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Chapter 1: Exposure

Tokyo

"Heika, are you sure?"

The impertinent question was followed by a low bow aimed toward the figure holding a pair of gardening shears and a bright yellow rose.

In the beat of silence that followed, the emperor took it in stride and allowed this monumental impropriety, this questioning of imperial edict, because his staff had always served him well. He didn't say anything, only calmly snipped off a stem and then looked at his son, who nodded, jaw determined. It was his coronation, and he'd finally convinced his father to fight the rigid rules that governed this tradition.

The emperor smiled at the crown prince in sympathy. He understood how his son felt, but he was still the emperor. He then turned back to the speaker, whose head was still respectfully lowered.

"Yes, Shikamaru," the emperor finally said, causing the attendant to finally look up and face the imperial family. Two identical pairs of dark eyes were smiling at Shikamaru. One was relieved, the other was calmly delighted. "We both want it to happen."

Shikamaru steeled his heart knowing he was going to have to move heaven and earth just to get this process rolling since this was a major breach of centuries-imposed imperial protocol. But since he knew how stubborn the two men could be, Shikamaru bowed resignedly. Still, he allowed himself a brief smile when he looked at his employers. "Then I will proceed with the preparations, Heika, Denka."

The emperor and the crown prince both laughed and then simultaneously nodded at the imperial secretary.

"I look forward to it," the crown prince said.

"Hinata!"

Kiba banged the door open to her darkroom. "The old man croaked!"

"Kiba, you ass!" Hinata yelled as she stared down with dismay at her ruined photograph when the light from the outside exploded in her workspace. "You just destroyed all my hard work! I'd just gotten the exposure right on this photo!"

"Ugh! You and your old-school ways!" Kiba retorted unrepentantly as he burst into the small space, the utility and storage closet that doubled as her dark room.

Hinata sighed, refusing to get into her usual argument with her business partner. She gave up on her current task and turned to face him. "And? What's this news you had to tell me that wasted hours of my precious time and that's got you this morbidly excited? Which old man croaked? The pervy landlord we pay rent to? My sponsor? Unless it's either of those two, I don't really care."

Kiba waved his hands excitedly. "No, dummy! Madara Uchiha died!"

Hinata gasped and then stilled. "The imperial photographer?"

"Yes, that old man!" Kiba answered her joyfully. "Sorry he's passed, but it's about time he kicked the bucket! He was close to eighty but still refused to retire. I just saw the news on my way here. You know what that means!"

Hinata's eyes burned a lavender fire. "They'll need a new photographer to capture the coronation in February."

Kiba grinned at her. "Go get it!"

"Yo."

Naruto looked up from the bar counter and turned his head when he heard his friend's voice. Sasuke Uchiha, his baseball cap pulled low over his dark hair, made his way over and sat down next to him on the stool. He nodded his usual order at the bartender, who knew exactly what he wanted without asking and proceeded to reach for the bottle containing the bright amber liquid.

"Hey, Sasuke," Naruto murmured quietly.

The bartender slid a whiskey on the rocks toward Sasuke. He took a sip before he glanced back at his quiet friend, who was staring at his phone.

"Everything okay, Naruto?"

Sasuke saw the picture of a woman with blond hair before Naruto shook his head and turned his phone face down on the counter. "Yeah, it's nothing." He swiveled around in his stool to look at his friend. "So what's the deal? Why'd you want to meet tonight?"

Sasuke sipped his whiskey. "I got word that one of my great-uncles died."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Naruto said.

Sasuke shrugged. "Oh, I don't really care. You know I was never close with that very pretentious side of the family."

"Still, though, one of your relatives died. My condolences. What happened?"

"Great Uncle Madara died in his sleep two days ago. One of my cousins passed the news down to my father and he sent me the text this morning. I figured I'd tell you directly because it was important."

Naruto frowned. "Important for me? How?"

Sasuke snorted. "Naruto! The spot for an imperial photographer just opened up."

"And this affects me because?"

"Don't play dumb, jerk. This is a great opportunity for you. Why don't you go for it?"

