INSIDER

Insider; gossip central of Fire Country's rich, famous, bitchy, and shameless. News just in; Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha caught on camera for your viewing pleasure! Sit back, relax, and enjoy the show; a tornado just met volcano. SasuFemNaru, ItaSaku, slight KakaFemNaru, KakaRin.

CHAPTER 1
~:: STUCK IN BLACK AND WHITE ::~

I used to be love drunk, but now I'm hung over,
Love you forever; forever is over.
We used to kiss all night, now it's just a bar fight,
So don't call me crying – say hello to goodbye.
I used to be love drunk, but now I'm hung over,
Love you forever, but now I'm sober.

Naruto smiled as the pretty lady with brown hair hoisted her onto the huge platform; she didn't like coming to this big room with her pretty lady, but sometimes there were nice people who'd let her make the coloured things on the white shapes.

The pretty lady was even nicer today – she had brought some new colour sticks for her to use! As the colours appeared on the white thing, the pretty lady made some of those noises she didn't quite have the hang of yet – she knew which noises were good noises, and which ones weren't, but a lot of them were strange.

The noises were good though, and she held up the piece of white proudly; as she did so the bright colour stick that looked like the big bright thing above her head when she was in the garden, and like her big yellow person, began to run away down the huge platform.

She had to catch it! She needed it! She followed it, hand in front of her knees but it was too fast! She had to catch it though... Maybe she could do that thing all the big people did – they didn't use their hands, and they were so fast!

She tried it – pushing herself up with her hands, only to fall on her bottom. She wouldn't give up though – she really needed that colour stick! Puffing her cheeks in determination, she tried again, and succeeded in not falling on her bottom; carefully she but a foot out in front of her.

It was so wobbly! It was so wobbly! Why did big people do this? It was so scary! But she had to catch her colour stick, so she would not be made to fall on her bottom again by the wobbly!

Splaying her arms out on either side of her, she found it was much easier, and a bit of the wobble went away when she dragged her other foot forwards. Then... the other! It was so much faster, but it was so wobbly... after a few more wobbly drags of her feet she finally snatched the colour stick!

She turned around after falling onto bottom again, and saw the pretty lady looking at her strangely, before exploding into lots of happy noises and holding her arms out. Hug? Hug! Naruto crawled forwards for a few moments, and then pushed herself back onto her wobbly feet – it really was so much fun!

It took a while, but eventually the pretty lady hugged her, and Naruto laughed. There were some more lively noises from her, and other people began making the same noises, including loud ones from herlittle bigger red person.

Was this... because of the wobbly feet? Did they like it?

"Mama! Naruto's walking! Mama!"
"I can see that Kyuubi! Give her a hug from me okay? I really, really, have to take this call!"

Naruto didn't know what those words meant, and she wouldn't know for several years, but even as young as she was, she knew that she didn't like them.

Naruto sat outside the headmasters office feeling very pleased with herself; normally, a twelve year old would be planning their escape when their mother had been called out to a meeting because of their actions, but Naruto was feeling very proud.

Her mother had actually bothered to turn up this time instead of sending Shizune or Aoba! The old fart must have called her himself this time; it was about time the school twigged onto the fact the woman wouldn't listen to secretaries.

The thin lines that now graced her cheeks stung like a bitch, but she couldn't wait to see how freaked out her mother was going to be! It would be the icing on the cake after that dirt-coffee switch!

"This isn't the first time she's played truant... always getting into fights with the older students... Won't talk to the school guidance councillor at all... such potential, all her teachers say so, but she refuses to do the tests properly..."

Of course she wouldn't talk to a shrink! She wasn't crazy; she just wanted to make her mothers life a living hell. It served her right for always brushing her off for her stupid job. So what if it was a boss job? That was what people were paid for, to do the work for you!

"...very worried Mrs. Uzumaki... don't know how she managed to get them, she won't say a word..."

And have Kyuubi get hell for telling her where to get them done? Were they idiots? Of course she wasn't going to tell them where she got the tattoos! How long was it going to take her mother to get out of the old fart's office?

She had a drama practice to get to! She was never going to be as good as her dad if she didn't make her practices! Omoi-sempai was going to be there too, and Karui had told her she had seen him putting a letter in her shoe locker! She had to find out what the dirt was!

The door opened and her mother stepped out looking all prim and proper in her business suit with the old fart, her lips very thin; her mother's eyes settled on her face, then widened upon sight of her awesome new whisker tattoos. Success!

"I can't believe this Naruto! When are you going to stop this stupid behaviour and grow up? You're twelve years old now! Do you have any idea how embarrassing it was for me to be called out of the meeting like that?"

Naruto rolled her eyes at her mothers lecture; it never changed. But she had had the decency to show up for it his time instead of shouting down a phone during her tea break, so Naruto decided she deserved a response.

"I'm amazed you even answered the damn phone if you were in the middle of a meeting..." she muttered, watching the streets of Kumo rolling by through the blacked out windows of her mother's business car.

It was raining; it was always raining in Kumo. And when it wasn't raining, it was cloudy, or snowing. The sun was almost non existent but for a few months of the summer; it was somewhat strange given that most of the population had the dark skin usually associated with humid places like Wind Country.

