An old man sat in his den looking over the pages that he was supposed to submit to the editor with a deep frown on his face. It was pure and utter drek, and he knew it. However, there was nothing he could do about it since the editors were the ones calling the shots right now. Tilting his head, he sighed heavily and pointed over to a sealed envelope on the desk by the door. "What you're looking for is over there," he stated calmly setting down the stack of pages.
Without turning around, he seemed to know when the package suddenly vanished from the desk, replaced instead by a small lotus blossom on top of a DVD. "Thank you for your hard work, I'll get that over to the animation department as soon as possible."
The silent presence didn't dissipate, causing him to let out a small, bitter chuckle. "I know you'd prefer to get back in the show, but they have plans for you." He answered bitterly, tossing her a recent volume, for it to end up impaled on the wall by a senbon a few minutes later, "I would love to have you be there for him, along with the other two girls, but the editors won't let me publish it."
"Sasuke?" The presence asked quietly, for him to nod gravely as he contemplated adding a few knives of his own to the senbon. At least it was a copy and not the master, so he could destroy it however he would like. "What's next week's Uchiha worship fest?" The presence continued.
"Hell if I know, I just want to wash my hands of the whole damn thing," the man answered tersely as he rubbed his face. "Sorry, I'm just tired... forgive me. They're even misquoting me in the fandom, and that's not right."
"There is no need to forgive, we understand you are not representing us, but rather what the editors wish to see. Ninja understand how to play the part, I will leave you to your work Kishimoto-sensei," the voice answered revealing a softness he'd come to appreciate in his regular visitor.
After the presence had left, the old man ran a hand through his thinning hair and smiled warmly. Scooping up the lotus blossom he ran his thumb over a petal and chuckled lightly, looking at a faded pile of manga pages, His Naruto. "Someday Haku, someday the real story will come out."