Naruto shook his head. "No way. They've got a contingency plan for things like these. The imperial staff probably has a replacement ready to take on the role."

Sasuke laughed. "Nope! That's the thing. Word on the street is, the crown prince wants to buck that tradition and is trying to keep up with more modern times. There's a competition for the new position. In fact, in two days, they're holding an information session for those interested."

Sasuke slid Naruto the flyer he'd printed out before this meeting.

Still, Naruto didn't take the bait. Instead of taking the paper, he reached for his drink, breathed in the heady aroma of his cold sake, and leisurely took a sip. He did it several times, pointedly ignoring the flyer, not glancing at it or saying anything about it to Sasuke.

Next to him, his friend brought his drink closer to himself, too, but the glance he sent the silent Naruto was filled with frustration. "Come on, man! It doesn't have anything to do with her, you know."

Naruto snorted with disbelief. "It's an imperial position, right? It always has something to do with her."

"Yeah, but you know the current emperor and his family try not to interfere with politics so it should be good. She doesn't even figure into their decision."

Naruto said nothing so Sasuke took another sip of his drink, shooting him another sideways glance. "Also, something tells me that this time, the crown prince is really serious about cracking down on nepotism. With the way things are now, it's not going to look good with the public if the new position automatically goes to somebody with 'connections.'"

Naruto remained resolutely silent.

"At least just think about it, Naruto." Sasuke then sighed appreciatively as he let the whiskey burn a mellow path down to his stomach. "I still think you should give it a try. Something different this time? You've been saying you wanted to try something new."

Again, Naruto ignored it and decided to change the subject. "How's Itachi doing?"

Sasuke frowned, knowing exactly what Naruto was doing but he answered the question anyway. "Recovering—but constantly bitching and moaning. I tell you, doctors make the worst patients. He was so cranky when I visited him at home."

"At least he'll finally get some rest, right? His own doctor ordered him bedrest."

"Yeah, but still. He should've known better than ignoring his own symptoms for stomach ulcers! I still can't believe he waited that long to get himself checked."

Naruto nodded in sympathy. "Poor guy. But he's always had that high threshold for pain."

Sasuke snorted. "I'd laugh, but I'm still baffled that he hated surgery, him being in the medical field and all. Sometimes, even really smart people can be so stupid."

Naruto smiled wryly. "I guess surgery is different when it's done to you, especially if you're a doctor."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "The irony." He then drained the last of his drink, stood up, and then tapped the flyer on the counter, reminding him of the reason why he'd come to the bar tonight. "Just check it out, bro. It doesn't hurt to go." He picked up his bag lying on the stool next to him and turned to Naruto. "Anyway, I'm off. I have to catch my train."

Naruto shrugged but he looked up and smiled at Sasuke. "Tell Sakura I said hi. How's she liking the new job at that design firm?"

Sasuke laughed. "She loves it, and of course, I love that she has that higher-paying position."

"Hmph! And here you are, still so happy to mooch off her? Such a terrible husband!"

Sasuke only laughed again in response. "Modern times, my friend. I'm not going to stand in my wife's way if she wants to be the breadwinner and make the big bucks." He shrugged. "Besides, I think it's romantic that my wife is supporting my dream to be the struggling film-director-husband who makes documentaries nobody watches. Sakura and I both knew what we were getting into when we settled into our careers."

Naruto pierced Sasuke with a disbelieving look. "Cut the bullshit. You're not 'struggling' that much. That was a very good series you did on Japan's working poor for NHK last month."

Sasuke only smiled, accepting the compliment.

"Still, if it's the exposure you wanted, you should've come with me when I went to New York," Naruto finally said. "There were so many openings for filmmakers when I was there. You could be raking in so much money right now if you'd made a project in the US."

Sasuke slapped Naruto on the back, making him spill some of his drink on the bar counter. He frowned at Sasuke.

"Yeah, yeah. I love New York just as much as Tokyo, but you know it's just not the same." Sasuke pulled out his wallet and left the money beside the glass.

