Hello there! I come bearing gifts in the form of a new chapter! I know, this one came in a bit later than usual and is a bit shorter than the last few, but I promise it's good! I see that some people want a reading reaction fanfiction for this story. While I would love doing that, I suck at reaction fanfiction lol. So, if anyone is interested in doing one, PM me.
Going through the last chapter, I haven't seen any reviews that justify any major questions being answered. Thanks to you all who are enjoying this story! I'd like to once again thank altajir95 for beta'ing the story!
Also, once again this story has a TvTropes pages. I know I said it like 16 chapters ago, but here is the link again: pmwiki / pmwiki . php / Fanfic/ ShatteringLies
Just make sure you remove all the spaces, fanfiction doesn't like links apparently. So, without further delay, enjoy!
Yoto High:
"Baka onii-chan getting popular. Baka Kana not deciding on the Idol group name!" Ruby sighed as she doodled in her notebook, grumbling to herself. After the Dating Reality Show hit the air, it was an almost instant hit; it should be considering it was a new season of an already popular show.
"But nooooo, Aqua just had to use his real name!" Ruby pouted as she pulled out her phone and went through and scrolled through the headlines in the entertainment sections.
"The hit dating reality show, LoveNow, kicks off with a bang! The tantalizing cast includes the famous son of Naruto Uzumaki and the former Idol, Ai Hoshino-Uzumaki; Aquamarine Uzumaki!" She rolled her eyes at the number of articles that were making waves throughout the net. It seemed that she had greatly underestimated just how many people would turn out to watch the show simply because it had a Hoshino/Uzumaki in them.
"Mama still has many fans…" Ruby thought as she wondered what her life and popularity would be like when her Idol group went official. As she scrolled through the articles, she noticed that there were new articles about her, her brother, her mama, and her papa. It seemed like Aqua's appearance in the show had triggered a re-emergence in articles about her family.
"Just wait! I'll outshine you yet!" She declared as she pumped her fist, fire in her eyes. Beyond her goal of becoming an Idol, like her mother, she had another goal, to outshine her twin! A sort of sibling rivalry. As she gave herself a mental pep talk and words of encouragement, her classmates looked at her with a sweat drop.
"Ah, Ruby-chan, are you ok?" Ruby blinked as she looked up to her right to find Minami looking at her with concern.
"I'm fine, why?" She answered as she tilted her head before she looked around.
"Uh, Frill-chan's absent again?" Ruby questioned while Minami nodded. Frill was someone who was widely popular and in high demand for TV shows and other media.
"Apparently, she started filming in a new TV drama. I guess she has a pretty busy schedule as it already is." Minami explained to which Ruby sighed.
"What about you, Minami-chan?" Ruby questioned the model, who chuckled nervously as she played with a strand of her hair.
"W-Well, I'll be heading to a shoot after school." Minami answered as she blushed slightly. Ruby sighed at that. Everyone around her was getting to work and doing their own thing, while she and Kana were dragging her feet!
"I see…" Ruby grumbled with a pout while Minami chuckled sheepishly. She knew that her blonde friend wanted to be an Idol, it was pretty much all the girl talked about. For her to see her brother get one ahead of her no doubt caused some sort of anxiety.
"Don't worry, Nee-sama. I'm sure that you and Kana-san will get an Idol group going soon." Minato chimed in causing Ruby to send him a smile.
"Thank you, Minato-kun." Ruby thanked him with a charming smile. Her two younger siblings were precious to her because they brought so much joy to her. While she might be at odds with Aqua at times, she loved her twin as much as she loved her younger siblings.
"Well, first we're gonna have to come up with a name." Kana spoke up as she turned the page of a book she was reading, causing Ruby to roll her eyes.
"And I told you, we already have a name!" Ruby argued to which Kana sighed as she looked up from her book.
"Look, why don't we discuss that over at Strawberry Productions?" Kana offered. As much as she disagreed with Ruby, she'd rather not have such a conversation in public. She knew how much potential damage any sort of rumor could do to their Idol group before it even took off. If they were going to make any announcement of sorts, they'd do it on their own terms. Ruby crossed her arm and looked away.
"Fine." She responded. One way or another, she was going to get the ball rolling!
With Aqua:
If one were to ask Aqua if he had any sort of attraction to the opposite sex, he'd say no. Well, he did, but that attraction faded away as he grew older. He didn't have much interest or rather; his life had been too preoccupied with other matters to have any.
However, if you asked him now, his answer would be…it's complicated. If you asked him his type, he'd say someone like his mother.
