Fyredevyl's Scribbles

The Emerald Isle repost (Chapter 5)

Sat, 11 Aug 2007 06:02:00 GMT

Up to number 5! Only 12 more to go! Although, most of the later chapters are completely cut now and will be redone. I'm going to see how many chapters I can redo before August is up. Wish me luck!

This is a very not-exciting chapter. I consider it my interlude chapter and it will probably be attached to the end of another chapter or completely cut. It is the intro to their aikido training, which is something I love and so it will probably stay just the way it is for that sole reason. Maybe...

~~ Chapter 5 ~~

As it turned out, Naruto got to keep his life, and his manhood. Sasuke’s wish that Naruto not remember anything was left unanswered and he was sure some of his teeth were a little flatter from grinding them as he hissed at Naruto in gruesome detail how he would kill him if this ever went beyond the two of them. Shikamaru and Chouji had been present but couldn’t hear the exact words being said. They just saw Naruto’s eyes widen and his Adam’s apple bob as he nodded emphatically to whatever Sasuke was whispering so harshly.

Shikamaru and Chouji shared a look. “Something happened,” commented Shikamaru unnecessarily.

Chouji nodded, but unfortunately and despite much prodding, neither Naruto nor Sasuke would say a thing.

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The rest of the week was fairly uneventful, despite the fact that Naruto now felt his stomach drop in a very unpleasant way every time Sasuke was around. He didn’t know who was more embarrassed. Naruto had quit apologizing after he realized that Sasuke wanted no reminder of that night. He didn’t blame Sasuke, but he wanted them to stop tiptoeing around each other. He wished they could have just laughed it off, but Sasuke wasn’t that easygoing. Naruto left the alcohol alone, for the most part, as well. No need for there to be a relapse that required them to start over again.

When Wednesday came around, Naruto and Sasuke signed up for the aikido club at the Freshers Fayre, and attended the first meeting on Thursday. Their sensei introduced themselves as Gai Maito and Kakashi Hatake. There was a brief meet-and-greet among all the members before they actually got to learn some techniques. Naruto, Sasuke and the rest of the new people quickly learned that when Kakashi and Gai started sparring, you get out of the way because they paid no attention to where they were throwing each other. Lesson one: when another body gets thrown into your own, you dodge better the next time.

Gai was a little strange and hotheaded, but skilled. Kakashi played it cool, though. He took over instructing the class when Gai had a temper tantrum and started sputtering incoherently, always due to Kakashi outwitting him in one silly contest or another. Gai was the one to bow everyone in at the beginning of class since Kakashi was always late. Gai made sure they all understood that in a real dojo, that sort of behavior wasn’t tolerated. The two took turns explaining the techniques to everyone. Then they went around to help those that were having trouble with a particular aspect of a technique.

Naruto had paired up with Lee for the technique since Sasuke had been steadily ignoring him since the beginning of class. Gai had just shown them how to do arm bar and Naruto found himself having trouble taking Lee down onto the mat. He became even more frustrated when he glanced to his left and saw Sasuke easily pinning his partner. Lee was trying to help, but he kept confusing Naruto even more. Luckily, Kakashi came around and had Naruto practice the technique on him.

"Ah, stop right there," Kakashi said. Naruto paused in his current position; his right wrist was gripped by Kakashi’s right hand and Naruto’s had stepped back with his right leg. “First of all, your arm is way to far from your body. Everything happens from your center. If you overextend, you lose your edge over your opponent.”

He demonstrated the technique on Lee, pausing and showing Naruto the correct way to do the technique. Then he had Naruto do it, and the blond was surprised at how much easier it was. Kakashi nodded his encouragement before moving on to help other pairs.

Naruto and Lee partnered more times that evening even though Gai and Kakashi said to pick a different partner. They were always laughing about something, and they enjoyed practicing the techniques on each other. Sasuke and Naruto partnered a couple times as well, and it helped them loosen up with each other. Naruto started to believe that the two of them would be able to laugh over their accidental kiss one day.

"So do we always do stuff like that right from the start?" Naruto asked later. He, Sasuke and Lee were walking back to their flats.

"No, not always. Gai-sensei will sometimes spend the entire class just having us work on our footwork. And other times we do bokken work," Lee said excitedly.

"Bokken work?" Sasuke asked.

"We practice slashing with Japanese wooden swords,” Lee was practically vibrating with excitement. “Gai-sensei said many of the techniques in aikido are meant for bokken work."

Naruto felt a flutter of excitement in his stomach. The first class had been fun, especially with Gai flying off the handle at various moments. He wished his college back home had clubs like this one here. He glanced at Sasuke and had a feeling the same thing was going through his head as well. The three of them continued to talk excitedly about aikido all the way back to their flats. Well, it was mostly Lee and Naruto that did most of the talking.

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It wasn’t long before Sasuke had found the 24-hour lab. He’d needed to check his email and just get away from everyone for a bit and the lab was like a blessing. He spent a good portion of his time in the lab when he wasn’t hanging out with his flatmates or the other American guys he’d met. People left you alone in here, especially if you were wearing headphones. Sasuke found it a nice reprieve from having Sakura and Ino fawn all over him back in his flat. They were nice girls, but he wasn't interested.

He was more interested in making sure Naruto didn’t get too drunk anymore.

Although, why his thoughts kept coming back to that night, he didn’t know. Everytime he thought about it he felt heat start to climb up his neck and all over his face. God, why was he still so embarrassed! Why couldn’t he just shrug it off like almost all other straight, but non-homophobic, guys could? Sasuke was vaguely surprised he could still carry on a conversation with Naruto. Luckily though, the blond idiot knew when to stay away. He seemed to be just as embarrassed as Sasuke, so Sasuke figured he could forgive Naruto.

Sasuke was interrupted from his musing when he saw two emails from his mother. He'd sent an email to his family over a week ago letting them know he had made it alive. He hadn't expected her to respond since she was definitely the most computer-illiterate between his father and brother. Also, Itachi and his father were working on a project together. He didn’t know the details, and hadn’t cared either, but he knew his family was busy at the moment. He opened the first email.

'Sasuke-
We received your email and your father left it up to me to answer, so that’s why I’m late in getting back to you. Your father and brother have been so busy lately, and it’s driving me insane. I hope Ireland is treating you well. We’ll talk more later; Itachi is impatiently waiting for me to finish so he can use the computer. Have fun!
-Mom'

Sasuke reread the email, snorting. Itachi had probably had to show her how to reply to an email. Then he opened her other email and found it to be the exact same as the latter one. He snickered, feeling just the slightest bit homesick for a moment. It passed quickly enough and then he left to go back to his flat for the night.

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Weekends were boring since practically everyone went home. Only Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata remained in their flat over the weekend. Naruto had been sure Sakura and Ino would stick around to spend the weekend with Sasuke, but they'd hopped right on a bus after their only class Friday morning. Ino had mentioned something about having a part-time job and Sakura just wanted to go home. Gaara had been the exception to the rule. He said he had no plans to go home at all during the school year. When he sensed Naruto about to pry, his serial killer glare had glazed over his eyes and Naruto had snapped his mouth shut. He could well understand the pain of not getting along with your family.

The weekend wouldn’t have been too bad really, but when they found out that even the shops on campus were closed, their spirits plummeted. They’d have to walk the mile or so to town if they needed anything. And although Naruto was certainly becoming acclimated to walking EVERYWHERE, the constant drizzle was a little harder to cope with.

Naruto followed Sasuke to the 24-hour lab, amazed that Sasuke didn’t get lost on the way there. The building the lab was in had more twists and turns than a Celtic knot. They didn't talk much while in the lab. They both had their headphones on, listening to their music. There were many other people in the lab, most of them from Hong Kong. Naruto emailed his advisor and friend Iruka back in New York, letting the man know he’d made it safely. He hoped the other man wasn't too frantic; Iruka sometimes overreacted. However, Naruto secretly cherished having someone get frantic over every little thing that Naruto might get into.

When Sunday evening rolled around, Naruto listened to the increasing noise outside his room window. Everyone was coming back Monday’s classes. Sakura and Ino arrived with each other late that night. Naruto heard them talking amicably to each other up until Sasuke made his entrance. Naruto found it amusing that they were so close; right up until Sasuke came around. He'd never understand girls, especially since they were unwilling to help any guy understand.

Sasuke ignored them for the most part. How he could do that without pissing them off, Naruto would never know. He didn’t seem to know they had a crush on him. And kissing him was out of the question, since he’d just blow up at you, Naruto thought. Why they both couldn’t just laugh it off, he didn’t know. Sasuke was too anal, of course, that’s why he couldn’t just laugh about it, but Naruto was finding the experience just as unfunny. Naruto shook his head to clear the uncomfortable thoughts. It was obvious why he didn’t like remembering: he’d come close to losing one of his first friends. That wasn’t a pleasant feeling.

Naruto glanced at his clock; it read 9:45 but he decided to go ahead and try to sleep anyways. He still lay awake for a while, just staring at the ceiling. Once his nerves quieted down, he fell right asleep.

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Naruto walked down one of the many hallways in the science building the following week, making his way to the computer lab to print off some notes for one of his lectures. He didn't know any of the teachers in the area of the building he was moving through, so he was surprised when the door to an office opened right after he passed by and someone grabbed the back of his shirt and yanked him to a stop.

He was released just as abruptly and when he spun around to lash out at whoever had done that, he came face-to-face with Kakashi, one of his sensei in aikido. Naruto felt his back protest as he leaned further away from Kakashi who kept getting closer to his face. Kakashi didn't stop until they were almost nose-to-nose.

"Naruto, right?"

"Yeah," he replied warily, rearranging his shirt which had been lopsided.

Kakashi turned and walked back into the office and riffled through the mass of papers that littered the top of a desk. He gave a grunt when he found what he was looking for. Naruto still stood rooted to the spot, wondering what was going on. This guy is strange, he thought.

"I thought I recognized your name," Kakashi murmured, almost to himself.

Naruto frowned at him, but said nothing. Had the man already forgotten he was in his aikido class?

"You are a tough person to get a hold of. There's been a man…" he glanced down at the paper he held in his hands, "…Iruka, who has been calling for the past week, trying to get in touch with you."

Naruto winced. It looked like Iruka had become frantic.

Kakashi continued, "He first contacted the International Office, but for some reason they couldn't find you. So they passed the task on to me since I'm your advisor."

Naruto was about to make a comment on how unorganized the International Office seemed to be if they couldn’t figure out where he lived on campus, but Kakashi’s last words stopped him. "Advisor? For what?"

"I'm supposed to help you get settled into the right classes."

"Ummm, but I've already picked my classes, and it's the second week of the semester. I didn't even know you were a teacher here."

Kakashi shrugged, "Yeah, I forgot to contact you and Siobhan forgot to tell you too. But I did get in touch with Iruka and we had a nice chat. I told him that I'd seen you and that you were fine."

Naruto raised his eyebrows at this. Nice chat? After he said that, Kakashi sat back down at his desk and started doing something on his computer. Clearly, since he’d told Naruto what he needed to, he was now done with the young man. Naruto was dismissed. He continued on to the lab and as soon as his notes were printed off, scurried back to his flat to deposit his book bag in his room. He was planning on talking to his friends about going somewhere for the weekend. The Giant's Causeway wasn't too far from Coleraine, and no one visits a foreign country for an extended period of time without intending to explore it a little. Naruto decided to go by Shikamaru's and Kiba's place first, since he knew they would probably be there. Humming under his breath he grabbed his raincoat--he could already hear the rain hitting his window--and left to go make plans for the weekend.

~TBC~

First major change: I'm getting rid of the bad Itachi vibes. When I'd originally planned out this story, it was to have a very suspenseful and terrifying ending with Itachi, that maze of a science building and yeah you get the picture. However, I don't have the skills or the enthusiasm for it, so that's been dropped. Itachi is normal now, or as normal as a pompous genius can be. We'll still meet him though, sooner than you'd think.

The Emerald Isle repost (Chapter 4)

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 04:21:14 GMT

So...umm...sorry?

Don't really know what to say about being so late. I'm just a slacker. So without further ado...

~~ Chapter 4 ~~

Sasuke and Naruto were fired up to start aikido right away. Unfortunately, Lee told them to wait until the Freshers Fayre on Wednesday.

"Freshers Fayre?" Naruto asked.

"It's when all the clubs and societies set up booths in the Student's Union. You can sign up for all sorts of things then. I would wait until then, because you have to become a member of the Sports Union before you can join a club like aikido and that costs you £20. Then you have to pay an extra £3 for each club you join. I already did all this earlier, but I was told that there will be people there to sign you up for everything during the Freshers Fayre. You'll only miss the Tuesday class. We train Tuesdays and Thursdays. It’ll be great having you two join,” Lee said gleefully.

"We will," they both replied.

Naruto spent much of Monday morning running around the main reception area of central building trying to find different lecture theaters. He only had two lectures on Monday, one at 10:15 and another at 12:15. He and Sasuke were both in the 10:15 class. When he entered the kitchen that morning though, only Sakura was there and she said Sasuke had left 20 minutes before. She sniffed in disapproval and breezed past him with her morning cup of tea. Naruto looked at his watch and saw that he had 15 minutes to get to class. He grabbed the last apple on the counter and went back in his room to grab his things before locking up and hurrying towards the main part of campus.

He smiled around his apple while he walked past the other blocks, watching all the other students rush out of their flats on their way to class. He was surprised that the accents didn't all sound the same. It seemed that the Irish accent was just like the American accent, all different versions of a rather similar cadence. You could always tell the difference between someone from the North and someone from the South in the U.S., but foreigners always knew they were both American. The same applied here.

Naruto briefly wondered how all the other foreigners were doing in terms of understanding the locals. He thought he was doing pretty well and Sasuke didn’t seem to have any trouble. The blonde’s thoughts turned inward as his roommate came to mind, which was a new experience for Naruto and seemed to keep happening with alarming frequency now. He wondered why Sasuke had left so early. Naruto had hoped they could walk to their first lecture together so that they could have someone familiar around in case they got lost. Despite their antagonism they showed towards one another at times, like the other night, Naruto still considered Sasuke a good friend of his. Oh well…this just means I get to annoy him later for leaving me. Naruto smiled at the prospect and picked up his pace.

Luckily for Naruto, the university provided signs pointing to where each lecture theater was since there were 16 of the damn things. Naruto's first class was in lecture theater 1, or LT1 as it said on his schedule, but when he looked at the signs the smallest number he saw was 4. He wasted 5 minutes running around the main reception area desperately searching for lecture theater 1. Irrationally, he started cursing Sasuke in his head, sure that it was his fault that Naruto was in this predicament. If he had stayed in the flat so we could both be here looking for the damn thing, and I wouldn't be so lost. Then he decided to approach the security desk in Central building, hoping that the security guys would know where his lecture theater was.

Once again, he was in luck. The guy knew exactly where it was and after giving directions, Naruto rushed towards South building, which felt like miles away since he was running out of time before his first class started. Why the hell is LT1 in South building, while most of the theaters are in Central? That's fucked up. Now I'm going to be late. It took a little over 5 minutes to walk all the way to South building, depending on your speed, so Naruto jogged most of the way to shave off some time. It started to rain while Naruto made his way to South building, although it wasn't exactly rain. It was more like a mist.

Once he got to South building, he found the lecture theater easily and was thankful. They provided more signs above the doors. Naruto hesitated though, and pulled out his schedule again to make sure that his first class was indeed in LT1. He knew that walking into a class late was embarrassing, but even worse than that was to walk into the wrong class late. Naruto had done that before, but instead of getting up and leaving he'd sat through the entire lecture and left when everyone else left.

"Are you going inside? Or were you hoping to hear everything from out here?"

Naruto turned abruptly, startled, and came face to face with the lightest blue eyes he'd ever seen. The guy who'd asked the question was standing patiently behind him—kind of—waiting for him to move. The guy had the reddest hair Naruto had ever seen and a strange tattoo on his forehead. After noticing these characteristics, Naruto's first thought was that this guy looked mean, and cold. Not bully mean, but killer mean. Naruto could easily picture this guy killing him without ever changing expression. So...he smiled and introduced himself.

"Hi, I'm Naruto. Sorry about standing in the way, I just wanted to be sure this is my class."

The redhead looked wary for a moment before he reluctantly introduced himself, "I'm Gaara. This class is HIS101C1." He didn’t take Naruto’s hand.

"You're going to have to give me the name of the class, not the course code. I haven't remembered that." Naruto rubbed the back of his head self-consciously.

"20th Century Ireland."

"Alright then, that's me," he laughed nervously. Gaara was unnerving. "I'm glad someone else is arriving late. Takes some of the pressure off."

Gaara said nothing and moved around Naruto to push the door open and walk through. Naruto followed close behind him, deciding to follow Gaara's lead. He scanned the faces of the students and found Sasuke sitting in the middle of the huge theater. Nobody sat next to him, but many girls sat near him. Naruto decided to try to sit next to Gaara, and was surprised when the other man let him. The lecturer said nothing; she didn’t even pause in her speech when they entered. The lecturer had decided not to start anything during the first class and so she just passed out a syllabus to everyone and went over it before dismissing them. The 50 minute lecture only lasted 30 minutes, and when everyone was packing up to leave, Naruto decided to ignore Sasuke since Naruto blamed him for his tardiness. After that skewed logic was processed, he quickly grabbed his bag and ran after Gaara.

"Hey Gaara! Wait up!"

Gaara turned, his eyes widening ever so slightly in what Naruto assumed was surprise.

"What's that tattoo on your head?" he asked and smiled charmingly.

Gaara's eyed him warily and then the tension throughout his body seemed to decrease a smidgeon. "It figures the first person to ask about this would be an American."

"What! No one else has asked? Not even your family?"

"Especially not them."

So what does it mean?"

"Love."

Naruto raised his eyebrow, but wasn't given a chance to say anything since Gaara started walking away. He was headed towards the Student's Union so Naruto decided to follow. Gaara hadn't killed him yet, had actually seemed amused by him for the most part, so he decided to get to know him. It wasn’t everyday he met someone with the balls to tattoo their forehead. He didn't turn when he heard a number of girls squealing over “some cute American” nor did he catch the glare Sasuke threw at him as he walked away without looking back once. He was smirking though as he entered the Students’ Union.

The Student's Union consisted of two levels. The bottom floor was a sitting area where students could sit, eat and/or smoke. It also had a copy center and a convenience store, much like Spar in Central building. The upstairs had an arcade, hairdresser, and a restaurant called the Sandwich Stop. The Union Bar was also located on the lower level though it was separate from the sitting area. Gaara went straight up the stairs to buy a sandwich at the Sandwich Stop, and Naruto followed suit. They both sat at one of the many tables around the upper level and Naruto spent the hour grilling Gaara about anything he could.

Gaara was confused by all the attention Naruto was giving him.

"Why are you talking to me?" he asked, looking at Naruto like he was some new specimen.

"Well, why not?" Now Naruto was confused.

"Most people stay away from me."

"Why? Are you a serial killer and no one can prove it, but everyone knows?"

"No, I'm not," he replied in all seriousness.

"Dude, I was joking," Naruto paused with his sandwich halfway to his mouth. "I'll admit you're kind of stand-offish, but you're still talking to me so I figure everything's fine."

Gaara just stared at him. Naruto sighed and put his sandwich down and held out his hand towards the other man.

"So what do you say Gaara? Want to be friends? Looks like both of us could use a few more."

Gaara hesitated for a minute, muttering something about Americans and looked hard at Naruto's hand before he slowly, hesitantly, grasped it. He still didn't smile, but Naruto felt him thaw a little. His smile wasn't hesitant at all.

They talked a little more easily after that. Really, Naruto did most of the talking, but he was able to pry some info out of Gaara. Most surprising was the fact that Gaara was a history major. That was why he was in the same class that morning. Naruto found out that students only take courses based on their major. They have no core requirements like English or Math. If you entered the university as a psychology major you only took psychology classes the entire time you were in university. Naruto liked that concept. Gaara was busy trying to explain how the university system in Northern Ireland worked when Lee approached their table and greeted them both by name.

"You know each other?" Naruto asked.

"We're flatmates," they both said, Lee was more enthusiastically.

"Wow! Cool! You live right across the hall from me!"

Gaara nodded wondering why it was such a good thing.

"Hey are you guys going to the Unibar tonight?" Lee asked.

"Why, is there something special going on tonight?"

"Mixed up Mondays is the theme. Haven't you read the flyers posted all over the campus?"

Naruto shook his head. "Mixed up Mondays? What does that mean?"

"It means all drinks are half off," a new voice broke in.

Naruto turned and saw Tenten approaching. She was tugging on Neji's shirt behind her, making sure he followed her. Naruto was further surprised when he saw Shikamaru, Kiba and Chouji behind two of them.

"Hey! What's everybody doing here?"

"Tenten told us this is the cheapest place to get food," Neji answered.

"Besides, it's too troublesome to walk all the way to Spar in central," this from Shikamaru.

"Well, pull up a chair everybody," then he gestured towards Gaara, "this is my new friend Gaara. Gaara say ‘hi.’"

"Hi."

Then the others introduced themselves and crowded around the table. It was cramped with too many people and too many different conversations going on at once, but Naruto was having a blast. He'd never had so many friends in his short life. He asked Chouji if he'd been able to register for his classes yet and Chouji replied that he had, and that he had no classes on Mondays or Fridays. Shikamaru had been very put out that he hadn't thought of that when registering.

Then they all started discussing the possibility of going to the Unibar that night. On Mondays, the Unibar opens up the other half of the pub which is a disco. Tenten was a fountain of information since she had gone to all the events the year before. She even told them about the free Kelly’s bus on Wednesdays. According to her, Kelly’s was THE club in the North and everyone went. Because of her enthusiasm, everyone decided to go to the Unibar that night. Naruto was even able to convince Gaara, who had been adamant at first about not going, to come. They all decided to meet at the bus stop in front of central building and walk down together. After their plans were made, they all split and went their separate ways. Some were going back to their flats while others, like Naruto, had more classes to go to. The next lecture would be Naruto’s last for the day.

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Naruto returned to his flat right after his last lecture for the day. Since he didn't have that class with Sasuke, he hadn't seen the other man since that morning. He entered the kitchen and was surprised to find all three girls there. Ino and Sakura both had huge welcoming smiles on their faces until they saw who it was. Their smiles dimmed considerably and they both turned away. Naruto made a face at them before smiling at Hinata, who's smile hadn't faded when he'd entered the room.

"Hey Hinata, what's up? Are you done for the day?"

She shook her head. "I still have a lab at 3."

"A lab," he exclaimed. "I was told there would be no labs during this first week."

"Optometry students are extremely busy," this from Ino.

"Yeah, I don't envy them," this from Sakura.

Hinata blushed. Naruto looked at her, amazed.

"Wow. What made you want to be an optometrist?"

She shrugged, "It sounded interesting at the time."

"At the time? When did you choose?"

"When I took my Standard Grade exams."

"Standard Grade exams?"

“They’re just standardized exams we take when we’re around 15,” Hinata explained.

"Yeah, and, depending on how well you do on those exams, they decide what your future major will be. Here in Ireland we call them our GCSEs. Scotland's system is a little different from ours," Sakura added.

"What!" Naruto exclaimed. "You mean to tell me that you had to pick your major when you were 15?" He looked at all 3 girls.

"Well, sort of," Ino replied. "It's not set in stone, but the courses you take for your GCSEs are supposed to be geared towards the type of job you want."

"They cover all your core requirements and a whole bunch of other courses depending on which ones you pick. After them, many students continue on to their A-levels," Sakura said. She and Ino were sounding a lot like professors citing well-known facts.

Naruto held up his hands for them to stop and shook his head, thoroughly confused. It still sounded like they had to pick their majors before they were really ready. "Forget I asked."

He spent the majority of the afternoon trying to get his laptop registered. The university had a lab specifically for laptop users and Naruto planned to take advantage of that. He also figured he should email his grandparents and his teacher Iruka to let someone know he'd made it to Ireland in one piece. Only Iruka would care though. He took the form the IT guys gave him back to his room to fill out. He was supposed to write down his computer’s MAC address, whatever that was. At least they gave instructions on the form on how to obtain said MAC address. While he fiddled around in DOS, he listened for Sasuke's return. He planned on confronting Sasuke about leaving without him that morning and basically just nag him until he felt satisfied.

After 2 hours of waiting with no sign of Sasuke, he went back to the IT building and returned the registration form for the laptop lounge. They told him it would take a couple days before everything went through and to check his school email. As he was leaving, Naruto decided to go to Spar since he was near Central building, and he and Sasuke were running short on food.

He returned loaded down with food, mostly frozen pizza, and after putting everything away in the kitchen, went back to his room to try to entertain himself. However, he found he couldn't focus on anything since he was still listening for Sasuke to come back. He didn’t quite understand this urge to see Sasuke so badly. Hell, they were barely civil around each other half the time. Naruto didn't like waiting, so he left to go to Gaara's and Lee's flat across the hall.

A guy with hair as blond as Naruto's and dark blue eyes opened the door. He introduced himself as Aidan, and Naruto thought he seemed just as friendly as Lee. He let Naruto in and yelled down the hall to Gaara and Lee that they had company. Almost simultaneously, Lee and Gaara poked their heads out of their doors to see who it was. Aidan and Naruto laughed at the sight and everyone went into the kitchen. Naruto ended up staying over for most of the evening, even going so far as to cook one of his newly purchased pizzas in their oven. They watched TV for a bit, Naruto making fun of all the soap operas that were on. There were only 7 channels on the TV and channel 7 was in Gaelic.

Naruto finally left around 8:30 to get ready to go to the Unibar. Tenten said that they started charging you £2 after 10, so everybody was going to arrive just before that time. They would rather spend their money on drinks. When Naruto entered his flat, he paused to listen for sound in the kitchen, but heard nothing. He then noticed that lights were on under all the doors except his and Sasuke's. Where is he? Maybe he went to bed early? Naruto walked to Sasuke's door and knocked hard, but there was no answer. Sakura came out of her room right across from Sasuke's and glared balefully at Naruto for a minute.

"Have you seen Sasuke today?" he asked her.

"No, I haven't seen him since early this morning. Why?"

"I was going to invite him to the Unibar. A bunch of friends and I are going there tonight."

She pursed her lips; whether in annoyance at not being invited or at the thought of going, Naruto couldn’t tell. "I'm sure Sasuke has better sense than to go partying on a Monday night." she said, stepping back and obviously preparing to shut her door, but too polite to do it right in his face.

Naruto nodded in agreement then bid her “goodnight” before going back to his room. He wanted to look good for the Irish lassies. He would quit worrying over Sasuke not being invited. Chances were very high that he would say no anyway.

A little before 10pm, those that were going to the Unibar all met up to walk there. It wasn't quite as lively in the bar yet, but as time went by, it became much more crowded as people started pouring in. Naruto danced with any girl who wanted to dance including Tenten and Kate, the English major. Shikamaru, Chouji and Gaara held up one of the tables since they refused to dance. Tenten had managed to get Neji out on the dance floor and Naruto noticed that the other man had some nice moves. Tenten was having the most fun, though. Naruto tried almost every drink there that he hadn’t heard of and was feeling tipsy rather early. The last coherent thought he had that night was seeing Neji's other roommates and challenging one of them to a drinking contest. That was a mistake.

At almost 2am, Sasuke was heading back to his room after getting a drink of water from the kitchen when he heard something thunk against the door to the flat. Curious, and a little wary, he walked softly to the door and peered through the peephole. His eyes widened a fraction and then he jerked the door open only to watch Naruto fall over the threshold. The blonde caught himself on his forearms right before his nose would have smashed into the ground and then rolled over onto his back to blearily stare up at Sasuke. The stench of alcohol assaulted Sasuke immediately and he scrunched his nose in disgust. He stared down at the bemused man on the floor, wondering what in the hell to do with him.

Sasuke stuck his head out of the door to see if any of Naruto’s other friends had passed out on the stairs but didn’t see anyone. He was half grateful and half angry. If they’re still sober enough to get to the own flats, why didn’t they help Naruto to his? He looked back at Naruto, who was currently waving his fingers in front of his face with a look of utter fascination. Sasuke sighed.

"Come on, let's get you into your bed." So saying he bent down and grasped Naruto's arms and pulled him roughly to his feet.

" 'm no' a mor'n," Naruto slurred in reply.

Sasuke couldn’t help but snicker and then he started dragging Naruto down the hallway. Naruto's door was locked and Sasuke found that Naruto wasn't holding his keys. This could be problematic.

"Where are your keys?" Sasuke asked, waving his hand in front of Naruto’s face to get the blonde’s attention.

Naruto grinned drunkenly. "In m' pocket," he slurred.

"Well, take them out."

Naruto just giggled before tilting sideways and hitting his doorknob. Sasuke was fast losing patience so he reached into Naruto's front pockets to get the keys out himself. He paused in his search though when Naruto's hand came up to grip his wrist, still giggling.

"Tha' tickles. Grr yur 'ands out of m' pants. 's givin' m' ideas."

Sasuke's head snapped up after this slurred statement. Does he even know who he's with? Now that Sasuke was closer he could smell something else that had been overpowered by the smell of alcohol. It was perfume. He rolled his eyes. Naruto had probably made out with some girl earlier. Naruto's eyes were glazed so he hoped the moron wouldn’t mistake him for some girl. However, the Fates seemed to be eager to mess with Sasuke that night. Wet lips suddenly pressed against Sasuke’s own in a sloppy kiss. Sasuke was stunned for a mere second before he pushed the blonde away and backed up a step, quite unsure of what to do besides beat the shit out of Naruto, which seemed a tad unfair considering how plastered the blond was.

The blonde seemed intent on following him though. Sasuke was stunned yet again, when Naruto shoved his entire body at him, knocking them both into Ino’s door on the other side of the hallway. Sasuke was able to prevent his head from cracking against the door, but that meant that his head was leaning towards Naruto, who was still intent on kissing him. However, Naruto’s momentum was too much, and they both ended up smacking into one another painfully. Teeth slammed into teeth and Sasuke felt a sharp pain on his lip and tasted blood. Then his head hit Ino’s door. Sasuke pushed at Naruto’s shoulders to get him to stop leaning on him, but the blonde seemed unable to stop using Sasuke as his support.

Fed up with the entire situation, as well as embarrassed that Naruto had been able to kiss him, not once, but twice; even if the second one was more of a falling-into-one-another-and-ending-up-in-a-highly-awkward-place kind of kiss. Sasuke’s next shove was not so nice, and it sent Naruto careening back into his own door, bashing his head and having the small of his back hit his doorknob. Naruto slid down the door until he was slumped on the floor, a small groan indicating how much pain he was in.

Sasuke stared down at him for a minute, still a little stunned from the events in the past couple minutes. His anger, caused by being extremely embarrassed, built until he was ready to just leave Naruto there in the hallway to teach him a lesson. Quite ready to follow through, Sasuke was just at his door before he changed his mind. He was starting to wonder why he still considered Naruto a friend and just couldn’t leave him there all night. The dumbass had been drunk and obviously still wound up from some tease. Sasuke glared down the hallway at Naruto, who was currently holding his aching head. Then Sasuke sighed and walked back to the blonde. He’s so drunk he won’t remember anything anyway. That was the only thing saving Naruto at that moment.

After much manhandling, Sasuke was able to get Naruto in his own room. The blond seemed to become more aware through the ordeal, because Sasuke had less trouble helping him onto his bed. Of course, it didn’t take much effort to just throw the blond onto his bed. Naruto grunted as he landed and then shifted around until he was staring sluggishly up at Sasuke. Sasuke’s lips curled in a familiar sneer.

“You owe me, dumbass,” he growled.

Naruto just closed his eyes in answer. Sasuke left quietly, even if he wanted to slam the door. He looked at his clock and swore. Naruto had made him stay up later than he wanted. However, he wasn’t about to go to bed until he brushed his teeth again. Secondhand alcohol is not pleasant.

----------------------------------------

Naruto woke the next morning, and instantly wished he hadn’t. Moaning pitifully from the pain he felt in his head and behind his eyes, he buried his head in his pillow and tried to will the pain away. And I don't have any Ibuprofen! He didn't know how he was going to get through his two morning lectures. He sat up carefully, cursing as his head let out a particularly nasty throb before reluctantly shuffling to his bathroom to take a shower.

He stood in front of his shower in a daze for about 5 minutes, waiting for the water to warm up, but it refused. He frowned. The Residential Essentials booklet had said they don't cut off the hot water until 2pm. He looked down at his watch, wondering vaguely in the back of his mind why he had worn it to bed, and saw that it was past 3pm.

"Fuuuck," he whined.

He cut off the water, and returned to his bed. He wanted to lie back down and back to sleep, but he didn’t think that would help him much. He rubbed his hands over his face roughly, hoping that would somehow make things better, but winced instead as his hands brushed over his mouth. He paused in his pity party and rubbed his lips again. Sure enough, they felt bruised; it felt like he’d gotten punched right across his lips. He went to the bathroom to look more closely at his reflection. He saw a slight puffiness, but his lip wasn’t swollen. On further inspection though, it looked like he’d bit his lower lip on the inside. Frowning, he tried to remember what had happened the night before. As was his habit, he ran his hand through his hair, and let out a girly yelp when it encountered the back of his skull. Gingerly, Naruto felt the back of his head where a lump had formed. He’d hit something pretty hard to cause that sort of goose egg.

This caused Naruto to inspect the rest of his body, but nothing else hurt. He’d clearly gotten drunk, but he couldn’t remember much after he left the Unibar. On further thought, he started wondering how he’d made it to his bed. He stared hard in the mirror, willing his memories to come back. The first thing that came back and opened up the veritable floodgate was Sasuke’s sneer. His eyes suddenly widened as he stared closer at his lip as memories of the night before came crashing back into his consciousness with crystal clear clarity.

"Oh shit..." he whispered, panicked. He remembered everything and frankly, he was surprised he was still alive.

Definite changes here, but nothing as drastic as later on. I did go through all chapters so far and cut out a lot of useless stuff. The later chapters will be completely changed, so you can look forward to that. Or not. Either way's fine with me.

Hope you enjoy! ^_^

And now for the weather forecast...

Mon, 27 Nov 2006 20:01:34 GMT

OMG, I hate school. I'm so ready to be done with this and join the masses going to their little cubicles every Monday-Friday. Jeez...

And as to the weather, what happened to our snow? It snowed yesterday, but didn't continue through the night. Now, it's all melted and school is still on. Damn. However, I don't know why I'm complaining so vehemently right now. I only have one class on Monday's and it's at 4:30pm. So, no biggie.

After reading all that, you can guess what my next statement is going to be about. I haven't touched any of my "works" since, oh, quite a while ago. School, yanno... And since finals and last minute assignments due the week of finals are coming up, I still won't have time. But afterwords, I'm flying to GA for Christmas with mi familia. So, maybe then? I'll definitely work on fixing Emerald Isle, cuz that won't take too much extra thinking since the majority is already written.

/Sigh

I hate school...