The bartender bowed slightly to acknowledge the payment but didn't pause shaking the martini they were preparing for another customer. Like Naruto, Sasuke was a regular customer and knew, by heart, the prices of the drinks they ordered.

Sasuke smiled at Naruto before turning around and walking out of the bar. "See you, man."

"Thanks for coming all the way to see me just to relay the news, though," Naruto said in reply and then stared at his drink when the door shut after Sasuke's exit. The quiet jazzy music filtered through the room, the few patrons just as silent as he was.

Naruto loved this bar. It was one of the rare ones in Tokyo that firmly refused patrons who smoked, a rare thing for bars and izakayas in Japan. This small, cozy bar was one of his sanctuaries when he was home. He preferred being by himself and loved that he could come in to escape the hectic bustle of city life. Not only that, nobody bothered him and everyone pretty much left him alone.

Even now, the bartender was unhurriedly preparing drinks and tending to the three other patrons inside who were just as silent nursing their drinks. Sasuke's money lay ignored beside the empty whiskey glass.

Naruto smiled as he thought of Sasuke and Sakura, his college best friends. They'd all met when they'd gone to art school all those years ago. While he'd fallen in love with photography, Sasuke had chosen film-making as his specialty. But Sakura had been the link when she'd formed their trio on that first day they'd all met in design class.

He still remembered her taking up a seat right next to him, breathing heavily from her dash into the classroom. "Whew!" She laughed at herself when she looked at the clock on the wall. "Shoot! I had lots of time to spare! I didn't even need to rush."

She'd expected a response from him because their eyes had briefly met, but Naruto had ignored her and turned his face away. In the silence that followed, he just continued staring at his notebooks and pencils on top of his desk. He was nervous about this first day in class and he didn't want to talk to anyone at all. His plan was just to stay quiet and take notes. That was it.

However, the guy who'd been sitting behind him had noticed the exchange and Naruto's lackluster response. He'd poked him on the back, startling Naruto enough to turn around with a frown.

"You're a rude dude!" the guy said. "You're supposed to reassure a girl when she says stuff like that."

But his tone was friendly, though, because Sakura was smiling as she turned around in her seat to look at him. "Oh, no! Don't worry about it. It's totally fine!"

Still, Naruto didn't say anything to either one and turned back to his desk, his eyes on his notebooks again while he ignored the friendly banter going on between the two.

"I think he's just shy," she was saying.

And Naruto was glad she was sensitive enough to know that he was exactly what she'd pegged him.

His tormentor only snorted in response and said, "He's one of those hicks from the country, maybe? Somebody new to Tokyo and wants to be the cool, silent type? Because a pretty girl like you shouldn't be ignored."

She laughed and arched a brow at the boy sitting behind Naruto. "And you're one of those city guys who likes to flirt with girls?"

"Yup, you know it!" he said, earning him another chuckle from her. "I'm Sasuke Uchiha, by the way."

"Sakura."

There was a pregnant pause but Naruto kept quiet and ignored their unspoken expectation for him to join in the introductions.

"And still, this guy doesn't want to introduce himself," came Sasuke's dry voice. "Sheesh! What a jerk!"

But during roll call, when the teacher had called his name, Naruto had hesitantly raised his hand into the air with dread, his ears burning because his last name had caused the awed hush that always followed when everyone inevitably recognized who he was: Naruto Uzumaki, only son of Kushina Uzumaki—Governor of Tokyo.

And he'd sat in excruciating silence during the entire lesson while his professor valiantly tried teaching a class nobody paid attention to. Knowing he was the cause of the awkward atmosphere in the room, Naruto deliberately ignored everyone and kept his eyes glued to the teacher or his notebook even though he was painfully aware of the avid glances his classmates kept sending him.

This was his third day in art school and so far he'd managed to avoid anyone coming up to him directly to broach the subject about his parentage.

That is, until Sasuke and Sakura had ambushed him after class, after all his classmates, while shooting him curious glances, had filed out. He ignored them all, and did his best to avoid any eye contact with them. His plan was to deliberately take his time getting his things ready so that he'd be the last one to leave the empty room.