"How cliché." He thought to himself as he walked through the school hallway. Yeah, he was a mama's boy. He loved his mother dearly and he'd only ever consider someone with qualities like his mother. And in the past few hours, only one girl came to his mind, which caused him to sigh.
"That smile…that dammed smile…" He thought to himself as a light blush settled onto his cheeks. For the briefest of moments, her smile reminded him of his mother. Her eyes shined just like hers.
"Dammit Akane…" Aqua muttered to himself as he ran a hand through his hair. Just when he thought he understood his feelings and emotions, Akane comes in and turns all of that on its head. He sighed as he grumbled. He didn't have time for such distractions right now. He had a goal in mind!
"Just calm down, collect your thoughts, and put on a charming smile." He thought as he allowed himself to smile as he threw a small glance behind him, towards a hidden camera. Yes, he was being recorded and was currently 'on set' as they said. He stopped in front of a door before he opened it, the other cast members going about their business.
"Oh, hey there, Aqua-kun!" He heard her voice as he turned his head slightly to the left. There she was, that same smile. Was this an act? Or was this her actual self? He shook his head, as he sent her a smile, a real smile.
"Hey there, Akane-san!" He greeted her. Dammit, why did her smile break his resolve so quickly?!
Strawberry Productions:
Ruby sighed depressingly as she looked at the calendar. Aqua had signed with Strawberry Productions officially as well, considering that he needed an agency to represent him. Although he was very clear about the fact that he would choose what he got to work on. Ichigo didn't mind, especially considering that his hands were already full of the workload from their father. For all purposes, Miyako was the one who was really leading the company at this point.
"You know, your father's sensei sure knows how to write stories other than smut." Kana spoke up from her position on the couch as she read a yellow-covered light novel's 1st volume. Ruby rolled her eyes as she pointed at the light novel.
"Because that wasn't written by his sensei, that light novel is written by papa." Ruby commented. Kana blinked at that as she looked down at the light novel and flipped the pages to the very last one and sure enough the name Naruto Uzumaki was written.
"The Story of Minato Namikaze. Never thought I'd be reading a novel about superpower ninjas of all things." Kana said with a chuckle as she went back to reading, not noticing Ruby's sheepish look.
"Well, I think it's best that the world doesn't know that the stories in the novel are based on true events." She thought to herself. The only ones that knew about her father's parents were the family. No one knew that Minato Namikaze was Naruto's father or that the novel was a retelling of his life. The fact that Ai and Naruto had two more children other than the twins was not a well-known fact. Though she assumed that wouldn't last for long.
"I guess Minato is pretty happy that the protagonist is named after him." Kana added with a giggle, not knowing how close she was to the truth.
"More like Minato's named after Ojii-san's, but she doesn't need to know that." Ruby thought before she shook her head. She needed to get back on track! She walked over to Kana and took the light novel right out of her hand, catching her by surprise.
"Hey! I was getting to the good part!" Kana protested but stopped as she saw Ruby looking at her with a stern face.
"Onii-chan is filming today again, Sap-chan is going to be entering a martial arts tournament soon. Frill-chan started filming in a new TV drama and Minami-chan is shooting." Ruby listed off as Kana raised an eyebrow.
"What's your point?" Kana questioned her, but she felt like she knew where this was going. Ruby rolled her eyes as she bonked Kana with her light novel.
"We need to go official." Ruby said to which Kana sighed.
"We aren't ready." Kana pointed out to which Ruby shook her head before an idea came to her head as she smirked coyly.
"I know that you aren't used to getting any jobs Kana-san, but we need to get our start somewhere." Ruby tried to entice the redhead, who took the bait.
"Watch it. I may have agreed to be an Idol, but don't push it or else I'll punch you on the chin and shake your brain." Kana warned her to which Ruby shrugged her shoulders.
"Try me." Ruby said. She might not like the hellish training her father put them through, but she knew that she could easily defend herself. Kana grumbled under her breath, something about overconfident blondes before she sighed.
"Listen, if you have nothing to do, study. I know that you really want to be an Idol and all, but being an Idol doesn't come with good pay, most of the time. You'll peak out eventually and after that, it's all downhill from there. And before you know it, your thirty and your Idol career is over." Kana stated bluntly. She didn't have the appetite to be an idealist, but she was a pessimist.
"I mean, your mother for example should tell you all you need to know about being an idol and how little they actually make." Kana pointed out to which Ruby frowned but nodded. She wasn't wrong. Before her papa came into the picture, Ruby knew just how much her mama struggled as an idol. Behind all that fame and glory was someone who was struggling.
