look around once more, and find that the bastard I'd met in the taxicab appeared to be looking for someone as well. NO. NO. NO. NO. NO. I look down at the card again, and realize that he is wearing exactly what the card says he would be wearing. Forget this, I might as well go back to my room and book a new hotel to stay in and quit my job and change my name and-

I notice that he's walking over towards me, and I'm sure we're thinking the same thing. "You're Naruto Uzumaki, aren't you?"

Too late to escape now.

"Yes...yes I am"

He stares blankly at me, and I want to bolt out the door as fast as I can and never come back to this stupid shop again.

"Are you fucking kidding me", he mutters. "Why on earth would my brother set me up with someone who's no where near my age and the same gender as me"

"He told me you you liked both guys and girls"

"Yes, that's true", he hisses.

"Then what the hell is the problem?", I say growing frustrated with his attitude.

"I don't go on dates with men. I only date women"

"Then you're straight and I should probably go back to my hotel", I say dismissively.

"No. I don't think you listened carefully", he says coldly. "I don't date men"

I finally understood what he meant by that. "Oh", I say softly. I can feel a blush creeping on my face.

He sighs, and rubs his hand across his face. "But there's no point in going home. I don't ever want to ride in a taxi again"

I snort at how stuck up he sounded. "Then why didn't you take your hundred thousand dollar car here?", I ask mockingly.

He gives me an annoyed look. "It ran out of gas and I didn't want to be late"

I roll my eyes and decide to get in line. He walks with me, and I can tell he's less than pleased. This date is going to be awful.

A/N: Today was a very uneventful and kind of depressing day. I've been arguing with my family a lot, but thanks to that I've isolated myself from them and wrote this chapter. I'm very happy that people like the story. I will continue to update regularly.

Have a wonderful day *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*