Welcome ALL! As the time suggests, I was feeling some real romance and watching hallmark movies this past Christmas and this idea began to sprout from that. Definitely more real and adult than what Hallmark shows, but they gave me the inspirations, so credit for what they do. Truly a romance company who bring the feels, and I hope this story brings it out for you. I hope you all Enjoy!

As you all know, I have my own Book on Sale: A SIREN'S CALL, By Tim B. Wolfe, which I'm very VERY proud of.

If you could buy my book to support me, that'd be Steller! And Tell me in the comments you did!

Glazed Emeralds: A Hallmark Story

Arc 1: Tease

Chapter 1: A Promise Made

"Looking around at people on the sidewalk, one can experience many things: a lady with too much perfume choking the nose of the passersby, the honks of incessant horns along the road where no one moved anywhere, the shouting of the community struggling to make a change in city policy. But the story is different when you are up in the clouds. You are free of the clutter, you have space to breathe, you are able to make your own choices."

"What a load of garbage." Naruto uttered to himself as he pressed delete on the company-wide email about being all you can be and turned back to the work in front of him.

'Up in the clouds?' Naruto scoffed as he turned in his chair to briefly look out his window, his view one of many as he gazed across the maze of fifty six skyscrapers of this metropolis of a city. Maybe if there were one or two, it might be apt, but all Naruto saw was the choked gas clouds and reflective tempered glass that permeated everywhere, boiling those below the pillars of power and prestige. He took a deep breath and got back to work. After all, he had deadlines to meet.

Naruto had worked at the Shimura Group for six years now, and the job was simple enough; make sure that both sides of contracts were happy with their deals and no one was trying to sabotage or cripple their competitor. He was a mediator of contracts and people. He was a conflict resolution specialist, and...Naruto was damn good at his job.

'Maybe that's why I have so much work.' Naruto grumbled as he read through another document, looking specifically for any poor choice words that his secretary had written down, and she had indeed chosen her language poorly as his delete button was the most worn of all his keyboard squares. He didn't trust her one bit. He wouldn't even care to see how far he could throw her. After all, he didn't hire her. Naruto paused to scroll through his flagged tasks on his computer passing huge packets that once upon a time would have swarmed in papers all over his desk until it was piled to his head. Now with the age of computers, that could be hidden. Since it was hidden, employees could not complain about too much work; their work was not tangible after all, so they were just lazy if they could not complete it, and head out the door to an easier job.

'Just get it done at all costs. Now that's the true motto.' Naruto chuckled morbidly to himself. 'Shimura Corp: where we succeed or you get fired.' Naruto stretched, and grimaced. He was antsy to be out of here, but where was he to go really? Down the elevator, out onto a crowded street with people choking through small gaps like fish in a barrel? He longed to spread his legs, bask in nature, enjoy his life, but when did he have time for that? He was well compensated, and therefore, always on call.

"Mr. Namikaze? I have the files you requested." Came a shrill voice from the doorway. Naruto looked up and took the papers offered to him. Naruto took one glance and sighed, his eyes downcast as he pushed the papers back into the awaiting hands.

"Shion, these are the Dockson reports, I need the Clinton Invoices."

"Sorry. I'll fix that." Shion apologized as she turned away, her tight ass pushing out enticingly from her traditional black pencil skirt as she walked down the corridor, her hips sashaying side to side on six inch heels and bare thighs sliding out from the three inch cuts in the sides for ease of movement. Naruto let his lustful gaze linger for but a second before resuming his work, unlike another coworker down the aisle whose chair slipped out and he fell to the ground. 'What an idiot.' Naruto rolled his eyes, typing in corrections on his keyboard. To get caught staring was such an amateur move. Unlike his younger self, he had grown and matured. He did not get caught.

Naruto shook his hair out and kept working. He had been working hard and nonstop for six years, since the day he graduated high school. He worked here all day and spent his nights at college, and because of his hard work, he was positive that someday soon, his hard work would pay off.

"Unless a nice ass pulls me away." Naruto muttered as he bit into the butt of his pen at yet another mistake was noted by his secretary's work. He did not and would never have hired Shion. She was an utter klutz, she did not understand how to file anything in any kind of order, and he had to make his own appointments on his ever updating calendar despite her being allotted two hours a day to do just that simple task. No, he did not hire Shion; his boss did. Despite feminism and hardworking girls paving the way for the image of an independent woman, it was still very handy to sleep with the boss. She just appeared one day twelve weeks ago standing behind his boss and staring at her phone while the boss instructed him on what her responsibilities would be under him.