The Emerald Isle repost (Chapter 3)

Sun, 17 Sep 2006 04:22:03 GMT

Nothing major changed in here at all.

~~Chapter 3~~
Naruto was awoken so abruptly the next morning by a loud bang that his body jerked and then rolled right off the bed.

"Oww, dammit!” he cried. “What the hell's beneath this carpet, concrete?" he tried to yell, but his voice was still too husky from sleep for him to reach the required volume.

Still on his knees, he reached up and unlocked the door, using the handle to pull himself to his feet and into the bright hallway. He glared briefly at the window letting in the morning light before turning towards the noise-makers with the same glare. Sasuke stood there holding the door open for a dark-haired girl with eyes that reminded Naruto of Neji's eyes. They both stopped and stared at Naruto, who was busy rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"What's all this noise so early in the morning?" he complained, still sounding sleepy.

Sasuke was in the process of grabbing a bag from the young woman and then he set it down on the floor before answering Naruto's question. "Morning?" he glanced at his watch. "It's after 11; you should be up by now, idiot."

"Not when there's no reason," Naruto countered. However, he decided that since he was already in the hall, he could at least introduce himself to the woman standing there looking at everything but him. "Hi, I'm Naruto Uzumaki," he smiled his most charming grin and held out his hand.

Her cheeks turned bright red. "I'm Hinata Hyuuga," she said with a faint squeak while she shook his hand.

"Are you moving in?” At her nod he said, “Cool! Here, I'll help you--"

"Why don't you go back to your room," Sasuke interrupted. "We'll take care of this."

Naruto glanced at him, curious as to his abrupt tone, but Sasuke seemed completely absorbed in Hinata’s luggage and didn't meet Naruto’s gaze. "Why? I'm perfectly capable of helping too." So saying, he started to march past Sasuke, but was stopped when Sasuke put a hand on the center of his chest.

"Go back to your room," he said. Then he started pushing Naruto back to his room.

Naruto was too stunned by Sasuke's behavior to protest right away. Sasuke even went so far as to open Naruto's door and shove him inside his room.

"And put some clothes on, moron," he muttered before shutting Naruto’s door firmly.

Rubbing his chest absently where Sasuke's cold hand had been, Naruto looked down at himself and finally noticed what he was wearing, or rather, what he hadn’t been wearing. Oops. He snickered to himself. He was only wearing his plaid pajama bottoms, which were riding very low on his slim hips. Then, remembering the way Sasuke acted, he grinned evilly and ran to his door. Only his head peeked past his doorway which was plenty for him to yell at Sasuke before the other man left.

"Jealous, Sasuke? All this manliness on display, you must feel inadequate." He then ducked his head back into his room before Sasuke could say anything back. The door was slammed when Sasuke left.

It wasn't until Naruto was fully dressed in jeans, and a black long-sleeved shirt with an orange T-shirt on top that he remembered Hinata's last name. Hyuuga? I wonder if she knows Neji.

----------------------------------------

It turned out that Hinata and Neji were cousins. By some weird twist of fate, Neji had just ended up choosing to come to Coleraine and Hinata was just starting her second year as an optometry student. When he had mentioned Neji to her, she had blanched for a minute before asking Naruto specific questions to find out if it was her relative Neji. Naruto had immediately offered to just take her over to Neji's flat so she could meet him in person. She had hesitated, but nodded her agreement in the end.

This was where Naruto found himself two hours later. He was sitting on the couch next to Hinata soaking up the conversations flying around him. All of Neji's roommates had arrived either the night before or that morning, like Hinata. And he could barely understand a word between them. Three guys and one girl. Naruto was still trying to tell the guys apart since they all looked the same. They had the same spiky, gelled hairstyle that seemed really, really popular in Ireland and which Naruto was able to imitate naturally. Apparently the brunette in a red shirt was Jeff, the other brunette in a black shirt was John and the last guy whose hair leaned more towards the auburn side was Nate. The only girl, Tenten, was easy to spot since she was, well, a girl. She was quite hip too, with her two pigtails in buns, and wearing a suede skirt and a pink tank top with the letters 'FCUK' written across it. A blue jean jacket and black suede boots that reached mid-calf completed the outfit.

"Hey Tenten, don't you Irish know how to spell 'fuck'?" Naruto and Tenten had quickly established a teasing relationship.

"You idiot American, haven't you heard of the French Connection?"

"It rings a few bells."

"Oh you poor thing! The echo must be terrible!" she grinned as Naruto groaned.

"Ha, ha, funny…" he sniffed, "but really, what does it mean?"

"French Connection-UK," she replied.

"Ahhh," then “…ok!”

"Was that it?" She raised her eyebrow when he didn’t say anything else.

"Pretty much."

Tenten was about to reply when Jeff yelled across the kitchen, cutting her off: "Hey Naruto! Can you understand me yet?"

"Maybe if you weren’t slurring," Naruto shouted right back.

Jeff laughed and took a gulp of his beer. Surprised by his lack of inhibition, Naruto glanced at Tenten, eyebrows raised. She mimicked guzzling down beer after beer. His eyes widened and he looked at his watch. It wasn't even 3pm yet. He had just been joking about the slurring. He couldn’t really tell if anyone was drunk or not since he had trouble understanding them sober or not.

He glanced at Neji, "You've got some interesting roommates, Neji."

“So it seems,” Neji replied. Then he asked, “Where’s Sasuke?”

Naruto shrugged. "No idea…haven't seen him since this morning."

"He said he had something to do today," Hinata spoke up quietly.

"He did?" Naruto asked. "He didn't say anything yesterday." He shrugged again, deciding it wasn't too important. He'd drill Sasuke later about what he’d been up to and then chew him out for not inviting him.

Naruto and Hinata stayed a little while longer before heading back to their flat so Hinata could finish settling in. They chatted amiably while walking back; well, Naruto did most of the talking and Hinata just nodded at the appropriate moments. Naruto didn’t quite understand why she would blush and stutter at the oddest times, but decided she was still nice. As they walked he noticed that the once empty parking lot was almost completely filled with cars now.

"Wow, this place is alive now," he whistled.

"Yes,” Hinata softly agreed. “Almost all those who live in Ireland don't leave home until as late as possible. Some people won't get here until tomorrow morning if they have afternoon classes or are lucky enough to have no classes on Mondays."

"But you got here early."

"Yes, but I'm from Scotland, so I came as soon as my plane landed and I caught the train up here," she explained.

"Oh." He brought his hand up to his face to cup his chin, thinking hard. "I thought your accent sounded different from those crack heads Neji lives with."

She blushed as she nodded and said, “Yes.”

Naruto was reaching for his key to their building when the door was suddenly flung open and a girl with pinkish hair rushed out, almost running Naruto down in the process. He jumped out of the way, pulling Hinata with him, as the girl rushed past with a harried “sorry” flung back at them. Right behind her was a guy in a green turtle neck with green pants and the ugliest hair cut imaginable. It reminded Naruto of Jim Carrey in Dumb and Dumber.

"Sakura, please allow me to carry your luggage," the man in green was practically pleading Sakura.

"That's ok, Lee. Really, I can manage on my own," Sakura was running around a car that probably had her stuff in it, trying to get away from Lee.

Naruto and Hinata had halted, staring wide-eyed at the scene before them. Hinata looked slightly worried as Sakura ran around her car for the third time to escape an exuberant Lee. Naruto was trying not to burst out laughing. They both stood next to the door, completely forgetting to go inside, but quickly moved aside as Sakura rushed the door. She had grabbed one bag out of the backseat and slammed the door shut, almost on Lee’s fingers. She fumbled with the lock to the building for a minute, resolutely ignoring everyone. Then she flung the door open and immediately slammed it in Lee’s face while he still pleaded with her to let him carry her bags up.

Lee glanced over at Naruto and Hinata and smiled in greeting while he searched for his own key in his pants’ pockets. Naruto grinned openly at him and this time grabbed the door when Lee opened it, and held it for Hinata to precede him. They both watched Lee run up the stairs and start knocking on their door.

"Guess Sakura's our roommate," Naruto murmured to Hinata as the two of them approached the stairs.

She nodded fretfully and followed him. Lee was still knocking insistently on their door.

"Hi. Lee, right?” Naruto held out his hand as usual. “I'm Naruto and this is Hinata. We both live in 4. Which flat do you live in?" Naruto asked. Lee obviously didn't live in flat 4, but since he had a key to the building he must live in one of the other three.

Lee quit knocking and smiled brightly at them, and then pointed to the door across from their own. "I live in 3. Nice to meet you." Only then did he notice Naruto’s hand and shook it enthusiastically.

Naruto smiled, liking the guy, even if he was a little strange.

Hinata smiled back at Lee shyly, and asked, "Have you known Sakura long?"

Lee shook his head. "No, we only met a little while ago," then his eyes went unfocused, "I was just dropping off my bags from my weekend in Belfast and going to get a drink when I saw this angel struggling with her luggage up the stairs. She allowed me to help her but when I asked her out she suddenly didn't want my help. She was so beautiful, like a goddess, I couldn't help myself."

Naruto and Hinata looked a little dazed after this long speech. Just then the door opened and an older man walked through. He glared briefly at all of them before leaving the building. Naruto had caught the door to his and Hinata’s flat after the man’s exit and motioned for the others to come in. They all piled into the combination kitchen and living room since that had the most seating.

Lee turned out to be a pretty talkative guy. He said he was an international student from Japan and would be studying here for the entire school year. Naruto and Hinata were surprised by how well he spoke English with almost no accent whatsoever. While they talked, he kept glancing at the door and Naruto knew why the minute it burst open and Sakura walked in, followed by another girl with long platinum blond hair pulled back into a ponytail and carrying a box. Naruto started grinning, happy that his wish had come true and he would be living with three girls, three very attractive girls at that. The grin disappeared when Sakura glared furiously at him.

"What is he doing here?" she jabbed a finger at Lee, who was bouncing on the couch grinning at her and urging her to have a seat next to him on the couch.

The blonde smirked around the room and went to the kitchen to unpack the contents of the box she held.

Naruto grinned devilishly, “Well, since he was banging on our door so insistently I decided to invite him in.”

Hinata smiled slightly at his response and Naruto could have sworn he heard a muted chuckle from the kitchen, right from behind the counter that the blonde had disappeared.

Sakura sighed, defeated, and then took a chair at the table where Naruto sat, placing her cell phone on the table with a clack. Naruto smiled at her winningly and introduced himself.

“I’m Sakura Haruno,” she said while flicking a stray bang off her forehead.

After Hinata introduced herself, the blonde hiding in the kitchen finally stood up. "I'm Ino Yamanaka," she said, giving a little wave.

Naruto gave a little wave back.

"We’re hungry so we were going to order something from Bubba's. Do you guys want anything?" Ino asked.

They all agreed. It was only when they were all placing their orders over Sakura’s phone that Naruto remembered that he hadn't seen Sasuke all day. He glanced at his watch; it was already 6:30. He hadn't realized he and Hinata had stayed over at Neji's so long. Where the hell is Sasuke?

"So, do either of you know who the other flatmate is?" Sakura asked after they were done.

Naruto and Hinata nodded. "Yeah. His name is Sasuke and he's from the states like me," Naruto added.

Then, as if saying his name was all it took to summon him, they all heard the door to the flat slam right before Sasuke pushed open the squeaking kitchen door.

"Where have you been all day Sasuke?" Naruto shouted.

"Out."

"Yeah, I guessed that. Where to?"

"I don't recall needing to inform you of my whereabouts," was the cool reply.

"Well shit Sasuke, don't have a fit. I was only wondering." Naruto turned away and glanced at the other occupants in the room. Hinata gave him an encouraging smile, but Naruto noticed that both Sakura and Ino were staring at Sasuke as if entranced. Uh oh… Then Ino and Sakura rushed right up to Sasuke, giving him wide smiles while they introduced themselves at the same time.

"Hi, I'm Sakura.”

“Hi, I’m Ino. You must be Sasuke.”

They each grabbed a hand and pulled him towards the couch and pushed him down. They practically shoved Lee out of the way so they could sit next to him. Sasuke just looked resigned and annoyed.

Lee looked happy at first since Sakura was next to him, but he started to look like a lost puppy when she completely ignored him.

“It’s too bad you didn’t get back a moment earlier,” Sakura was saying. “We just placed our orders at Bubba’s.”

“You can have some of my pizza though,” Ino chirped.

“That’s ok,” Sasuke said, ignoring the glares the two girls were sending to each other from either side of him. “I already ate.”

They both looked crestfallen at this announcement. Naruto looked at Sasuke suspiciously. The other man had probably come into the kitchen/living room just to make himself some dinner. It looked like he’d just changed his mind. Naruto couldn’t help but grin maliciously. He knew his dinner tonight would be fabulous. Sasuke caught his grin and glared. Naruto schooled his features as best he could and turned to Lee.

"So Lee, you said you just got back from Belfast, right? What were you doing there?"

Lee's eyes brightened, "I was there with the aikido club. It was a training session conducted by Alan Dodkins, who is a well-known rokudan from Dublin. It was amazing," he said excitedly.

"Aikido?" Naruto hadn’t understood half the words Lee just spouted so he started with the first.

"It's a form of martial arts that mainly uses the opponents' force against them to disarm. It's all about moving your body."

"And it's a club here?" Naruto asked.

"Yes. I found out about it about a month ago. I arrived here early to live with my host family to practice my English and found out about the Sports Center here on campus. When I visited the place, the aikido club was practicing and I asked if I could join."

"Sounds neat! I want to try. What do you think Hinata?"

She smiled, "It sounds nice."

"Are you sure, Naruto?” Sasuke asked caustically, still miffed about the blonde man laughing at his predicament. He had found out years ago that he couldn’t eat with people fawning all over him. “It sounds like it requires a lot of footwork and you can’t even watch out for a curb."

Naruto glared back at him, not liking that particular reminder. He wasn’t really that absentminded. Sasuke was just being an ass, and Naruto suspected it had something to do with the two females currently flirting with him shamelessly.

"Stop being an asshole,” Naruto replied. “You're just scared that I'll be really good and kick your ass."

"I don't think that will happen, moron."

"You know, Sasuke, you should stop thinking then. It can't be healthy for you," Naruto said angrily. If there was one thing no guy could stand, it was being embarrassed by someone in front of a bunch of girls.

"Your getting us confused again dumbass."

By this time, the other people the kitchen were glancing back and forth between the two combatants.

Naruto stood up abruptly, knocking his chair over. "You want to test your theory, asshole? How 'bout we both join the club and at the end of the year we'll see who's better."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "I don't have the time to play with you."

"You're just being a sissy. Afraid I might actually be better than you?" Naruto's voice had started taunting him.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed and he grit his teeth. He moved towards Naruto and didn't stop until they were nose to nose. They were so close that they could feel each other’s body heat. Then Sasuke glanced down between their bodies, making Naruto look down as well. Sasuke held his hand out and Naruto clasped it in his own hand, gripping hard.

"Fine, you've got yourself a deal. But don't cry when I beat the shit out of you," Sasuke said, flashing his teeth in a mocking grin.

Naruto returned the grin just as snidely. "Don't worry, bastard, I'll make sure to bring a towel and a bucket of water to clean the pavement after I smear your damn face all over it."

Then they separated and returned to their respective seats; Sasuke did so with reluctance. They both acted as if the past couple minutes hadn’t happened. Lee took this chance to say something.

"Um, guys. I don't think you should take aikido if all you're going to use it for is to fight each other."

They both glared at Lee and he held his hands up in surrender, looking alarmed at the violence in their eyes.

“Don’t worry, Lee, it’s a…friendly competition.” Naruto said. He couldn’t help but smirk at the statement, said with so much sarcasm. Lee seemed to accept this though and started expounding on aikido some more. Everyone else wisely moved onto different topics.

When the food arrived, Naruto dug into his food with relish and couldn’t help but remark again and again how good it was. Sasuke just glared all the more and eventually mumbled something and went to his room. Lee left shortly after they all finished eating, claiming he had to get some sleep for the first day of classes. Everyone else agreed and they all trooped to their separate rooms. Naruto said goodnight in the hallway and only received the same from Hinata.

When he was in his room, Naruto collapsed onto his bed with a huge sigh, felling slightly dejected. He was beginning to wonder if he and Sasuke were really friends. They had been fine while in Coleraine together and when they were with Shikamaru and the tohers, but tonight Sasuke had only acted like a bastard. It was almost like they’d never enjoyed each other’s company. Naruto frowned when he noticed how negative his thoughts were and immediately tried to turn them around. He concluded that Sasuke didn’t like to be fawned over, so really, it was Sakura’s and Ino’s fault that he’d been so pissy. Although, personally, Naruto wouldn’t have minded having them flirt with him.

Let me know what you think. ^^

The Emerald Isle repost (Prologue, Chapter 1 and Chapter 2)

Mon, 28 Aug 2006 05:48:32 GMT

So here's the prologue, chapter 1 and chapter 2 of Emerald Isle revised to my liking.

~~Prologue~~

"You stupid punk! You almost forgot this." The shout came from behind him as he struggled to fit his luggage into the trunk of the taxi.

Naruto Uzumaki turned, startled blue eyes searching out the old man who had yelled at him. His grandfather was waving a small book in the air and wobbling towards Naruto as fast as he could with his bad knee. Naruto walked towards him so the old man wouldn't have to walk all the way to the street. The booklet was shoved into Naruto's hands and he looked down to find it was his passport. He flushed slightly as his grandfather cursed him for being a fool.

"You won't go anywhere without that thing, so don't lose it punk." His mouth, stained from too much chewing tobacco, was stretched into a thin line of disapproval.

Naruto smiled charmingly, his blond hair ruffling at the slight breeze, and tried to ignore the slight pain in his chest. "Don't worry, Mr. Baggs, I'll be out of your hair in less than ten minutes." He was never allowed to show any more familiarity with his mother's parents who had 'raised' him for the past 7 years, after his own parents died in a boating accident.

Mr. Baggs grunted before turning around sharply and wobbling back to his house, slamming the door on his way. Naruto stood there silently, staring off into space until the taxi driver gave a slight cough to indicate they should be on their way. Snapping out of his little pity party Naruto turned towards the man with a sheepish smile and tucked his passport into the back pocket of his laptop case hanging from his shoulder.

"I'd lose my head if it wasn't attached to my neck." he laughed, though it didn't sound as cheerful as his usual laughs.

Showing pity on the young man in front of him, the taxi driver walked to his trunk and helped the blonde shove the rest of his luggage into the trunk before they took off for the airport. While he was in the back seat, Naruto opened up his laptop bag and searched for the folder that contained all his papers he would need to get into the U.K. He had thought he'd put everything into the folder, but apparently he'd still forgotten the most important thing. He sighed. Guess my new responsible attitude is a failure. At least he would be free from that house for the school year. It was stifling to have to deal with all that disapproval day in and day out.

Turning his thoughts to better things, Naruto glanced at his itinerary. In bold letters he saw London Heathrow as his first stop and then he would get on a connecting flight to Belfast before he made his way further north to the city of Coleraine. He sent another 'thank you' to his teacher and advisor, Iruka, at the local community college, for pushing him to apply to study abroad for a year in Northern Ireland. Though he loved New York, he was happy that he would no longer be receiving the cold shoulder from his grandparents for a while. He couldn't complain too much though. After all, they'd allowed him to continue living with them during his college years so he could save a little money, even though they'd been ready to get rid of him long before then. Now he was going to a place where no one knew him and no one would judge him. He planned to make the most of it.

His bright smile returned when he looked out his window and noticed the exit for the airport coming up.

~~Chapter 1~~

Naruto was bored.

He was mind-numbingly bored.

And he was fidgeting. After 7 hours on a plane from Chicago’s O’Hare airport to London, he was felling a bit cagey.

The man seated on his right glanced up from his newspaper to glare at Naruto...again. The woman on his left shifted further away from him, as if his restlessness was a contagious disease. Naruto remained oblivious, still fiddling with the straps on his case or the papers in his folder.

He glanced at his watch for the 26th time and noted that the minute hand had only moved forward 6 minutes from the last time he'd looked. He was waiting for the flight attendants to allow the passengers to board the plane. What's taking so long, dammit! Heathrow Airport was huge, and he'd gotten lost twice and almost panicked before he finally found his correct gate, only to find out that his flight had been delayed by an hour. The lounge was crowded so Naruto had to squeeze in between two people. They hadn't minded, until he started talking, and talking, and talking some more. It took several minutes before Naruto got the hint and shut up, much to the relief of those around him. But without being able to vent his frustrations through his mouth, he was now a ball of nervous, fidgety energy, and it was driving everyone crazy.

Finally, the announcement came for the first class and business class passengers to proceed to the gate to board. Being a poor college student, Naruto figured he'd be one of the last passengers to board. He was relieved when things moved along very fast after that first announcement. This flight would only take an hour and a half to Belfast City Airport. He was almost there. He started grinning widely and noticed one of the flight attendants returned his smile.

The flight was uneventful except when the snack and beverage cart came by. Naruto almost snickered out loud when the flight attendant asked if he would like anything off the trolley. Flashes of Harry Potter on the train and the nice old lady asking 'Anything off the trolley, dears?' flitted through his brain. He asked for a soda, and the flight attendant handed him a can of Pepsi, but it wasn't your normal-sized can. It was a miniature version of the usual 8 oz cans. He held it up and examined it closely. It was so cute! Of course, he'd never say that out loud. He suddenly felt giddy at coming across one of the many differences between the British and the Americans. Then he figured that the U.S. probably had these type of cans as well, even though he’d never seen them sold anywhere near him.

Out of all the international students that arrived in Belfast to go to the University of Ulster, Naruto was one of the lucky ones. He had chosen the Coleraine campus, just one of four campuses, since it had the best science department. The international office there was gracious enough to send a bus to Belfast City Airport to take incoming students straight to the Coleraine and Jordanstown campus for free. Those going to the Magee or Belfast campus weren't as lucky and didn’t get a free ride. It was 2pm when the plane arrived in Belfast, giving Naruto just enough time to grab his luggage and catch the bus leaving for the two campuses at 2:30. There had been an earlier bus at 10:30am, and there would be one more bus at 5:30. He didn't know what he'd do if he had to wait for the 5:30 bus. More waiting at that point would not be good for his health. At least he would have been able to walk around the airport since he didn't have to worry about missing his next plane. Belfast International Airport was tiny compared to Heathrow.

The bus ride was two hours to Coleraine, and it was cold. Knowing that it rained a lot Naruto had worn jeans, with his Converse sneakers and a light, button down shirt on top. Even though it was mid-September, New York was still quite warm and Naruto figured it wouldn't be too cold in Ireland. He was wrong. The minute he stepped outside the airport a powerful gust of wind smacked right into him and he had to steady himself before pulling his two huge bags to the rear of the bus. He started shivering immediately, and wished he hadn't packed his jackets at the bottom of one of his suitcases. He wasn't about to rummage through his clothes in front of the girls around him just to keep himself warm. The lady in charge of making sure everyone who had signed up for the bus was on it was busy talking to the bus driver. When she was done she caught Naruto’s eye and hurried over to him.

Motioning towards the suitcase she had rolled behind her, she asked, "Can you make sure this suitcase gets to its owner? He arrived early, but this particular suitcase was put on a later plane, so we decided he would go on ahead and we could bring it on one of the later buses."

Naruto nodded, "Sure, no problem." He took the suitcase from her and rolled it towards the rear of the bus so it could be loaded with all the others. Before handing it over he looked at the name on the tag so he'd know who it went to. It read Sasuke Uchiha. Hoping he'd remember the name, he boarded the bus.

He spent much of the ride looking out his window and shivering. He was tired from his flights, since he’d been too excited to sleep, and the cold was steadily seeping into his bones. He didn't understand why he was so cold; the weather was considered to be mild in the U.K., if a little wet. Thirty minutes into the bus ride, he had to use the bathroom. He then cursed his stupidity for not going at the airport. Doing his best to ignore his discomfort he turned towards the other students on the bus and joined the conversation. Everyone was just as excited as him. They all shared their plans for their time in Northern Ireland. The generic 'Where are you from?' and 'What's your major?' were already asked and Naruto found there to be a lot of English majors. He was the only chemistry major on the bus and when asked why he chose that he grinned and replied that he liked to watch stuff go 'boom', waving his arms and smiling wickedly to demonstrate. The others laughed and they continued to chat until the bus pulled up to the accommodation office in the center of the student dorms.

Everyone piled off the bus and walked quickly into the office to escape the strong winds. The bus driver started unloading their luggage, setting them on the sidewalk while they retrieved their keys to their apartments. Naruto worriedly looked at the different signs taped to the front of the tables where ladies were giving out keys. He saw all sorts of different names, Errigal, Knocklayde, Maple Lodge, Atlantic Court and so on, but there was no Cranagh Village, which is where he was staying.

"Ummm, excuse me?" he approached one of the ladies who was talking to a guy with messy black hair. When she glanced at him he continued, "Do you know where those staying in Cranagh Village get their keys?" He hesitated over the name, not sure if he'd pronounced it correctly. He smiled at the black-haired guy as an apology for interrupting, and was startled when his eyes met eyes so dark they appeared black, set in a face so beautiful Naruto had to blink to make sure he wasn’t seeing things.

"Cranagh?” the woman asked, interrupting Naruto from his daze. “Let me see.” She shuffled through the different folders before shaking her head and asked another woman if she had anymore keys for Cranagh.

The other woman immediately picked up a folder in the chair next to her before turning to the three of them standing there. "I only have one key for a Naruto Uzumaki."

Practically jumping in place, Naruto waved his hand saying loudly, "That's me, that's me!" His bladder wasn't going to hold for much longer.

Both women smiled at his childlike enthusiasm, and the lady handed him the key to his apartment and an information packet. He accepted these and started towards the door to grab his luggage and try to find his apartment when he heard the black-haired guy say his name.

"Sasuke?" Naruto questioned, and then started when the person in question turned towards him. He hadn't known he'd said that out loud.

The person in question raised his eyebrows at Naruto.

Naruto swallowed a nervous laugh. Those eyes were unnerving. "You're Sasuke Uchiha?" he asked.

Sasuke nodded briefly, like a king bestowing a favor on a peasant. Naruto gritted his teeth briefly at his arrogant attitude. He'd seen enough of that with his relatives.

"Your bag that was on a later plane is on the bus. I was asked to look after it."

Before Naruto could say anything else, Sasuke was in front of him, waiting for him to exit the building.

“Are you going to stand there blocking the door all afternoon, or are you going to take me to my bag?” Sasuke’s low voice came out almost as a growl.

Naruto’s eyes narrowed at his tone. Then he waved his hand behind him and said, “It’s on the bus. Do you need a map to find the back of it?”

Naruto expected a retort, but Sasuke merely reached past him and pushed the door open with his right hand. This put the two of them in close proximity. Naruto stumbled and would have fallen on his ass if he hadn’t caught himself on the door handle just in time. He grit his teeth and muttered “Bastard,” as Sasuke shoved past him. Naruto noted that Sasuke’s mouth had tilted up in a smirk at his near-fall and after that, Naruto was forced to change his earlier impression of the black-haired man. He was no longer a mildly attractive guy, he was demonic. Naruto glared for all he was worth as Sasuke walked by. Thank God I don't have to live with the weird bastard.

"Naruto!" a voice suddenly shouted behind him.

Naruto jumped and turned towards the voice. It was Kate, one of the English majors on the bus, from Texas.

"Where are you staying?" she asked as she reached his side.

He glanced at the green tag his key was hanging from. "I 4.2, whatever that means," he smiled at her and she laughed. He felt his stomach clench as she smiled at him. She was really pretty, with light brown hair that was whipping about her face from the strong wind, and vivid green eyes, not to mention breasts you could bury your face between for snuggling. He forgot Sasuke and his bad attitude instantly.

Kate pulled out a pen from her purse and grabbed his hand, writing a number on his palm. "This is my apartment number or flat as they say here. Be sure to visit me and I'll visit you when we know where you're staying." she smiled into his eyes before walking away, her hips swaying gracefully.

He sighed happily. He could really get used to living here if he kept meeting people like her. Naruto turned towards the back of the bus to grab his suitcase and saw Sasuke staring at him strangely, and almost horrified look on his perfectly arrogant face.

"What?" Naruto demanded harshly.

"Did you say I 4?"

"I 4.2 actually. What of it?"

He sighed, "It means block I, flat 4, room 2,” then he paused before continuing in a pained voice, “and I happen to be in I 4.3."

“What do I care where you're staying?” It took a minute, but when things clicked, his eyes widened comically, “...wait, you mean we're roommates?”

Sasuke nodded, looking as put out as Naruto.

"Shit." Naruto cursed. He thought about what it would mean to be around this guy everyday, then shook his head mentally and decided to make the best of it. "Well, could you at least show me where block I is?" He hoped it was still possible to salvage their acquaintance. Yeah, right.

Without saying a word, Sasuke grabbed the handle of his black suitcase, and started walking in the opposite direction Kate had taken. Naruto took this as a 'Sure thing buddy, just follow me' and hurried to catch up with the black-haired man, pulling his two huge suitcases behind him. Block I turned out to be closer than he'd expected. Each of the buildings surrounding the accommodation office was a part of Cranagh Village and all had a sign with a letter on them. Sasuke used his key to let them in and Naruto had to catch the door with his shoulder before it smacked him in the face since Sasuke kept walking ahead of him. Lousy, arrogant prick. 'Thanks for holding the door for me. I know you must have your hands full with your 2 pound bag. I'm not carrying that much anyways. Just two 60 pound bags!' He glared at the lean back strolling through the foyer and up the stairs. Then Naruto frowned when he realized he'd have to lug all his suitcases up the stairs since flat 4 was on the second floor. Cursing his luck, he decided to bring one up at a time.

He was surprised though when he got to the top and saw Sasuke standing there holding the door open with his foot, giving Naruto an impatient look. Quickly depositing his first suitcase in the hallway, Naruto ran down the stairs to get his other one. Sasuke was still standing there holding the door open for him. Naruto glared at him warily. Their brief introduction at the accommodation office had not been favorable, so he was waiting for the other shoe to drop. Sasuke pointed to the door behind him.

"That's the kitchen. Your room is that one in the middle of the hallway on the right."

"Where are you?" Know your enemy's whereabouts.

"The last one on the right. Of course you could just read the numbers on the doors."

Naruto glared, and stuck his tongue out at Sasuke, who immediately walked down the hall to his room. The distinct sound of a lock turning echoed in the short hallway. Guess he's through talking to me. Good riddance.

Naruto rushed to his room, leaving his luggage in the hall for a moment so he could get to the bathroom. After that was done he brought his luggage into his room a started to unpack them, pulling on a jacket in the process to try to warm up. He grimaced at the lack of heat in the room, but he brightened at the thought that he was out of that god-awful wind. He would go on a search later for the thermostat. When he was done putting his clothes on the different shelves, he lay down on his newly made bed and sighed. It had been an exhausting journey. I hope the other roommates are girls. I don't think I could stand living with any other bastards like Sasuke. He frowned as he thought of the other man. Despite the obvious and immediate animosity between them, Naruto hoped things didn't remain the same between the two of them. He wouldn't mind having Sasuke as a friend. They were Americans in a foreign country, so they should stick together. Although, Naruto planned to make the most of his time here with the local Irish girls. At that thought, Naruto grinned like a maniac, quickly forgetting about Sasuke. Welcome to the Emerald Isle, Naruto Uzumaki. This is going to be a blast!

~~Chapter 2~~

At 5pm, Naruto found himself strolling around outside one of the many buildings that he'd seen so far of the campus. He shivered, and wondered why he hadn't decided to wear an even heavier jacket. As he walked up to a set of glass doors he saw the word 'international' on a flyer taped next to automatic glass doors and immediately zoomed in on it. He was in luck. It told all international students to go to the Senior Common Room for an informal meet-and-greet. Now where the hell is this Senior Common Room? As he passed through the doors and went up the stairs in front of him, he noticed another sign giving him directions. Guess they thought of everything.

By the time he made his way to the Senior Common Room, he was a little worried about finding his way back out. The building was huge with many twists and turns and no apparent organization. The double doors were held open so he could hear the chatter of many people, well before he saw anyone. Much of the chatter was in other languages. Right away he recognized Japanese, Spanish, French and German. He had studied Spanish in high school for the required two years and could only remember a few of the basics. That didn't stop him from walking up to the trio of girls speaking rapidly in Spanish.

"Hola!" he practically shouted, grinning at them.

They smiled back, seemingly startled by his excitement, and returned the sentiment. The smallest woman of the group was the first one to speak. Her dark blond hair was a jumble of dreadlocks, just like some of the African Americans he saw around campus back in New York. She had a very curvy figure and a stud beneath her lip with a great smile.

In a thickly accented voice she asked, "You are American?"

He nodded enthusiastically, "Pretty obvious, right?"

They all nodded and laughed at his rueful expression. Then, holding his hand out, he introduced himself. He learned that the small woman who had first spoken to him was called Noy, while the other two were Maria and Alex. They all talked for a little bit, asking each other about their majors and why they had come to Ireland, before Naruto said his goodbyes and moved off to go 'meet and greet' the other international students. He was surprised that the group of French students didn't sneer at him when he walked up and introduced himself. He'd heard so many stories from other people that the French hate Americans, but he figured those that chose to study abroad would have to be open minded if they wanted to gain anything from the experience.

He found the Japanese and Chinese to be the most enthusiastic about meeting other people. Their heads bobbed excitedly as they talked to him. It wasn't until a group of Americans entered that Naruto knew why the Spanish girls had known he was American even when his speech had probably given him away. After all, he could have been Canadian, but Noy asked if he was American first. There seemed to be something about Americans that just made them stick out. Maybe they were just louder than others or more confidant. Whatever it was, Naruto knew instantly that the 3 guys walking into the room were Americans.

"Americans!" Naruto shouted, waving madly.

The guy in the middle with dark brown hair pulled back into a ponytail looked at Naruto and promptly rolled his small black eyes. The guy right behind him with spiky hair snorted into his hand before waving back, a little less enthusiastically. The last guy had long shiny black hair and gray eyes so light Naruto thought they looked white and no discernable expression. He reached the trio before they'd even taken 5 steps into the room. Throwing his arms behind his head Naruto grinned at them.

"I knew you were American,” he said excitedly. “I'm Naruto Uzumaki."

The ponytail guy introduced himself as Shikamaru Nara, the spiky-haired guy was called Kiba Inuzuka and the last guy was Neji Hyuuga.

Kiba grinned at Naruto, showing two sharp teeth that stuck out a little further than his others and reminded Naruto of fangs. "Yeah, we knew you were American too; especially when you waved like an idiot and yelled all the way across the room."

Shikamaru sighed, "You just insulted all Americans Kiba. And it's not funny; he's going to make us look stupid. How annoying."

"Hey! I was just glad to no longer be in the minority here." Naruto put on a mock affronted face, feeling to giddy at meeting new people to take any real offense.

"Who's in the minority now?" asked Neji.