"Yo!" Sasuke suddenly said as he stepped in front of Naruto and blocked his way in the hallway. Sakura was next to him and was looking at Naruto with wonder.

"Okay, I just want to apologize for assuming the worst about you," Sasuke said. "I guess you had a legit reason to keep your name to yourself." He shook his head and stared at him with awe. "I still can't believe it. The governor's son is in the same class as me."

Red in the face, Naruto shook his head. "Yeah, don't worry about it. It's okay."

"You're definitely not a country hick," Sakura said with a smile.

"What?! No, I was born and raised in Tokyo, too. " Naruto, still bright as a tomato, tried to leave, tried to brush both of them off. "I have to go, guys."

"Go where? Home? Are you being picked up? Do you take the subway?" Sakura's gaze was curious, her demeanor friendly.

And he didn't sense any of the usual disdain he felt from others when they'd mistake his shyness for haughtiness because his mother was the governor of one of the largest cities in the world. He always got tongue-tied because he never felt like talking about his mother to other people. And somehow, everyone just assumed that because he kept silent on the topic, he was being haughty and prideful about his background.

Naruto relaxed enough to say, "I usually take the train, the JR."

"Oh! Then we'll go with you! We're heading to the station, too."

Friendship had a strange way of working out. Even though Naruto hadn't planned on it, somehow, the three had fallen into a pattern of hanging out with each other before and after classes. Then they were exchanging numbers and meeting each other in places that had nothing to do with class.

Simply, they made him comfortable with his shyness. There was no pressure to talk when he didn't feel like it. They were completely fine just chatting with each other but still including him in their conversations somehow.

And from that day on, all three became inseparable. For the normally reserved Naruto, it became completely natural to open himself to these two who had appointed themselves his personal bodyguards. Sasuke and Sakura had known instinctively that he was uncomfortable being the center of attention. Since the two had grown up with normal childhoods and were socially adept, they often prevented a lot of awkward moments when Naruto's anxiety would cause him to abruptly clam up in class. Sasuke and Sakura could often be relied on to fill the sudden silence with jokes and friendly chatter with their classmates.

Their friendship made the years in college an enjoyable experience for Naruto, where he did his best to not let the shadow of his mother's occupation and his family pedigree affect him. Sasuke and Sakura smoothed the social situations whenever his upbringing was brought up or talked about.

And it wasn't as if he wasn't proud of his mother, that he didn't love her—because he did. His whole family was proud of her and had high expectations for her.

Because Kushina wasn't content to be just governor of Tokyo. She was gunning for the top, to be Prime Minister of Japan someday.

But the only thing that cast a shadow over Naruto's happiness was the constant doubt he felt whenever people assumed his success was the result of riding Kushina's coattails. He wanted people to recognize his work for his own sake and not because he shared the same name as his famous mother.

Which was why he'd chosen a different field, away from politics and pursued art, and had left Japan to work in New York.

"The fashion industry?!" his mother had cried when she'd found out about his plans. Her dismay was hard to hide. "I was hoping you'd do something more—I don't know, maybe less frivolous? Oh, that doesn't sound right. What's the word I wanted to say?"

She looked to Minato for help, but her husband shook his head.

"Wrong phraseology, dear. You wanted to say, 'more practical,'" Minato replied.

As the editor of one of Japan's most prestigious dictionaries, his usual role was to fill in the appropriate word for his family whenever they were floundering for the right vocabulary.

However, on this day, his role was to make sure his wife didn't fall to pieces on discovering Naruto wanted to leave home.

"Kushina, it's his choice, his life."

Minato was in the middle of browsing the files on his desk but stopped to lend his support to their only son. His eyes were sympathetic, understanding Naruto's need for independence.

"He's young and in his twenties, he's at that age where he should be off adventuring and trying different things—even if that means he'll be halfway around the world."

"But Minato…"

"Mom, it's all done. You know how the university system works."

Naruto refused to capitulate to the concern in her eyes. It was a powerful thing and hard to resist because he felt again the rising instinct to not disappoint her, to tell her not to worry. Because for all the strength she showed to the world, Kushina was still a mother who loved her son and would continue to put him first despite the demands of her career.