She disappeared many times a week going into the boss's office, and came out looking well...not proper. Why was it that a conflict specialist like him was having problems like this? Where he couldn't launch a grievance report because it was his very boss who ran the complaints office where he would file it; that's why.

"Mr. Namikaze?" Shion spoke up again as she draped herself over his desk, her blouse halfway unbuttoned as she bent over, and presented her large chest straight at him, her cleavage hiding nothing as the lace fabric opened further. Naruto did not look or chance a gaze down her burgeoning valley; Shion already had two other claims of sexual harassment that she was set to win and he would not give her the time of day that she sexually exuded from those around her.

"What is it?"

"The boss wants to see you."

"Tell Mr. Jon-"

"Not the boss...The Boss."

"...I see. Tell his secretary that I'm heading up." Naruto called out as he locked his workstation and quickly stepped through the hallway to sidestep through the closing elevator doors.

As soon as the doors shut, he relaxed his shoulders, his hard, serious exterior falling in shambles around him. Shion was pretty, everyone agreed on that, but such a shameless flirt and an adulteress! She had a husband, but was willing to do anything to get a bonus or promotion. Hence why his boss assigned her to him, getting some ass on the side while giving Naruto a complete headache. Naruto seriously wished that his boss was fired at the next meeting. Unlikely, considering he always stole Naruto's work as his own during the quarterly reviews and during the conference calls with the higher ups. Being only twenty four, he was still proving himself to the older cohort in their prime.

As the door opened, Naruto's façade reappeared, his jaw set, his eyes zeroed in, and he walked forward with pseudo confidence into the open doors of the main office which meant one thing. He was expected.

"You may see him now." Came the luscious, sultry voice of his boss's secretary, her blonde hair stylized in the latest trend, and her outfit a posh attire made only for the best. Naruto made his way past the doors and into the office of the company president where he came to see the head man himself, Danzo Shimura, looking out the floor to ceiling windows that showed the city below, the view...unobstructed.

"Sir, you asked for-" Naruto began to speak when Danzo turned and held up a finger, telling him to wait.

"Okay, Sai. You tell Mr. Yun that while he does have an upper hand, we are willing to drag this through court for the next two years, and some unfriendly skeletons may appear within that time. Tell them that, and get back to me in an hour." Danzo tapped on the bluetooth in his ear and turned back to Naruto.

"You asked for me, Sir?"

"Yes, I did." Danzo nodded before he looked at Naruto's hands and his face hardened. "Rebecca! Get in here!"

"Yes, Danzo-Sama?" The beautiful secretary spoke up as she entered the office, looking pristine and poised for the next command.

"Did you offer Naruto here a drink?"

Rebecca turned to him, and sent a flirtatious, and disarming smile his way. "What would you like, Mr. Namikaze? I have Burgundy and Brandy."

"No thank you."

"Are you a bourbon man?"

"No."

"Would you prefer some earl gray?"

"…Okay."

The woman smiled, victorious as she stepped back out. Danzo approached him and gestured to the couches off to the side, and together they sat down as the secretary walked back in a minute later, a silver tray perched in her hands. Danzo reached over and grabbed at the glass of bourbon and leaned back, swirling the liquid around before raising the glass to smile at him.

"You have done well, Naruto." Danzo praised as Rebecca placed a glass cup into his hands, closing the office doors as she left.

"Thank you sir."

"I have a new job for you. You will head up the Shimura exchange group acquisition of Rinnegan Properties United."

Naruto's eyes widened. "T-that is a huge caseload, sir."

"Indeed it is...for the new head of the department."

Naruto widened his eyes even further. "You mean- what about Mr.-"

"Jones is an idiot." Danzo sneered as he leaned forward. "He does none of the legwork and yet takes those of promise and buries them under his foot. I heard he was snaking some secretary in the copy room when he should have been in a very important meeting. He will be leaving us shortly, and you...well...you will be working with me much more closely."

"I...I don't know what to say."