Naruto turned and pointed to a girl standing at the refreshment table with long, pin-straight, blond hair and huge, grandma glasses. "That's Ashley, the lone Australian. She told me she came here from down under just to study optometry. I hope she finds a better style of glasses, though. I mean, I didn't know anyone our age would deliberately choose those ugly things. Oh but you've just got to hear her accent." he babbled, and the others just nodded when they felt it appropriate.

After talking for a couple minutes, Naruto found out that Shikamaru was from Iowa. Kiba and Neji were from Ohio, though they hadn't known each other before coming over. It wasn't until Naruto's stomach growled loudly that they made their way to the refreshment table. There was an assortment of little pastries, sausages and biscuit things that Neji said were called scones, but nothing real substantial. Naruto forlornly rubbed his stomach. He was still hungry and couldn't very well eat everything off the table, although he really liked the little pastries with strawberries on top. They hit his sweet spot nicely. The others agreed that they’d need more than pastries and scones to fill them up, and went to ask one of the international officers if she knew where they could get food. Unfortunately, since everything on campus was closed on the weekends, she said that the nearest place would be the convenience store, Spar, which was a 20 minute walk from the campus. Naruto and Kiba groaned, while Neji and Shikamaru settled for just frowning, but in the end they decided to go ahead and walk there later to get some food. Naruto was intent on greeting everybody there and spent much of the time dragging the other 3 men around to chat with other people. He noticed some of the people from the airport bus were there, but he was disappointed to find that Kate wasn't among them.

At 6:30 the international officers, Siobhan and Clare, gave a little welcome speech and told everybody about the orientation program going on all week. The first information session would start tomorrow morning at 10. Shikamaru groaned out loud at the time, complaining that it was too early. Naruto mouthed “lazy” at him and he merely rolled his eyes. Kiba snorted and even silent Neji cracked a small grin at Shikamaru's attitude. The four of them left together after the speech, with Naruto waving to everyone he'd talked to, which was practically everyone. It wasn't until they were back outside and on their way to Spar that Naruto asked to return to his flat to get another jacket since it was still “fucking cold” outside.

They walked part of the way to his flat, but stopped at the top of the hill where all the Errigal and Knocklayde flats were, while Naruto ran back to his flat. After retrieving his winter coat he walked back towards the door when he noticed a light on under the kitchen door. Curious, he opened the door and found Sasuke sitting on the couch flipping through the channels on TV. He had changed into black sweatpants and had drawn his legs up so he could wrap his arms around them. Huh, he must think this place is fucking cold too. Sasuke had glanced up sharply when Naruto pushed open the door. It made so much noise, even Naruto had to flinch. Sasuke just stared at him, face inscrutable.

”Hey," Naruto paused, wondering if this was a good idea. "Some guys and I are going to walk into town to try and find some food. You wanna come?"

Sasuke opened his mouth to refuse, and then his stomach reminded him he was hungry and he changed his mind. "Sure. Just let me change."

Naruto nodded and stepped back as Sasuke walked by, making sure they wouldn't touch. He let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding when Sasuke disappeared into his room. He figured he felt the same way bomb squad people felt after deactivating a bomb; it's very dangerous work, playing with a bomb, but the relief you felt when it didn't blow up in your face was so rewarding. It looked like Sasuke’s earlier pissiness had passed. Naruto looked up as Sasuke came of his room and walked towards him, still dressed in his sweatpants, but with shoes and a jacket. Naruto figured the sweatpants were warmer than jeans. He vaguely wondered which would do better in the rain, and then he hoped he hadn’t just jinxed everyone with his thought. Without a word, they exited the flat and made their way to the others waiting for them.

As they got closer, Kiba called out, "Who have you brought us, Naruto?"

Naruto yelled back, "Sasuke Uchiha. He's my roommate."

"It's flatmate now Naruto. Get it right."

"Bite me, fang boy." From the start, Naruto and Kiba liked to communicate through insults.

The others introduced themselves to Sasuke while they walked. The all followed Neji since he was the only one to remember the directions Siobhan had given them. Naruto was surprised when Sasuke answered them back. He was quiet, polite, but aloof. He hadn't seemed like that with Naruto. Naruto narrowed his eyes at Sasuke as he talked with Neji. They were discussing the merits of having a train system throughout Europe and how well it would be received in the U.S. Ack! How nauseating. He fell back and walked alongside Kiba and Shikamaru. Kiba was talking about his dog, Akamaru, and how much he already missed him and who knew if Shikamaru listened.

"Aww," Naruto crooned. "Kiba misses his puppy."

Kiba flushed slightly in the growing darkness. "Naruto," he growled.

Naruto laughed and dodged a well-deserved smack to the back of his head. He skipped to the front of their little procession and turned around to stick his tongue out at Kiba. Neji had stopped talking to Sasuke and was smiling at Naruto.

"Where do you get your energy, Naruto? I've never seen someone with as much energy as you, especially after coming off a transcontinental flight," he said.

Naruto grinned at Neji, "What can I say? I was born with a lot of stamina." Then waggling his eyebrows he added, "Makes the ladies happy."

Everyone snorted at that, even Sasuke, although his was probably in disbelief, not amusement. Naruto continued to walk backwards in front of Neji and Sasuke, talking to them both. He couldn't help but notice how alike the two boys looked as they walked next to each other. They were both so dark with their hair and their clothes, but their skin was pale. Naruto shook his head ruefully, thinking of how much competition they could give him with all the girls on campus. His unexpected nod earned him twin looks of confusion from the two men in front of him. Naruto decided to divert their attention from him.

"So Sasuke, what state are you from?" he asked.

"New Jersey."

Naruto stopped completely. "What? Really? You’re not too far from me!”

Sasuke sighed. "Will wonders never cease?” He pushed Naruto into motion again.

“New Jersey, huh?” Naruto mused aloud. “That explains the attitude.”

Sasuke smirked at his comment. “What can I say? Stupid people get on my nerves.”

“Hey,” Naruto yelled, causing them all to wince. “Are you calling me stupid?”

“Not at all, dumbass.”

“Well…you’re an asshole!”

“Moron.”

“Bastard.”

“Idiot.”

“Prima Donna.”

Sasuke’s eyes widened at that particular insult, but before he could say anything, Kiba spoke up from behind them.

“Are you two seriously having a name-calling match?” he asked, amused.

“I think they are,” Neji answered.

“How juvenile,” Shikamaru muttered.

Naruto laughed like a loon, seeing how ridiculous he and Sasuke must have looked. Then he held out his hand to Sasuke. “Truce?”

Sasuke lips curved briefly. He looked a little embarrassed at his actions. Then he clasped his hand around Naruto’s firmly. “For now,” he answered.

Neji heard Shikamaru mutter something about strange people and their bonding habits, while Kiba shut his mouth which had been hanging open ever since Sasuke smiled. Though none of them knew each other well enough yet, they had all pegged Sasuke as being an iceberg who wouldn't smile.

It took them only 15 minutes to reach Spar, but they all opted to go into the other convenience store right next to Spar called Shop-For-U, since it was 10 steps closer. Naruto was grateful. His jacket and his argument with Sasuke had kept him warm for the most part, but the strong winds made his eyes water. The five of them split as soon as they entered and sauntered all around the small store, trying to find something to tide them over until they had a chance to go to the grocery store.

Naruto paused at the aisle of candy but was pushed down another aisle by Sasuke, who had been right behind Naruto when the blonde had decided to stop suddenly to look at the different types of candy. He’d almost run into him. Sasuke pointed him towards a small fruit stand with apples, oranges and bananas. Naruto gave Sasuke a dirty look, but was completely ignored as he looked for the best apples. Naruto watched Sasuke pick up apple after apple, testing their quality when an idea came to him.

"Hey Sasuke, since we're roommates---"

"Flatmates!" Kiba yelled from a different aisle.

"Whatever! Shut up!" Naruto yelled back, making the others wince at the noise. "Do you want to share things? Like, I buy bananas, you buy apples. I buy bread, you buy cereal. Things like that and we share them between us, share resources."

Sasuke's face became thoughtful. Then he nodded. "Fine, as long as you don't eat everything."

Naruto threw his hands up, exasperated. "When have I given the impression that I eat a lot? You wouldn't know."

Sasuke ran his dark eyes up and down Naruto's body before quirking an eyebrow. Naruto flushed, feeling tingly, and then he frowned because he shouldn't be feeling tingly. "So I'm not a bean pole like you. That still doesn't mean I eat a lot," he said defensively, crossing his arms over his stomach to try to hide his sudden discomfort.

Shikamaru walked past them holding a loaf of bread in his arms. "He does eat a lot. You should have seen him at the meet-and-greet today. He almost ate the entire platter of strawberry pastries," he muttered to Sasuke, effectively replacing Naruto's discomfort with ire.

Sasuke smirked and Naruto glared at Shikamaru's back. Before he could retaliate though, Sasuke interrupted him.

"Let's hurry up and find some stuff to buy so we can get back to the flat."

They all bought what they considered the essentials and hurried back to the campus so they could eat them. A light rain had begun to fall by the time they reached the outskirts of the campus, so they were almost running back to their flats. Kiba and Shikamaru parted from them first to go to their flat in Errigal and Neji lived in block E of Cranagh. Naruto and Sasuke both had Cocoa Puffs that night since they weren't in the mood to cook anything. They were happy to note that the university provided them with frying pans and knives. Both men had brought their own plates, bowls, silverware and cups. They ate in silence; Naruto was finally feeling tired, and started to wonder if the flat would ever warm up.

Looking at the box of Cocoa Puffs Naruto said, "I wonder why they changed the name to Cocoa Puffs instead of keeping it as Cocoa Pops. I know this is the same kind, they even have the same monkey dude on the box."

"Maybe for the same reason they changed the word 'philosopher' to 'sorcerer' in the Harry Potter books."

"Oh? Why is that?"

"It's all advertising. With Harry Potter, the American publishers believed Americans would see 'philosopher' written in the title and think the story was too deep and it wouldn’t sell, so they changed it. Philosopher means something different to the British and Americans."

"Yeah, but Pops vs. Puffs?"

Sasuke shrugged, "It's a thought." He got up and took his bowl to the sink, just then noticing that they should have bought some washing liquid. He washed it thoroughly with the water and left it to dry next to the sink.

Naruto got up soon after and did the same. Sasuke was busy shaking his hands dry since he'd just noticed they needed a kitchen towel. Giving up he wiped his hands dry on his sweatpants. Naruto snickered at him, but copied his actions. They had a lot to buy, but making a list could wait. It was time for bed.

Naruto paused at his door. "Goodnight Sasuke."

" 'Night Naruto," Sasuke responded as he disappeared into his room.

It wasn't until Naruto was laying in bed a couple minutes later that he realized something. That was the first time he said my name.

----------------------------------------

Orientation week flew by fast. The highlights were the tour around campus on Tuesday and the tour through the town center of Coleraine on Thursday. Naruto learned that the Coleraine campus of the University of Ulster was huge, some 500 acres huge. Half of the walk to Spar that first night had been across the campus. Their tour guide, Lacy, explained to the international students that the Coleraine campus was basically split into two sections: Central and South building. Central building was comprised of 4 separate buildings connected by various skywalks. Lacy explained what was in the various parts of the buildings. Naruto was happy to find out that they had a 24 hour lab open all year round. The lab was located in the science building so Naruto knew he'd become familiar with it. They found out that there was also a Spar located on campus, as well as a coffee shop and the requisite university store which sold stuff like hoodies, mugs and key chains with the University of Ulster logo printed on them. The Spar on campus had a post office in it, which would save them trips into town to mail stuff home. Though Naruto didn't think he'd be mailing much home, unless it was to Iruka.

There were even two libraries on campus, one in each building. South building had the Students' Union there, which Naruto found out is their version of Student Government. What stunned Naruto the most was the fact that there was bar, or pub, located in the Students' Union. Naruto started to feel giddy. Since the drinking age in America is 21, Naruto had never been able to drink outside in the open. He only drank the beer he could get at frat parties. The drinking age here was 18 though and he planned to party. Also attached to South building was the Sports Center, and Lacy said that they had free use of the facilities once they joined the Sports Union. They would all get their chance to do this and join any clubs/societies that they wanted during Freshers Fayre, which would be held during the first week of the fall term. Naruto couldn't wait, and neither could the other guys with him. There was a ton of stuff they could do.

The tour of Coleraine was interesting. Their tour guide, a man that worked for the City Borough Council, showed them around and gave them some history on the town center. Then he let them loose to explore the town on their own. Naruto and Sasuke took this chance to buy all the stuff they needed back in their flat, so they split from the other guys. They spent the entire afternoon together, saying it was out of necessity since they were sharing food and stuff and didn't want to buy the same thing. But they found themselves enjoying each others' company more than expected they stayed together. They found the Coleraine train and bus station and decided to take the train home instead of walking back like they had come. The walk to Coleraine was a good 30 minutes if you power walked, which most Irish do naturally. For Naruto and Sasuke, it would have taken them 45 minutes. They were glad that the university had its own halt so they wouldn't have far to walk once they got off.

It was a new experience for the both of them, riding a train. However, there was a problem, when they tried to get off. Naruto was the first to the door and couldn't find the door handle to get off. He and Sasuke were still arguing over how to get off when the train started moving again.

"Shit!" Naruto banged his hand along the door as if by doing that a door handle would magically appear. "How the fuck do you get off?"

Just then the ticket man came by, asking to see everyone's tickets. Naruto looked at him, face flushed from embarrassment. Sasuke didn't help much, since he was shaking in his seat with suppressed laughter.

"Umm, we were supposed to get off at the university stop, but I couldn't figure out how to open the door," he smiled weakly at the ticket man who then explained that the handle is on the outside of the train and that you needed to roll down the window and pull the handle to open the door. He let Naruto and Sasuke go without having to pay extra for the ride to Portrush. Luckily the line only had 3 stops and was short. As soon as they reached Portrush, the train would turn around and go back. When the train approached the stop in Portrush Naruto was looked out his window and saw the ocean. Portrush was right on the coastline. Then he saw black figures riding the crashing waves.

"Are those seals?" he asked, standing up to get a better look.

Sasuke stood as well and walked over to Naruto. After a minute of watching the black things, he snorted, "Those are surfers, you idiot."

"Who'd be surfing in this weather. It's freezing."

"Yes you've said that many times now," Sasuke replied. Then he shrugged, "They must have winter wet suits."

Naruto gaped, "But what about their feet? And ears? Aren't they cold?"

Sasuke shrugged, not interested in fools who go surfing in the freezing cold Atlantic.

It took them less than 20 minutes to make it back to the university. Naruto made Sasuke open the door so he could be blamed if they couldn't get off in time. They had no problems the second time around. Naruto briefly wondered if he had bad karma, maybe it was from wishing all his relatives to go to hell at various family gatherings.

On Friday everyone registered for classes. Naruto had been ecstatic to find out that most students here only took 3 classes, or modules as the Irish called them, per semester. He was used to taking 4 or 5 a semester and was happy to have such a light load. By the time he was done registering, he had 3 new cards to keep up with: his student id card, his residential pass in case he was locked out of his flat and lastly, a car with his pin number on it. This pin number was used to identify him when accessing his info online. They sure like to load you down with a lot of stuff. His wallet was wider now with the combined cards from back home and the new ones here that seemed to keep multiplying.

That weekend, they all decided to take it easy. Neji, while looking at a campus map, suggested they all take a walk in the Daffodil Gardens behind South building, but it started raining and lasted all day, forcing them to remain indoors. Sasuke and Naruto found themselves spending most of their time at Shikamaru's and Kiba's place, mostly because it was warmer there. Saturday evening, after Naruto and Sasuke returned to Shikamaru’s place with food, they met a new guy who had just arrived from California. He was a slightly pudgy guy by the name of Chouji Akimichi and would be staying next door to Shikamaru and Kiba. He'd decided to skip orientation week, but that meant he hadn't registered yet.

"I wish the international office here had told me. They just sent out emails asking when everybody would be arriving and they said nothing about my arrival date. Now what am I going to do?" he asked morosely.

"You'll just have to go see Siobhan on Monday in the international office. I wouldn't worry over it too much, they're pretty laid back here from what I've seen," Shikamaru said, munching on an apple.

That night they watched Jurassic Park 3 on TV and stayed up until 2am just hanging out, cracking jokes at each others' expense. Naruto couldn't believe he was having so much fun already. As he and Sasuke walked back to their flat, he wondered about their other roommates who had yet to appear. He was so busy contemplating that he didn't notice the sidewalk in front of him until it was too late. Tripping, he threw his arms up to catch himself on the pavement, but was abruptly stopped when his arm was caught in a firm grip.

"Can't you even walk properly, dumbass?" He jerked Naruto up until the blonde had his feet under him, and then he abruptly let go and marched to their building.

Naruto shook his hand to get some feeling to return and ran after Sasuke. He was a little miffed over Sasuke’s words. When he was right behind Sasuke, he hissed, “Well, thanks for the help, bastard.” He shook his hand again and muttered, mostly to himself, “Geez, one has to wonder if we’re really friends sometimes.”

Sasuke stopped abruptly at his words, causing Naruto to ram right into his shoulder.

"Owww!” Naruto hollered. “My nose! Why'd you stop so suddenly?" He swiped a finger under his nose, checking for blood, but found none. He then held it between his thumb and index finger, and glared at Sasuke from under his hand.

Sasuke was looking at him strangely. His dark eyes searched Naruto’s for a minute before he looked away. “Sorry,” he mumbled. Then he turned and hurried back to their flat, leaving Naruto standing on the sidewalk with his mouth agape.

Did he just say ‘sorry’? The blonde man continued on to their flat, at a more leisurely pace than Sasuke since he was deep in thought. It was fairly obvious that Sasuke didn’t apologize often, if ever, judging from his reaction. But he apologized to me! Naruto didn’t know what that meant, but he did know he had a friend and that made him happier than he’d ever felt before.

Changes: Nothing too major in these first two pieces. Mostly, I just changed Naruto and Sasuke's first impression of each other. There is no slight attraction along with the animosity between them in the beginning. I think this version is much more believable. My problem was that I was pushing too hard for them to like each other that I did it very sloppily. They're just too OOC if you make them like each other from the beginning, because they are first and foremost rivals before they are anything else.

Sasuke is now from New Jersey, not Georgia. There is a reason for this, and should be fairly obvious when you think about it.

Another drabble

Sat, 26 Aug 2006 07:51:34 GMT

I just quickly wrote this...just because I wanted to. It came after reading a little snippet from BeccaAmon. If you haven't read any of her work, FOR SHAME!!

Naruto lay on the lounge chair and soaked in the midday sun. An occasional breeze cooled down his heated skin. He sighed in utter contentment. While everyone else complained about the heat, he basked in it like a cat. The warmth seemed to melt into him like butter, making his limbs lax and set his thoughts adrift. It wasn’t long before he fell into a peaceful doze.

He awoke later to the fleeting touch of butterfly kisses on his heated back. Sighing in contentment, he cracked open an eye and saw Sasuke there, in his own swim trunks. Then he closed them and drifted off again, though not to sleep. Sasuke’s kisses kept him aware of just where and how they touched his body. When a mischievous tongue darted out to taste the saltiness of Naruto’s skin, he couldn’t help but gasp at the contact. Sasuke’s tongue followed the same trail his kisses had earlier, making the blonde man squirm in delight beneath his ministrations.

When Sasuke’s touch left him completely for a moment, Naruto was about to protest, but Sasuke merely nudged his hip in a silent command to turn over. Naruto did what he wanted even though his body protested moving from so comfortable a position. As soon as he settled, Sasuke straddled his hips and ran his hands up Naruto’s muscular torso, flicking at the two pert nipples in his path. Naruto moaned quietly and thrust his hips up ever so slightly. Sasuke thrust down to hold him still and leaned forward to place butterfly kisses along Naruto’s jaw line. Naruto arched his neck to allow better access and gripped Sasuke’s thighs.

Finally, finally, Sasuke's teasing lips closed over Naruto’s in a kiss as demanding as it was sweet. Naruto groaned into the kiss, meeting every thrust of Sasuke’s tongue with his own. Sasuke threaded his fingers through the golden locks of hair and deepened the kiss even more. Naruto was just about to wrap his arms around Sasuke’s waist when the sound of a banging door, followed by chatter suddenly broke into their litter reverie.

Naruto was left to groan helplessly in his desire and had to turn over back onto his stomach to hide the evidence of his arousal. Sasuke dived into the pool and surfaced a few feet away. Not a moment later, Sakura arrived in her flip-flops and turquoise bikini. Ino probably wasn’t too far behind. She immediately went to Sasuke and Naruto watched Sasuke as she tried to converse with him. Sasuke glanced at him briefly, smirked and mouthed “later” in an effort to appease Naruto, before sinking underneath the water and swimming away.

Naruto couldn’t help but grin as Sakura had to abruptly stop talking when Sasuke moved away from her. Later, he’d have to tell Sasuke to be nicer, whenever their next “later” would be. He sighed. The sun was very good at warming him, but only Sasuke could warm him from the inside out.

The Emerald Isle edit

Sun, 20 Aug 2006 19:31:56 GMT

Ok, since I've been getting more and more comments/emails on why I haven't updated Emerald Isle, I'm going to finally get off my ass and get back to it. Well...I'm going to be editing it to be precise. I've gone through chapters 1-3 so far and have changed A LOT and this will continue with the other chapters. I'll start posting the revised chapters here later and I'll give a list of all the major changes I make.

Don't worry, I'm not changing the entire story, I'm just making it more cohesive for me. It was my first attempt at writing after years of absence (damn school and those stupid analytical essays) and it shows. I found many of the characters' reactions totally off and just horribly, horribly wrong. Hopefully when I'm done, it will be a much better story.

Thanks for your patience.

Chapter 6!!

Tue, 15 Aug 2006 07:08:51 GMT

Here's ch. 6 of Konoha Studios. I haven't proofread it much and what I did was done very quickly and only once, so excuse any really, really bad mistakes.

Edit: I've finally proofread it the way I wanted to, so it should be much better now.

~~ Chapter 6 ~~

Sasuke had made the grave mistake of admitting his attraction to both girls and guys to his cousin Obito when he was 16. Obito was the most understanding person in Sasuke’s family, and for some reason, after Sasuke’s confession, appointed himself as his matchmaker from then on. And Obito’s most recent suggestion meant that Sasuke had to endure the torments of hell, or, in other words, a sorority party.

At 19, Sasuke was your typical almost 20-something, only maybe a little more stuffy than most, but still full of hormones, dreams and anger. The anger was directed primarily at his father, who had decided that after spending thousands of dollars putting Sasuke through the same, glorified private schools that Itachi had attended, he would only foot the bill for a public university. The elder Uchiha’s theory behind this was to give Sasuke more exposure to the “common” people. His father never put it that way, but it was obvious it was what he meant. His reasoning was that he didn’t want two clones, so he wanted Sasuke to be immersed in more diverse settings. It made absolutely no sense to Sasuke, but he couldn’t argue when he wasn’t the one writing the checks.

Now, Sasuke’s first fall semester was almost coming to an end. Since his father gave Sasuke his choice of public universities, Sasuke decided to choose one based solely on how far it was from his father. His father being in California, Sasuke now found himself a freshman at the University of Florida. And he still found it hard to believe sometimes; he hadn’t thought his father would actually do this to him. He was wrong. Now Sasuke had to prove he could be just as successful as his bastard brother without an Ivy League school listed on his resume. He was still warming up to the challenge.

“Would you quit frowning already? You’ll scare away all the chicks…and the men.” Obito commented out of the corner of his mouth, adding a well placed elbow to stir Sasuke from his brooding thoughts. Obito had a good 5 years on Sasuke and the only reason he was still at Herzing College was because he couldn’t decide on a major. At the moment, he was bouncing between the technology and business schools.

“Why are we here again?” Sasuke asked despairingly.

Obito tapped a finger on his chin, seeming to ponder Sasuke’s question with all the earnestness of a philosophy major. “To socialize, make contacts and get laid.” He wiggled his eyebrow as Sasuke groaned beside him. “And not particularly in that order.”

“Is that all you think about?” Sasuke asked.

“Is your father and brother all you think about?”

Obito was of the opinion that Sasuke should move on, live his own life and all that shit. It was easy for Obito to say that, he was the black sheep and had practically been forced to do the same. He was the one the rest of the Uchiha clan sighed over sadly and tried not to talk about. Sasuke had stayed away from him too until he went through the obligatory rebelling stage at 15. What he’d found was a friend who taught him to think for himself, not to just blindly accept whatever bullshit spewed forth from others, namely his father and any other Uchiha for that matter, and to occasionally enjoy himself. However, much to Obito’s dismay and despite this “awakening”, Sasuke was still determined to prove himself to his father and make his mark in the family company, if only for the sole purpose of showing up his brother. He would beat Itachi, one way or another.

Obito gave him a knowing look. “Not all the time,” Sasuke muttered.

A snort was his only answer. Sasuke held back a scathing retort, wanting to stay on his cousin’s good side so he could talk him into leaving early. He glanced up at the house they were approaching with something akin to trepidation, but he’d go through the pits of hell before he ever admitted to being uncomfortable in social gatherings. Although, this couldn’t really be called a social gathering in the terms Sasuke was used to. He saw the front door was wide open and there was already one girl vomiting in the bushes that lined the front of the house. Loud music reverberated from within the house. Sasuke could see a swell of bodies crowding into the living room through the windows.

“Fun,” he said, but his total lack of excitement said otherwise.

Obito shrugged. “It’s college.” He said it like it explained everything. Forget about expanding your mind and actually learning new things. A person goes to college to learn their tolerance level with alcohol. Sasuke reflected that Obito probably had the right of it.

As they stepped over the threshold, Sasuke’s nose was assaulted by the cloying smell of alcohol and body sweat. Many people stood around chatting while taking sips from plastic cups of varying colors. Sasuke saw a few people running around with silly string, laughing hysterically when they sprayed unsuspecting victims, but the majority of the college students were gathered in the living room cheering and whistling as loud as they could over the music that was making Sasuke’s entire body reverberate along with it.

Obito immediately steered him towards the living room. Sasuke’s eyes widened at the spectacle in front of him. Someone had had the brilliant idea to hold a lap dance contest, only instead of the girls giving the guys lap dances, the guys were giving the girls lap dances. The crowd was going wild, especially over the antics of some blonde guy who was gyrating like a pro.

Sasuke watched the competition a moment longer before deciding to go elsewhere, only his feet wouldn’t respond, nor the rest of his body. He was rooted to the spot and for some reason found his gaze being drawn again to the blonde man. The girl he was so enthusiastically dancing for was laughing her head off and clearly enjoying the attention. Some of the other guys giving lap dances would glance over at the blonde man every so often, amused and amazed at his skill. He was clearly the favorite for the win. Sasuke looked around for anything else to focus on, not amused in the least, and found his cousin watching him with a smirk.

“That’s Naruto,” he shouted in Sasuke’s ear, trying to be heard over the music which seemed to be vibrating the entire house.

Sasuke stared back at him blandly. “So?”

“So, just thought I’d tell you since I knew.”

“Yeah, right.” Unfortunately, his sarcasm was swallowed up by the noise.

Obito was about to retort when the song currently playing was turned down and someone, the host maybe, grabbed the microphone and started talking into it. He kept rambling about things Sasuke never remembered later on, until the crowd and competitors yelled for the winner to be announced. So the speaker obligingly went to each of the competitors and held his hand above their heads, at which point, the crowd around Sasuke would clap and yell for their favorite. As expected, Naruto was given the loudest, ear-splitting standing ovation. His reward was the privilege of wearing the Burger King crown for the remainder of the night.

Sasuke watched him prance around, wiping imaginary tears away from his eyes and going through a list of people he wanted to thank. Obito was laughing beside him, but Sasuke wanted to leave the living room. The heat of so many people started getting to him and he tugged at the collar of his shirt feeling extremely uncomfortable. He was just about to turn and go back outside for some fresh air when Naruto suddenly looked up right at him. Sasuke averted his gaze before he could even think about whether he wanted to even acknowledge the blonde man or not. About a second after he did that, he realized what he did with a sinking feeling in his stomach and jerked his head back around just in time to see Naruto grab a dark-haired girl next to him and give her a smacking kiss on the lips. While the girl stood there looking bemused, the guy who’d had the microphone before let out a war cry and made a grab for Naruto. Sasuke assumed that was her boyfriend and turned away in disgust at such childish behavior.

Obito chuckled, “Looks like Naruto is out to piss off Paul again.”

Sasuke unwillingly watched Paul lumber after Naruto and winced at the screech the blonde let out when he noticed Paul coming after him. “Will there be lots of blood?” Sasuke asked mock-seriously.

Obito looked thoughtful. “Just a pint or two, or three.”

“Should I go buy a poncho?”

“Nah, Naruto has always survived his beating from his roommate. Paul’s actually pretty laid back when it comes to his girlfriend.” Then Obito shrugged. “I never understood, but I guess he and his girlfriend are in a comfortable state in their relationship.”

“Do you take any classes with them?”

“Paul, yes, his girlfriend, no. Hell, I don’t even know her name.”

“What about the blonde moron?”

Obito gave Sasuke a curious glance at his choice description of Naruto. “You mean Naruto? He’s not in college. I guess he works, but I see him all the time at gigs like these.”

Sasuke’s nose had scrunched up in an unconscious sneer right after Obito mentioned Naruto wasn’t in college. It just figured that the moron now running around with silly string and a skewed Burger King crown would be a loafer with no greater ambition than to see how loud he could belch after a pint of Guinness. If there was one thing Sasuke couldn’t stand, it was people who were content to just exist and never try to do anything with their lives. He probably already has a girlfriend he’s gotten pregnant.

Needless to say, introductions did not go well later that night. Sasuke was cold and stiff, not bending even in the face of Naruto’s sunny smile. Naruto picked up on it immediately and became defensive.

“What’s your problem?” he demanded.

Sasuke looked down his nose at him. “Nothing.”

“Yeah, whatever you say, bastard.”

Sasuke didn’t reply. Obito looked back and forth between the two of them, looking panicked. Naruto soon left when it appeared Sasuke had used up his allotted words for the evening.

“What’s your problem?” This time it came from Obito.

Sasuke glowered at him. “You should know better than anyone how much I dislike people like him.”

“Don’t you think you’re being a little narrow-minded? You don’t even know anything about him. He’s a nice guy and didn’t deserve that Sasuke.”

“He looks fine to me.” Sasuke replied dryly.

It was true. Naruto was already laughing it up with friends elsewhere, bouncing back from Sasuke’s attitude problem pretty quickly. Obito followed Sasuke’s gaze and sighed. He couldn’t argue with Sasuke’s observation.

“Well, try to adjust you attitude with everyone else please. It could come back on me.”

Sasuke looked down at his feet for a second, feeling slightly ashamed at his behavior. The last thing he wanted to do was do anything to make Obito look bad. However, his reaction to Naruto had been immediate and uncontrollable. He didn’t know what to say except that from the moment he’d laid eyes on Naruto giving a lap dance, he’d been annoyed.

The two of them made a concerted effort to stay away from Naruto for the remainder of the night. After the first hour, Sasuke was ready to beg Obito to take them back to his apartment. Sasuke was sick of being offered a beer and looked at strangely when he declined and then have what seemed like all the sorority sisters hanging all over him. Then Obito made things worse when he started expounding on Sasuke’s athletic ability on the basketball court. Sasuke was trying to discretely tell Obito to shut the hell up when a voice broke into their group.

“That pale-assed mama’s boy? Good at basketball? I’ll believe that when I see it.”

Everybody turned their heads at that voice. Sasuke stiffened when he saw Naruto’s smirking face. The girls around him started speaking up on his behalf, defending him even though they knew next to nothing about him. One of the other guys there, who seemed to think it was all a joke, seconded his disbelief. Naruto’s smirk grew, he was practically taunting him. Sasuke was beginning to get the distinct impression that though Naruto had appeared to have forgotten Sasuke’s rude behavior before, he actually hadn’t and was exacting his revenge now. However, before Sasuke could deliver his own scathing retort, Obito spoke up.

“Fine. If you don’t believe me, then Sasuke will just have to prove me right.”

“What?” Sasuke asked incredulously. He’d whipped his head back around to glare at Obito so fast that his normally tamed bangs fell into his eyes.

Murmurs of “Oh, that sounds fun” and “I want to play too” were all Sasuke could hear. And before Sasuke knew it or could even say anything against it, there were two teams being formed and they were currently trying to come up with a date to meet at the local recreation center. Naruto had pulled out a piece of paper from his back pocket and was studying it intently.

“Let’s see…this week I’m free Monday night, all day Wednesday and…Saturday morning.” He then looked up at the others. “Pick one of those days.”

“I think it’s best we do this on the weekend; we’ll all be busy with schoolwork since the semester’s ending,” someone said.

“Then Saturday morning it is!” Naruto shouted.

“Wait, wait, wait,” someone else said, holding up his hands. “How early is morning?”

“I’d say…7am!” Naruto shouted again, but then started laughing when everyone protested. “Ok, ok, how about 10?”

Everyone agreed that 10am was fine. Everyone but Sasuke. Obito had seen the storm clouds gathering and had quickly smothered him with a pillow. Sasuke was struggling mightily and had almost thrown Obito off with that last buck. He could tell Sasuke was livid and mostly likely wouldn’t cooperate. Many others noticed the struggling between the two and started laughing hysterically when Sasuke finally threw Obito off of him and onto the floor. Before Sasuke could say anything though, Naruto’s voice cut him off.

“You’re going to back out, are you, Sasuke-bastard?”

Sasuke would later wonder why he didn’t pay attention to the voice in his head telling him not to let the blonde idiot bait him and said through gritted teeth. “I wouldn’t think of it. If you’re my opponent, it’ll be an easy win. No competition at all. It won’t even be a decent workout.” He was smirking nastily by the time he shut up. His declaration ended up being a catalyst for every one of the players to start talking smack about the others.

Exactly 37 minutes later, Sasuke was banging his head against Obito’s car window. Obito just snickered at him.

“So I guess I’ll be seeing you back here next weekend?”

Sasuke said nothing; he was too busy grinding his teeth down. How he’d let some idiotic loser con him into a ‘friendly’ game of basketball he’d never know. He was still sitting there stewing when the car started to rumble beneath him. Fastening his seatbelt, Sasuke waited for Obito to pull out of the driveway. However, after several seconds of just waiting, Sasuke became aware of Obito watching him.

“What?” Sasuke almost growled, turning to face his cousin.

“Are you really that mad?”

“Hell yeah I am. What was your point in making me play them? You know I haven’t played in months!”

Obito looked repentant for all of 2 seconds before he said, “At least you’ll make new friends. New friends that are your age.”

“Are you implying that I only consort with older people?”

“Dude, you just used consort in a sentence, which makes my point for me. The way I see it, you’re too busy trying to make contacts in the business community so you can one-up you brother that you’re not enjoying life.”

“You’re not my entertainment director, Obito. Stop butting in.”

“Would you just cut loose for once in your life? My God, you’re almost as boring as the rest of the family and just as anal retentive. Look,” then he reached out and poked Sasuke’s forehead. “You’re already getting wrinkles.”