"Blunt as always. Is there nothing we can do?" Ruby questioned. She felt restless when she was doing nothing while everyone else was pushing ahead. Kana hummed as she snatched her novel back and went back to reading it.
"New Idols typically go sing and dance at clubs. Alternatively, there are some media-related jobs you can get once in a while. However, considering that we don't have any songs of our own, and we haven't decided on a group name yet, we can do much." Kana answered to which Ruby pouted.
"We do have a name!" Ruby declared to which Kana shook her head.
"If we go with B-Komachi, then we are setting ourselves up for failure." She pointed out to which Ruby raised an eyebrow.
"What do you mean?" She asked, curious as to why Kana would say that.
"B-Komachi at its peak was very popular, it had many fans. I reckon it still does. But that's the issue. By calling ourselves B-Komachi, our audience will already set expectations based on the old B-Komachi and if we don't meet those expectations, we'll lose fans before we even gain them." Kana explained in detail as Ruby furrowed her brows.
"But at the same time, we'll be using that B-Komachi name to build up excitement! Besides, we have the poster girl for the old group as our mentor!" Ruby countered to which Kana nodded in agreement. That was a point she couldn't refute. Having the backing of Ai as not only a mentor but as a supporting member of the entire group would be invaluable.
"Just so you know… once we go forward with this, it'll be official. There will be no going back and I'm still not sure about introducing myself as an Idol." Kana said as she looked down, not sure if she even wanted to be an Idol.
"And what's so difficult about that? Just go up there and say, 'I'm Kana Arima, an Idol!'" Ruby encouraged, trying to act like Kana. The said girl blushed with embarrassment as she shoved the novel in her face.
"It's embarrassing! How the heck am I supposed to tell my parents that I'm a self-proclaimed Idol?! I haven't even done Idol work before! That's not even mentioning that I'm working with a company that hasn't had an Idol group for over a decade!" Kana complained in frustration. She knew that her mother would be especially disappointed.
"Well, it's not like I knew anything about Idol work before I started." The two girls turned to find Ai and Miyako entering the room. Ai looked at the two girls with amusement, reminding herself of when she first started. Miyako in the meantime held a small camera and a tripod.
"What's with the camera?" Kana pointed to the camera. Miyako chuckled at her in response as she turned to Ai, letting her explain. Ai nodded as she walked up to the two while Miyako set up the camera.
"New Idols typically start from the bottom of the provable ladder. Back when I was an Idol, it was more common to hand out flyers, joint concerts, and other minor jobs that allowed Idols to get out their names. However, these days Idols have been gaining traction on the internet. And it's cheap too!" Ai said excitedly. So much had changed since she stopped being an Idol.
"You know, I have heard of Idol groups that are only based on the internet. And as Ai said, it's cheap with a small start-up cost. Not to mention that a lot of people often don't even sign with agencies until they get big enough." Miyako added to which Ai nodded.
"Wow! You mean like YouTube?!" Ruby asked with a sparkle in her eyes.
"Exactly. It's better if you actually have some built-in audiences and fans before you start any concerts. That way, you don't have to attract a base from your first concert." Miyako explained further. While Ichigo dealt with a single project, she had been dealing with many internet personalities that had been sighed with them.
"You're so smart Miyako-baa-chan!" Ruby praised the women. Miyako let a small smile grace her face. Ai looked at the exchange and smiled. Miyako was family to her and was happy to see her child consider the same.
"Uh, no offense Miyako-san, Ai-san, but I think you're underestimating the internet. A pretty face like Ruby's alone won't bring any more than a few thousand subscribers. The internet is filled with those." Kana pointed at Ruby. While Ruby was by no means ugly, heck, many would consider her a beauty; there were countless others out there on the internet that had better looks than her. Heck, she'd consider that Sapphire had a better figure than the two!
"Hey! I'm pretty!" Ruby protested while Kana rolled her eyes.
"Even with my fans, we'd be lucky to get 10,000. Besides, we'd be only able to get about one percent to show up to an offline event, so it'd be really tough going." Kana pointed out the flaws of the idea. While 10,000 fans were no joke, in the grand scheme of things, it was a small number. Miyako raised an eyebrow before she gestured to Ai.
"That would be the case, but Strawberry Productions isn't an amateur agency. We have managed to build up vast experience in managing streamers and segments only. And that's why for our first video, you'll be introducing yourself with Ai over here." Miyako dropped the bomb while Ai nodded as the two girls looked at them with wide eyes.
"W-Wait, Ai-san, you're going to be in the video?!" Kana explained to which Ai giggled but nodded.