"You must say nothing, Naruto." Danzo praised. "You have worked hard these past six years and I am simply rewarding you. Endless nights and numerous weekends spent leaning over folders long beneath your years here. No complaining whatsoever from you and nothing but praise from your fellow coworkers and the other departments which have on numerous occurrences requested to have you join their teams. It may be true that I have not had many meetings with you involved per se, but those who have have spoken very highly of you."

"Numerous victories for the Company itself under your purview. No hostile takeovers have been needed or raging employees disgruntled in ninety six percent of your cases. It is a very promising accomplishment in our industry and I wish to promote that hard work ethic into your entire department."

Naruto was floored. Six years, and he was going to lead his department? Of course he was happy about this! Now if one of his coworkers had a problem, he could actually help to solve it. He could resolve all the issues and then the world would be at peace, at least his small corner of it.

"Sir, I would-"

(Ring Ring)

Naruto cast a glance to his jacket pocket at the sound of his phone emitting sound. His muscles clenched and looked guiltily back towards his boss. He'd turned it to silent except for one number and that number was too important to ignore.

"Um...may I?" Naruto asked politely. He held his breath. Danzo was not one to tolerate interruptions during his meetings. A few employees had been fired for such an interruption.

"Of course." Danzo nodded however, showing his good mood. "We're done here."

Naruto smiled gratefully and walked back out the door, his fingers deftly caressing the screen and putting the phone to his ear. The person on the other end spoke, and Naruto's eyes shimmered with an oncoming flood of tears. His life was about to change forever.

The hallways were white, and spotless, and smelled of disinfectants, but that was the point of this place. Naruto sped down the hall with a bouquet of Senju flowers in his hand. He knew that the person he was meeting would get a kick out of this, even though he only stopped to buy them from the gift shop.

Naruto didn't need to ask which room or where to go as he entered the newest wing of the hospital. He'd been coming to this place every Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday like clockwork and the people here knew him well enough. He was in the hospital...as always.

Naruto turned into room seven and spotted two nurses inside, and his eyes briefly ogled over the classic nurse uniform of white gowns, skin-tight over their bodies and ending just below their shapely rears as they bent over and adjusted equipment. Yep; his guardian had definitely picked this place for the old school attire.

"Ah! My godson!" The old man called out to him as Naruto entered, his heart beating wildly as he looked to the man that had raised him since he was just starting elementary school. He had looked so large and lively just a year ago. Now, his old battle wounds had finally caught up with him, and only the morphine took care of the pain.

"So my boy?" The man spoke boisterously as Naruto approached his bedside table, eagerly smiling at him. "Break any girls in for this old man?"

"Ero-sannin." Naruto muttered with a blush on his cheeks. He took a spare glance to the left and saw the nurses blush hotly and eye him up and down as if he was a player. His guardian always did this, especially back when he was in school and he never cared that Naruto was embarrassed. He hadn't been with anyone; he was too busy working, and his godfather knew that! Naruto sighed. Same old Jaraiya.

His godfather, Jaraiya. No last name, he had shed it forever for the fame that the media and celebrities alike called him that, but he wasn't a red carpet kind of guy. He wasn't even in the news too often...well, the regular news. No; he was the most renowned writer of erotica in the known world.

That's right; his godfather was a man who had made his well-known empire writing erotica stories for movies, TV shows, and books, and his parents, having been under his tutelage when they were younger, and written a number of spicy books themselves, had named Naruto after their favorite character.

Naruto sighed again. Yeah, great info he knew, but his guardian was a loving godfather after his parents passed into heaven after a freak weather event had taken so many. Jaraiya had raced onto the scene, spent near over a hundred million dollars in the rebuilding phase of the city where Naruto grew up, and took him in to live with him in this very metropolis. Being the busy guy that he was, he didn't get to stay around too often, having to leave for months at a time for work and research, but he was a great guardian to him.

As he always did when he came here, Naruto sat down and reminisced for a while with his old man. After an hour though, Jaraiya started to smile on the time when he took him on one of his research excursions.

Jaraiya laughed heartily at the fond memories. Naruto rolled his eyes, remembering how he had been taken into a brothel, and found out that the girls were young and nice and sweet...as long as you had money on you. But they knew positions and scenarios that Jaraiya's customers liked to read about. Those kinds of girls were his research department in a way. That was his life; sleeping with expert women, owning an empire of information and for a bitter word; sex. That's what he was embodied with from his smile to the blood that pumped through his heart. That was simply Jaraiya.