“Well, thanks to you and the great blonde idiot back there, I’ll be back here next weekend to ‘cut loose’ as you say,” Sasuke snarled, smacking Obito’s hand off his forehead and completely ignoring Obito’s last remark.

“Jesus, I’ve never met someone who gets so pissed over doing something he loves. You are one of a kind, Sasuke, my boy.”

“I don’t like being coerced into doing something I like with people I don’t like.”

Obito gave him a quizzical glance. “You really didn’t like Naruto that much?” Then, in an almost inaudible mumble, “I was sure you two would hit it off.”

Sasuke stiffened upon hearing that. Suspicion started growing. “Please tell me you didn’t drag me here tonight to try to set me up with Naruto.”

Obito looked at him innocently then laughed at the sheer horror dawning on Sasuke’s face. He shrugged sheepishly, “Well, they do say opposites attract.”

The horror was gone, replaced with a mighty glower. “Not polar opposites!”

“Aww, come on, you’re not total opposites. You both like basketball,” he tried coaxingly.

Sasuke shook his head, almost in awe of Obito’s stupidity. “Why would you think I’d be interested in someone with so little…” he racked his brain for the proper word, “class?”

“What’s so bad about him? I mean, you barely know the guy and you’ve already decided he’s not worth wasting your time on. That’s a pretty fast judgment, even for you.”

Sasuke shrugged. “He just annoys me. He annoyed me the moment I saw him giving that girl a lap dance.”

“Ahh,” Obito commented, sounding smug as he finally faced forward and put the car in reverse. However, he couldn’t manage to do that without a smirk.

“What are you smirking for?” Sasuke asked suspiciously.

“Nothing, nothing.”

Sasuke glared at him evilly, willing him to fess up.

Obito chanced a glance at him and started cracking up. “You look constipated, Sasuke.”

“What were you smirking for?” Sasuke demanded, not to be deterred.

“I said it was nothing.” He paused for several seconds; long enough that a vein in Sasuke’s temple started to throb. “It’s just that…you sound kind of jealous.”

“Jealous?” Sasuke asked incredulously. “Of what?”

“Of the girl maybe? Jealous that Naruto gave her a lap dance and not you. I’m just speculating, of course.”

“Speculating? You sound as if you’ve already decided that’s the reason.” Sasuke snarled, and then continued in a more moderated tone. “Is it so hard to believe that me and Naruto just didn’t hit it off? Haven’t you ever met someone that you didn’t like instantly? It’s not some rare phenomena. And besides, I think you’re missing the big picture here. Naruto doesn’t seem to hold any interest in guys. I saw him chasing after girls all night. Only girls.”

“Actually, Naruto’s kind of a mystery to all of us. I’ve known him for almost half a year now and still can’t say with absolute certainty which side of the fence he’s on. He neither confirms nor denies and tonight was a rare occasion. He normally flirts with everyone, and I mean everyone, not just girls.” Then he went to mumbling again. “That’s why I dragged you along this time.”

Sasuke was shaking his head long before Obito stopped talking, looking pained. “Please tell me you didn’t bring me along as bait for that asshole.”

Obito looked sheepish again. “It was just an idea, but you ruined it with your attitude.”

Sasuke gaped at him. “You didn’t tell all the others—”

“No!” Obito glared at him this time. “I didn’t tell any of them about your orientation. You should know better. This was strictly to see if we could trip Naruto up.”

Sasuke didn’t know whether to feel flattered that his cousin thought he was handsome enough to trip anyone up or to feel angry at being used in such a way. “Maybe Naruto doesn’t confirm or deny because it’s none of your damn business!” he said bitingly.

“Sticking up for him now?”

“Oh, for the love of—”

“I think you are,” Obito interrupted.

“Shut up, Obito!” Sasuke snarled. He was doing that a lot lately. “You don’t know jack shit.”

“Actually I do. You see Jack Schitt married Noe Schitt and they had 6 kids: Holie, Dip, Fulla, Giva, Bull and Deep. However, Jack and Noe Schitt got divorced. Noe Schitt remarried a Mr. Sherlock, but kept her original last name since her kids still lived with her, so she became Noe Schitt-Sherlock. And then—”

“Oh God, shut up already!” Sasuke was rubbing his eyes like he had a migraine.

“Whatever you say, Sasuke,” Obito responded smugly.

The rest of the ride was done in silence. Sasuke just couldn’t come up with a good enough response.

----------------------------------------

“Oh man, we creamed you guys! Weren’t you supposed to be good at this game, Sasuke-bastard? That was a pitiful performance.”

“Shut up, moron.” He did not like the blonde’s new nickname for him.

Naruto giggled. Giggled! Sasuke started having pleasant daydreams about stabbing the idiot. Everyone was in the locker room changing out of their sweaty clothes. It had been a tough game. Despite Naruto’s crowing, his team had only won by 2 points. Sasuke’s team had been good, but not good enough to keep up with Naruto’s team which seemed to be made of former basketball players. Sasuke was the only one who could keep up with Naruto, but that kept him busy all the time since the blonde was constantly moving. The guys on Sasuke’s team had been mediocre at best. However, Sasuke had really enjoyed himself. It had been a good game, even if he was loathe to admit that.

Most of the guys were smiling at Naruto’s antics while Sasuke was doing his best imitation of Oscar the Grouch and trying to ignore the blonde man as best he could. He seemed to be having trouble though. A couple of the guys hadn’t changed because they were planning on taking a shower at home, since it was only a couple minutes away. They had hung around for a couple minutes to chat but had left soon after everyone entered the locker room. Now, all of a sudden, the rest of them seemed to be leaving in a hurry. Sasuke had only changed his shirt so far and was in the process of changing out of his shorts, and he hadn’t been slacking, so he was surprised when practically all the others jetted out of there. Even Obito, who had caught a ride with Sasuke that morning, was leaving.

“Oh hey, wait up guys!” Naruto called after them, clearly stunned by their hasty retreat as well. “I need someone to give me a ride to work.”

The whole lot of them said they were too busy and couldn’t. Naruto looked at all of them in dismay, finding it hard to believe they were too busy. Sasuke hurried towards them too and was just coming up behind Naruto when Obito spoke.

“Sasuke doesn’t have anything to do, so he can take you Naruto.” Then he looked at Sasuke and winked before exiting in a rush.

Naruto turned, wide-eyed towards him, probably just as surprised by Obito’s suggestion as Sasuke was. Sasuke could feel the skin on his face heat up, not in embarrassment, but in anger. His earlier daydreams of stabbing Naruto had found a new target. He was going to kill Obito. He was feeling happiness over the prospect too. It meant one less Christmas present to buy each year. Sasuke couldn’t believe Obito had done this too him after their decidedly heated conversation the previous weekend.

Naruto stared at him speculatively. “Why do I get the feeling that this was a set-up…for the both of us?” he asked.

Sasuke gave him a sidelong glance. “It’s you this is for. My cousin seems to think I won’t kill him over involving me.”

“Involving you in what?”

Sasuke sighed and went back to the bench that his bag was on. Naruto immediately followed him, not catching on to the fact that Sasuke didn’t want to say anything more.

“Involving you in what, Sasuke?”

Sasuke grit his teeth in irritation and sat down to pull his shoes on, foregoing the clean pants. He was going to get Naruto out of his hair as soon as possible and then was going to kill his cousin. It sounded like a good plan. The annoying idiot was still standing beside him with his hands on his hips, however. Then Sasuke realized he had no reason whatsoever to not tell Naruto what Obito had told him.

“They,” he indicated the empty doorway where all their “friends” had left in such a hurry with a wave of his hand, “want to know if you like men.”

Naruto looked confused for a minute, before he put two and two together. Then he broke into peals of laughter so loud Sasuke flinched away from him. It went on and on for what seemed like forever, until Naruto straightened up, let go of his stomach and wiped the tears from his eyes. It was good timing because Sasuke had been untying his shoe and ready to bean the idiot with it.

“Oh man, I haven’t laughed like that in years!” Naruto exclaimed. He started chuckling again, but was somehow able to suppress his mirth when he saw the look on Sasuke’s face. “So I guess you’re supposed to be the pork chop?”

Sasuke’s mouth curved downwards in a fierce frown, not liking the analogy. He wasn’t some pompous asshole who thought he was the greatest thing since sliced bread, but he wasn’t a dog either. Naruto’s look of disbelief was beginning to piss him off. He felt his anger start to rise but quelled it immediately when he noticed Naruto was beginning to smirk. He’s playing with me. And there was no way in hell Sasuke was going to be played. Not by a stupid imbecile like Naruto.

Instead he said, “So, are you?”

“Why? You interested?”

“No.”

“No?”

“No.” It was very emphatic.

“Aww, Sasuke, you’re breaking my heart.” He even held a hand over his chest like some tragic hero.

Sasuke glared at Naruto, not willing to play the same guessing game the others were doing. He could care less, so he went back to tying his shoes. When Naruto suddenly plopped down on the bench beside him, straddling it, Sasuke had to will his body not to scoot away from him. He just knew Naruto was trying to annoy him again, to get under his skin.

“So why did they choose you?”

“Choose me for what?” Sasuke asked, confused by the sudden seriousness in the blonde man’s voice.

“As bait for me.”

“Hell if I know. I’ll let you know before I kill my cousin.”

Naruto laughed at that and then stood up so suddenly he made Sasuke start. “Crap, I’ve got to get to work!” He was glancing at the clock on the wall above the doorway into the locker room. Then he sniffed at his armpits. “Hopefully my smell won’t bother people too much.”

Sasuke smirked, “I’m sure there are other things about you that will offend, so your smell is the least of your worries.”

“Hey!” Naruto yelled. He opened his mouth to say more, but was forestalled when Sasuke picked up his bag and started to leave. He hurriedly grabbed his stuff and took off after Sasuke. Once they were settled into Sasuke’s car and Naruto gave him directions to the movie theater he worked at, a sort of companionable silence fell between them. It was a lovely Saturday morning, since the heat wasn’t unbearable at that time. May in Florida was usually as hot as August in Florida, but there had been pleasant, cooler weather in the past week. It meant that they rode with the windows down. The two of them stayed that way until they arrived at Naruto’s theater. Only then was their companionable silence broken by the most off the wall question that Sasuke had heard coming out of the blonde’s mouth yet.

“So, want to go on a date?” he asked innocently enough.

Sasuke’s head swiveled around to meet mischievous blue eyes. His own dark ones narrowed ominously. “Are you smoking crack?”

Naruto laughed and opened the door of the car to let himself out. After he’d retrieved his bag from Sasuke’s back seat, he came back to the passenger side door and peered inside at Sasuke, resting his forearms on the car door. “I’m serious here. If you’d pull that stick out of your ass for a couple hours, I think we could have a good time.”

“What gives you the idea that I’m interested in guys, much less you?”

“You’re not?” Naruto asked, disbelieving. At Sasuke’s growing scowl, Naruto started waving his hands in a placating manner. “I’m just saying that someone like me can pick up on the hints. I mean come on, any straight guy would have had a fit if he found out his friends were using him as a pawn to find out if another guy would be attracted to him. You seemed furious over being used period, and not in the least disgusted with me because I could be gay.”

“You seem pretty laid back considering a bunch of your friends are trying to find out if you’re gay. Most straight guys would hit the roof over that too. I guess that answers my question for me. So, back to my previous question. What makes you think I’m interested in you?”

“Nothing,” he said simply, smiling. “Nothing at all. I just think you’re cute when you’re angry and you’re always annoyed with something whenever I’m around.”

“You’re an idiot.”

“So I’m told. Come on a date with me and I’ll let you say it even more.”

Sasuke eyed him like he’d grown another head. “Why the sudden interest?”

“No reason, really. I just like trying new things.”

“And I’m your new ‘thing’?”

Naruto laughed at his expression. “Come on Sasuke, live a little. You should cut loose every now and then. And cutting loose happens to be my forte.”

There were those words again. Sasuke had never been good at cutting loose. It just didn’t suit his personality, just like Naruto didn’t suit him. There was no reason for him to waste his time with someone who annoyed him.

“I think I’ll decline.”

“You’re going to be a chicken about this? What are you afraid of? I promise I won’t bite, not unless you beg me to.”

“I am not chickening out, you dumbass. I just don’t wish to waste my time with you.”

Naruto took the insult in stride, and even started making chicken noises at him. Sasuke glared at him.

“Don’t you have to get to work?” he asked.

“They’ll survive a couple minutes without me,” Naruto replied.

“You’re not going to drop this, are you?”

“Nope,” Naruto smiled smugly. “Just say yes, and I’ll leave you alone.”

“Fine,” Sasuke said ungraciously. “But you’re paying.” He’d be staying up in Gainesville from then on, and since Naruto didn’t have a car, there was no chance he’d come up there to bother Sasuke anymore.

It was only later, when Naruto showed up banging on the door to his apartment, that Sasuke remembered that Obito had the appalling urge to fix Sasuke up with all sorts of people and knew where he lived.

----------------------------------------

Sasuke was snapped out of his musings by a particularly rough jerk as his driver was forced to slam the brakes or hit the car that had cut them off.

“Stupid asshole,” Sakura muttered beside him. If they had been alone she would have yelled it.

Sasuke studied the woman sitting beside him. Sakura was pretty, not in a classic sense, but appealing all the same. And for some reason, she was devoted to him. She was part of the reason he was where he was today, not that he wouldn’t have gained his father’s trust eventually, but with the support of Sakura’s father behind him, Sasuke’s father was more willing to trust him with certain business affairs of Uchiha Corp. She was also helping him bring down his brother with a single-mindedness that reminded him of Naruto.

He saw the sign of The Ivy coming up out of his window. Traffic was still heavy on the roads and was one of the reasons Sasuke really didn’t like Los Angeles. Unfortunately, this was where everything important to him was. Sasuke was forced to admit that things between him and Naruto had changed. This time, instead of Naruto chasing him, he was chasing Naruto. Not for a date but for their respective futures. If Naruto didn’t come around, he’d have to think up a new game plan. He was good at doing that though, since he was used to having things fall apart.

~TBC~

-To see the Jack Schitt animation: http://www.funfreepages.com/flash/story_of_jack_schitt.php

Maybe now some work will get done...

Mon, 31 Jul 2006 22:17:44 GMT

School's out! Yippie! So now that means I'll have more time to work on my stories. I'll try, I really will. Konoha Studios is first, and maybe I'll finally get around to editing and planning Emerald Isle better.

Don't worry, I don't plan on changing it that much. I certainly don't want to do away with all that writing I did. I posted a shitload per chapter for many of them. No wonder I got tired of it...it was all that damn typing.

I will tell you that ch. 6 of Konoha Studios is a flashback. Dun dun dun!

Till next time

Dark drabble

Mon, 12 Jun 2006 09:37:07 GMT

I guess I'm still in the mood for really sad stuff.

It still needs work, but I'll post it anyway.

Title: None (just another drabble)
Pairings: SasuNaru
Warnings: PG-13 I guess. Very dark, angsty, character death
Summary: The lengths we'll go to.
Comments: I don't know, I'm just really in the mood for sad stuff. I guess it comes from reading the latest manga chapters and debating with friends over whether Sasuke would ever really kill Naruto. I don't think this drabble is that sad though, I didn't even get mistly-eyed over it. I guess it's something to work for.

Naruto’s captivating blue eyes settled on the person leaning against the far wall in the shadows from the moonlight. They searched for and connected with dark eyes made almost invisible from the shadows. If Sasuke hadn’t had pale skin, Naruto would have never known he was there.

That was a lie. Naruto always knew when Sasuke was near.

The dark-haired young man stepped out of the shadows and approached the hospital bed.

“Trying to put a new twist on Dead Last, huh?” he asked impassively.

Naruto flinched but said nothing. Instead, he locked his gaze with his lover, searching for something. He hadn’t changed at all from when he was a child. He wore his heart on his sleeve for the entire world to see. It had been what drew people to him; the fact that he could care so much with no thought to his own well-being. And if there was one thing Naruto always neglected, it was his well-being. Proof of this was in his choice of a lover.

Right now hope and love shined out of those too bright eyes.

Sasuke reached the bedside and just stared down at Naruto, like a scientist does a mouse he’s just injected with poison. He just watched to see how it would react. Naruto reached out for his hand, stark white bandages covering his entire forearm, but Sasuke jerked his arms away with a sneer.

“You’re weak,” he said. Black eyes flicked down to Naruto’s wrists again before he frowned and then left the hospital room.

Blue eyes dimmed and became like mirrors, only reflecting their surroundings, never what was on the other side.

He’s right, brat. The snarling voice broke Naruto from his daze.

He blocked the voice, then rolled over on his side to face the window and went back to sleep.

----------

Naruto woke later to the sound of alarms going off all throughout Konoha. Running footsteps and shouting could be heard outside his room. The blonde got out of his bed and walked to the window, his eyes widening at what he saw. Smoke rose from several buildings, people ran screaming through the streets, shinobi jumped from rooftop to rooftop in an effort to engage the enemy.

Enemy? Who would attack Konoha now? With both you and that Uchiha brat, it’s suicide. Unless… That voice again, buzzing like a hundred flies, trailed off.

“Itachi,” Naruto whispered. Only he would be so bold, so sure of victory.

He’s come for you brat. I suggest you hide; you’re no match for him right now, even with my power. Your body would just break down.

“Shut up!” Naruto hissed. He slid the window open and jumped up on the edge, gripping the side when he felt his balance slip.

Don’t go, brat. It’s su…

The blonde grinned when the kyuubi shut himself up. “It’s what? Suicide?” He chuckled darkly, dull eyes flashing in amusement. “Been there, done that.”

He’s not worth it, Naruto.

“Shut up!” he yelled this time, before launching himself on the nearest rooftop and taking off towards the center of destruction.

It was easy to find Itachi, since the man was looking for him. Naruto halted as he found the man perched on top of the academy where Naruto and all his friends had graduated. Itachi stood there watching the other members of Akatsuki destroy his one-time home. Blood-red eyes lifted in surprise when he spotted Naruto a mere 10 feet away.

“Naruto-kun, so nice of you to come to me,” he smiled gently. “It makes my job that much easier.” Then he flashed right behind Naruto and held a kunai against the blonde’s throat. Naruto stood there impassively. Itachi ran his hand through the blonde locks before tightening his grip and jerking Naruto’s head backwards. “No fighting back? You seem to be going out of your way this time to accommodate me. How thoughtful.”

Naruto still said nothing, but his eyes shifted to the courtyard below them. Itachi kept his eyes glued to Naruto’s dull ones as he spoke. “Good evening, Sasuke. How nice of you to join us. Are you here to save your friend?”

Sasuke flashed up to the rooftop of the academy as well, his crimson eyes swirling with more emotions than Naruto had ever seen on his stoic face. Anger, hatred, confusion, hurt, and even love were all there, and Naruto knew that none were directed at him.

“Uchiha Itachi, I’m going to kill you!” Sasuke screamed.

Naruto thought it was the most emotion he’d ever seen on Sasuke’s face. Not even during sex, when they were both sweaty and crazy with need, did Sasuke ever have this much passion.

“But foolish little brother, you’ll harm your friend. You wouldn’t want that, now would you?” Itachi said with apparent amusement, assured of having the upper hand.

Sasuke’s Sharingan eyes met Naruto’s for a moment before his left hand started flickering with the beginning of Chidori.

Itachi’s eyes widened for a moment, and in his surprise, his grip on Naruto slackened and the blonde ninja flashed out from under his kunai to stand behind him. The shrieking of 1000 birds filled the air as Sasuke’s Chidori reached its maximum power level as well as Sasuke’s own yelling. Naruto suddenly locked his arms around Itachi to prevent him from dodging.

Itachi tried to jerk away, and frowned when he found that Naruto’s hold was stronger than expected, abnormally strong. And Sasuke was bearing down on the two of them.

Suddenly, Itachi was wild-eyed, glancing back at Naruto in a panic. “He’ll kill you too! He won’t be able to stop in time.”

However, instead of being deterred, Naruto tightened his hold on Itachi. “I know. It’s the only way I can help him. I’m too weak to do anything else.” And then he smiled, and kept on smiling when Sasuke’s hand plowed through his chest for the second time during his life. Itachi stood stunned, not having had enough time to even do genjutsu or use his own Sharingan. He was dead before his head bashed against the roof.

Naruto grinned down at the hole in his chest as he too fell. He vaguely heard screeching in his head, the sound of a wild animal dying, but it was drowned out by the echoes of Sasuke’s Chidori and the continuing booms of Konoha’s destruction. Naruto watched the blood run from his chest, as swift as a river during a storm and just as dangerous. He watched Sasuke cry out and drop to his knees before his deceased brother and cry for the first time in years. Naruto felt his own tears slowly trickle down his slack face. He reached out a hand towards Sasuke.

“I’m sorry.” And for a moment, he could have sworn Sasuke glanced at him, horror dawning in those shadowy eyes.

Then he closed his own blue eyes and drifted into oblivion.

~Fin?~

Please tell me how I did. I'm thinking about adding a little epilogue where we get to see Sasuke's reaction to Naruto's death.

Arigato!

I really suck at trying to be emo, or even just introspective. I can sit around and think on this stuff for hours, but can't put it into words.

Sadly...

Sat, 27 May 2006 22:16:55 GMT

I'm thinking I'm going to have to go on hiatus with Emerald Isle. I will finish it, make no mistake about that, but I'm seriously lacking in inspiration right now for it. I'm more focused on Konoha Studios.

To be honest, I'm sick of Emerald Isle. The plot's bad, and getting worse and I'm still really surprised that people like it. I need to smooth out the ending (plan it out) and then I'll get back to it.

Let me say this again: THE EMERALD ISLE WILL BE FINISHED!

so no flames. I'm trying here, I really am.

We have DRABBLE!!!

Sun, 21 May 2006 08:32:18 GMT

Feeling a little melancholy apparently.

Title: none, just a drabble
Pairings: none...ZOMG!!
Warnings: G-PGish, angst, spoilers??
Summary: Just a little discussion with a rock. Naruto's POV.
Comments: Kind of SPOILER ALERT for ch. 307 of manga. Nothing major, I was just inspired by something Naruto said in that chapter, so yeah, could be spoilerish.

If you didn't read before, there is a SPOILER for ch. 307 of the manga, so no griping!

The scent of an approaching storm pervaded the clearing where a lone figure stood in front of a monument to Konoha’s fallen. The manicured grass swayed with the trees in an intricate dance that would soon become violent. Wild waves of blonde hair scattered from the breeze that carried a hint of rain, covering the symbol of the Konoha leaf and generally annoying the owner.

Shaking his head in annoyance, Naruto smiled humorlessly down at the monument, his blue eyes focusing on one name in particular. “Guess I shouldn’t have let my hair grow out so much.”

And it had grown. His bangs now reached past his chin, making a striking resemblance with the 4th Hokage. Naruto sighed and took a step forward, dry grass crunching under his sandals. He kneeled down on one knee, the white jacket of the Hokage brushing the grass, so he could trace his fingers along the name newly carved in the dark stone.

“You’ll have to take back your words, won’t you bastard? I’m Hokage now; I achieved my dream,” he said tonelessly. Years ago, his voice would have been full of smug satisfaction.

The blonde frowned and reached back under the collar to scratch an itch. “It’s a very uncomfortable jacket to wear though. I swear I’m breaking out in hives or something.” He tried to smile and failed. “I would have become Hokage sooner, but the villagers you know…” he trailed off and glanced up at the sky, watching dark clouds roll closer and closer.

Then he abruptly jerked his head back towards the monument and that newly chiseled name. “To tell the truth, I feel unworthy to wear this jacket, to hold this position.” He smiled that humorless smile again. “Everyone says ‘Congratulations!’ or ‘I knew you would do it!’ and many even say I’m the best person for the job; they say I’m worthy. But…”

He took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes which were starting to burn. He imagined the slight wetness he wiped on his knee. “I never felt right after our last battle, Sasuke. You remember right? I said that a person who can’t save his friends doesn’t deserve to be Hokage. And yet, here I am.” He spread his arms wide and then slowly lowered them as a single tear left a trail down his scarred cheek.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered shakily. “I’m so sorry, Sasuke.”

He traced his one finger along the name again. “This is the only gift I can think of to give you since I failed you in every other way. It took a lot of convincing, but they finally allowed me to add your name here as one of Konoha’s heroes.”

Naruto stood up and shook any bits of grass stuck to his pants. “I hope that wherever you are, you’re finally happy Sasuke, my friend, my brother.”

Then he turned and walked away right as the first rain drops started to fall. Those that hit the monument and trailed along the crevices of the countless names carved there looked like tears.

~Fin~

How bout that?! No yaoi! No lemon! *GASP*

Please review!

OroSasu smut.....O.o

Fri, 12 May 2006 04:05:51 GMT

Let's try this mode:

Title: Anything
Pairings: Orochimaru & Sasuke
Warnings: NC-17 for graphic lemon (ewww)
Summary: Sasuke will do anything to beat his brother.
Comments: I swear there's something wrong with me. I despise this pairing, mostly b/c I hate the snake bastard and he's just soo eww. However, this came to mind as a little sidefic to Konoha Studios, but I decided against making it part of that story, so it's just a one-shot that proves I'm on crack.

The elevator dinged cheerfully as it reached the 14 floor of Snake Eyes Enterprises, and as the doors opened, they revealed Sasuke Uchiha, second son of Kaleidoscope Corp’s president Fugaku Uchiha. His dark grey eyes swept the reception area in a quick scan to see if anyone was still there as he stepped from the metal doors. He was out of luck. It was 7:30pm on a Friday, a day when everyone made a concerted effort to not work late, especially when it was a Friday before a 3-day holiday. He had a meeting with Orochimaru, the president of Snake Eyes, who had specifically requested that he arrive at this late hour.

Sasuke clutched his Prada briefcase in his left hand and self-consciously brushed his other hand along his suit jacket, clearing off imaginary lint and straightening already straight lapels. He looked stunning and very professional in his Calvin Klein suit; a vision in black and white with his tie making a splash in deep red with thin diagonal black stripes. His steps echoed on the marble floor as he approached the door at the opposite end from the elevator labeled simply “President”. He took a deep breath, remembering his game plan and knocked briskly on the thick wooden door.

He was here on a very important mission and had already decided that he would refuse to leave until he had what he wanted. And what he wanted was Orochimaru’s signature on the papers he had stashed in his briefcase. Sasuke knew Itachi had already been here and made an offer, probably one Orochimaru agreed to, but he would do better. He would not allow Itachi to win again.

When he heard the muffled voice bid him to enter, he licked his lips one last time, cleared his throat, and opened the door and stepped inside. The office was as luxurious as Sasuke’s own father’s office, with soft Italian leather seats for guests, a wet bar for those late night meetings and soft carpet that Sasuke was itching to curl his toes in. None of this was reflected on his face, of course. He took it all in, in a matter of seconds, and was focusing only on the man sitting behind the giant mahogany desk in front of an entire wall of windows framing the setting sun in all its orange, pink and red glory.

“Sasuke,” Orochimaru nodded sagely, his strange eyes never leaving Sasuke’s face for a moment. “It’s a pleasure, as usual.”

“Same here, Orochimaru…sir,” he added the “sir” as an afterthought. It always paid to make the person you were trying to persuade into doing something feel superior.

Orochimaru smirked and Sasuke knew he hadn’t fooled him with his flattery. “Please, sit.” He waved his hand towards one of the leather seats in front of his desk.

Sasuke nodded and approached the desk in measured steps. His family and Orochimaru went way back. In fact, Sasuke had known Orochimaru since he was a child. The man had visited the Uchiha mansion for many dinner parties and celebrations. It wasn’t correct to say that Sasuke’s father and Orochimaru were good friends, just merely well-acquainted…acquaintances, for lack of a better word. Both of them being rival companies probably had a lot to do with their reluctance to become friends, but that was just mere speculation on Sasuke’s part.

Orochimaru was a handsome man, in a creepy sort of way. He had a way of looking at you that seemed as if he was looking through you. It could leave a person feeling naked and vulnerable. However, Sasuke was used to it, and he refused to be disconcerted by it. He was on a mission, remember. Orochimaru’s long black hair was loose and floating about his shoulders, and he had striped off his jacket and tie, showing off a good amount of skin around his throat. It was quite a difference from Sasuke’s own appearance.

He placed his briefcase down on the floor and proceeded to open the clasps to withdraw the papers. He knew Orochimaru was still watching him closely. Sasuke glanced up swiftly when he heard Orochimaru’s chair squeak as the man leaned backwards and threw his hands behind his head.

“I’m assuming that you’ll tell me why you needed to see me someday, Sasuke.”

Sasuke felt a light flush crawling up his neck, but ruthlessly shoved it away and looked back at Orochimaru seriously. “I think you know why I’m here.”

The older man smirked. “Ahh, yes. Your eternal race against your brother.”

Sasuke frowned slightly, but didn’t refute Orochimaru’s statement.

“You know, of course, that Itachi has already made me a very nice offer for the rights to the script. An offer I can’t refuse.”

“What was the offer?” Sasuke asked, clutching the papers he’d just withdrawn from his briefcase in a white-knuckled grip. No, he wouldn’t lose! He refused to leave until he’d beaten Itachi!

Orochimaru suddenly grinned, almost maniacally, at Sasuke’s question. “Wouldn’t you like to know? What he offered me was something I’ve been wanting for a long time, but could never quite get my hands on.”

Sasuke stood up and placed his hands on the desk, leaning forward slightly. “Whatever he offered, I’ll double it. No, I’ll triple it. I’ll make it even better for you.”

Orochimaru leaned forward and braced his elbows on his desk, looking up at Sasuke’s earnest face. “But you don’t even know what it is he offered.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Sasuke countered swiftly. “I just want to beat him this once. I want to win this deal. I’ll do anything.”

A slow smile spread across the older man’s face. “You’ll do anything, huh?”

“Anything. Just tell me what you want; tell me what Itachi offered you and I promise to make it even better.”

Orochimaru stood up suddenly and came around his desk, stopping only half a foot away from Sasuke. He shifted his body until he was standing almost behind Sasuke and peered around his shoulder to look at the contract Sasuke had placed on the desk. Sasuke grew still as Orochimaru drew closer, unsure of how to react, but unwilling to do anything that might jeopardize his chances of winning the older man over to his side.

Then Orochimaru suddenly pressed his body against Sasuke’s back, wrapping his arms around the young man’s waist to hold him in place while he whispered in his ear, “What if I told you that your brother offered you to me?”

His hot breath washed down Sasuke’s neck and he just barely managed to hold back the involuntary shiver it caused. He felt his adrenaline start flowing in his veins as his fight, flight or fright reflexes kicked in. As his mind raced, wondering what to do, Orochimaru rocked his hips against his ass and Sasuke felt the telltale bulge. He swallowed convulsively and in a shaky whisper, simply said, “What?”

A slick tongue slowly started tracing the outer shell of his ear, while the hands around Sasuke’s waist started unbuttoning his jacket. Little shivers of pleasure started racing up and down Sasuke’s spine, making him gasp for breath at the same time. This was insane! He hadn’t heard correctly, had he?

Sharp teeth nipping at his ear lobe brought Sasuke back to the present, just so he could hear Orochimaru whisper huskily in his ear again. “Itachi,” that tongue was doing wicked things to his ear again, “offered up you.” He rocked his hips against Sasuke’s ass again, making sure the younger Uchiha knew he didn’t mean as an intern. That tongue started tracing spirals down Sasuke’s neck, while the busy hands around his waist suddenly pulled the jacket from his shoulders and threw it somewhere. They moved right back around Sasuke’s waist and started pulling his white dress shirt out from his pants. “He offered me the chance to have you all to myself, no interfering father or mother to stop me. He offered me the chance to fuck you this one time. Fuck you raw.”

Orochimaru’s breath was coming in pants now as he ground his hips against Sasuke repeatedly. His left hand traveled along Sasuke’s lean abdomen, admiring muscles, while his right reached up to unbutton the top few buttons of Sasuke’s shirt. As soon as more of Sasuke’s neck was revealed, Orochimaru started licking, sucking and eventually biting every inch of flawless, pale skin before him.

Then, just as suddenly as it had all begun, Orochimaru pulled away and pulled Sasuke around to face him. Sasuke gazed up at him with glazed eyes, and Orochimaru looked down to see a bulge in the young man’s own pants. Orochimaru took the sides of Sasuke’s face between his long-fingered hands and locked eyes with him. He brought their bodies close together, but with no touching; just enough so they could feel each other’s body heat.

“So, Sasuke, what can you offer better than this?” His eyes gleamed predatorily.

Sasuke swallowed once, twice, and thought about the proposition he was planning to make. Could he really want to fuck Orochimaru? He was a man twice his age, though still very good looking. Then, Orochimaru licked his lips, looking like he was one second away from enjoying his favorite dessert, and Sasuke’s cock twitched in anticipation. Oh yes, he wanted this. It wasn’t just the promise of having the older man sign his contract; it was that whisper of power that dribbled along Sasuke’s skin like Hershey’s syrup, making everything seem just a little sharper, stronger and ultimately more pleasurable. Orochimaru would be a powerful ally.

Coming to a decision, Sasuke closed the distance between their two bodies and pressed their mouths together in their first kiss. When Sasuke pulled away to speak, Orochimaru lurched forward and faster than a snake, grabbed Sasuke’s lips in a fierce kiss. His hands were still holding Sasuke’s face and he took advantage of that by holding the young man in place and deepening the kiss, thrusting his tongue as deep into the warm recesses of Sasuke’s mouth and savoring the tastes, the textures, the heat. He continued assaulting Sasuke’s mouth again and again, only pulling back to gulp in air while nipping harshly at the delectable lips in front of him. Finally, he released Sasuke’s lips reluctantly, his tongue making one last languid swipe before pulling away completely.

“You offered me anything, Sasuke. So tell me, are you willing to do this?” He ground their hips together for added effect. The way Orochimaru asked the last question made it sound like he didn’t really care if Sasuke was willing or not.

Licking his lips, which were slightly puffy from the repeated kisses, Sasuke replied, “I’m willing. And I can offer you something better than Itachi did.”

“Oh?”

“I’ll offer you the chance to fuck me as many times as you want.”

Both of Orochimaru’s eyebrows shot straight up, and he felt himself become rock hard at that simple statement. “Sasuke Uchiha, you have yourself a deal. I fuck you until I get tired of you.”

Sasuke smiled triumphantly, but it was wiped away immediately when Orochimaru brought their mouths and bodies back together. They both moaned into the rough kiss this time and Sasuke looped his arms around Orochimaru’s neck, thrusting his hands through the silky hair. Orochimaru, for his part, ran his hands down Sasuke’s sides and the curved them around Sasuke’s ass, squeezing the tightly and using his grip to rub their bound erections together. Sasuke moaned into the older man’s mouth and rubbed himself against him even more, in unsteady jerks of his hips.