"Shuukatsu, job hunting. We were already applying and getting responses from companies when we were in our last year of college." Naruto was apologetic, and he offered a small smile towards his mother. "I'm sorry I waited to tell you this now, but I've applied and been accepted at a small studio in New York, which just happens to focus on fashion. The contracts have already been signed. There's nothing you can do."

"See, Kushina? He's determined, and we can't stop him," Minato said as he strode towards his wife and hugged her.

"But what are you going to do, Naruto?" she asked, letting Minato comfort her, standing in the circle of his embrace while she tried to convince her son not to leave the roost.

Naruto laughed. "Nothing bad! I'm just going to work, Mom!"

"I know that! That's not what I meant. You're so shy and so timid. And to top it off, you'll be away from home! In America, no less! I'm just worried that—"

"I'm not completely helpless, you know."

"Oh, I'm messing this up." She slapped both hands on her cheeks and shook her head. The glare she turned on him was fake, he knew, but she still yelled, "But you didn't give me any warning at all! I don't know how to deal with losing my baby boy. This is all so sudden, Naruto!"

She blinked away the tears and Naruto steeled his heart, forced himself to be strong and not be cowed by her desire to protect him from everything. This was exactly why he'd sprung this on her so suddenly. He knew that if he'd given her time, she would try to dissuade him by slowly breaking down his determination.

Kushina was his mother, and he understood her concerns, but this was something he felt he needed to do. His voice was gentle when he said, "I just want to try it and do my best in something that's my choice—just like you did. Don't you remember? You left home, too, and studied abroad. Didn't you attend university in Egypt so you could be more fluent in Arabic?"

Kushina sniffed and nodded, still holding on to Minato.

Naruto smiled at her and focused on her eyes. He just needed her to understand what he was feeling, this desire to be out of the world that she had built. He wanted a life of freedom. His eyes met Minato's, who nodded discreetly. No need to convince him because he already knew his father was on board. "Mom, you've always said you wanted me to be more assertive. That's what I'm doing right now."

But Kushina's eyes filled with tears again. "I know." She blew into the hanky that Minato gave her. "I'm actually pretty proud of you for doing this."

She was giving in!

"Oh, Mom!"

Naruto sighed with relief even as he ran to hug her—and Minato, too. All three stood together in the living room of his childhood home, arms wrapped around each other. Somehow, they all knew that things were going to change.

But in his heart, Naruto thanked the fates for blessing him with this family. Despite the added pressures of living under the close scrutiny of the Japanese public, he was so grateful to have such understanding parents.

"My baby! I'm going to miss you so much!"

And Kushina blubbered into Naruto's shirt until it was sopping wet.

"Kushina, my love," Minato said when she managed to leave her son's arms. "You're doing a good thing letting him spread his wings."

Which set Kushina off again. She turned back to hug her son and added more tears to Naruto's already damp shirt.

But it had only taken him a couple of weeks to pack and settle everything in Japan before he'd boarded the plane with his one-way ticket to New York.

Notes:

I guess it was inevitable, so here's my first attempt at a lengthy NaruHina modern AU. It's been a while, so please bear with me because I'm a little bit rusty.

I'm going to apologize ahead of time for possible slow updates. I normally update quickly, but work has has taken up a lot of my time so I can't promise you the same process this time around. I've been working on this idea for almost a year but it never felt right until now. I feel like I finally had a good enough plot to write a multi-chapter story. There's a detailed outline and some very comprehensive notes to keep me on track with the writing, but the story isn't finished so I humbly ask for your patience.

Also, NaruHina here is very much out of character. If you don't like seeing Hinata being ridiculous, this story isn't for you. I've got a couple of scenes already written out for future chapters, and I'm warning you that she's VERY outrageous and very different from her canon self. There are also a couple of scenes in the future that might trigger some people but I'll make sure to warn everyone at the beginning of that specific chapter when it eventually comes up.

(Edit, November 5, 2023: Please check the author's notes on Chapter 22 for extra trigger warnings.)

Thank you and I just really hope you guys enjoy this.