Reaching
LilacLilyFlower © 2009
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Unfortunately.
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Omake Special 1 (NOT A PART OF THE ACTUAL STORY)
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In the corner of a dark room, a single screen shone bright. The tapping of a keyboard clicked throughout the room, and a faint muttering was heard.
"No, no, that's not right…"
The typing paused, then returned with a fury. With a sense of finality, the last key was pressed, and everything fell silent.
A small figure loomed over the open Word document, grinning wildly.
"Perfect."
The figure cackled, raking its fingers through hastily cropped black hair. It finally leaned closer to the screen, allowing the light of the screen to fall upon its face, revealing its identity.
It was a horror, the most terrible, fearsome thing to exist in this realm. It could wreak havoc, sow blessings, and was overall above any god that resided in this world.
It was the author.
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The air was knocked from Hikari's lips as she barreled into Itachi.
"How dare you," she growled, lip raising in a bitter sneer that clearly portrayed her disdain. "How dare you show up after everything you did!"
Itachi narrowed his eyes the slightest bit, and he raised his arm to—
"CUT!"
Hikari groaned as she turned to face the director. "What is it now?"
The director stomped up to her in a huff. "Hikari, your character doesn't growl. That's Naruto's character! You're the type to hiss or whisper," the director explained. She whirled on Itachi. "And you!" she accused, pointing at him. "You're a missing nin! You don't just stand around to let a genin run into you. Redo the scene! Take seven!"
Hikari rolled her eyes as she got back into position. She eyed Itachi with apprehension. "Please don't hurt me."
"Of course not," he replied. "That goes against the entire point of the scene."
"This isn't even in the script," she muttered. "Authoress will be upset."
"Action!"
Hikari barreled towards Itachi, but he sidestepped easily and grabbed her shoulder, using it as a pivot to slam her onto the ground. He easily held onto her arms behind her back, restraining her.
"How dare you," Hikari hissed as she struggled. "How dare you show up after everything you did!"
Itachi's eyes narrowed the slightest bit, and he tightened his grip on her arms. "You don't know the truth—"
"No, no, no, CUT!" The director rushed out again, making Hikari groan and Itachi twitch. "That's not in character for you, Itachi!"
"But the script says to say that line."
"Well, screw the script!"
"Excuse me?" Everyone turned towards the owner of the new voice. Hikari and Itachi's faces paled as they recognized the pale face of the author.
The author sauntered forward with ease, an eyebrow raised. "Did you just disregard my entire script?"
The director met her gaze easily. "Yes! It isn't in character!"
The author paused, running over the current scene in her head. "Oh, yes, I see what you mean. It's completely implausible for Itachi to reveal the truth so easily, isn't it?"
The director nodded eagerly, crossing her arms smugly.
"Well, then," the author said. "Let's fix that." She whipped out a laptop out of nowhere, making Hikari flinch back. Itachi extended his arm in front of her, shielding her from the threat the laptop stood for.
The director and the author spoke in hushed whispers and flurries of motion. Hikari and Itachi, the only present members of the cast, stood awkwardly on set, watching the two women with wariness.
"Oh," the author said, looking up at them. "You guys can go. We're going through the entire script— or, well, what we have of it so far— so there won't be any more filming today. Everyone else is in the lounge."
Hikari ran out of the set as quickly as she could, Itachi following suit. They burst into the lounge, slamming the door behind them.
"What's got you two in such a rush?" Shoumaru asked, laying casually on a sofa.
"She showed up," Itachi explained while Hikari tried to calm her racing heart.
The rest of the cast started, with the exception of Takahiro. "You mean…" Shoumaru trailed off.
"Yeah," Hikari affirmed. "Authoress."
In unison, everyone shivered (again, with the exception of Takahiro). Takahiro took a loud slurp of his smoothie, eyeing the rest of them with amusement from his seat at the kitchen's wide counter. "I don't see why you don't call her Lily. I mean, she prefers that," he said.
"That would probably summon her more quickly," Eisuke said, perched on a stool beside him. "And to be fair, she is sort of terrifying. She holds our lives and storylines in her hands."