Orochimaru felt the front of his pants stretch even further as his desire increased exponentially. He’d known Sasuke would be hot, he just hadn’t figured he’d be this inferno of horniness. An idea came to him and he pushed Sasuke away from him gently. When Sasuke opened his eyes, he found Orochimaru lounging in the chair in front of him, rubbing slowly at his rigid cock through his pants. Then, since he had Sasuke’s attention, Orochimaru slowly undid his pants until his cock was freed from confinement.

Sasuke’s eyes widened comically when he saw the size of the older man. He’d been with a fair amount of men, playing both roles, but he’d never come across someone this big. He looked up into Orochimaru’s eyes and knew instantly what the other man wanted. Who wouldn’t know? Dropping to his knees, Sasuke reached out and wrapped his hand around the base of Orochimaru’s cock and gently stroked up, and then down, and then up again, feeling the heat of it almost burning him. Fingers threaded through his hair and pulled his head forward, making him glance up.

“I don’t want a blow job right now. This is just to get me slick enough so I won’t be rubbed raw.”

Sasuke nodded minutely and allowed for his head to be pushed downwards until Orochimaru’s tip was brushing against his lips. He parted them and darted out his tongue for a brief tasty of the salty, bitter fluid and then proceeded to wrap his mouth around as much of the older man’s length as he could. Orochimaru sucked in his breath sharply and resisted the urge to thrust all the way down Sasuke’s throat. There would time enough later to do that.

Sasuke bobbed his head, trying to get as much saliva on Orochimaru’s cock so he wouldn’t feel like he was being ripped apart. It was going to hurt as it was, just from the sheer size of the man. He sucked the cock as far down his throat as he could, wrapping his tongue around as much as he could. Sasuke was so intent on his task, that he was almost startled when a hand touched his chin, indicating that he should stop. He pulled back, a little reluctant, but it was obvious neither of them would last much longer. He felt excitement, as jittery as a butterfly, unfurl in his stomach. It had been some time since he’d been this eager.

As Orochimaru stood up, so did Sasuke, standing almost demurely as he awaited the older man’s next actions. In a flash, Orochimaru was turning Sasuke away from him and jerking his pants down until they caught at Sasuke’s knees. Sasuke groaned as his aching cock was roughly rubbed. He immediately bent over Orochimaru’s desk, gasping from the cold of the polished wood and then panting as Orochimaru pressed against his cleft, ready. However, there was a pause, and then all that heat and hardness left Sasuke bent over the desk with his legs spread wantonly. He bit his lip and looked over his shoulder to see the older man walking towards his door. When he reached his destination, he cut off the bright fluorescent lights that had so clearly illuminated their activities until now.

As Orochimaru reached him, he grabbed Sasuke’s hand and pulled him over to the windowed wall and pressed the young man against the cold glass. Night had fallen since they’d started their “meeting.” The view was breathtaking; lights twinkled and glittered at him from the cityscape, almost smirking at him. Then he lost his train of thought when Orochimaru pressed against him again, this time more insistently. Sasuke rocked his hips back in an answering thrust, causing the hands on his hips to tighten painfully.

“This is better,” Orochimaru panted in his ear. “Now I can fuck you in front of all these people, yet no one can tell.” He laughed at his own joke, and then without further ado, thrust fully into Sasuke in one long, mind-numbing stroke.

Sasuke made a strangled sound, instinctively shying away from the pain. Orochimaru would have none of that. One hand left Sasuke’s hip to slide along his damp chest and press him back against Orochimaru.

“Uhhh, so tight,” Orochimaru muttered, slowly pulling out before quickly thrusting back into Sasuke’s tight body.

“Oh God!” Sasuke moaned, clutching at the glass, almost cursing when he couldn’t get any leverage.

Orochimaru set a brutal pace, pounding into the younger man with as much force as possible, utterly lost in the pleasure of his body. Sasuke adjusted quickly though, bending ever so slightly so that every thrust hit his prostate and sent starbursts throughout his body. He left prints on the glass not only from his hands, but also from his chest and even his own straining erection. He shuddered as that tongue drew a wet line across the back of his neck, only to be replaced by Orochimaru’s sharp teeth.

Sasuke felt like a broodmare being mounted by a stallion, biting the back of his neck to keep him in place. It felt like an animal coupling too. All that could be heard throughout the office was the harsh pants of the two occupants and the occasional groan. But that was second to the harsh slap of flesh on flesh as the two bodies slammed together repeatedly. There was no way such a frantic pace could be kept up for long. Gasping like he was drowning, Orochimaru moved his hand on Sasuke’s chest down to his neglected cock and started pumping it. As his climax approached, the older man lost his rhythm but kept pumping until with a loud cry, Sasuke’s warm seed spurted into his hand and onto the window.

As the clenching heat closed around him almost brutally, Orochimaru moaned desperately and gave into his pleasure, pumping Sasuke full of his own seed. He leaned forward, against Sasuke, until the only thing that supported the two of them was the glass. Harsh breaths echoed throughout the room. After what seemed like forever, Orochimaru pulled out of Sasuke, moaning as his sensitized cock was squeezed by Sasuke’s body. He groped around until he found his chair and fell down into it, satisfaction lighting up his face. Sasuke stayed where he was, barely twitching.

Orochimaru reached for his box of Kleenex and proceeded to clean himself off and put all exposed parts of his body back under wraps. After his clothes were back in the right order, he looked up to find Sasuke’s dark eyes watching him intently. He smirked at the young man and threw the Kleenex to him.

“Clean off the window, but not yourself. I want you going home with my cum dripping out of you.”

Sasuke bit his lip in embarrassment and thought of the mess that would make in his pants, but he did as he was told. After cleaning the window off with the tissue and throwing the soiled ones away, he returned the box to Orochimaru’s desk and walked around to the other side to where he’d left the contract before. He picked it up and tossed it in front of Orochimaru.

The older man just shook his head and handed it back to Sasuke. “Oh no, not yet. If I sign this now, I might not see you again.”

Sasuke stiffened. “You think I go back on my word?”

Orochimaru just shrugged, “I don’t know. You could. You might. I don’t plan on having that happen.” He paused and watched Sasuke look indignant. “I’ll sign the contract after this weekend. You and I will spend it at my beach house. We’ll…get to know each other better.” He smiled wolfishly.

“Fine.” He took the papers back and stuffed them in his briefcase. Then he looked back up at Orochimaru and nodded faintly. “Until then.”

Orochimaru chuckled. “No need to be so formal, Sasuke. We just had sex against my office windows, so I think you can be a little more relaxed. Go home and pack, I’ll pick you up in 3 hours and we’ll be on our way.”

“You don’t waste time.”

“Have I ever? Three hours.” Orochimaru held up his three fingers.

Sasuke scowled, “I got it.” There was no need to be treated like a child by holding up fingers.

Orochimaru laughed again as Sasuke exited the office and headed for the elevator. He grimaced at the wetness between his legs. At least the sex had been good. Sasuke smiled. He would wait a quarter till the hour when Orochimaru would pick him up to inform his brother that he’d won. And to thank him for making Sasuke’s day.

Chapter 5 of Konoha Studios

Mon, 01 May 2006 07:50:18 GMT

Here's all of chapter 5. I must say, I'm not too happy with it and it needs to be looked over but whatever.

Shikamaru wandered around South Hall looking to see what Microsoft and EA had to offer. The music was louder here since it seemed the publishers were competing over who could be the loudest. Shikamaru felt the music vibrate all the way through him. Microsoft’s booth was huge, probably one of the biggest there and had green lighting. He saw a long line forming alongside a room, well, more like a tent, but bigger. Security guards stood at the entrance, only letting in a certain number of people at a time. He walked towards the people in line and asked one of them what was in the tent.

“You don’t know?” one person shouted from Shikamaru’s left.

“It’s an XBOX 360 demo!” the man in front of him said excitedly.

“Oh,” Shikamaru said, without any change in his expression. He wasn’t a big XBOX fan, even if it now ran games at HD quality. He was a PC gamer himself.

He ventured over to the EA booth, and found himself amazed as he was every year he saw the line up EA had to offer. He was still amazed that they were in business. They released the most unoriginal games out in the market today. The only reason they were the top publishers without a console was because they had a monopoly on the sports titles. He was turning away when he spotted Temari speaking with her brother. Gaara had this pinched look on his face. Temari was probably mothering him again, like she did with both of her brothers. She was probably worrying about his relationship with Neji. Unlike some of the others who were at the bar that night and had witnessed Gaara and Neji leaving together, he knew that the two of them were still seeing each other. It was a hot topic with his girlfriend; Shikamaru was getting desperate for some other event to get her off her current topic.

Shikamaru watched the two of them a moment longer, then decided to go elsewhere. Temari would find him when she wanted and he had no desire to listen to the argument he was sure she and Gaara were having. He continued to walk around until he reached the Square Enix booth. They had a playable demo of Kingdom Hearts 2 this year and he decided to try it out. It was Temari’s favorite game. He was busy protecting Queen Minnie in her castle as they ran through it to get to somewhere he didn’t really care about when two well manicured hands covered his eyes. He heard Queen Minnie let out a yelp as she was hit by one of the Heartless as he released the control and turned around.

Temari stood there, still looking sassy from her ‘discussion’ with her brother, and whispered close to his ear, “I found the perfect place.”

Then she turned and walked away, obviously fully expecting him to follow her as if he had a leash about his neck. And who was he kidding, the only thing missing was the ring through his nose. She had that effect on him. With the game completely forgotten behind him, he quickly caught up to her, staying a little behind her as she led him through the throng of people. He only looked away from her back once when they passed by a life-sized Katamari ball where he saw a toilet seat and easy chair stuck together with tons of other stuff. And just as quickly as he saw that, he forgot about it. Shikamaru felt his heart start to beat faster and he licked his lips in anticipation. He knew where she was taking him. The two of them had started a little tradition at last year’s E3, and had continued it at every conference they’d both been at.

Temari weaved her way through the halls, watching for security. If anyone could ruin her plans it would be them. She looked behind her and saw Shikamaru following her with a bland expression on his face and had to smile. She had a very good idea that he was feeling anything but bland at the moment. She spotted her destination instantly when she saw the “Out of Order” sign in front of the women’s bathroom. Temari looked around the area again this time surreptitiously. She knew it was best to look like she knew exactly what she was doing and that it wasn’t anything she wasn’t supposed to be doing. She never had to worry about Shikamaru looking suspicious, he always looked like he belonged where he was, and most times, he looked like he didn’t want to be there at all.

They darted into the bathroom and turned to pull Shikamaru into the stall at the far end as soon as he cleared the doorway. Even though no one else was in there, she didn’t want to take a chance that someone might get snoopy and come into the bathroom at a particularly embarrassing time for her and Shikamaru. Luckily though, that had never happened to them, but there was always a first for everything. When they were enclosed within the stall, the outside world seemed to disappear, and then ceased to exist when Shikamaru’s hands got busy. This was his domain and Temari was always glad to hand over control to him.

It produced such nice results.

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Naruto arrived back at his booth and watched Ino work her magic on the handful of people there. Ino had come to them from EA, having been fed up with the highly political arena there. She had spent 4 year at EA and had one day looked back and saw that she had been spending more time competing with her coworkers just to keep her job than spending time with her son. It had been a sobering thought and she had started looking for another job that very day.

She had been a welcome addition to Konoha Studios. Her bubbly, but often bossy attitude, struck just the right chord with coworkers and the people she demoed their games to. In most companies, it was the product manager that came to E3 to showcase the demos. In fact, Ino was better at demonstrating the potential of the game better than Naruto or anyone else could. While Naruto knew everything that could be done, Ino knew what people wanted to hear and expounded on what Naruto would say.

Naruto walked over to his stool and plopped down to watch her presentation. He felt many of his misgivings that Sasuke had caused start to settle in his stomach as he saw the positive feedback Ino was receiving, even with all the “faults” Sasuke had found with the game. He smiled as Ino encouraged their visitors to play the demos to let them discover what she had been talking about earlier. Despite this being an industry only event, there were plenty of kids around, eager to try their hand at the various games on display in the convention center. After they were all absorbed in the gameplay, Ino joined Naruto on the other stool.

“Things are going great, Mr. Designer,” she commented, a slight flush on her cheeks. She grabbed her bottled water from the table beside them and drank deeply.

“Very nicely done, Ms. Product Manager,” Naruto said, leaning forward with his chin in his hand to closely watch the reactions of the people playing the demos. After a moment or two, he sensed Ino watching him out of the corner of his eye and sighed silently. She had a hesitant look on her face--something that was totally out of character--and he knew it wasn’t going to be long until she bugged him about Sasuke. He wished he had some good excuse.

Not a moment later: “You want to tell me just who Sasuke Uchiha is?” she asked.

Naruto’s eyes flickered to meet Ino’s briefly before he focused his gaze back on the players in front of them. He shrugged carelessly. “Just someone with strong opinions.” He saw her eyebrows raise in speculation and he had to agree to himself, it had been a lame explanation.

“He seemed to know you.”

“Of course! I’m the genius game designer. I’m famous, ya know,” he grinned cheekily.

“He said he’s from Uchiha Corp. and as far as I know, they have no interest in the gaming industry.” She paused for a moment, staring intently at Naruto in an effort to get him to meet her eyes. He was as bad as her son when he’d done something to upset her. “He asked for you by name, though.” She thought she heard a sigh come from Naruto after this.

He shifted to face her slowly, his bangs falling into his eyes. He didn’t move the bang and Ino had to clench her hands into fists so she wouldn’t reach out and push the strands of hair back out of his eyes. He really was cute like that and again she was reminded of her son, Kyou. Naruto had a childlike quality to him that often belied his maturity at times. His eyes were overshadowed right now though, making him seem older and more jaded than he had any right to be. It was so unlike Naruto that Ino felt a little worried.

“Naruto?” she said, her brow knitting in concern from his continued silence.

“What do you want me to say, Ino? I knew him a while ago. We didn’t end on good terms and it was just surprising to see him here. I was shocked, since this isn’t his thing. That’s all there is to it. End of story,” he finished with finality.

Ino nodded, as if she was satisfied with that answer, and straightened in her seat. She let it go for right now, more to appease Naruto in case he was angry than in true understanding. Naruto seemed more affected by Sasuke Uchiha’s words than he was letting on. And Sasuke seemed to know more about the game industry than what Naruto thought. His possible reasons for being at E3 where everyone in the gaming industry would be, and him approaching Naruto were worrying Ino. Tsunade and Jiraiya didn’t give their employees enough credit, especially those who worked closely with Naruto. He never had been good at hiding his worry, and the added tenseness he’d been giving off the weeks leading up to E3 was palpable. Ino had worked at E3, and she knew the numbers each game needed to pull in. Konoha Studios’ games weren’t doing enough and with people like Shikamaru, Naruto, and, she admitted grudgingly to herself, Kiba on staff, other companies would be vying for them to work for their company. And if they offered better benefits then it was totally possible that they would leave Konoha Studios.

She stretched her legs out in front of her and decided to think of something else. It wouldn’t do to worry about her company’s current financial situation when they had lots of people to impress. She sighed when she noticed Naruto was back to brooding. She was beginning to regret choosing the last shift. She’d originally thought taking it easy early on and getting hyped up later would give her enough energy for going out that night with her friends. However, she felt like she could fall asleep right there, even with the noise of the crowd and the vibrations of the music blasting away all around her.

“You two look awfully relaxed,” a voice cut in.

Ino and Naruto looked towards the speaker to find Gaara smirking at them.

Naruto stood up and walked towards him. “Not much traffic in your area, huh? Your boss must want you to check out the competition and see what it’s like not to create a shitty game.”

Gaara’s smirk turned even more sarcastic. “No, our products just speak for themselves and people are just lining up to play our demos. They don’t need me to highlight all the wonderful features there are in our games.”

“They speak for themselves because everyone already played the same damn game last year,” Naruto shot back.

Ino giggled from beside Naruto and even Gaara was forced to just shrug instead of trying to refute the statement. He didn’t care too much either way, he wasn’t at EA for their innovativeness.

Still, he couldn’t let Naruto get the better of him. “My paycheck’s still better than yours.”

Naruto’s response was to stick his tongue out at Gaara. Ino just laughed harder.

“Why not show me your ground breaking new game then? I’m curious as to how much of what comes out of your mouth is still just hot air,” Gaara challenged.

Naruto jumped up from his stool. “Right this way then, right this way.” He swept his hands out mockingly towards one of the stations. “Take a deep breath before you begin though. I know it’s been a while since you last played anything this exciting.”

The redhead shot him a caustic look, but said nothing. Naruto stood right next to him as he started up the demo. He stayed there too, watching Gaara play through the demo, taking in his reactions and commenting occasionally on the best way to do something. When Gaara finally finished the demo, he pushed Naruto away from him and walked towards Ino. Naruto followed closely behind. Gaara raised his eyebrows* questioningly at Ino, who just shrugged.

Then, Naruto suddenly started pushing Gaara towards the stool he had been sitting in earlier. “Here, sit, I know your heart’s got to be racing from all the excitement. Please don’t have a stroke on me right now. You’ll restrict the flow of traffic through my booth,” he said cheekily.

Gaara glared at him, but sat all the same. Naruto stood in front of him, shifting from one foot to the other, annoying the hell out of Gaara. The redhead took his time in meeting Naruto’s gaze; he flicked away non-existent lint and straightened the already straight sleeves of his polo shirt. His light blue eyes gleamed almost maliciously as he surreptitiously watched Naruto become more and more agitated by his continued silence.

“Tell him already, dammit! He’s scaring the people still here!” Ino hissed irritably towards him.

Naruto stiffened abruptly at her words and glared at Gaara for making him wait. “Well?” he demanded.

“Naruto, stop being a pest. You know it’s awesome. You don’t need my input to know that.”

The blonde man smiled brilliantly at his comment, surprising Gaara. He honestly hadn’t thought Naruto would be so eager for praise from him, especially since Gaara wasn’t known for his encouraging remarks.

“Give me specifics!” Naruto demanded.

Gaara huffed in exasperation, but complied, mostly just to get Naruto off his back. He thought back on the demo, biting his lip as he tried to pinpoint the good and bad things in the game. After a couple seconds, he focused his attention back on Naruto and began to give his professional opinion on what he had experienced, all joking put aside.

Naruto took it all in with an earnest expression, nodding at certain things and frowning at others. Despite his earlier prickliness with Sasuke, Naruto was a professional and could take constructive criticism with grace and understanding. The problem with Sasuke’s earlier criticism was that he had seemed to be personally attacking Naruto’s abilities to design a game and thus holding him responsible for everything he didn’t like in the game.

Gaara paused in his assessment, aware that Naruto was somewhere else. At his silence, Naruto quickly snapped back to the present and shot Gaara a thankful look. It was rather ironic for Gaara to be on the receiving end of one of those looks. He was usually the cause of the stress in the first place. “Are you alright, Naruto? You seem a little…off today.”

Naruto blinked, and then blanked his expression. “Nothing’s wrong.”

“He’s been moody ever since that asshole came by,” Ino piped up helpfully, earning the full brunt of Naruto’s glare, which didn’t faze her at all.

“Which asshole?” Gaara asked. There were so many in the industry.

“No o---” Naruto began, only to be cut off by Ino.

“Sasuke Uchiha,” she supplied helpfully.

“I am not moody because of him,” Naruto insisted. Then he paused and thought back over his words. “I’m not moody at all!”

“You sure sound moody to me,” Temari said, entering the booth behind Shikamaru.

Both Naruto and Gaara turned around and glared at her, for different reasons. Shikamaru took one look at the serious faces around him and turned around immediately, muttering something about drinks. Temari smiled at them, and continued forward to nudge Gaara off his stool and take his place. She fairly radiated good cheer around her, and it was creeping them all out.

“Did I hear the name Uchiha?” she asked. Ino and Gaara nodded, while Naruto looked away. “Which one?”

“There’s more than one?” Ino asked.

“Oh yes. There’s 3 of them to be precise. The father and his two sons.”

“We were talking about Sasuke. Which one is he?”

Temari crossed her legs daintily and tapped her fingernails on her knee. “He’s the youngest. I’m surprised he came by here. I thought he’d be trying to schmooze the people from the bigger companies.”

“Why is he here?” Naruto broke in suddenly.

Temari glanced over at him, her gaze unreadable. “I suppose because I invited him here to E3. He’s one of the people I gave an extra ticket to.”

“I didn’t know Uchiha Corp. had anything to do with the video game industry,” Ino said.

“They don’t. That’s why Sasuke’s here. He’s planning on changing that.” Temari grinned at all of them gathered around her. She was obviously enjoying being in the spotlight.

Ino frowned, “Is he planning on buying up a small developer?”

Temari saw where this was going. “I have no idea. We’re not on close terms. Although, I seriously doubt he has his eye on this company. There’s just no guarantee that he’ll gain a profit. The logical choice would be to either purchase a more affluent developer or to become a publisher. There’s no telling what the Uchiha’s will do. If I remember correctly, it was Itachi who first did something with the video game industry, but that was just to offer capital to an acquaintance of his so that they could start their own gaming company.” She paused and frowned, trying to remember who Itachi had helped. “I think the guy’s name was Oro-something-or-other.”

“Orochimaru?” Gaara asked.

“Yeah, yeah, that sounds right!” Temari nodded. “You know him?”

“No, but I’ve heard rumors.” He glanced over at Naruto. “Rumors that make EA look like a great company to work for.”

“Sounds nasty,” Ino commented.

Temari just shrugged, “Who knows? I’ve never met the guy. But, back to Sasuke. He’s a nice enough person, from what I’ve seen. However, if he’s looking to have Uchiha Corp. share in the booming success that is the gaming industry these days, then there will be no stopping him. If he’s got Daddy’s ok, then he will have an almost infinite amount of capital to back him in his purchase, or takeover, of any company he wants, bar Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony and EA. I don’t think you guys have much to worry about in terms of him scoping out Konoha Studios. If he does make a move for your company, you can bet that he’s got a different reason for wanting it.”

Naruto felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. What could Sasuke possibly want with Konoha Studios?

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Sasuke Uchiha had learned a lot about manipulation and winning at any cost in the last couple of years. He had his brother to thank for that. He’d learned to trust no one, not even Sakura, who had been a vital part of his advancement in his father’s company this past year. He stared at her back as she led him to his brother, not really seeing her though. Sasuke was thinking about his plans and how much a certain blonde man would get in his way. Naruto would always make everything an uphill battle. When Sasuke focused on his surroundings, he frowned when he saw where they were headed. The Manda Enterprises logo loomed before them, and he vaguely felt like he was being swallowed by the huge snake that graced every logo representing Orochimaru’s company. He hated snakes, and Orochimaru was one of the slimiest.

“Sasuke?”

He turned his head towards Sakura, having been unaware that he had stopped to frown up at the snake. She sounded hesitant, and a little frightened, which brought out her British accent. It was virtually undetectable at any other time and was a skill Sakura had perfected so she wouldn’t be noticed. It was her best asset, her ability to remain invisible; that, and her connections.

He smiled at her. “Into the lion’s den,” he whispered in her ear as he took her hand and started walking forward. “Or rather, the snake’s lair.”

She laughed softly next to him and squeezed his hand. This was how Orochimaru and Itachi saw them when they all gathered together. Sasuke was busy trying to make polite conversation without sneering at the two men in front of him when Itachi cut him off.

“Father tells me that he’s thinking about giving you a chance to make the company a profit in the game industry.”

Sasuke sighed inwardly. He had been hoping their father would hold off on that bit of news, but knew it wasn’t likely. He still trusted Itachi far more than he did his younger son. It would be his downfall. He nodded nonchalantly in response to Itachi’s question. “Yes, he said he’d consider my proposal. I’m just here checking out who’s who here.”

Orochimaru smirked at him while Itachi just stared at him stonily. He wasn’t fooled. Then he motioned towards Orochimaru. “Why don’t you consider Manda Enterprises? Hanging around in Kentia Hall won’t prove conductive. All the best companies are elsewhere.”

Sasuke shrugged, again making sure to appear a blasé as possible. “You’d be surprised at what you could find there.”

“Like Konoha Studios?” Orochimaru suddenly asked.

All Sasuke did was blink. “Konoha Studios?” he asked disinterestedly.

“Yes, Konoha Studios.” Then he turned towards Itachi to explain. “I used to work with the two who started that company. I know they’re in Kentia Hall.”

Sasuke stiffened. You mean you had me followed. Son of a bitch! Then, he felt Sakura’s hand tightening around his, and Sasuke realized he’d taken a threatening step forward. Itachi’s eyes had narrowed on Sasuke, but no other emotion crossed his stony features.

“Naruto Uzumaki works there, am I correct?” he asked Sasuke.

“It doesn’t matter who works there since the company is going under.”

“And are you thinking of saving them little brother?”

“Like you said before, big brother, if there’s no profit for Uchiha Corp. it’s a waste of time. I don’t plan on wasting any of my time or money.”

“Make sure you remember your own words, Sasuke.”

Sasuke was about to retort when Sakura gave a tug at his arm and addressed the other two. “I’m sorry to interrupt you gentlemen, but Sasuke promised he’d take me to The Ivy for dinner, and we have a reservation.” She started pulling Sasuke away. “It was great seeing you two again. We should all have lunch tomorrow.”

Sasuke glared at her, but allowed her to pull him away. He sure as hell didn’t want to have dinner with them tomorrow.

“Relax, Sasuke, you and I both know they won’t be expecting us to actually have lunch together,” Sakura soothed. “Although, it does seem like we’ll be leaving now.”

“That’s fine. We still have 2 more days of this godforsaken noise. I’ll convince Naruto by then.”

Sakura glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, a little knot forming between her brows. She hated having to agree with Itachi on anything, but even she had trouble understanding why Sasuke would risk his career and future for another man. Sasuke himself had said that Konoha Studios was going to tank, and he already had too much to deal with since Itachi was making his move now. It wasn’t like Naruto Uzumaki had been happy to see him. He’d seemed livid, actually.

At that thought, Sakura felt some of her worries lighten. Whether he wanted to or not, Naruto Uzumaki was ensuring that Sasuke would remain Sakura’s and no one else’s.

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On their way out, Sasuke and Sakura passed by the cafeteria again. Sasuke looked for that familiar blonde head, but didn’t see him. Naruto was probably back among his comrades, having them stroke his ego so he could ignore the questions Sasuke had raised. Sasuke remembered Naruto almost choking on his food when Sasuke had approached him in the cafeteria. Naruto was always biting off more than he could chew, figuratively and literally. It made Sasuke remember the first time they’d met. Neither had been impressed with the other then too. It seemed that no matter how long they knew each other, things didn’t really change.

~~ TBC ~~

*My Gaara has eyebrows!

......the layout is slowly getting better......

Konoha Studios (ch. 4)

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 06:45:20 GMT

Finally...

What the hell am I doing?

Gaara was wide awake the moment the first shaft of light hit his exposed face. It was because of that infuriating bit of sunlight that Gaara knew he wasn’t in his own bed…again. If he had been in his own bed, he would have had the sense the night before to shut his blinds, but Neji seemed to like the blindingly searing light. With a forlorn groan, Gaara rolled over on his side and tucked his eyes against a bare shoulder blade. He looped his arms around the slim waist, a little hesitantly, but leaned fully into Neji’s body when the man in question leaned back into the curve of Gaara’s body.

What the hell am I doing?

The thought flitted through his mind again as he took a deep breath, flooding his senses with Neji’s unique smell, his own scent, and the sharp tang of sex. Even hours after the sheets and their bodies had cooled down, the distinct musk from a good fuck still permeated the air. Ever since that first night, three weeks ago when they’d left the bar together, and a very confused Naruto behind, Gaara had found himself becoming more and more acquainted with Neji’s home, his body and his pantry. It was the same for Neji.

Gaara was happy that Naruto hadn’t gone apeshit over this new situation. Sure he’d given Gaara strange looks a time or two…or three, but all he’d asked was if Neji was still good with his mouth. Gaara’s face still turned beet red with the memory. There was nothing like being best friends with your current lover’s, ex-lover. Even Neji was surprised at how well the three of them had adjusted to this new development. That didn’t mean that there were no reservations, mostly on Gaara’s part. He knew Neji still had feelings for Naruto, and that something had happened between the two of them fairly recently that made Neji pursue his current relationship with Gaara more determinedly. And even though Gaara knew this, he still felt like a fool for becoming attached.

“You’re thinking too much again,” a sleepy voice rumbled. Gaara smiled slightly when he felt Neji’s back vibrate from his words.

“How can you tell?” he asked. Neji saw way too much, and this was one thing Gaara couldn’t afford to have him know.

Neji shifted his long body and turned around to face Gaara, ignoring the disapproving grumbling coming from the redhead, having lost his comfortable position. A forefinger reached out to touch Gaara’s forehead, but paused when the he instinctively flinched away. Neji frowned, not liking that reaction at all, even if it wasn’t the first time it had happened. He never asked, knowing instinctively that Gaara would remain silent.

“Sorry,” Gaara mumbled, looking embarrassed.

“Don’t apologize,” Neji ordered. Then he reached out and traced a finger from the tip of Gaara’s nose, then up on his forehead and then using both thumb and forefinger to smooth along the skin above Gaara’s almost nonexistent eyebrows. “To answer your earlier question, I could feel your brow scrunching up. I feel it many mornings when we wake up together. What’s on your mind, Gaara?”

“Nothing,” the redhead replied swiftly. He placed his hand on the arm currently touching his face and slowly stroked it from the wrist up to the shoulder. When he dragged his hand back down the same path, he used his nails to lightly scrape at the pale skin, smiling when he saw goosebumps forming on Neji’s skin. Knowing that he could arouse a man like Neji was a natural high for Gaara. He derived a great deal of pleasure from knowing that, for the time being, Neji was all his. He was suddenly drawn from his thoughts when a hand gripped his wrist, stopping all motion.

“You’re lying,” Neji stated emphatically.

Gaara sighed, “It’s nothing, Neji. Really.”

It was Neji’s turn to sigh. His grip tightened on the redhead and he pulled their naked bodies flush together, pleased to hear a gasp escape through Gaara’s slightly pouting lips. Neji leaned forward and ran his tongue over Gaara’s lower lip, leaving a wet trail in his wake, and only withdrawing when Gaara moved to deepen the kiss. “Why won’t you tell me?” he whispered, his breath making Gaara’s wet lower lip tingle.

Gaara frowned, not liking that Neji just wouldn’t let it go. Instead of questioning Gaara, he could be doing better things with his mouth. “It’s none of your business!” he growled. “Now shut up and put your mouth to better use!”

Neji smirked and then rolled on top of Gaara. He would do as the redhead said for now. He could tell from the mutinous look on Gaara’s face that he wouldn’t be getting any answers from him anytime soon. He was nothing if not patient. He sealed his mouth over Gaara’s, forcefully shoving his tongue deep and explored every crevice his tongue came across. Both of them ignored their morning breath. It was pretty easy to do when the smell of the other person’s lust rose up to cloud over everything but the wonderful sensations they were evoking in each other.

Gaara tunneled his hands through Neji’s luxurious black hair while he sucked on the other’s tongue. And when Neji ground their hips together, rubbing both their erections against each other perfectly, Gaara suddenly remembered the answer to his question...after he quit moaning. He was here because this was one of the few places that the redhead felt safe and wanted. The fact that he felt so very desirable in Neji’s arms kept him coming back for more.

No more thoughts passed through the haze fogging his brain for a while after.

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The week leading up to E3 was at times hectic and at others, insane. The one good thing was that they could all sleep in their own beds the night before instead of in some hotel since it was being held at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Even with this plus, Naruto still found it hard to leave their booth at night. Everything had to be perfect, and while their space was limited, Naruto thought Konoha Studios’ booth looked nice.

Ino had twisted her hands and fretted over that term. “Well, ‘nice’ is ok, but is it interesting?”

The blonde assured her that it was and then secretly crossed his fingers and prayed that he wasn’t lying. After all, it was interesting to him. Shikamaru had rubbed his temples, having come to the conclusion a long time ago that neither Naruto nor Ino were going to be satisfied with their effort until E3 was over. Their display wasn’t as flashy as any of the other major game developers, but it showed off what they had perfectly. They had decided to have four stations set up for people to try their hand at the demos. They’d made sure that each person would get a chance to spend about 15 minutes with each part of the game. The three of them would be standing right across from the stations, ready to answer any questions anyone threw at them.

However, their booth was about one-tenth the size of Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo’s booths. That was to be expected. Those major conglomerates took up the West Hall and South Hall. Konoha Studios was located in Kentia hall, which was underneath the South Hall. When Naruto and his team had first arrived, he’d felt a giggle rise up his chest when he saw there was a Sports Bar in Kentia Hall. He’d figured that if all else fails, he can get drunk. Being in Kentia Hall was both good and bad. It was good because they were away from the much bigger companies that would usually have elaborate lighting and music specials. It meant that they wouldn’t have to compete with so much noise. It was bad because they weren’t upstairs with the major companies, thus being under the radar from the media.

The expo would last for 3 days, and Naruto, Ino and Shikamaru would each take turns giving brief demos of their game as well as providing info on some of Konoha Studios other games. When they weren’t doing that, they would be either scoping out the competition, attending workshops or listening to guest speakers. While the three of them were mostly dreading the coming days, they were also looking forward to them. This was their chance to brag about their product and mingle with the thousands of other game industry individuals that would be there. It promised to be an exciting event.

The night before the Los Angeles Convention Center would open its doors to the masses, Naruto, Ino and Shikamaru all went out for Chinese. Naruto chose the place, Maple Leaf Chinese Restaurant, because they had karaoke on Tuesday nights. It provided great entertainment to their meal. When they were just being seated, Naruto’s cell phone started playing its familiar ring tone, and with a roll of his eyes when he saw who it was, he flipped it open.

“Yeah boss?” was his greeting.

Ino and Shikamaru watched him over their menus as he talked to the president of their company. Naruto didn’t know it, but they were still amazed with his familiarity with Tsunade, and even Jiraiya. The both of them were usually relaxed around the Tsunade and Jiraiya, but there was always that line between them, that line that clearly marked Shikamaru and Ino as employees and Tsunade and Jiraiya as employers. It was hard to become too friendly with the people who had the authority to fire you. Though Naruto had almost as much power as Jiraiya, he still technically wasn’t their boss, so it was easy for everyone to joke around with the blonde. It was also partially due to his personality. It was hard to be stand-offish with a person who had so much energy and passion for his work.

“We’re all eating at the Maple Leaf. Yeah, sure, if you’re in the area…ok…we’ll see ya then.” He snapped his phone closed and clipped it back on his belt. “Tsunade and Jiraiya will be joining us for dinner…since they’re in the neighborhood, they say,” Naruto informed them.

“ ‘Since they’re in the neighborhood’?” Ino questioned.

The blonde just shrugged and picked up his menu to peruse the items listed there. Ino and Shikamaru shared a look, then followed Naruto’s example. Whatever reasons Tsunade had for tracking them down, they’d find out soon enough. It was 5:30 when they’d arrived and the place was just starting to become full, although no one was onstage singing yet. When their waitress came to their table, Naruto happily greeted her by name, which they wondered why his pronunciation of Jiang sounded different than the way it was spelled on her nametag, and said that they would wait a little longer for the rest of their party to arrive. He paused after he said this and glanced at Shikamaru and Ino across from him, silently asking if this was ok. They nodded their agreement and just gave Jiang their drink orders.