"Remember Naruto when that girl wanted your baby?"

Naruto smiled as he winced. "Yeah. That was so awkward. She didn't want to leave the room either."

Jaraiya let out a big cough, and Naruto's smile lowered again. He was breathing heavier again. Jaraiya laid back in his pillow, and closed his eyes.

"I'm so tired…"

"Then you can sleep…"

"...Hey my boy...do you recall that small town we went to that one summer? Out in the countryside?"

Naruto shrugged. "A little bit. There wasn't that much around though."

"Ah! But it was beautiful...and the women didn't look bad either!" Jaraiya chortled and Naruto laughed along with him. He was twelve, he wasn't looking at women then.

"I'll admit...just before this, I went out there…bought a pretty penny of land there...it was so peaceful there...none of this hustle and bustle...no one to stab you in the back…"

Naruto glared a bit in agreement; Jaraiya's one regret. Not fighting his best friend Orochimaru when he had stolen a number of his works behind his back to launch his rival company, Sound LLC.

"It was a nice place…" Naruto agreed.

"So you remember?"

Naruto stayed silent. He could only slightly recall being on a bus for a long time to get there, and going on a lot of hikes. The hikes had been the best part, but he didn't remember it that well, so he said nothing.

"I bought a nice piece of land there…"

"Jaraiya, you said that already." Naruto teared up. His godfather always had a great memory. Quick as a whip.

"It's in my will, Naruto. It's all yours when I'm gone-"

"I don't care about the will!" Naruto raised his voice, the tears prickling at his eyes harder and harder as his most important person in the world breathed heavier with every minute that passed. The nurses in the room continued on with their work, used to this.

Jaraiya smiled up to the ceiling, his eyes graying out. "It's all yours Naruto. All that I have."

"I don't want your sex empire, Ero-Sannin, I want you!" Naruto cried, finally caving in and leaned forward, grasping at his old hands tightly. The nurses didn't leave the room; the doctor had called the boy here for the old patient's last hours after all.

Jaraiya smiled on, a cocky smirk etching its way onto his face. "It's in the provisions of course. That you go and inspect the property, but after I'm gone, I just ask that you stay there for a month."

"Ero-Sannin, I can't. I have work to do. A job."

"...Maybe once you go there, you'll see that the place has all the beauty that you've been missing here in the city. You've become so jaded recently, my boy. You're not happy. You've grown to look at everyone with suspicion. Maybe you see the land and build a home on it, maybe I'm just an old man that bought something too late and you sell it, but go and see it. Promise me."

"...I- I promise Ero-Sannin, just don't die!"

Jaraiya smiled back at him, knowing that he couldn't do that. "You look...empty, Naruto. You need a reason to be happy and fulfilled. Find a purpose to be happy and live a good life."

"I will! I promise! I...Ero-sannin?" Naruto slowed as he shook his godfather, but he did not react. His eyes were closed and the stupidest smile was there on his face. "Wait! Don't leave me alone! Ero- don't-don't leave me!"

The nurses stood in the background, watching the young man cry over his grandfather figure. They would wait there; let him grieve. The best they could do was give him some peace and quiet, as the old man had told them he found peace, here in his last days.

"...And finally, to my godson, the most honest, good spirited man I know, who I hope gets lucky and has many children, I leave my properties, my wealth, and my business empire. May he live and find what he is looking for, not weighed down by the concept of money. May he live a good life that he is content with."

"So ends his will and testament. Congratulations Naruto."

Meanwhile, Naruto sat before the lawyer in a fine suit, sitting in a rich mahogany chair, in an empty office with no one else beside him. Naruto just nodded along with the lawyer and when needed, signed the forms to make him a multimillionaire and business owner. Not that he cared worth a damn. The businesses ran themselves with conservative profit. He would never be able to spend all the money that he was just gifted. What was he supposed to do now?

Naruto kept his composure as he stepped out of the office and into the marble hallway, before punching the wall with all his might. The wall did not budge and pain shot through his knuckles and up his arm, but he smiled sadly in grief. He just wanted his godfather back. After a minute of light breathing, Naruto made his way out to the street and to his office building. After all, he had to work today.