"That is correct. We'll be shooting a small introduction video about you two with me featuring in them!" Ai answered cheerfully. This was as new to her as it was to them.
"But mama, wouldn't the people only want to watch because of you?" Ruby questioned to which Kana nodded. That was a bit of the problem.
"That would be the case, but, if the famous Ai Uzumaki went on social media and declared that she was mentoring a new generation of Idols, lots of people will keep an eye for the said Idols." Miyako countered.
"Miyako-san is right. My Idol days are long over. But I can still teach what I have learned to you two. While the idea is definitely to gather more attention on your first video with me in it, overtime you two need to outgrow my need." Ai explained further. Kana nodded slowly, that made sense to her. She turned to look at Ruby, expecting to see her happy face, only to be surprised and find a frown on her face.
"Ruby?" Ai questioned her daughter, who looked down and sighed. She loved her mother, truly, she did, but this felt wrong. She'd be using her mother's fame and name to get attention and that just seemed wrong.
"Mama, I don't want to use you." Ruby started, catching everyone off guard.
"Baka, this is our best plan. We need whatever can get our hands on." Kana argued but stopped as Ruby shot her a flare.
"I don't want to use mama's or papa's names to get what I want! I'll do it with my own sweat, blood, and tears!" Ruby exclaimed as she turned and walked out, leaving the other three to sigh.
"I'll handle this." Ai said as she followed after her daughter. As she left, Kana looked at Miyako who sighed.
"Ruby's father has always sought to keep his children humbled, to strive towards their own dreams. That's why Ruby is so determined to not use their names. She doesn't want to be famous because she is the daughter of Ai and Naruto Uzumaki, she wants to be famous as Ruby Uzumaki." Miyako explained to Kana, who tried to understand. She couldn't. Her mother had taught her to use any means necessary to inch ever forward.
"I envy you, Ruby." She thought to herself. She wished her family was like her friends.
With Ai and Ruby:
Ruby looked from her spot on the balcony at the setting sun and sighed. Here she was, on the verge of officially starting her Idol group, but something held her back. While she loved the idea of her mother being the mentor of her group, she did not want to use her mother's name to gain a following. No. That went against her principles. Principles her mother and father had instilled in her.
"Ruby, what's wrong?" She stiffed as she heard her mother's voice. She looked down, not wanting to look at her mother.
"Mama, papa always told me that there are no shortcuts to power, that if I want to achieve my dreams, I'll have to achieve them on my own." She started as her mother listened to her, a small smile on her face.
"But I can't use your name to jump-start my own career. That's cheating. There is no hard work in that. I'd feel like a fraud." Ruby explained as her mother listened. Ai sighed at her daughter's explanation but smiled. Ruby might not have realized it, but she had made her mother very proud at that moment.
"Ruby, when I was young, I didn't have anybody to support me. No one was there for me. It is the same for your father, if not worse. He had no one, no family, friends, or anything. People looked at us as mistakes, as annoyances." Ai started, a sad smile forming on her face as Ruby turned to face her mother with shock. Her parents never talked about their childhood much, but she knew it was hard, for both of them.
"Your father and I never had a family, a family we both wanted. And now we have that family." She spoke as she looked at her daughter and brought both her hands up and rested them on her shoulders. Ruby looked at her mother, noticing the pain, love, adoration, and slight hurt in her eyes.
"Ruby, you will always be our daughter, no matter what. Your father and I would love nothing more than to support you and give you what we never had. So, lean on us, Ruby. There is nothing wrong with that. Our only wish is that our children never stop needing us." Ai finished with a loving smile as she looked at her daughter. Ruby's eyes widened as she looked at her mother, small tears rolling down her cheeks before she sniffled.
"Mama…" She muttered as she hugged her mother and sobbed. She hadn't realized that her words could hurt her mother and father.
"Shhh, it's ok, Ruby. Now come, we have a video to record." Ai comforted her daughter as she pulled back and saw a smile blossom on her daughter's face as she nodded.
"What a beautiful young woman you will become, Ruby. Although I think your father might not like that." Ai thought as she chuckled to herself. Naruto had told her how he'd beat any man who tried to get it on with his daughters. She pitted the men who would try to court her daughters in the future because her husband would have none.
And cut! Well, there you have it people! The Idol group is about to go live! Aqua can't get best girl out of his mind since their first encounter! Yp, I wanted their relationship to be a bit more than just when he saves her.
The next chapter will, well, you know what already happened. That'll be fun to write lol. With all of that said, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Bye!