With some surprise, Tsunade and Jiraiya arrived earlier than expected, just under 10 minutes after Naruto hung up with them. Ino and Shikamaru unconsciously sat up straighter when their bosses reached their table. Naruto leaned against the back of his booth and propped his hands behind his head. Tsunade and Jiraiya remained standing, looking down on them all, literally.

“What’s up?” Naruto asked.

“Oh, nothing serious,” Tsunade said airily, which was completely out of character for her. “We can’t stay, but I just wanted to wish you guys good luck tomorrow. I’ll be in a meeting with the chair members for the majority of the day, so I won’t be there at all.”

“Wow, sucks to be you!” Naruto cackled, eyeing Jiraiya with camaraderie and completely drowning out Ino and Shikamaru’s quiet “thank you’s”.

“I’ll be there too, brat,” Jiraiya growled, beating Tsunade.

“Well, then, sucks to be you--plural!”

“Naruto!” Ino hissed. Jiraiya covered his mouth to stifle a snicker, while Shikamaru rolled his eyes and sighed quietly.

“Listen, you little shit,” Tsunade said through gritted teeth. She leaned forward on the table, and though most of her comments were directed towards Naruto, Ino and Shikamaru leaned forward to listen. “There are many other people, other companies, that are interested in how we do at E3. Let’s be sure to give them more than they bargained for.”

Naruto smiled, a little creepily. “No problem there,” he assured them. Ino and Shikamaru backed him up, their voices strong and sure. Having faith in your product was always a super benefit.

Tsunade smiled at the three of them, a little sadly. Then she glanced at Naruto. “Walk me back out to my car?” she asked.

Naruto’s brows drew together in confusion, as did Shikamaru’s and Ino’s, but no one said anything as Naruto got up to walk towards the exit with their bosses. The sun was setting as the three of them gathered around Jiraiya’s hunter green Escalade. Naruto looked back and forth between the two of them, wondering why their faces were so somber.

“What’s up?” he asked.

Tsunade sighed. “You remember me telling you I’ve got a meeting with the chair members tomorrow, right?”

“Um, yeah, you just told me.”

Tsunade decided to ignore his slight sarcasm and continued, “Well, I actually had an impromptu meeting with four of them today. We had a phone conference and what they told me was a little disturbing, even if it’s not too terribly unexpected.”

“What?” Naruto asked.

“Someone’s been spreading rumors that Konoha Studios is going bankrupt. This rumor is actually pretty old, but what’s so strange is the fact that no other companies have stepped forward to try to buy us out.”

“Why’s that so strange?”

Jiraiya huffed in exasperation. “It means someone is pulling some very hefty strings to make others back off from us. I only know of about two companies that have the power to do that, but they’re too big to even bother with a small company like us.”

“But why are you worrying? We’re not going bankrupt, so this theory that someone’s behind all this trying to sabotage the company is pointless. And besides, I thought you said someone approached you at the Game Developer’s Conference about buying the company, so that’s one person at least,” Naruto said, pointing a finger at Tsunade.

Tsunade sighed. “I haven’t heard anything more from the person who made the offer. As to the bankruptcy issue, that’s not exactly true, Naruto. As I’ve mentioned before, this company can stay afloat for the time being, but if this game doesn’t make us loads of money, then we will have to declare bankruptcy or sell the company to someone else. But if I’ve got no buyers, then we’ve got a problem.”

Naruto slumped back against Jiraiya’s car. Why couldn’t he just design his game without worrying about money, or milestones or temper tantrums from others? Why did the real world always have to butt in? He was slowly starting to understand the situation they were in and he wished he didn’t.

“I promise I’ll do my best at E3. Hell, I’ll even go on a road trip to promote the stupid game to save some money if you think that will help.” He looked up at her, his eyes solemn. “I don’t know what else I can do for you.”

Tsunade reached out and touched his shoulder. “I’m not asking more from you Naruto. I just wanted to tell you the situation so you’d be prepared for it. You’ve invested almost, if not as much, as Jiraiya and I in this company. I knew this would hit you harder than the others.”

“Thank you,” Naruto said quietly.

Tsunade squeezed his shoulder again before letting go and walking to the passenger side of Jiraiya’s SUV. “Go inside and eat, Naruto. You’ll need the extra energy for tomorrow.”

Naruto smirked and saluted her. He said his goodbyes to them both and went back into the restaurant to eat his dinner. Ino and Shikamaru looked up at his approach. He held up his hand before either of them could say anything.

“I’ll tell you after E3. Let’s just focus on that, ok?”

They reluctantly agreed, but a sense of foreboding was starting to creep up on them. Their dinner wasn’t quite the boisterous affair they’d thought it would be.

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While E3 is considered the most hectic 3 days during May, the expo actually begins 2 days before then. However, only the big companies like Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo did anything on that Monday and Tuesday. They usually rent out conference rooms at hotels and it’s by invite only. Needless to say, the folks at Konoha Studios weren’t considered important enough to warrant an invitation. That was ok with Naruto and his group. They had just spent that time setting up their booth and then Naruto spent the next day checking over everything to make sure it all ran smoothly.

Wednesday morning of E3 was bright and cheerful, like most California days were. Naruto on the other hand, required more than the sun and air to wake him up. Having been up since 5am that morning making last minute preparations to their exhibit. And the doors wouldn’t open to the media and all other people in the industry until noon. He wasn’t a perfectionist, honest.

He brought a huge thermos filled to the brim with extra strong coffee to keep him awake. It was gone within an hour. Naruto was soon regretting having drank so much at once because he was having to go pee every 10 minutes now. And he still felt like he needed more caffeine. Ino and Shikamaru showed up around 10, only 15 minutes apart from each other. Naruto was busy gaping at Shikamaru’s charcoal dress pants and burgundy shirt, that he almost missed Ino in her jeans and carrying a box of donuts.

He whistled, “Who’re you trying to impress? Kiba said he couldn’t make it today.” Like a true male, his eyes stayed glued to her slim hips and thighs that were perfectly outlined in the tighter than tight jeans.

She threw a wad of napkins at him. “Kiba has nothing to do with this. If I’ve got to endure this torture, I’m going to do it comfortably.” She set the box of donuts on a stool nearby, effectively drawing Naruto’s eyes away from her ass.

Naruto’s eyes brightened. “Did you get the type with strawberry jam filling?” he asked excitedly.

Ino sniffed and looked down her nose at him. “Maybe. Do I get a raise?”

Naruto scowled at her, his hand having paused above a donut. Shikamaru snickered loudly, not even bothering to be quiet. Ino smirked at Naruto before reaching in a grabbing the donut Naruto had been going for. She quickly took a bite before Naruto could grab it back from her and walked towards Shikamaru. Her eyes raised in surprise when she took in his attire.

“Wow, what’s this for?”

Shikamaru nervously pulled at his pants, doing his best to hold back a blush. Ino and Naruto waited for him to say something, but he just ended up shrugging and refusing to say anything.

Naruto grabbed a glazed donut and leaned towards Ino to whisper, “I bet Temari dressed him.” His ‘whisper’ was loud enough for Shikamaru to hear as well, and both Naruto and Ino watched in fascination as a blush rose up on Shikamaru’s cheeks.

“And what’s wrong with that?” a new voice cut in.

All three heads swiveled to the entrance to the booth, where a tall, gorgeous blonde stood with her hands on her hips. Temari smiled at all of them and sauntered over to Shikamaru. Ino smiled, feeling ugly and unfashionable next to the other woman. Temari was a vision in all black. Her flowing black skirt ended just beneath her knee, but it was offset by a slit that ran up to mid-thigh. She wore a black halter that had the loose fabric falling in layered folds. Simple black sandals completed the look. She and Shikamaru made a striking couple when they stood next to each other. They were both such opposites, but so clearly enamored of each other.

Temari teasingly ran her hand up Shikamaru’s thigh as she moved to stand behind him. He was sitting on one of the other stools in the booth, and he stiffened as soon as her hand first touched him. As soon as she moved entirely behind him, Temari leaned forward and whispered something into Shikamaru’s ear, grinning wickedly the entire time. Naruto and Ino just gaped at the couple, having never seen them act so couple-ish before. Temari noticed the stares and smiled at them pleasantly.

“We have plans later on tonight,” the blonde said suddenly.

“Huh?” Ino and Naruto chorused. They had completely forgotten what had been under discussion before she’d shown up.

Temari looped her arms around Shikamaru’s neck and rested her chin on top of his head. He leaned into the caress, clearly enjoying himself. “We have plans for later on,” he repeated. “That’s why I’m dressed up.”

Naruto and Ino made comprehending noises and then started asking Temari about her businesses and generally just making nuisances out of themselves. They weren’t the only ones though. She demanded that Ino and Naruto give her a quick demo of the game, which they were only too happy to do. Temari was a valuable ally in the business world and had connections in all sorts of places. The proof that she was at E3 was enough. She had two direct sources that could get her passes to the expo, those being her brother and Shikamaru of course, but she had others offer to get her some as well.

The four of them spent a while just talking about things ranging from the new XBOX 360 to the best dessert at The Cheesecake Factory. It was 11:15 before Naruto even thought to check the time, and he felt a flash of panic run through him.

“Holy shit! The doors open in 45 minutes!” he exclaimed. He spun around, searching for something out of place with their display.

“Naruto, everything’s fine,” Ino said, grabbing the blond man’s arm before he could go and mess up the work he’d done earlier because he was panicking.

Temari arched a brow. Naruto was always a little high strung, but even he didn’t usually worry so much over stuff like this. He should be a pro be now. “It really is very nice, Naruto. I’ll go bug my brother about EA having some competition from you guys now.”

Naruto turned and gave her his signature smile, full of boyish charm and even a little sheepish around the edges. “Thanks, Temari. Tell him we’ll have more of a crowd than any of their games.”

Temari laughed and nodded before leaving, making sure to give Shikamaru a kiss also. It was a long running joke between Naruto and Gaara. Naruto claimed Konoha Studios would one day have more press coverage than EA. Gaara only nodded; they all knew that the likelihood of that happening was very small. Even if Konoha Studios released innovative games, they still couldn’t compete with the marketing campaign of EA.

“I call first shift,” Shikamaru said, breaking into everyone’s thoughts.

“I call the last shift,” Ino chimed in second.

“You want the last shift?” Naruto asked. “What about Kyou?”

“He’s with his father until Sunday. I’ll be going out tonight with some friends.”

“Ohhhh, Ino’s going to get herself plastered,” Naruto joked, elbowing Shikamaru in the arm.

Shikamaru swatted Naruto’s elbow away and stood up to stretch and checking his cell phone hooked to his belt afterwards. “Is everyone’s phone turned on loud? And on vibrate?”

Naruto and Ino checked their phones and nodded. They all wanted to be sure that they could get in touch with the other two members at any given time. Though they each called shifts, that didn’t mean that the other two would be off the entire time playing games from the other publishers there or sleeping in late. It just meant that when it was their shift, they couldn’t leave and they would be the first one to approach a reporter or anyone else that wandered into their booth to give their spiel. The other two would be nearby in case anyone asked for one of them by name.

Naruto clapped his hands together, trying to calm himself down. He didn’t like being this nervous over something he’d done many times before in one form or another. He was wishing now that Tsunade and Jiraiya hadn’t felt the need to confide in him, but then he dismissed that thought right after it formed. It made him extremely happy to know that they trusted him with the future of the company. He was determined to not let them down.

Just then, the loud thud of the music from upstairs started, making everyone in Kentia Hall grateful to be downstairs where the music was muffled somewhat. It was hard to give an effective presentation when you had to scream to be heard. At least no one got offended.

“Well…” Ino said, smiling at Naruto and Shikamaru.

It was time.

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True to form, as soon as the doors opened, wave after wave of people swarmed into the entrance foyer. Reporters with their media passes hung around their necks with their camera men were already taking shots of the small displays in the foyer. Others came in perusing the layout of the expo center while those looking around exclaimed over the exhibit of the history of video games, complete with old school Mrs. Pacman, Donkey Kong and displays of the old gaming consoles.

Even though the expo center was huge, it didn’t take long for the crowd to make their way to Kentia Hall and the smaller companies’ booths. Naruto, Ino and Shikamaru stayed busy for a little over an hour, fielding questions from the reporters that wanted to be the first to get the scoop on the progress of their game. Names such as IGN, Spike TV and even G4 came by, the lights from their cameras making the three of them see spots when they got a break.

When things finally started to slow down just a bit--there were only a handful of people playing or watching others playing their demos--he went to get drinks for everyone. It took him longer than he thought. There were so many people at the vending machines waiting in a line that it took Naruto 30 minutes to get drinks, and most were sold out by the time he got there. He’d have to go to the bar the next time or the cafeteria upstairs. When he made it back to the booth, he found Ino and Shikamaru talking seriously with a man who’s back was to Naruto. The blond noticed the slightly miffed looks on his coworkers faces and his interest was piqued. The man was wearing black slacks and a pinstriped black shirt, even his hair was black and the style he had it in made Naruto feel a prickle of unease run down his spine.

Shikamaru glanced up and saw him. “Here he is. He should be able to answer your questions Mr. Uchiha,” he said, motioning behind the man to where Naruto was standing.

The first thought that ran through Naruto’s head when the man turned around was that he was glad he’d set the drinks down first. Otherwise, he would have dropped them, or even worse, thrown them at that pale face as he turned around and pinned Naruto with his depthless black eyes. Naruto felt his heart stop in his chest as their eyes connected and a slow smirk stretched across those sensuous lips.

“Hello, Naruto. It’s a pleasure to see you again,” Sasuke Uchiha said in his perfect salesman voice, holding out his right hand to shake Naruto’s.

Naruto just stood there, his expression blank. His right hand twitched as though it was trying to shake Sasuke’s hand, but didn’t have enough power to wake Naruto from his stupor. All he could do was stare at Sasuke’s hand, as image after image of memories he’d long thought he’d forgotten came to the forefront and assaulted his senses.

Sasuke withdrew his hand, not looking awkward at all. He smiled gamely at the blond. “I figured this was one of your projects. It fits your style.”

Naruto’s eyes narrowed at the slight sarcasm he heard in that smooth voice. It was as effective as a bucket of water in waking him from his daze and plunging him back into the here and now. No one insulted his game without having played it. Ino and Shikamaru held their breaths as they saw the look come over their boss’s face. They didn’t know what was more worrisome, the daze Naruto had been in before, which was very uncharacteristic, or the anger sparking from his eyes now. Naruto was usually a very easy going guy, but he had a temper like a woman PMS-ing. Either way, it didn’t bode well for their image.

“You find something wrong with my game?” Naruto almost growled.

“Did I say that?” Sasuke asked.

“You certainly implied that. Have you even played a demo yet?”

“No, I was waiting for the designer to come back and demonstrate the capabilities of the game. Do you mind?” He gestured towards one of the stations where the second demo was set up.

“Not at all,” Naruto said, instantly clicking into demo mode. He’d make Sasuke take back his snide tone of voice.

The next several minutes that followed were the worst in Naruto’s short life. Sasuke obviously knew his share about the video game world and even more about the production process. His quietly superior looks and smug tone of voice when he found something he found to be a bad implementation of something grated on Naruto’s nerves. It wasn’t that Naruto had never heard any criticism; he’d heard quite a lot in fact and still received even more on a weekly basis. It was the fact that Sasuke was the one dishing out all the faults he found with the game so far that pissed Naruto off.

“His reaction time’s off,” Sasuke commented.

Naruto grit his teeth. “That’s on purpose. We want the player to have to think ahead during battle. It makes it more exciting.”

“Some would say it makes it more tedious. Most people don’t care, they just want to hack and slash.”

“We’re not targeting them.”

Sasuke gave him a sardonic look. “They’re the ones that make a game profitable for a company.”

Naruto narrowed his eyes. “We’re not too concerned with alienating them.”

Sasuke opened his mouth to say something, but instantly shut it. His eyes flicked to the right where he saw Ino and Shikamaru watching the “commentary” between the two with ever-widening eyes. Then he turned back to the monitor and he moved his character across the screen, avoiding the monsters that stalked around in the background. Naruto stood next to him watching the screen as well, readying himself for the next comment. His thoughts halted suddenly when he saw something happen in the background. His eyes flicked to Sasuke, hoping the man hadn’t seen it. He was disappointed.

“Did I just see an enemy kill himself?” he asked in disbelief.

Naruto smiled a little wanly in answer. Shikamaru had abruptly stiffened behind them as soon as Sasuke’s words escaped his mouth. Naruto quickly waved him off.

“That’s a bug that’ll need to be fixed, of course,” Sasuke said.

Naruto just barely held back a growl. “It’s a feature.”

Sasuke smirked at the old programmer’s motto. Then he set the controller down and turned to face Naruto fully. “Well, thank you for the demonstration,” he said sardonically. “I look forward to seeing the finished product and how you plan to fix it.” He held out his hand, not expecting Naruto to take it, and he was proven right. The blond man just stared at him, and if looks could kill, Sasuke would have died a very painful death.

Ino and Shikamaru were having problems holding themselves back as well. They’d been critiqued before by people from other company’s, but never so insultingly. All three of Konoha Studios’ representatives watched as Sasuke Uchiha left the booth. Then Ino and Shikamaru turned their gazes to Naruto.

“Who the hell was that?” Ino growled quietly, making sure none of the other people in the booth could hear her.

“Nobody,” Naruto said slowly.

“He seemed to know you,” Shikamaru remarked, watching Naruto closely. The designer looked a little pale under his natural tan.

“Of course! I’m famous!” the blond chirped.

Ino laughed, a little nervously. She was starting to find out that the man she’d thought was an open book had a past, one she and Shikamaru knew nothing about. It was startling to say the least. “Well,” she said. “I’m going to get something to eat. Thanks for the drink, Naruto.” She waved the can as she said this before leaving.

Naruto clapped his hand together in mock glee. “Well, how much more time do I have before my shift is over?”

Shikamaru looked at his watch. “About 2 hours left.”

“What!” Naruto whined.

Shikamaru waved his hand behind Naruto as he took a seat on his stool. “You’ve got some interested people too. Have fun.”

Naruto instantly smiled brightly and turned to greet their new arrivals. For the rest of afternoon, they all acted like they’d forgotten the encounter with Sasuke Uchiha, even though that was far from the truth and they all knew it. Naruto kept on smiling his cheerful smile, all the while cursing and hating himself for still feeling panicky when Sasuke had unexpectedly shown up. He’d hated the fact that his heart rate went up and his throat went dry. It was so demeaning, he’d wished someone would shoot him. The only thing that stopped him from doing anything so rash, was the fact that there was no way Sasuke could know. Naruto could deal with almost anything, but having Sasuke know he could still affect him like that wasn’t an option. Never ever.

----------------------------------------

When Naruto’s shift was over, he immediately left to get something to eat, muttering about starving to death. He headed straight for the cafeteria, intent on gorging himself on the ultra greasy food. After what seemed like an hour of waiting in line, he was able to get his food and find a table to eat it at. However, almost as soon as he sat, another person was pulling out the chair across from him. Naruto had just taken a huge bite of his hamburger, and when he saw who it was that had seated themselves at his table he choked on a pickle.

“You still eat like a pig, Naruto,” Sasuke stated, his nose wrinkling.

Eyes watering, Naruto forcefully swallowed the pickle, trying not to cough it back up in the process. It made his glare a little watery.

Sasuke smiled, “You haven’t changed at all.”

“What…the hell…are you doing here?” Naruto gasped still swallowing and clearing his throat as much as possible.

Sasuke’s smile faded and he sat back in his chair and stared at Naruto for a minute, his face becoming much more serious. Naruto continued to glare, refusing to fidget. “I came to talk to you about Konoha Studios.”

“Konoha Studios has nothing to do with you.”

“I’m planning on changing that,” Sasuke responded.

Naruto snorted. “Oh, how so?”

“I plan on buying it out and making it a part of Uchiha Corp.”

Naruto’s eyes widened. “You’re the buyer Tsunade told me about.”

Sasuke’s eyebrows shot up. “She shared the information with you? I thought she had more sense than that.”

Naruto bristled, “Look, you bastard---”

“There’s a problem though,” Sasuke interrupted, drowning out Naruto’s insult. “Tsunade has this crazy idea that her lead designer’s new game will pull her out of the very deep hole her company is in.” He gave a slight nod to acknowledge Naruto as the lead designer in question. “However, I came by today to take a look at the game and I have to wonder where her common sense went.”

Naruto’s face turned a deep shade of red as anger started building. He’d listened to this bullshit earlier but he wasn’t inclined to listen to it again. Sasuke was watching him warily, but he continued speaking anyway, even though he knew the warning signs.

“The concept is good, Naruto, I’ll give you that. But you’ve spent so much time coming up with new and innovative ideas, you didn’t stop to think if it will sell.”

“What do you mean?” Naruto growled.

“What do I mean? I told you earlier, idiot. You’re making a game that will alienate a good portion of the target audience that would otherwise make you a nice profit. And you’re stupid enough to say you don’t care.” He shot Naruto a disbelieving look. “I can’t believe Tsunade allowed you free reign over everything so early on. And now Konoha Studios is going bankrupt.”

“Are you saying that our problems are my fault?”

“No, you’re not the sole person to blame. There are plenty of others to point fingers at as well, but I’m not here to do that. I’m here to talk some sense into you, so that maybe, Konoha Studios will be salvaged.”

Naruto sat back in his chair and crossed his arms across his broad chest. The position caused Sasuke to sit forward and brace his elbows on the table.

“Look, Naruto---”

“Sasuke?”

The two men turned their heads towards the new voice and watched as a woman with strawberry blond hair that almost looked pink approached them. She wore dark blue jeans that fit her slim body perfectly and a black baby doll T-shirt that said ‘Chicks Rule.’ There was this air about her that screamed money and upper class breeding. When she reached Sasuke, she placed her hand on his shoulder. Naruto was surprised when Sasuke didn’t flinch or move away. That had always been how he’d reacted before, even when Naruto had touched him…outside of the bedroom of course.

“Sakura,” Sasuke said warmly. “What is it?”

“Itachi’s looking for you,” Sakura responded. She glanced up at Naruto and smiled as a greeting. Naruto continued to stare at her blankly.

Sasuke looked back and forth between the two of them, hesitating. Then he introduced the two of them. “Sakura, this is Naruto Uzumaki, a designer for Konoha Studios. Naruto, this is Sakura Haruno, my fiancée.”

Sakura blinked, then put out her right hand to shake Naruto’s. “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Uzumaki.”

Naruto was too stunned to react. He just sat there and stared back at her. His eyes flicked down to her left hand resting on Sasuke’s shoulder and he saw an elegant diamond ring on her ring finger.

Sasuke jumped in to fill the silence. “Sakura, why don’t you go on ahead. I’ll catch up in a minute.”

She nodded quickly and walked away. Silence stretched between the two occupants still sitting at the table. Then Sasuke abruptly stood up.

“Look, Naruto, as much as I hate to say this, the ball’s in your court. Tsunade won’t consider my offer for a buy out until she had your ok.” The frustration in his voice was palpable. “Your game won’t save the company. I think it’s time you woke up and realized that you can’t always make exactly what you want in the gaming world. You have to make what sells. Think about it, Naruto. I’ll be in touch.” And then he walked away.

Naruto stared down at his food, the very same food he’d stood in line for what seemed like forever just to get and all he wanted to do was throw it in the trash. He suddenly didn’t feel so good. He didn’t know what was worse: Sasuke suddenly reappearing in his life, however inadvertently, or knowing that there was some truth to his words and that Konoha Studios wasn’t going to survive.

And to think, E3 had just begun.

----------------------------------------

Sakura Haruno walked steadily through the crowd, her graceful strides causing envy among the women and desire among the men. She looked like a fairy princess, who had deigned to spend her free time among the common people. She looked untouchable. And no one could have known that her heart was pounding so hard in her chest, she thought it would explode. It had started the moment Sasuke had introduced her to the blonde man he had been sitting with.

Naruto.

She knew that name. Even when Sasuke had introduced them and she’d greeted the blonde like she would every other person she’d just met, Sakura was panicking inside. And she didn’t like it. She was no stranger to that name, just as she knew Sasuke and Naruto weren’t just acquaintances to each other. Her left hand almost balled up into a fist in her agitation, but she stopped it just in time. All anyone would have seen was a slight twitch of her ring finger, the same finger that wore her vintage engagement ring that she and Sasuke had picked out together. She swallowed a nervous laugh that was bubbling up. She knew that name, she’d known it for years now. It was the same name her fiancé moaned in his sleep.

Konoha Studios (ch. 3)

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 06:44:45 GMT

Holy Crap! My chapters are toooo long!

The atmosphere of Konoha Studios changed drastically during the next 5 months. The tension among Naruto’s team members was palpable. They were like rubber bands being stretched too far, and ready to snap at any second. Gone was the friendly, easy-going atmosphere, to be replaced by impatience and near hysterical giggles occasionally. Often you saw people rushing down the hallways to get to their destination, their hair already out of place; only the programmers actually walked down the hall in rumpled clothes though, since they usually fell asleep at their desks, only to wake up the next morning from the smell of Krispy Kreme doughnuts and very strong coffee. IT decided to ask for migraine headache pills to be added to their budget. But the best part was hearing the varied and creative curses that would occasionally be shouted down the corridors. Even the usually stoic Shino was heard calling his machine, a “fucking piece of shit” on an average of two times a day. Naruto had been keeping a tally of who cussed the most each day on his dry erase board in his office. He would then give them a strip of staples as their prize, causing an outbreak of staple wars among coworkers.

Naruto had officially finalized the title of the game, which was now slated to be called The Wyrm Gate. Everyone had joked around about there not being a title, each person wondering whether Tsunade would actually allow Naruto to change the title this late in the development stage, but no game got to the actual development stage without a working title. Sure they were still in the beginning phases of the game, but they all needed a sense of what the game would be about and the title always helped them focus their creative energies. Naruto had had this title picked out from the beginning and they’d all been using it. Although some people, namely Kiba, added an extension to the title when his copy of the GDD was received, which read, “Or Your Typical RPG With Kick Ass Dragons to Play With.” When Naruto had seen it, he’d simply grabbed a sharpie, crossed out “Typical” and replaced it with another “Kick Ass.”

Since the majority of the major milestones had been put on hold for the creation of the demos, Naruto had stepped in to work closely with Shikamaru and his team as well as with Chouji and his testers. While Chouji and the testers would find the bugs by continuously doing repetitive actions in the game, Naruto would play through it and report back as to whether the game had the right feel to it. Naruto stayed away from coding though. Watching Shikamaru and Shino, was well as the 11 other programmers feverishly type their if and for loops made Naruto’s fingers twitch to get a hold of a keyboard and join all the fun. Of course all he had to do was show up when something still wasn’t working and hear the curses bouncing off the walls to know he was just fine being the designer. Besides, he’d received many nasty looks when he’d voiced his thoughts out loud the first time. It wasn’t that they thought him incapable of coding, on the contrary, Naruto had started as a programmer, it was just that he hadn’t had to seriously code in well over a year, so he would just slow them down.

Despite everyone doing his or her best, some days it all seemed impossible. They felt like they would never have two perfect demos working by the time E3 came around. And as May got closer and closer, Naruto, Ino and Shikamaru felt the pressure mounting. It showed on their faces with the mashed lips, the tightened skin on the corner of their eyes and the loud sighs. It was now March, and while the first demo was virtually complete, the second demo was still being a pain in the ass. It was at times like these that people really found out if this was the industry they wanted to be in. The pressure to meet a deadline was excruciating.

Jiraiya was happy to note that all their employees were up to the task, even if they complained about it. He sauntered down the hallway toward Naruto’s office, his main purpose for going there being to bug the blonde. In a rare showing, he was within the dress code too, mostly because he was having to deal with the press now that Konoha Studios was going to E3, but more so to do with the fact that Tsunade had threatened to un-man him…again, if he didn’t look like a professional. Jiraiya grimaced at the thought, resisting the urge to cover his balls from the mere memory of Tsunade’s glare. She’d threatened him when he, Naruto, Shikamaru, and Tsunade herself had met and decided to focus the two demos on the opening level of the game, and then on an arbitrary level later in the game. The woman could be so pissy sometimes.

Upon reaching Naruto’s office, the older man poked his head in and rapped sharply on the open door. Naruto swiveled around in his chair to see who was visiting him while still talking to someone on the phone. With a slight grin, Naruto beckoned Jiraiya to come in and take a seat while he still talked smack to the person on the other end of the phone.

“You’re going down shithead, you and your fucking brainless company.”

There was a sharp response barely heard on the other end, before Naruto let loose a peal of laughter. Jiraiya quirked an eyebrow at Naruto’s response. Only one person could make Naruto talk like he was at a DOOM tournament and then laugh so happily. His thoughts were confirmed with Naruto’s next words.

“Yeah, alright Gaara. I’ll see you at E3, but you better stay the fuck away from my booth or I’ll be forced to accuse EA of sabotaging our presentation.” Then he hung up with a click before Gaara could retort, effectively winning that round.

Jiraiya was a little worried now. If Gaara was going to be at E3 with EA, that meant he and Naruto would probably be causing a lot of trouble. Tsunade was not going to be happy. “You two should be banned from ever being in the same room at the same time,” he commented.

Naruto just grinned, his eyes twinkling. He rolled his neck, obviously trying to relieve some of the tension building in his muscles. It seemed everyone was doing that these days, Jiraiya noted. However, Naruto’s expression caused a prickle of uneasiness in the older man. Naruto and Gaara had been competing against each other over every little thing ever since they’d met, and things could get very hairy when they were in stubborn mode.

Jiraiya kept his face serious. “I trust I don’t need to remind you what’s at stake this year?”

Naruto sighed, and stuck his tongue out at his boss. “We’re not going to crash through any displays.”

“If I remember correctly, you’ve already done that twice now during two different events. It’s starting to become something of a habit between you two. The press has even begun speculating what your latest antics will be.”

Naruto’s face had turned a dull red and Jiraiya was reminded of a child who was being scolded again for past actions. Jiraiya still remembered quite vividly how angry Tsunade had been with Naruto when he and Gaara had plowed through one of Techmo’s displays at a previous E3 convention. The older man had had a hard time keeping a straight face while Tsunade tried to take a chunk out of the blonde’s hide for that little stunt. He distinctly remembered Naruto making the excuse that any kind of publicity was good publicity. Unfortunately, Tsunade hadn’t agreed.

“Nothing is going to happen. I give you my word,” Naruto promised.

Jiraiya nodded instantly, apparently satisfied. Naruto always kept his word. “Then I want to know why the hell I’m just finding out that you and Hinata are no longer together, 4 months after the fact! What’d you do?”

Naruto sighed, “I’m really getting sick of having people automatically blame it on me.”

The older man snorted, “Like Hinata did anything wrong.”

There was a growl that came from Naruto’s general direction. “Just drop it, ok?”

Jiraiya opened his mouth to retort, but closed it with a snap when Naruto glared at him. His brows knit in concern instead. Naruto had looked a little worn since they’d been working on the demos, but Jiraiya was beginning to suspect he wasn’t so haggard looking over the game alone. So, for the first time in history, Jiraiya let the subject drop before being satisfied with all the facts. “Fine, then update me on the progress of the demos.”

Naruto leaned back in his chair, sending a loud squeak throughout the office. He then ran his hand over his face, a clear sign of frustration. “Demo 1 is finished, just a few cosmetic changes. Demo 2...” he trailed off and then ended it with a shrug.

“What?” Jiraiya persisted.

Naruto sighed and leaned forward again. “It’s coming along, but slowly. We want to make sure it fits the game concept, but I keep playing it and it just never feels right to me, so we keep redoing it and redoing it. And now it’s April.”

“You do know this demo isn’t set in stone. Just because it will be shown and played at E3 doesn’t mean it will be in the game. It’s just like movie trailers. You’ve seen the ones where the scenes in the trailer aren’t in the actual movie. Don’t be so picky.”

“ ‘I trust I don’t need to remind you what’s at stake this year?’ ” Naruto mocked.

Now it was Jiraiya’s turn to sigh. “Fine, fine, I get it. But I want to see the second demo next time and I’ll tell you whether you’re being too anal or not.” Jiraiya was known for his flippant attitude most of the time, but that didn’t mean he didn’t know when to put away the womanizer act and be a business man. He had started this company with Tsunade after all, and had been in the business for years before he and Tsunade had even thought about striking out on their own.

Naruto arched an eyebrow at Jiraiya’s words, giving the other man the impression that the blonde had never had that particular adjective applied to him before. He couldn’t hide his smirk when Naruto burst out that he wasn’t being anal. He didn’t argue with the blonde though; he had better things to do, but he was becoming concerned with all the stress that was building up among everyone. Suddenly, an idea occurred to him.

“I’ve got a wonderful thought!” he exclaimed, sitting up in his chair with glee.

“What?”

“I’ll throw a de-stressing party at my place tonight! What do you think?”

“I think, most people don’t know where you live, which is in the middle of nowhere,” Naruto replied dryly.

Jiraiya’s lower lip turned down in a pout. He’d been expecting Naruto to agree with him immediately. Things really had changed if Naruto wasn’t instantly advocating a party. He scrunched his face up in thought. “Fine, we’ll have the party here. I’ll order out for pizza! You go buy the booze!” he said, rubbing his hands together as he warmed up to the idea. Now Naruto had nothing to protest about. He was proven wrong.

“What!” Naruto exclaimed, looking scandalized. “We can’t have booze here. It’s one of the company policies!”

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. He watched Naruto shake his head at the very idea of having any sort of party there, causing Jiraiya to frown in vexation. “Look, you twit, I’m trying to get everyone to take a break from the work for E3, including you! The least you could do is act like you give a damn.”

“Oh…” Naruto said, looking away, a little shame-faced.

Jiraiya just rolled his eyes, before standing up. “Here, give me your phone. I’ll order the pizza.” He picked up the phone, his expectant expression centered on the blonde staring up at him quizzically. “Well, get me the number to the closest Pizza Hut, numbskull!”

Naruto blinked at the new insult. “Pizza Hut? Hell no, we get Dominos, you old geezer, or nothing at all,” he retorted.

Jiraiya felt a flutter of relief in his chest as Naruto insulted him back. He’d begun to wonder where the real Naruto was, because the one in front of him had been starting to scare him. “Fine, fine,” he grunted. “Just give me the damn number so I can order the pizza before everyone goes home!”

“Did I hear the word ‘pizza’?” a voice yelled from down the hallway.

Naruto peered around Jiraiya as the older man turned around to address the person who’d spoken. It was Kiba. He was quickly marching down the hall, wearing a black T-shirt that had a picture of the Milky Way galaxy with a little white sign pointing to some cluster of stuff that says: You Are Here. Naruto gave a weak wave, but said nothing, so Jiraiya took it upon himself to fill Kiba in.