It had been a few days since Ero-Sannin had passed, but Naruto made sure everything was set up properly. The funeral had been planned for months and his body had been cremated with lewd material and his favorite book, 'Tales of a gutsy ninja.' He'd appreciate that. And lastly, as he requested, Naruto had spread his ashes alongside his best friend who had shared the same hospital room and who had died only ten days prior, Tsunade Senju. They were both eighty seven, and now they moved onto another plane of existence together.

Naruto made it to his office floor and immediately felt all eyes on him as he walked past them all. No doubt they'd heard everything. There wasn't a reason that no one now knew who he was. His name was in the news, about the estate and all that. Naruto sighed. And now he was going to have to decide on how to divy up Senju properties as well, which Tsunade had set up as a trust, one of the largest healthcare assistance networks in the world, and she had left that task to him as well. Naruto had a lot of work to do.

"Naruto?" A voice called out and Naruto turned to see the girls of his office walk inside his office, with Shion at the front.

"What is it? Did you girls need anything? After I-"

"Oh Naruto, It's okay to feel sad." One girl said as she held his hand rubbing it sadly.

"Yeah. You lost someone close to you." Another spoke up.

"Hey," Shion spoke up, drawing his attention as she played with the open buttons of her cleavage. "If you need anything, we can be there for you."

"What?"

"If you're lonely at night….I could come over, you know?"

"Shion-"

"Maybe a spending spree? That always helps me." Another girl spoke up and Naruto held in his annoyance and anger and plastered a face of gratitude as they continued to console him.

'Seriously?' Naruto thought as they finally left his office a few minutes later. He was getting a promotion, his godfather had died. Now Shion was offering to sleep with him, other girls were saying he could drown himself in them and money. Some girls cared about him, but most wanted job security and promotions that he was sure to enforce with his new position.

Naruto breathed out shakily. H...he couldn't stay here, surrounded by this temptation. He needed to-

"Naruto!"

Naruto looked up as his door opened and immediately straightened his back. "Danzo! Sir!"

"Glad to have you back. That was a harrowing two days. Now then, about the Rinnegan project, we'll need to prep everything over the next few weeks and then pitch it to the board next-"

"Sir?"

Danzo paused with his words dying on his lips. He pursed them slowly and turned to him. "Yes?"

Naruto gulped. "Sir? I know I just took a few days off but...may I take some more?"

"I don't know, Naruto. I mean, I know that you have never taken a sick day in all your years here, and you have the vacation time built up...we really need you here-...hmm...how long?"

Naruto grimaced. "A month sir...it's...family business."

"Fami- oh!" Danzo's eyes widened and Naruto smiled as while the man in front of him was scary and demanding, he didn't treat anyone differently unless they...had influence…

"This is about your Godfather's estate then? That mega empire?"

"...a condition of earning it, yes."

"Then...I suppose a month will be acceptable."

"Really?" Naruto asked, not liking himself by using his Godfather's prestige.

"Of course! There's surely a lot of things to plan out and all! Also you are asking at the beginning of the project, so the prep work can still be done relatively easily within your department. Your floor should be able to handle that on their own. You take care of business. But Naruto…"

"Yes sir?"

"Just a month. I don't want you getting a girl pregnant and leaving the company."

"Oh, sir! I could never meet a girl like that. I'm not forward at all."

"Never doubt it. Some girls, a man will just follow. Alright. I'll tell your staff then. Head out today."

"Yes sir."

An hour later, Naruto sighed as he looked at the screen in front of him, congratulating him on buying a bus ticket to the small township of Konoha. Naruto laid his head back, and immediately thought of his godfather. He was such a passionate, amazing, kind guy and he miss-

'No!' Naruto thought, shaking his head to clear it. He'd go on this trip, and check out the property that his godfather had bought and see it. He felt like he'd grieved enough already, but maybe a change of pace would be nice...his godfather had said that the nature was nice, right? He looked down and gulped at the two days to get there by bus. He'd need some good reading material, and real books at that.

Sad but I always wanted to make a death scene for the old folks. Hopefully a start to a great story, right?

As Always, I ONLY publish stories I will Complete, so rest assured. You start this ride with me, I will end it.

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