"She's not that bad," Takahiro rebutted. He turned to Hikari, who was currently slumped over a table with her head in her arms. Itachi was by her side, patting her on the back consolingly. "Are you done with shooting for the day?"
"Yes," Itachi replied. "Our scene was completely scrapped and the script is currently undergoing revision. I suspect that there won't be any filming for a while."
"Yuck, revision," Naruto said, making a face. "Revision usually ends in bad news for us."
"That's not true," Takahiro protested. "In the original draft, I was a side character that was supposed to only have any significance in Hikari's Academy years, but after Lily saw the chemistry between me and Hikari onscreen, she revised everything to move me up into a main character's position."
"So instead of having a chance to live your days in peace, you've been thrust into the thick of things, since you're following around the heroine of the story," Sasuke pointed out.
Hikari scoffed. "I have no chemistry with anyone."
"I wouldn't say so," Ino interrupted. "I saw sneak peeks of the later end of the script, you know, the future, and you definitely have a love interest. Probably more than one, just for the drama."
Hikari flushed. "I'm eight and a half! Nine, if we go by the fake birthday, but still! I'm way too young for this!"
The rest of the cast wilted.
"We know," Sakura grumbled. "We're going to be stuck with this story for a long time, won't we? I'm sure I heard Authoress mention something about sticking with the story until you're nineteen."
"Eleven years," Neji said, sneering. "Eleven years with the rest of you. How thrilling."
"Now, now, Neji-kun," Kakashi droned. "Don't go around starting any fights."
"Hey, now," Shisui piped up. "At least you guys even have scenes. Fumiko and I are only useful for flashbacks now. And Ichirou only has those scenes for father-figures and all that crap."
"This isn't even the whole cast," Fumiko mentioned. "There will be many more of us, so we shouldn't fight. And you're all wrong, it's not eleven more years. When Hikari is nineteen, we'll be on the third installment of this four-part story. The fourth part is what really messes with your mind, and it transcends lifetimes, so we're in for a really long ride."
There was a thud, and everyone looked over to see Hikari passed out over the table. Itachi was retracting his hand from the back of the neck.
"You knocked her out?" Takahiro asked, aghast. "She's the main character of all the main characters!"
"It's not like it's not going to happen sooner or later in the story," Itachi said, defending himself. "Besides, she was hyperventilating." He scooped up Hikari as if she were a baby, and laid her on a sofa.
"I just want the storyline to hurry up so I can openly be her brother," Naruto complained.
"That doesn't happen for another couple years," Kakashi said. He closed his book with one hand, and stood up to face the audience (re: the readers).
"This omake is going to end soon," he said, addressing the audience. "So while we're at it, I'd like to encourage you all to review. Authoress thanks everyone who reviewed, and has expressed her gratitude by writing this omake. And yes, she knows that three updates in two days is very rare for her, but she's currently on a writing spree, so just enjoy the story."
He paused, tilting his head to the side. "Also, check out Strawberry Days, her other story, which consists of oneshots about this story. You can request oneshots of any setting, with any characters, in any universe. And the following information is very important, so please pay attention: The reason why Authoress updates oneshots in this story sometimes is to address the readers, which is you guys, in the author's notes, since she doesn't want to get caught going against the rules and creating a chapter that's only a memo, like last time. She was warned because of that by the staff of this website, so if she does upload a oneshot to this story, just know that it's for the author's note at the bottom. Please remember that the oneshots are not a part of this story, and thus should be treated as noncanon material unless otherwise state. Thank you."
"How do you know Lily's thoughts?" Takahiro asked.
"Well, it's relatively simple," Kakashi responded lightly. "Even when we're not filming, Authoress dictates our every thought and action. This entire omake is scripted as well."
The atmosphere of the entire room plummeted.
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A/N: This was completely random and silly, and I'll probably regret uploading it, but I'm running on two hours of sleep right now, so I'm delirious.
Enjoy. I said everything important through Kakashi in this "chapter".
See you next time!