“Yeah, pizza for everyone! And Naruto’s paying!”

“Woot!” Kiba shouted, completely drowning out the spluttering sounds coming from Naruto’s mouth. Then Kiba took off down the hallway, shouting to everyone in each office that there was going to be a pizza party.

Jiraiya grinned down at Naruto as the blonde groaned and banged his head on his desk. He chuckled at Naruto’s pained expression. They both knew that with Kiba spreading the word, it was going to be a rowdy little get-together. “Of course, your generous donation will be made on behalf of Tsunade and Konoha Studios,” Jiraiya said, smiling.

Naruto grimaced up at him. “Are you sure we can’t bring any booze to this thing?”

Jiraiya just laughed and once again demanded that Naruto get him a phone number for the nearest Dominos.

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An hour and a half later, the party was in full swing. It was only 4 pm and by the time Naruto walked through the entrance to the cafeteria, Kiba was already bouncing off the walls from too much Mountain Dew while Ino looked on in disgust. Someone had brought in an XBOX and PS2, and there was DOOM 3 deathmatch on the XBOX, while others were competing at DDR on the PS2. It was pure chaos, and instantly lifted Naruto’s spirits. He noted that one of the women who worked with Kiba in the art department was beating the crap out of Shino in DOOM. Shikamaru was sitting next to Chouji, both of them looking very serious about what they were talking about. Naruto guessed it was probably about the game.

There were tons of other people in there, all lining up to get some pizza for themselves. There were over 15 boxes displayed on the counter, and a good number of empty ones in a pile by the trash can. When he got up to the counter with his plate in hand, he felt like he’d reached pizza heaven. There was everything there from one just for vegetarians to the steak fanatic pizza and everything in between. Naruto instantly grabbed a simple pepperoni and cheese slice, as well as steak fanatic and Philly cheesesteak slice. Then he went and sat on the other side of Shikamaru, noticing too late that Neji was seated right across from him. He nodded his head briefly before looking away and focusing on his plate. Neji wasn’t about to leave it at that.

“How are you doing, Naruto?” he asked, taking a bite of his vegetarian pizza.

Figures he’d eat the healthy junk. Naruto stared at him and lifted an eyebrow sarcastically. Then he rubbed his fingers over his cheekbone briefly, right where the bruise had appeared after Neji had punched him months ago. “Better,” he replied.

Neji’s eyes, the exact color of Hinata’s, narrowed as Naruto’s hand brushed over his cheek. His mouth tightening, Neji tried to change the subject. “So how’s the project for E3 coming along?”

Before Naruto could even form a reply, he was interrupted by Ino. “Please, don’t mention that right now, Neji! We’re all trying to relax.”

Naruto bobbed his head, grateful that Ino had butted into a conversation for once. The three of them continued to talk, making sure to avoid any mention of E3 or the game. Neji and Naruto directed most of their answers at Ino, refusing to play nice with each other. Kiba bounded over at one point, urging Naruto to play a deathmatch round with him. Naruto was about to agree when a number of other people gave the suggestion that the two lead designers should play against each other. The blonde just barely held back a groan when loud cheers accompanied the suggestion. He seriously didn’t want to be spending any quality time with Neji. Then he felt himself being propelled towards the XBOX console by a giggling Kiba; Neji wasn’t too far behind him. The two of them shared a sheepish look and then got down to business mode. Neither could afford to lose to the other in front of their team.

A hushed murmur fell over the occupants of the room as the game was restarted. Naruto felt his fingers twitch and his heart start to pick up as adrenaline started to course through his body. He shifted from one foot to the other as he waited for the deathmatch against Neji to begin. By the time, it started to load, he was fairly humming with energy. A smile broke out across his face. It had been so long since he’d last done this. He’d almost forgotten how great it felt. He glanced over at Neji, his grin turning menacing.

“You’re going to die…painfully.”

Neji glanced over at him, smirking. “A little overconfident there, aren’t we, Uzumaki?” he replied, falling into military mode, just using Naruto’s last name and sneering.

Kiba was cackling madly at this point. “Ready ladies?” he asked.

“Shut it, Kiba,” Naruto growled.

And then the deathmatch began.

As soon as the screen displayed the level, Naruto took off, looking for a weapon to use against Neji. He found a shotgun first and he instantly equipped it. With the gun cocked, he quickly ran through the dark corridors, through automatic doors and twisting hallways, hearing his avatar breathing and grunting at different intervals. He glanced over to his right to see Neji hurriedly racing through the complex as well, hunting for Naruto’s character. Naruto hastily returned his gaze to his own screen, especially when he came to a new door and it opened up into a large area that left him wide open to being shot. Taking a deep breath he darted out into the room and quickly ran towards the other side where he would have some protection since it was under the stairs that led to the second floor.

Two gunshots echoed right behind him and he knew Neji was on the second level, waiting for him, hiding in the shadows. He looked at his health bar. Good, he didn’t hit me with those last shots. Naruto quickly looked around, and just barely held back his own cackle as he spotted a grenade in the corner nearest to him. Quickly grabbing it, and then equipping it, he ran out from under his cover and threw it onto the second level. “Eat that, Hyuuga!” he shouted.

A loud explosion sounded and flying debris flew everywhere on the screen. Neji was cursing a blue streak hastily retreating. Naruto wasn’t going to give him a chance. As soon as he could, he was running up the stairs, his shotgun equipped again. He saw Neji out of the corner of his eye and immediately swung in his direction, firing like crazy. Neji returned the favor, hitting Naruto multiple times, so that the blonde was forced to run down another hallway to avoid being killed. He swore himself when he saw his health bar now below the half way mark, but with a quick glance he saw Neji was fairing a little worse, mostly due to that grenade blast.

Naruto continued down the corridor he was currently in, giving a muted “Yes!” when he came across another gun. Then, with the new gun cocked, he went off in search of Neji again. If he could just sneak up on the other man and hit him first, he’d win for sure. However, Neji was a master tactician and was also a crack shot. He flew down the corridors, faster than before, picking up ammo as he went, until he saw something flash by him to his left. Spinning around quickly while also backing up to find cover, Naruto let loose a volley of bullets, hoping that was Neji he’d just seen. A spray of red suddenly burst from the body on the other side of the room, and Naruto smiled maniacally as the sounds of the other player dying came through the speakers. Then, with a whoop, Naruto threw his controller to Neji and hopped around giving high fives to his team members.

After that, everyone wanted to challenge Naruto, and he gladly accepted each one until he finally lost to one of Chouji’s young testers. After all the “awww’s” and “too bad’s” were over, Naruto turned to the young man and, mimicking Donald Trump, did the cobra strike and said, “You’re fired.” Everyone burst out laughing and Naruto thumped the teenager on his back in camaraderie. Then it was the young man’s turn to defend his position.

Neji, meanwhile, had quietly slunk back to his seat at the table and started munching on his last slice of pizza like nothing had happened. Ino and Shikamaru were still in their same seats, and they both gave him smug grins. He merely grunted in response. Since Naruto had been immediately inundated with challenges after his defeat of Neji, the other man had been allowed to pout in peace, but now that Naruto was free, he came over to rub his victory in.

Naruto, still high on his victory and lots of adrenalin, slithered up behind him, making no effort to be quiet and stroked Neji’s silky black hair and cooed in his ear, “Awww, poor Neji, did you get gunned down after only 3 minutes in the game?”

Neji clenched his teeth, determined not to give in to Naruto’s taunting. He did, however, jerk his head out from under Naruto’s petting.

“Awww, it’s ok. You’re among friends here, so nobody will hold the fact that you lost to someone who’s younger, smarter, and much sexier against you.”

By now, Ino and Shikamaru were turning red from trying to hold back their laughter. Neji himself was having a hard enough time keeping his own lips from twitching. He couldn’t resist the “sexier” taunt though. “You can believe you’re sexier if you want, but we both know who’s bigger.”

At this, Ino hooted out loud, drawing many stares. Shikamaru’s mouth dropped open and Naruto straightened up with a laugh. Neither Ino nor Shikamaru picked up on the fact that Naruto didn’t argue. When Ino was able to get herself under control a few minutes later, she glanced down at her watch and exclaimed at the time.

“I’ve got to go pick Kyou up from after school,” she said. Then she stood up and hurriedly threw away her paper plate and cup and bolted out of there. She yelled ‘goodbye’ at certain people before vanishing out the door.

Ino’s hasty departure caused many other people to look at their watches and exclaim over how late it had gotten without them noticing. Soon people started filing out of the cafeteria and Kiba came sauntering up to the three of them still sitting at the table.

“Hey, a few of us are going to Dandy Inn to loosen up even more. How ’bout it? Any of you want to join us?”

Naruto thought about it for a second. He could give Gaara a call and have the other man meet him there. That would make the evening even more enjoyable, and Naruto wasn’t above admitting--to himself at least--that his evenings had been very, very sad these past couple months.

“Yeah, I’ll join you. It’ll be fun to drink you under the table again, Kiba,” Naruto taunted.

“You can try, but you’ll fail, ass--er…boss,” Kiba responded mockingly.

Naruto started laughing at Kiba’s change of words. The two of them had never let petty things, like Naruto technically being above him in the company hierarchy, to stand in the way of their colorful insults for each other. Naruto attributed the reason to the fact that Neji was sitting right in front of him.

“I’ll join you as well.”

Naruto’s head swung around to look at Neji, who was currently avoiding his gaze. Kiba looked a little crestfallen at the thought of Neji joining them. When Neji still refused to meet the blonde’s questioning gaze--they both knew Neji wasn’t a party animal--he gave up and decided to reassure Kiba instead.

“Neji’s cool, Kiba, you don’t have to act professional around him,” he said. Neji started to nod his agreement. “Besides, he has to go through me to fire you.”

Kiba laughed self-consciously and scratched the side of his nose while he murmured a quiet, “Ok.” He didn’t really like Naruto bringing his slight, very slight, worries so baldly out in front of everyone, but he did feel more respect blossoming in his chest at Naruto’s words. He then turned to the third man at the table. “What about you, Shikamaru?”

“Are you kidding?” the other man asked sarcastically. “Temari would cut off my balls if I didn’t go home right after work.”

The other three laughed heartily. It was a well known fact that Shikamaru’s girlfriend had him wrapped around her finger, all ten of them. Shikamaru would often complain about her at work, but he always went home when she asked, or demanded. And on those rare days, Shikamaru would come to work with a big smile on his face.

Naruto was the only one there who’d actually met Temari. She was this gorgeous blonde with a shapely body and killer smile to match. She was a very successful businesswoman, owning many different companies already at the tender age of 27 and her style reflected that. And she fairly oozed sensuousness, making Naruto wonder how in the hell Shikamaru had ended up with her. She was also Gaara’s older sister, so Naruto’s friend could attest to her domineering attitude, but Naruto had never seen Shikamaru so happy in all the time they’d worked together.

“Well, we can’t have you pissing off Temari,” Naruto said, smiling. “You might not get any for a month.”

Shikamaru frowned at Naruto, obviously finding no humor in his words, but the blonde just laughed and stood up to throw away his trash. The others followed his lead. The cafeteria was quickly depleting of all its occupants; only the few who were planning to join Kiba and Naruto at the Dandy Inn stuck around. Any leftover pizza was thrown into the refrigerator so that anyone could snack on them tomorrow. Then Naruto made the announcement that no one was allowed to stick around after 5:30. He gave the programmers a pointed look, to which they all frowned at, especially Shino. It was already 5:25, so Naruto quickly ushered the remaining people out of the cafeteria and told them to go home or go see a movie. With much reluctance, especially on Shino’s part, they left the building.

Neji watched Naruto manhandle the people on his development team, smiling softly. You could tell there was a lot of affection between everyone on Naruto’s team. Neji’s team, while friendly, was also aloof. Everyone was concerned with their role and didn’t do much outside of it. It made Neji wonder how anything got done.

Fifteen minutes later, Kiba, Neji, and Chouji were all piling into Naruto’s beloved black ’69 Corvette Stingray Convertible. Naruto had been chosen to be their designated driver for the night, so he would take them all home if they got too tipsy. The security at Konoha Studios would look after their cars for one night. Of course, no one had worked out how the ones leaving their cars would get to work in the morning, but they were only thinking about the here and now. They could always take a bus or beg Naruto to come pick them up. The blonde figured they’d probably just call out anyway since they were planning on getting drunk.

“If any of you throw up in my car, you’re paying for the premium wash,” Naruto threatened as he started up his Stingray. It turned on instantly with a rumbling purr that sent goosebumps of pleasure down Naruto’s spine. Slowly, he pulled out of his slot and headed towards the exit, giving a wave to the other car of people going to the bar as it drove past.

While Kiba and Chouji argued the merits of walnuts versus cashews in the back seat, Naruto flipped open his phone and called Gaara. The other man picked up on the second ring.

“What now, Naruto?” he growled in a bored tone.

Naruto smiled at his moodiness. That was Gaara for you. “Hey, I’m going to the Dandy Inn with some coworkers. You want to meet us there? I figure if I have to stay sober tonight, I might as well have someone else to make fun of all the others with.”

“Hey!” Kiba yelled from the back.

“I’ll think about it,” Gaara replied, and before Naruto could even form a response, he’d hung up.

Naruto stared at the phone in bewilderment, and then flipped it closed with a shrug.

“Is he coming?” Neji asked quietly from the passenger seat.

Naruto shrugged again. “I don’t know.”

Dandy Inn was an Irish pub located only 5 minutes away from Konoha Studios. The lights were low like all bars and, at one end, there was an LCD TV with a football game on. Already, men, and some women, in their work clothes, were gathered around the TV, eating peanuts and drinking Budweiser. Their coworkers had already arrived and ordered their drinks and they waved to Naruto’s group as they entered the establishment. When they approached the bar to order their own drinks, they all turned to look at Kiba when the bartender greeted him by name and asked if he wanted his usual.

“Kiba, do you come here everyday?” Naruto asked, surprised.

“No,” Kiba said defensively, a slight blush forming on his face. “Just every other day.”

Naruto shook his head at that, but decided not to comment. As long as Kiba showed up to work on time for the most part and sober, he didn’t care what he did in his off time. A loud cheer went up from the crowd and Naruto turned around, taking a seat on a stool as he did so, and saw that UCLA had just scored a touchdown. They were playing against Arizona State. Kiba joined in with the crowd, jeering at those rooting for Arizona and chatting it up with those who rooted for UCLA to win.

Naruto paid little attention to the football game. Instead, he joined some of his other coworkers in a game of darts, grimacing when they all suggested he and Neji compete against each other again. It really was unfair to pit him against Neji in this game. He’d end up leaving with his tail tucked between his legs. Sure enough, as soon as they started playing, Neji hit his mark almost every single time. Some people started flinching every time Naruto threw a dart, especially since he’d almost skewered one man’s ear.

As the hour passed by, the bar became more crowded as a flood of people who got off from work at 6 stumbled in. It was around this time that a certain redhead entered. He stood by the door and scanned over the crowd, looking for something. Some of the women felt their heart beats pick up when those intense sky blue eyes landed on them briefly. Naruto was sitting on a stool, watching Chouji play an amazing game of pool. The blonde turned to say something to Neji, but paused when he noticed the other man’s gaze focused behind the blonde. Turning to see what had caught Neji’s attention, Naruto’s face split into a huge shit eating grin when he saw Gaara.

“Gaara!” he yelled enthusiastically, waving so the redhead could see him.

Gaara instantly started towards him, walking with a confidence Naruto admired. He moved as gracefully as a cat, and as arrogant as one too. He wore black dress pants and a white button down shirt. Naruto’s grin grew wider as he watched the men and women scramble to get out of his way. The other man had always had that effect on other people. While many people were a little put off by Gaara’s piercing eyes and insanely stoic face, others felt irresistibly drawn to him. He hadn’t always been so confident though. Naruto had watched women practically throw themselves at Gaara, pleading for him to hurt them. That was how they’d met and become friends/rivals.

It was Naruto’s first E3 event and he’d been upset to realize Konoha Studios was right next to EA, or commonly referred to as THE ENEMY. He’d politely chatted with Gaara and the other EA presenters, and he’d left it at that, but as the night wore on, he’d become more and more concerned with all the women hanging around the redhead. Gaara’s face had become stiffer and stiffer each time a woman pressed up against him. Naruto was amazed when one woman ran her hands along the redhead’s pale arms and leaned towards his ear to whisper something in his ear. Gaara had been dressed a little bit more flamboyantly that night than he usually did, sporting a black sleeveless silk shirt in the Chinese style with tight black slacks to complement it. Naruto had stared open-mouthed at the woman’s boldness, and at that moment, they’d both looked up and right into each other’s eyes. Naruto had seen the misery and slight panic in those cool as ice eyes and he’d decided right then to help Gaara out.

Naruto had quickly run over to the EA booth and started screeching excitedly that Bill Gates had just arrived and was over by the XBOX display. It was like a flood gate being opened. Everyone scattered, practically tripping over themselves to see the Microsoft legend himself, even the woman who was trying to plaster herself all over Gaara had left. It was in those few moments afterwards that the two of them had officially become friends. The gratitude in Gaara’s eyes had made Naruto feel like he’d truly accomplished something amazing. He’d had to hold onto that feeling too, because he received a lot of backlash for his little white lie.

When Gaara reached Naruto, he looked over the blonde’s shoulder and gave a slight nod. Naruto looked over his shoulder, and was reminded that Neji was there.

“Oh!” he exclaimed sheepishly. “Gaara, this is Neji, a coworker of mine. Neji, this is my friend Gaara.”

“We’ve met,” Gaara murmured.

“Huh? Where?”

They both gave Naruto exasperated looks. “The video game industry is still relatively small, Naruto. We’ve met at conventions and at E3 too,” Neji explained.

Gaara nodded his agreement and then smiled slightly. Naruto looked at him closely, and he was sure the small smile wasn’t directed at him. Confused, he whipped his head back and forth between Neji and Gaara. He was missing something, he was sure of it, but he couldn’t pinpoint it.

“Sooo, Gaara,” Naruto said slowly. “Are you any good at pool? Want to kick Neji’s ass for me?”

The redhead just raised an eyebrow questioningly.

Neji chuckled from behind Naruto. “Mister Hot Shot designer here can’t hit his balls with his stick if they were attached.”

“I bet Gaara could wipe the floor with your ass, Hyuuga!” Naruto huffed, feeling mortally offended by the stick and ball reference.

“Let’s see shall we?” Gaara said, unbuttoning his cuffs and rolling his sleeves up.

“What does the winner get?” Neji asked, standing up.

Gaara shrugged, clearly not caring. Seeing no suggestions forthcoming, Naruto made his own. “The loser has to do whatever the winner wants…within reason…and…only once.” He had a brief image of having one of them wash his car for him. Too bad he wasn’t any good at pool. His baby could use a good wax job.

As soon as Chouji finished with his game, Naruto claimed dibs on the pool table. There was a little grumbling from others wanting to play, but Naruto calmed them by saying that this next game would be awesome. Neji graciously allowed Gaara to break the balls first, instead of them having someone toss a coin to decide. Both competitors looked supremely confident in their abilities. Naruto grinned like a maniac when Gaara made his first shot, instantly sinking two balls. Neji’s eyebrows went up briefly, before he leaned forward and rested his chin on top of his cue stick to watch Gaara line up his shots around the table. Silence reigned as the two of them faced off, but after sinking only 2 more balls, Gaara misaligned his next shot and completely missed all balls with his cue ball. Naruto hissed in sympathy at the mistake.

Then it was Neji’s turn. The other man smirked at Gaara and Naruto and calmly grabbed the chalk and rubbed it over the tip of his cue stick slowly. Naruto rolled his eyes at Neji’s grandstanding and decided to snub him by leaving to go get a glass of water from the bar. Since the bar was very crowded by this time, it took Naruto almost five minutes before he was able to collect his water, with many disgusted stares at his choice of beverage, and ambled back to the pool table. His reappearance was greeted with complete silence and the blonde only had enough time to wonder why everyone was so quiet when he looked up and saw Neji sink the 8 ball in one of the corner pockets.

“W-what the…” he stuttered, completely stunned. Neji was certainly making up for losing to Naruto in the deathmatch earlier at work.

Neji had his ingratiatingly smug smirk on his face as he stared at Gaara and Naruto. Gaara looked vaguely flustered and Naruto’s mouth was still flapping like a loose hinge.

“How the… Where did…” Naruto continued to splutter. He had been positive Gaara would win. He’d seen the redhead in action. He never lost, never. And when had Neji become a pro at bar sports?

In the ensuing confusion between the three of them, other people stepped forward to play a game of pool. Neji and Gaara refused to participate. Naruto sat down heavily on the stool he’d been occupying before, a little surprised it was still available. Chouji thumped Neji on his back, congratulating him, but Neji barely responded; he was still focused on Gaara. Naruto took a sip of his water, feeling his scalp prickle. He knew something was happening between the two men in front of him, but he wasn’t sure of what exactly.

“I win---” Neji stated.

“Well duh,” Naruto cut in.

Neji tossed the blonde an irritated look. “You know what I want, Gaara.”

The redhead stared at him for a heartbeat, and then another, before nodding once.

Naruto watched as an entire conversation seemingly passed between the two of them. He was further startled when Neji seemed to turn to leave and Gaara mutely followed him. Feeling that slight prickle of uneasiness suddenly turn into something else, some Naruto couldn’t define, he shot off his seat and grabbed Gaara’s arm before the man could take another step.

“What the hell are you doing?” he asked, sounding almost angry. “Are you two leaving? What does Neji want, Gaara?”

Gaara opened his mouth to reply, but Neji beat him to it. “I don’t see where that’s any of your business. Not everything’s about you, Naruto,” he intoned, grabbing onto Gaara’s other wrist and giving it a tug. Naruto and Neji looked like they were fighting over Gaara, something Naruto had only seen women do.

Gaara gave him an apologetic look. “Sorry to cut this evening short, Naruto, but when I saw Neji I knew where this evening would go.” Then he glanced back at Neji. “It’s been building up for a while now.” Then he tugged his wrist out of Naruto’s grip and followed Neji out of the bar.

Naruto stared after the two of them, looking utterly confused and wondering why he hadn’t felt the Earth shift off its axis. Chouji came up beside him and whistled lowly, having heard everything. Naruto vaguely heard him say something to the effect of not knowing Neji leaned that way before leaving Naruto to join Kiba and the other sports fans in front of the TV.

Naruto wondered how he missed all the obvious signs from before, the considering looks, Gaara’s small smile directed at Neji and not Naruto, and his faked mistake. The blonde turned back around to sit back down on his stool before he fell down, only to find that it had been taken over by someone else. Huffing at the annoyance, he made his way to the bar and grabbed the first open seat when it became available. Then he just stared down into his water, seriously wishing he had something stronger to drink. He was just finding out that his best friend was actually very open to homosexual relationships and had just left the bar with his ex-lover, and they probably weren’t going for coffee and scones. And on top of that, he was feeling a little jealous, of what or whom, he didn’t know, but he was definitely feeling a little green. When had the world gone so crazy? He looked up, trying to find his friends among the throng of people and sighed when he saw them having a jolly good time. It looked like Kiba and Chouji weren’t ready to leave any time soon. Naruto sighed. Why did I decide to remain as the sober one tonight?

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 06:27:52 GMT

Whew! So only ONE MORE FINAL!!! Yay! Then summer school starts and I need a job.

DAMMIT!!

Here's the first 2 chapters in case you need a refresher.

The irritating drone of the alarm clock resounded throughout the bedroom. Nothing shifted in the room, not even the drapes billowed from the vent right beneath them. After five minutes of the incessant beeping, the lump sprawled in the middle of the bed finally shifted. A tan arm shot out from under the navy blue comforter and slammed into the clock so hard a loud crack was heard throughout the small apartment. A blonde head poked out from under the comforter, eyes blinking to clear the sleep from them, and then he groaned. Naruto Uzumaki could no longer read the digital numbers on his brand new alarm clock.

“Dammit, I broke another alarm clock, Hinata,” he sighed and rolled over to wrap his arm around his girlfriend only to encounter cold sheets.

He was wide-awake in the seconds it took for his arm to register the cold and why it was that way. A slight headache started to build behind his eyes and he absently rubbed his temples as he contemplated the empty space beside him. It hadn’t been empty for the last six months so he was a little nonplussed at the lack of its usual occupant. But then memories of the night before came trickling back into his consciousness and he pressed his fingers into his temples harder, hoping to ease some of the pain and guilt.

Naruto had forgotten that he and Hinata were no longer together. Naruto had made the mistake of letting his relationship with Hinata become too serious. He’d tried to become serious with her, because he truly did love her, but he’d slowly come to realize this past month that he didn’t love her enough. She deserved more than Naruto could offer her and he didn’t know who that hurt more. He’d spent the last five months convinced that she was the one, but when they’d actually started talking about a future together, a.k.a. marriage, Naruto had started feeling uneasy and Hinata, being the annoyingly perceptive female that she was, had picked up on it.

She had finally confronted him last night and he’d been horrified to find that he couldn’t say he was in love with her and wanted to marry her. He could say he loved her, but it had turned into a comfortable love between friends and nothing more. He still remembered the pain in her light gray eyes when she realized what he couldn’t say. She had refused to cry, she’d held on to her dignity and went to their room to gather her things and leave. That they were over was obvious.

Naruto pulled his knees up and laid his arms across them. What was even worse was the slight relief he felt mere minutes after she’d left. He no longer had to worry about not feeling deeply enough for her. It hadn’t lasted long before the guilt set in. Now he wondered if they could still be friends, though he doubted it. He slowly slid out from his bed and headed to his kitchen so he could see what time it was. He cursed as his microwave clock showed only dashes. Apparently the power had blinked off during the night. He was really getting sick of having to reset the stupid thing.

Stumbling back into his bedroom, he searched for his watch among the mess on his dresser. He didn’t bother turning on a light since the sun was pouring through his windows. He finally found it buried under clean socks he hadn’t folded and put away yet. It was a quarter after nine.

“Oh shit! The old hag’s going to be riding my ass all week now,” he cursed.

As if on cue, the phone rang and Naruto knew for a fact it was his boss. Tsunade never failed to bug him if he hadn’t bugged her yet that day. His other boss, Jiraiya, often remarked on how twisted their relationship was. Naruto raced back into his living room to pick up the phone.

“Yes?” he said as politely possible.

“What are you still doing at home, brat? And why didn’t you call if you were going to be late?”

“Old hag---” Naruto began.

“WHAT was that?” she asked dangerously.

“Tsunade, my lovely boss, the apple of my eye, my second mother---”

“Enough!”

Naruto laughed, hearing the smile in her voice, “Look, I’m sorry I’m late. I didn’t hear the alarm go off---”

“Did you break it?”

Naruto sighed, “You know, I’m going to kill Jiraiya.” The loud-mouthed man couldn’t wait to impart Naruto’s little habit of breaking alarm clocks to Tsunade.

She laughed, “Why didn’t Hinata wake you? She’s better than an alarm clock anyway. You actually listen to her.”

There was silence on the line for a few seconds before Naruto spoke quietly. “We’re…not together anymore. We broke up last night.”

“Oh Naruto, I’m so sorry.” And without missing a beat: “What’d you do?”

Naruto snorted, “Thanks for the vote of confidence…old hag.”

“Hey, hey, hey, enough of that. Do you need the day off?” Anyone listening to this conversation would be catching flies with their mouth by now. Tsunade and Naruto could usually be found arguing, loudly.

Naruto laughed at her instant attitude change. It was just like her to blame him first and then show concern. “No boss, I think it’s best if I come in today. I’d like the distraction.”

“Good, ’cause I wasn’t going to give you the day off. Your team needs you so get your ass here as soon as possible. Oh, and come see me when you arrive.” Then she hung up with a click.

Though it was a waste of sarcasm, Naruto stood up straight with his feet together and saluted her. He hung up the phone right after and went to his bathroom to start the shower. He brushed his teeth while he waited for the water to warm up. He liked his water hot and didn’t get in until his image was completely blurred in the mirror. He studied himself in the mirror before the steam took away his image, noting how messy his hair was and how tired he looked. His gaze moved to each of his cheeks and focused on the barely visible scars on each one. People didn’t notice them unless they were really studying him or he pointed them out. He’d had the whisker-like scars ever since he could remember, but he didn’t remember how he’d received them or why they were shaped the way they were. Hinata used to trace them with her delicate fingers after they lay in bed, sated from making love.

His blurry visage frowned at the thought. He pulled off his boxers and jumped in the shower, sighing as the heat soaked into his skin and massaged his muscles. Naruto moved through his morning rituals with extra speed since he was supposed to have been at work when he got up. He toweled his hair off vigorously and wrapped the towel around his waist while he shaved off the stubble on his face until his cheeks were baby smooth. He was just pulling on some khaki pants when there was a knock at his door. Frowning, he walked quietly to his door and peeked out the peephole. He sucked in his breath through his teeth. Hinata’s cousin, Neji, was standing on the other side, looking pissed. Naruto could see that his eyes, exact replicas of Hinata’s, were angry, as narrowed as they were, and his long black hair was pulled back in a ponytail, which meant he was in business mode. Naruto stood there in indecision, hoping that Neji would think he wasn’t home and would leave.

“Open the goddamn door, Naruto. I know you’re there. Your car is still here,” Neji growled, pounding on the door again.

Well, so much for that thought. Naruto groaned inwardly and pasted a smile on his face as he opened the door. The smile disappeared instantly as Neji’s fist plowed into his face, knocking him flat on his back. Then Neji stepped inside and calmly shut the door behind him, as if he hadn’t just knocked Naruto to the floor.

“What the fuck---” Naruto began, pushing himself up off the floor. As soon as he was on his knees he saw Neji coming for him again and quickly ducked the next punch and rushed forward to thrust his shoulder into Neji’s stomach to throw him off balance. They both fell to the floor with a loud thud, Neji’s head and Naruto’s elbow taking most of the damage. They wrestled like that for a couple minutes, with Naruto trying to keep Neji from breaking his stuff and Neji doing his best to beat the shit out of him.

Naruto felt his back connect with the edge of his very sturdy coffee table and groaned, momentarily stunned by the sheer agony shooting through his body. Neji used this leverage to gain the upper hand. He quickly grabbed Naruto’s arms and stretched them above his head to hold him in place. He straddled Naruto’s waist and hooked his feet over the blonde’s knees so that he couldn’t buck him off. Then Neji glared down at Naruto, breathing hard, trying to calm himself. Naruto just glared right back.

“What the fuck is your problem, you asshole?” Naruto screeched. He struggled to break Neji’s hold, but found himself firmly held.

“You didn’t tell me you were seeing Hinata,” Neji said between clenched teeth. The pressure on Naruto’s wrists increased.

Naruto’s eyes widened in shock, before narrowing in anger again. “It’s none of your fucking business.” You could always tell when Naruto was really angry. If he wasn’t trying to smash your face in, he was cussing.

“None of my business?” Neji said faintly. “You didn’t think that, with our history, I didn’t need to know? I didn’t warrant a simple phone call?”

“Why are you so mad? I thought Hinata would have told you; I didn’t hide anything from her,” Naruto said, looking confused. “And it’s still none of your fucking business.”

“You should have told me.”

Naruto just looked at him, not really sure what to say. He and Neji hadn’t been friendly with each other for two years now. Their relationship, if you could call it that, had been short-lived since it had been during a bad time in Naruto’s life. Neji hadn’t seemed to care much about being a replacement, and they were both pretty aware that that was what he was, but after almost two months, Neji had broken things off saying he didn’t want to be in a relationship like that anymore. He had thought Naruto would eventually stop thinking about the past and truly turn to him, but things hadn’t turned out that way. They stopped seeing each other when they both realized that if they didn’t, they would no longer be friends. And thought they didn’t hate each other, they certainly were not friends anymore. There was no hostility between each other, but they stayed clear of each other; working in the same building made that a little tough. So, given their circumstances, it didn’t explain why Neji was so angry now. Then a thought occurred to Naruto, something that believe it or not, happened more often than once a year.

“Are you jealous?” he asked incredulously.

Neji sneered and released Naruto’s arms so he could sit back above Naruto’s hips with all his weight. Naruto grimaced as he felt Neji purposely place all his weight down on his groin.

“You’re full of yourself Naruto. I don’t give a damn who you’re seeing, as long as you’re not fucking around with someone important to me! Who’s next? Hanabi?”

“I wasn’t fucking around with her. I was serious about her! And ewww, Hanabi is---”

“Bullshit Naruto! You haven’t been serious about anyone ever since Uchiha fucked you up,” Neji retorted.

Naruto’s face drained of all color. “Wha---why are you bringing him up?” he whispered.

Neji sighed, feeling like a bastard for causing that stricken look on Naruto’s face. No one liked seeing such a desolate look on the usually boisterous blonde’s face. Despite his anger over Naruto hurting Hinata, whether intentional or not, he didn’t deserve that. But Neji was saddened by the fact that in three years, he still wasn’t over Sasuke Uchiha. He leaned down and grabbed Naruto’s chin to make the man look at him.

“Naruto, I’m sorry,” he paused then sighed when Naruto’s face went blank. It was something the blonde had perfected over the years, and it was something Neji hated. Naruto never showed anger towards Sasuke, he just refused to talk about him, or even acknowledge his past with the other man. “Don’t look at me like that.” He leaned closer his gaze focusing on Naruto’s lips drawing those blue eyes to his.

“Neji,” Naruto murmured. He sucked in his breath as Neji’s mouth hovered over his, mere inches away, and remained absolutely still.

Neji didn’t close the distance. He ran his hand through Naruto’s hair in soothing motions and realized the blonde locks were still slightly damp from Naruto’s shower earlier. “Are you still that hurt?” he asked, wanting to snap Naruto out of his pity party. “I thought you were stronger than that.”

It had the desired effect. In a flash, Naruto shifted his weight to the side and tossed Neji off of him. Naruto was standing over him glaring by the time Neji pushed his hair back over his shoulder. Neji just sat there, keeping his limbs loose and ready to defend himself if Naruto tried to beat the shit out of him now.

“I am over Sasuke!” Naruto hissed. Then he sighed and plopped down on his sofa, rubbing his hand along his back where the coffee table had connected.

Neji stayed where he was and watched Naruto. The blonde still looked good, especially after he’d just been rolling around on the floor. His hair was sticking out in all directions, but that was nothing new. Neji had to admit that Naruto was still as desirable as ever. He was muscular, without being obvious and Neji watched as his abs clenched as he moved. He licked his lips unconsciously. He hadn’t seen Naruto’s unclothed body for so long that he’d almost forgotten how the blonde had affected him. Neji jerked his gaze away from Naruto’s navel as he noticed Naruto watching him.

“Why are you here Neji? Are you really that upset that I didn’t tell you personally? That doesn’t seem like you, and I still think it was none of your damn business.”

Neji leaned back on his hands and rotated his head in circles, loosening the muscles before answering. “I was doing my duty as her older relative. You made her cry, so I figured I had to at least try to make you cry.”

Naruto stared at him in disbelief. “You’re such an asshole.”

Neji just shrugged. Naruto sighed and stood up to go into his room and finish getting ready for work. He needed that distraction now more than ever. He took a detour into his bathroom to see if he was bleeding from ramming into his coffee table. He cursed when he saw a long slash on the lower right side of his back. There was no blood, but there was plenty of pain. Damn Neji and his over-protectiveness.

He left the bathroom to search for a shirt and pulled on his favorite orange polo and tucked it into his pants. He was busy rifling through his closet for his black shoes---he only had one pair of black and one pair of brown dress shoes---when he felt a presence at the doorway. He chose to ignore Neji until he found his shoes. As soon as he found them he sat on the edge of his bed to pull them on and finally looked up at Neji. The other man was leaning against his doorframe, watching his every move with a thoughtful expression.

“What now?” Naruto asked, resigned. At the rate things were going, he wasn’t going to get to work until lunchtime. And of course the old hag wasn’t going to let him go to lunch since he had been late. It was all Neji’s fault.

Neji moved away from the doorframe and sat next to Naruto on his bed. He rested his elbows on his knees and stared down at Naruto’s floor. The carpet was that universal beige that all apartment complexes installed. Naruto mimicked Neji’s pose, mostly to be an ass and piss the dark-haired man off, rather than to think anything over.

“Maybe…” Neji began. “Maybe I was a little jealous. We all knew Hinata had been seeing someone for these past five months, but she would never tell us who he was. I see why now.” He pinched the bridge of his nose with his index finger and thumb before continuing. “When I found out last night that it was you she was with and that she was crying over, I was upset that you and I couldn’t be like that. You’d obviously gone out of your way to make her happy and it showed. Well, until the end at least. And I remember always feeling the need to be careful around you…because of that damn Uchiha. It was too soon for us then, but now it’s too late.”

Naruto remained silent, not knowing what to say. He thought it was still a little funny that Neji still refused to use Sasuke’s first name. He kind of wished he and Neji had been able to remain good friends; Neji was always a great person to talk to when you had any problems. Naruto shifted his head to study Neji. The dark haired man was still as gorgeous as ever. His chiseled body look yummy in his charcoal slacks and white button down shirt. Naruto looked over Neji’s profile and admired his aristocratic features. He knew that his body would have no problems getting reacquainted with every inch of Neji’s body, but he couldn’t do that to Neji, or Hinata for that matter.

Neji stood suddenly, disrupting Naruto from his thoughts. He reached out a hand to Naruto, but pulled back before he actually touched him. “I’ll go.” And then he left.

Naruto fell back on his bed, releasing his breath. How had things suddenly become so complicated? He lifted his wrist above his face, and was immediately in motion again. Tsunade had already called him once to bitch and he knew she wouldn’t hesitate to do so again. In less than ten minutes he was out his door and in his car on his way to work. What a glorious day it was turning out to be.

----------------------------------------

Naruto’s team consisted of the best and brightest in the industry. Konoha Studios was a small company, with only two separate teams working on their own game. The people Naruto got to personally boss around consisted of Shikamaru Nara, Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame, Chouji Akimichi and Ino Yamanaka. All four of them were gathered in the main conference room on the sixth floor of Konoha Studios. Windows lined one entire wall of the conference room which was dominated by an oval table surrounded by swivel chairs. Shikamaru was the last to arrive, since they’d all heard Naruto was running late.

Kiba, their art director, sat with one of his legs propped up on the table pushing himself back and forth. Ino, their product manager, sat across from him, glaring at his lack of manners. Shino, the lead programmer, sat next to Ino, sunglasses over his eyes that were used to staring at a computer screen hour after hour. Chouji, their lead tester, stood by the refreshment table, pouring himself some apple juice. Shikamaru, their technical director, surveyed the group from the doorway and was happy that the volume level was rather low. Without Naruto shouting all his ideas or opinions, the atmosphere was rather calm.

“Hey Shikamaru, ’bout time you showed up!” Kiba yelled, swinging madly in his chair.

Shikamaru grimaced. Guess the noise level would still be high with Kiba there. Ignoring Kiba he addressed the entire group, “Since neither Naruto nor Jiraiya are here, we’ll make this fast. Everyone, give a concise update of their progress so we can leave. I’ve got a troublesome coding problem to work on, and Shino and I will probably be here all night fixing it.”

Shino nodded emphatically while Kiba snickered, “I thought you just slept in front of your computer screen all day.”

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, ignoring Kiba again, and sitting down. Besides Shino and Shikamaru, everyone worked on separate parts of the game. Chouji was probably the only one that worked with all the other departments at one time or another during the development phase of a game, except the animators. Kiba and his animators did all the graphics and FMVs for the game. He would occasionally get together with Ino so she could pick the best image among his artwork to use for the box and ad design. You could usually find the two of them arguing over which was best. Kiba was an artist and couldn’t understand why Ino wouldn’t choose certain images for their marketing campaign. Ino had quit trying to explain it to him long ago.

“I’ll go first,” Ino said. She opened the folder in front of her and handed a sheet of paper to Kiba. “I can’t use this image. I told you this the first time you shoved it under my nose. The ESRB won’t allow it, not if we’re going for a T rating. I told you this is an M, so it will not work!”

Kiba sat up abruptly and looked over the image printed on the sheet. “What the hell? I made this specifically for the box art and now you’re telling me you can’t use it?”

“That’s exactly what I’m telling you, Kiba.”

“Dammit! I hate ESRB.”

“You tell them that,” Ino responded coolly. “In the meantime, I need you to give me those sketches of Skye and Aaron that you showed me before, completed this time, along with their hometown. We agreed on those two being on the cover, not that.” She flicked her hand to indicate the art in Kiba’s hand.

“But I worked so long on this!” Kiba complained.

Ino merely pushed the rest of her papers back into her folder and tapped it against the table to straighten everything. Kiba sat across from her, pouting. Everyone sighed at their behavior.

Ino then shifted her focus to Shikamaru and Shino, “How’s the game engine going?”

“It’s not, at the moment,” Shikamaru replied. “There’s a glitch in the code that makes the monsters stab themselves with their own weapons. It’s annoying and I know it was that bastard Zaku that I fired last week. Now I’ve got to find the code he wrote that does this AND fix it. The rest of the team is busy with the camera.”

Shino hummed in commiseration; he would be working with Shikamaru, combing through line after line of the code that Zaku had worked on to find the deliberate glitch. He was the one who told Shikamaru to fire the prick. Now he was wishing they hadn’t given the guy so much to work on. Who knows how many other little “features” he had added, before being caught and fired.

“So, no demos yet?” Chouji asked. He and his testers were getting impatient. Though their work was tedious, required tons of patience and they would eventually end up hating the game before it was even shipped to the consumer, they wanted to get to work.

Shikamaru gave him his patented ‘Are you stupid?’ look. “We’re a long way from that, Chouji.”

Chouji was about to reply when the door suddenly opened and Jiraiya waltzed in, white hair billowing behind him, his hands tucked into his jean pockets and whistling. Despite it being January, his work attire consisted of a yellow and red Hawaiian shirt, jean shorts and sandals. Tsunade herself had given up on ever making him conform. Of course he was forbidden to ever say he was associated with the company unless he was dressed the part. No one asked how Tsunade got him into a suit when the time came. They didn’t want to know.

“What’s up younglings? Are we done with the current project? ’Cause I have the greatest idea in the world!” he grinned hugely at the group. They stared at him, expressions blank, waiting for Jiraiya’s next crazy idea.. “Japan has these awesome hentai games where the player first picks the girl he wants, then he does certain activities with her before getting to take her to bed. If we do a game along those same lines, I bet we could retire on those profits alone!” He rubbed his hands together in glee. Shikamaru noticed that his eyes looked a little glazed.

“Are you talking about a porn game?” Ino exclaimed. Disgust was evident on every part of her face and rang clearly through her voice.

“I prefer to call it sensual art,” Jiraiya frowned down the table at her.

Everyone just stared at him, not knowing quite what to say. Ino had covered the main basis of why they wouldn’t even consider Jiraiya’s suggestion with her outburst. A stranger would think he was just joking, but those who had worked for him for the past several years knew better. When it came to women and seeing them naked, his was always deadly serious. This was why Naruto came up with all the game ideas. Jiraiya just nodded and said go ahead, usually allowing Naruto to make many of the decisions the producer was supposed to do.

Shikamaru smirked at him, having thought of something. “Well, you run that idea by Tsunade and if she says ok, we’ll get started on it as soon as possible.”

Jiraiya plopped down in a chair and frowned at Shikamaru. “There’s no need to bother her with this. She’ll just appreciate the rewards of such a game.”

“Yes, but a game that deals with such explicit sex is bound to cause a stir in the media, and you know we’ll all lose our jobs if the president of the company isn’t told about the game, not to mention ESRB won’t allow it.”

Kiba growled when Ino mentioned those four letters again.

Jiraiya rested his chin on the palm of his hand and sighed. “You don’t think it’s possible do you?”

“No!” they all said in unison.

“Well then, I guess there’s nothing else to cover during this meeting right? Where’s Naruto?” he asked. Then, without waiting for an answer he shrugged as he stood up and slapped his hands on the tables surface. “Meeting adjourned.” And then he was out the door with his hair flapping behind him.

The rest of them glanced at each other, shrugged, and decided that the meeting was indeed adjourned. Without Naruto there bugging them all about every little thing they’d been doing, and telling them jokes, the meeting was over fairly quickly. They were all eager to get back to their work anyway, especially Shikamaru and Shino.

Shikamaru was on his way to his office, which was 2 floors below the conference room, when he decided to take a detour to Naruto’s office. It wasn’t like him to be late on the days they had their meeting to discuss their progress. Luckily, Naruto’s office was on the same floor as his. Tsunade had wanted Naruto on the sixth floor with all the other top executives, but he had refused saying he wanted to be near all the action. Shikamaru had a feeling that Naruto didn’t want Tsunade breathing down his neck all the time. And she would be if she knew half the things he got up to in his office.

As Shikamaru exited the elevator he noticed that Naruto’s door was closed, which meant he still wasn’t there. Naruto never left his door closed if he was in it. He said he felt claustrophobic. He also kept his window open, during even the worst weather. It meant some of the forms he gave to Shikamaru and the others were a little messy, or crinkly, or even torn.

He turned back towards his office at the opposite end of the hallway and was suddenly privileged to see his coworker, and sometimes boss, almost smack into the wall as he stumbled through the doorway that led to the stairs. Shikamaru shook his head as Naruto righted himself and started striding down the hall towards Shikamaru. He would never understand why Naruto insisted on taking the stairs all the time. The blonde said it was because he wanted the extra exercise, but since Shikamaru didn’t understand the desire for exercise, they ended up just confused with each other.

“Hey Shikamaru! Is the meeting over already? I was hoping I’d at least make that in time.”

“It just ended. Why were you---” Shikamaru began.

Naruto’s cell phone hooked to his belt started ringing to the tune of ‘Don’t Worry be Happy’ and the blonde glanced at the screen to see who it was and sighed before answering, “What now? I’m here…well, I haven’t quite made it to my office yet so that’s why I didn’t pick up…Do I have to? I have work to do!”

Shikamaru had a good idea it was Tsunade, and that was confirmed when he heard her screaming through the phone for Naruto to get his ass upstairs RIGHT NOW! Naruto chirped that he was on his way, as though he was unaffected by her anger and the president of Konoha Studios had one hell of a temper. With a practiced flick of his wrist, Naruto snapped his phone closed and smiled at Shikamaru.

“Sorry, Shikamaru, but the old hag is calling me. I’ll see ya later. I doubt she has anything too important to tell me. Nag, nag, nag.” And with a wave he turned around and went back to the stairwell to climb the two floors to Tsunade’s office.

Shikamaru quirked his eyebrow, wondering what Tsunade wanted. Despite what Naruto thought, she probably did have something to say if she was so insistent that Naruto come up to her office. He’d probably find out later anyway. He also wanted to know where Naruto had received the bruise just starting to form on the blonde’s cheek bones. He would just have to wait, and in the meantime he would get to go back to his office to stare at line after line of code. Damn Zaku!

Tsunade held back a smile as her favorite designer came barreling through her door, complaining about being bitched at for “no reason at all”. She’d never tell him he was her favorite, but everyone knew it except the one in question. Naruto was a strange mixture of predictability and unexpected ingenuity. She knew by heart how he would react to most things---like her bitching---but he continually surprised her with his creativity. His ability to think outside the proverbial bounding box had pulled them out of many slumps in the past during the development process of some of Konoha Studios’ past games.

From the moment she’d first talked with him, he’d said he wanted to surpass the Two Johns and wanted to work with someone willing to let him work his magic, not impede him because of corporate politics and such. At the time, Tsunade had thought he was extremely brash and rather untalented; she’d wondered what Jiraiya had found so special about him. Jiraiya had insisted quite vehemently, at 2am no less, that she fly to Florida to meet the young man at a gaming conference. She’d thought it very uncharacteristic for Jiraiya to be gushing over someone without double D breasts and a tight, expressionless face from too much Botox, so she’d been curious to say the least. After she looked over Naruto’s portfolio and watched him code in action, she began to understand.

Naruto wasn’t a genius like Shikamaru, but he did understand the gaming world very well in terms of the development process. But even better than that was the fact that Naruto understood his audience. He knew what gamers wanted in their games, what kept them interested. When she had questioned him about his insights, he’d smiled sheepishly at her and ran his hand through his hair before admitting that he’d taken a psychology class at the suggestion of one of his teachers at Full Sail. Tsunade had been surprised by his initiative, and then enchanted by his smile. However, he still had a lot to learn about the politics of the corporate gaming industry.

She’d yet to regret her decision to hire him and help move him out to California where she and Jiraiya were starting their new company. Naruto was consistently churning out ground-breaking ideas that had critics raving and religious underground followings. Naruto himself had gained a little bit of fame as well. The problem was that, even though the games were excellent and received great reviews, they weren’t selling quite enough to keep the company afloat. And now, E3 was coming. She was about to piss Naruto off by doing what she’d said she wouldn’t do. She was smart enough to not say ‘never’. She was about to force him to rush their product even more, under an already constrictive schedule.

“Sit down and shut up, brat,” she growled as Naruto continued with his tantrum in the doorway.

Naruto plopped down on her Italian leather sofa, which was closer to the door, instead of the two chairs right in front of her desk, as she’d intended. She used the sofa and the two matching chairs across from it for her more formal meetings with shareholders. Kissing ass had never been a forte of hers, so she’d decided to add comfy furniture and booze to get her through it. It was mostly champagne, and only Naruto knew where she stashed her best sake in the office. Her left eyebrow twitched when Naruto nonchalantly propped his feet up on the other end of the sofa and settled back like a cat about to take a nap in a beam of sunlight. He even closed his eyes to goad her.

In three seconds flat, Tsunade was out from around her desk and shoving Naruto off her sofa. She smiled sadistically at the resounding thump of his body hitting the floor.

“What the hell?” he shouted, face grimacing as his back gave an indignant twinge.

Tsunade sat down in one of the matching chairs and arranged her skirt around her legs elegantly. She gestured to the chair next to her. “Please have a seat.” Her eyes narrowed as Naruto plopped down in the chair unceremoniously, scowling. He straightened though when he caught her dark look.

Tsunade held back a smile as she stared at Naruto, making him fidget. Her brow knotted briefly when she saw the beginning of a bruise marring his left cheek. Did Hinata punch him? She decided not to remark upon it, figuring Naruto would just clam up anyway. He did that when something was bothering him, and she could tell something was bothering him now. She chalked it up to dealing with Hinata, but his unusually mutinous attitude reminded Tsunade of another time when he’d been like this. The last time was when he first moved to California. He had flat out refused to talk to her about it then, and would probably do the same now. He was a man after all. Tsunade had finally given up trying to pry into his life when her other main designer for her company, Neji, told her that it was just a broken heart. She’d left Naruto alone after that, grateful that Neji seemed to be able to get through to the blonde.

That had been years ago, and though she recognized the signs and knew he would pull through with no problems, she still didn’t like seeing him upset. Their relationship wasn’t your typical employer/employee one. It was more like a mother/son relationship. That didn’t mean she didn’t get serious with him. She was always straight with him. So she wasn’t going to start this conversation by asking how his morning was going. She could take a wild guess and probably hit the nail squarely on the head. And she wouldn’t feed him any of that propaganda shit employers like to imbue their employees in about how to conduct themselves for the company’s image. So she cut to the chase.

“You know E3 is coming soon, right?”

“Yeah, so?” he asked, perking up a little.

“So, I reserved a booth for Konoha Studios.”

Naruto’s brows furrowed. “Why? Is Neji’s game further along than I thought it was?” They hadn’t participated in E3 for the past two years because their games were just getting off the ground and they had nothing to present, and frankly didn’t want to deal with the headaches the expo caused.

“No, we’re going to show off your game.”

“Oh,” he paused for a moment. “But I don’t have anything to show except a bunch of pretty pictures. We could throw together a short trailer, like Square, I guess, but that’s boring and pisses the people at G4 off.”

Tsunade shook her head. “No, we’re going to give them two demos on different parts of the game, three if you think we can.” She imperceptibly braced herself for the coming explosion. It didn’t take long.

“What! Two demos? Three if we can? We aren’t even ready for one!” he exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air before standing suddenly to pace around her coffee table and back. “What the hell! Maybe next year at E3, but not this year. Shit, we’d only have…” he trailed off, trying to remember when the expo was usually held.

“You’ve got five months,” Tsunade said calmly. “Five months to make two flawlessly working demos that will incite rabid excitement this year.”

“You must have lost your mind. It can’t be done.”

“Yes, it can, Naru---”

“NO, IT CAN’T!” Naruto broke in, stopping to brace his hands on his hips in the classic Peter Pan pose.

Tsunade ground her teeth together, reminding herself that he was actually a very valuable asset to the company and it wouldn’t look good if she strangled him right then and there. She decided to quit playing nice. Naruto was still shaking his head, thinking he could convince her otherwise. She was about to remind him who had the final say.

“You don’t seem to understand, Naruto. You don’t have a say in this. It will be done.”

“Tsunade, it can’t---”

“Bullshit!” she said, standing as well and coming nose to nose with him. She jabbed a finger in his chest. “I’ve seen you program and complete a fully functional game in a week…and you’re not even my lead programmer, or even my technical director! I’m not liking all these ‘no’s’ you keep throwing in my face. Right now you have a team of elite professionals, and a game you’ve been working on for almost an entire year, and you want to tell me you can’t make two 15 minute demos?”

“This game is on a hugely different scale from the ones I created in a week and you know it. And this will put a helluva lot more pressure on everyone.”

“So? This is the gaming world. You’re lucky we’re the publisher as well as the developer. There’s nothing like having some suit breathing down your neck to finish the game, bugs and all.”

Naruto looked faintly betrayed at her words and dropped back down in his chair. Tsunade thought maybe she’d been too lenient with him before. What she was asking, well ok, demanding, for wasn’t too unreasonable. She resumed her seat as well.

“But why the two demos?” he asked. “You’re asking me to put a shit load of pressure on my team for something that isn’t even a requirement. Other companies have presented upcoming games without demos at E3.”

Tsunade sighed tiredly. Now they were getting to the crux of the problem. “Those companies have the money behind them to do that. We don’t.” She paused, gathering her thoughts, while wondering how much she should tell him. “The truth is Naruto, we’re losing money. We barely broke even on the last game and Konoha Studios is steadily going under. We have to make a splash somehow.”

Naruto stared at her, shocked. He knew they weren’t making as much money as they should have, as they needed to, but he hadn’t known things were that bad.

“I had an offer from another company to buy us out while I was at the Game Developers’ Conference last month,” Tsunade continued.

“You refused.” It wasn’t a question.

“Of course. But Naruto, this game must sell. I want you, Shikamaru and Ino at E3 giving presentations and interviews to whoever wants them. You especially, since your name’s becoming pretty well known among other designers.”

Naruto nodded faintly, his eyes narrowed in thought as her words sunk in. His brain was already busy formulating plans for making their game a success. He’d spent too much time with this company. Hell, he’d helped get it off the ground and he wasn’t about to let it go under without one hell of a fight. His foot started tapping impatiently on her thick, light green carpet---another comfort Tsunade had added just so she could walk around barefoot---eager to find Shikamaru and discuss tactics. He was drawn from his thoughts when Tsunade placed a hand on top of his own.

“Thank you,” she said, her eyes glistening suspiciously.

Naruto gave her his signature grin and turned his hand over beneath her slim one and gripped her fingers in a comforting gesture. “Don’t worry. I won’t let Konoha Studios die. This game will be a hit for sure. I promise you.” Then he stood up with a burst of energy and smirked down at her. “But you’ve got to tell everyone.”

Tsunade laughed, “No, Jiraiya does. That’s his job as producer.” Then a lump suddenly formed in her throat. “Don’t tell the others about---”

“Of course not!” Naruto broke in, sounding insulted. “There’s nothing to tell. It’s a minor worry that will resolve itself very soon. I know it.” Then he quickly strode out of her office before he got all teary-eyed as well and ruined his manly image.

Tsunade smiled warmly at his retreating back, feeling lighter than she had in months. Naruto truly was the best thing to happen to her. It still kind of galled her to admit that it was all thanks to Jiraiya too.

----------------------------------------

Shino Aburame was well known for his calm demeanor. He was known for never being ruffled by anything and that was a valuable trait for a game programmer. Having over thousands of lines of code made for many headaches when something inexplicable happened. And though Shino had never lost his calm in the years Shikamaru had known him, even the technical director detected a faint tremor in the other man’s hands and a slight tightening of his jaw. Zaku had done a very good job and he was a dead man if either of them ever caught him alone anywhere. Shikamaru had already begun drawing up the paperwork to give to Jiraiya so he could sue the asshole. There had to be a clause in Zaku’s contract that clearly stated he couldn’t do this sort of thing without repercussions.

There was a loud clack of keys that startled Shikamaru out of his pleasantly murderous thoughts. He looked up to see Shino throw off his sunglasses and glare at the screen in front of him with pure hatred. Shino looked up at him briefly, before returning his focus back to the screen. Neither of them said a word. They never needed to; they’d known each other long enough that they could read the other by just a look or even a finger twitch. This nonverbal language between the two of them had been developed mostly through their competition with each other. They were constantly trying to outclass each other with their programming techniques, so they rarely spoke out loud about their practices.

They had actually known each other before coming to work for Konoha Studios. Shikamaru had been deemed a genius at the tender age of 10 and was treated as such for most of his young life. He’d graduated early from high school and had been accepted into MIT the following year. He hadn’t wanted to go to MIT, but had been told by his mother that that’s where genius’s went and she wouldn’t allow her son to go to some community college. He’d decided then and there to not even mention that he had no desire to go to college at all. He was a genius after all and knew that telling his mother that would mean his death. Survival at it’s best.

He decided to go for a major in some form of engineering, figuring that sounded grand enough to please his mother. This was when he was first introduced to programming, and from that day forth he lived and breathed programming languages. His favorites were C and C . It was a well known fact around the office that Java was never to be mentioned around him. His enthusiasm eventually brought him into contact with another programming enthusiast, Shino Aburame.

Thus began their fierce competition with each other. Shino had been programming since he was 12 and it pissed him off that some freshman was getting better and better each week. Of course, no one knew he was pissed. No one knew that he spent extra hours in front of the computer doing his damnedest to beat Shikamaru. He was given a sudden reprieve though when Shikamaru suddenly dropped out of MIT after his first year and ran off to Atlanta to work as a ticket seller at Six Flags. Shino was pissed off even more that he’d lost a very worthy rival just because said rival thought MIT was too “troublesome.” Shino had put him out of his mind after that and graduated valedictorian and then accepted a job with Microsoft and relocated to Bellevue, Washington.

It was a stroke of pure luck that had Jiraiya finding Shikamaru in a small café one hot summer afternoon. The older man had watched the young man leaning close to his laptop screen to study what looked like a foreign language to most, but was quite familiar to Jiraiya himself. He’d watched surreptitiously as Shikamaru clicked on a button in his program and sat back to wait. Jiraiya grinned like a maniac when he noticed a window pop up on the young man’s laptop and a white ball flew back and forth across the screen, being hit by two paddles. Shikamaru was controlling the paddle on the left and Jiraiya looked on with admiration as he watched the right paddle intercept the balls perfectly.

“Did you write the code for that paddle’s AI, or did you borrow it from someone else?” he’d asked right beside the young man’s ear.

Shikamaru had frowned up at him, not startled at all. “I did it. What would be the point of copying someone else’s work?”

Jiraiya had grinned and sat down across from the young man. He patted his pocket for his business card and then dug into his pants until he found one. It was a little bent, but it would do. “Do you want a job?”

A couple weeks later, Shikamaru had been sitting in Jiraiya’s office listening to the old man complain about not having enough programmers like him and had then asked Shikamaru if he knew anybody. “Yeah, one,” Shikamaru had replied. Shino had been only too happy to leave Microsoft to work for the small upstart video game company. Neither of them regretted their choice.

They both winced as a sudden loud knock came at the door right before Naruto barged in. The blonde found himself on the receiving end of two very intense stares. There wasn’t any hostility in them, but Naruto had the distinct impression he’d come at a bad time.

“How’s it going?” he asked, only a little hesitantly.

The squeak of Shino’s chair was like a gunshot in the middle of a forest at 5am. The fact that Shino was making noise at all was unnerving to Naruto. Shikamaru sighed and threw down his pen that he’d been twirling between his fingers until now. It was the only nervous habit he gave into. Instead of answering Naruto right away, he grabbed his mouse and with a few clicks started printing off some papers. As soon as they were out of the printer, Shikamaru handed them to Naruto.

“These need to go to Tsunade.”

Naruto read the top page, his blue eyes flashing to Shikamaru’s dark ones as he read further. “What’d he do?”

“He added an interesting new ‘feature’ to the game,” Shikamaru replied.

A low snort sounded from the other side of the room and all occupants turned surprised looks to Shino. Shino himself looked surprised at his outburst, but he quickly recovered and went back to staring at the screen.

“Zaku cleverly hid some code in the many lines he wrote that makes the monsters in Lagrange start to stab themselves,” Shikamaru continued.

A grin flashed on Naruto’s face, but quickly dissipated when he caught Shikamaru’s look. He could just picture what it must look like and it looked pretty funny, but apparently Shikamaru and Shino found no humor in it. Naruto thumped Shikamaru on the back heartily. “No worries if the two of you are on the job. It will be resolved before lunchtime.”

The two programmers gave the designer their blank stares again. Naruto cleared his throat and was about to retreat when he remembered why he’d barged in there in the first place. “Oh yeah, I’ve got some news for you, although I don’t think you’ll want to hear it now. I think I will leave it up to Jiraiya this time.” With that said, he started to exit the office.

“Naruto, what is it?” Shikamaru asked.

“It can wait.”

“Tell us anyway.”

“Please do,” Shino spoke up for the first time.

Naruto nervously started running his index finger along the edge of the papers in his hands. “Well, it’s not exactly good news, and since you two have this problem to deal with, I think I’ll leave it to Jiraiya, since it’s his job anyway.”

“Naruto, would you just tell us already!” Shikamaru insisted, his bored voice taking on an impatient tone. The look on Naruto’s face worried him a little. There was obviously something bad that they were going to find out about sooner or later. He decided to sit back down in his chair so he wouldn’t fall in it after Naruto’s news.

Naruto took a deep breath and plunged forward. “We need two demos made by May that work flawlessly since we’ll be showing them off at E3.”

Shikamaru leaned back into his chair, far enough that he was almost completely horizontal. He sighed and rubbed his thumb and forefinger over his tired eyes. It wasn’t even lunchtime yet, and already he felt his head starting to ache. Shino leaned forward and braced his elbows on his desk, his chin on top of his hands. Naruto stood by the door, half in and half out, ready to duck if anything came flying his way.

“I had a feeling this was coming,” Shikamaru commented to no one in particular. Shino nodded his agreement.

“Wha---what do you mean, you ‘had a feeling’? I wasn’t expecting this!” Naruto exclaimed.

“Come on, Naruto. We’re not stupid. We know the last two games barely broke even. Konoha Studios can’t last much longer on this course.”

Naruto stood there, surprised. It shouldn’t really have been that big a surprise to him. Shikamaru and Shino had been with Konoha Studios almost from day 1, just like Naruto. They had invested so much of their time and effort into this company. Naruto dropped his arm and patted his thigh, thinking. “So, we’ll hold another meeting this afternoon around 2 to discuss which parts of the game we’ll create the demos for, ok?”

“Around 2?”

“I’ll shoot you an email when I have the ok from Tsunade and Jiraiya for the conference room…if I can find that pervert. Are you guys free for most of the afternoon?”

“Yeah,” they said in unison.

“Then there should be no problems. If push comes to shove, we’ll cram in my office.” Then he quickly switched topics. “Do you guys happen to know where Kiba is? I figure I’ll tell him too, but I didn’t see him bothering his artists in their lab.”

Shikamaru smirked, “He’s bothering Ino.”

Naruto groaned at that answer. “Why, why, why doesn’t he get a clue! Pestering her everyday is not going to make her want to date him. Even if he ever gets up the courage to ask her out!”

Even Shino smirked at that before responding. “He’s pretty smart though. He’s really close to her son.”

All three of them stood there snickering for a few seconds. Kiba and Ino had been snapping at each other since they’d first met. Bets had been placed as to how long it would be before they ended up in bed together, but in the 15 months they’d worked together, nothing had happened. Saying Ino was not fond of Kiba was putting it lightly. However, there was one person in the Yamanaka household that thought Kiba hung the moon, and that was Ino’s 5-year-old son, Kyou. She’d brought Kyou to work one day because she couldn’t find anyone to watch him and had allowed Kiba to teach him to draw.

Naruto smiled as he remembered Ino’s look of horror at finding her son covered in ink from the pens Kiba had let him borrow. Kiba had innocently said that it was all washable. Kiba had gone home with a huge ink stain on his ass that day since Ino deliberately spilled black ink on Kiba’s black chair. Naruto snorted at the memory and Kiba’s howl of outrage. Ino had sweetly reminded him that it was all washable when he’d confronted her about it.

The blonde left Shikamaru and Shino to go find the two lovebirds. It didn’t take him long. He heard them long before he saw them. It sounded like Kiba was trying to talk her into making one of his drawings a watermark in the background of the box art. Ino kept hissing “ESRB” at him and refusing. Naruto was almost afraid to walk into the office. He’d already been hit once today and didn’t want to get caught up in the crossfire between these two.

He poked his head around the corner of Ino’s door and peered inside cautiously. Ino and Kiba were facing off over her desk. He was certain that if the two of them would just have sex, that would solve all their problems, but he didn’t dare mention it to either one of them. Well, ok, he could mention it to Kiba without being gutted on the spot, but Ino was another issue. She’d fry him alive and feast on his liver for lunch. Did Ino scare him? No, he’d been dealing with Tsunade long before Ino, but it was always a good idea to stay on her good side.

“Hey guys,” he greeted, waving cheerily like he hadn’t just heard them fighting.

Ino’s ice blue eyes shot to Naruto with pinpoint accuracy and her face split into a grin. Kiba turned and frowned at Naruto’s intrusion. The blonde smiled at him and shrugged imperceptibly.

“What brings you here? Where’d you get that bruise on your face?” Kiba asked snidely. He usually got along very well with Naruto, but not when Ino smiled so warmly at him.

Naruto glared at him and then smiled sheepishly, rubbing his hand over his cheek. “My depth perception was off.” Then he quickly changed the topic. “I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news, as well, I’m afraid.”

“Oh?” Kiba and Ino said in unison. Then they turned to glare at each other. Naruto held back a snort, but just barely. He was glad that his excuse had been accepted without comment. His notorious clumsiness was coming to aid him this time.

“Yeah. Hey look, do you guys think you can cooperate for a couple minutes and come up with a kick ass presentation for E3?”

“We’re going to E3 this year?” Kiba asked, his eyes gleaming.

“Yeah, and we’ve got to prepare two demos for it, so you’ll need to get your animators on the band wagon as soon as Shikamaru and I pick the segments of the game we want to show off.”

“Are you kidding? We’re nowhere near close to putting a demo together!” Kiba exclaimed.

“Well, you’ve got five months to get there,” Naruto said, trying to make it sound reasonable. He knew he failed when Ino and Kiba gave him twin looks of disgust. He should have left this to Jiraiya. He knew he should have.

“This normally wouldn’t be a problem for me, Naruto, if I didn’t have Kiba in here throwing stuff like this in my face to use for our marketing campaign.” She tossed the paper with the artwork printed on it, on top of her desk, indicating for Naruto to take a look.

“I don’t want it in the marketing campaign! I want it on the box art! He’s the main bad dude. He’s awesome!” he explained to Naruto.

Naruto walked forward and looked at the art. “Hey, this is pretty cool!” he exclaimed. It was gruesome, with dead bodies littering the ground around a monster that looked like a patchwork quilt of different animals.

“Naruto!” Ino protested loudly.

The blonde felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end at her tone. “But it can’t be used, Kiba. You know that.”

It was Kiba’s turn to scoff indignantly, though he wasn’t quite as elegant or threatening as Ino. Before he could say anything more, Naruto continued. “Quit bothering Ino and get to work. You know how the ESRB works. And if you forget, I’ll personally send you the link to their website.”

Kiba flushed and snatched up his artwork. “So what do I do with this?”

Ino smiled nastily, “Post it on deviantart.com after the game is released. I’m sure there’s someone out there willing to say good work.”

Even Naruto winced at her tone. He was suddenly glad he’d taken the bet that Kiba wouldn’t be able to talk her into bed. He seriously doubted these two had a chance at a relationship. Kiba smiled snidely back at Ino and left her office, his precious bad guy in his hands. Silence reigned after Kiba’s departure. Naruto shifted from foot to foot, not sure what to say, so he just smiled.

“Yeah, so, umm, I just wanted to give you a head’s up. Just start coming up with some ideas for displays and whatnot.”

Ino nodded and picked up a pen to make a note on her pad of post-its. “Will do.”

Naruto nodded and turned to leave. He was stopped by Ino’s next question though.

“Naruto, have you decided on a title for the game yet?”

Naruto closed his eyes as she reminded him of that little fact. Oh yeah, that was another issue to resolve. “I’m on it,” he chirped.

He practically ran out of her office to escape to his own office so he could just spend a few moments breathing deeply. I need to start doing Tai Chi or something. His vivid blue eyes widened comically as he almost plowed into Neji walking down the hallway with his technical director, Tenten, by his side.

“Hi, Naruto!” she greeted.

Naruto just nodded and hurried away, avoiding making eye contact with Neji. By the time Naruto slammed the door to his office shut, he was promising any God that was listening that he would be a good boy from now on, as long as nothing else happened that week. Then he took a deep breath, sat down at his desk and started formulating his plan for E3. He had to make this a success.

And I must continue on another post!