Naruto hated the rain; she had been on holiday with her father and brother the previous year to the Coast of Fire County, and she had seen the sun. It was actually bright in Fire Country, and the air wasn't heavy with the scent of foreboding rain clouds...

"Naruto not this again! You know how important my job is! I know I'm not around much, but I do my best with the time I have! You have to grow up and stop acting so selfishly! I don't know how much more of this behaviour I can handle..."

Not around much? That was the understatement of the century – she was home one night a week long enough for her to see her for two hours before going to bed, and then she was gone when she was woke up. Not much didn't begin to cover how absent her mother was.

Her mother didn't even know what her first word was, and her first steps had been brushed off for a phone call to one of her stupid suppliers – the damn models knew her better than her own mother did.

"I know your job is important enough to drive Dad out of the house..." she snapped at her mother.

That was another problem that had been caused because of her mother; her dad had walked out when she was seven years old, and Kyuubi had, being of legal age and no longer under the supervision of their mother by law, decided to join him.

Her father had been intent taking her too, and she wished he had, but her mother had been on the verge of bringing lawyers into the mess, so he had relented. She saw him about once a year, and Kyuubi was off all over the world causing trouble of his own too, but she saw him more often because her dad was always on set somewhere.

Her mother continued to berate her, lecture her on how inappropriate, or selfish, or unladylike, or un-whatever else her behaviour was, but Naruto ignored her.

She had missed her drama practice! Now she wouldn't know about the dirt on Omoi-sempai and her shoe locker until her suspension was over! That sucked! If she had known that she was going to get suspended she would have got her tattoos done at the weekend!

"Naruto, are you even listening to me?"

"No – I was just thinking that I should have picked a different day, because now I can't talk to Omoi-sempai..." she replied bluntly – it always irritated her mother.

"Oh god, not that fourth year again! I've told you a thousand times not to mix with his lot Naruto! If I catch word that you've been talking to him..."

Naruto snorted; if her mother thought that changing the pass codes on the security system again was going to keep her inside the house she was sorely mistaken.

"He came to visit? When was that?" Omoi asked, fingers of one hand entangled in the ends of her now loos blonde hair.

She hated it hanging loose – it fell in the same way her mothers did, all except for her fringe – that was spiky like her dad's hair, splaying out all over her forehead. Most of the time, she kept it up in bunches, but recent activities had loosened her hair ties.

"My birthday – he put on this wig and glasses and a northern-mountain accent and came up to me after detention talking about koala adoption; I couldn't believe it when he pulled the wig off" Naruto replied, staring at the gloomy rain and thunder on the other side of her bedroom window.

It had been such a surprise to have her father had shown up for her birthday like that; he always sent her messages, cards, but he was always on-set somewhere on the actual day. It had been one of the best surprises she was likely to get in Kumo.

She certainly wasn't getting anywhere with her auditions; she had been in neighbourhood performances, but the professional stuff was causing her problems. They always looked at her name! They didn't bother to even test her the moment Namikaze popped from her mouth!

They never ever looked past it! She had even been to the other side of the country for them, and it was the same no matter where she went! She frowned at the memories, and thumped the pillow in frustration.

Omoi kissed the back of her neck and pulled her back towards him; he really had a lot of patience. He was four years her senior, and nearly eighteen, whereas she had only passed her fourteenth a few months ago.

She hadn't believed it when Karui told her he had stuck that note in her shoe locker, but he really had; it was every twelve-year olds dream-come-true to have the senior putting notes in her locker, and she had never really looked back since.

And in any case, her mother would absolutely hate this! She absolutely hated Omoi because he wasn't from 'their circle', and because he was pretty much toeing the pedo line. Omoi didn't seem to worry too much though.

Then again, Omoi didn't worry much about the relevant things; he didn't really get her active interest in irritating her mother, nor her problems with her name. He didn't seem to mind being used though, and he really was a nice guy, so it sort of worked.

Sex was kind of fun too; his lips locked on her own, hands over the flat of her stomach, her breasts (which wouldn't fucking grow!), his lips moving down her neck... Yep, she really could get used to sex.

"Naruto! The crazy woman is going apeshit again! What the hell did you do this...?"

She was just beginning to forget about all her worries when her bedroom door opened, and the completely wrong person walked in.

Kyuubi stood in the doorway, jaw wide revealing newly chiselled teeth, and the end of his sentence completely forgotten as his eyes drank in the sight of his baby sister all naked and tangled in the arms of some dude that no-one had told him about...

"Damn it Kyuubi, get out! You're interrupting!"

It was that moment in time that would lead to Kyuubi's eternal campaign to kill his sister's boyfriends.

"Naruto, where do you think you're going? Get back in this house right now! I'm not done talking to you!" her mother yelled.

Naruto ignored her, pulling on the leather jacket Omoi had given her as she stepped out in the pouring rain; Omoi was already waiting with Karui and Samui at the end of the drive, and she couldn't wait to get out of this hell house.

"Naruto get back here! We're not done talking about this!"

"Yes we are Mama! I'm not going back to school! I already handed form in; all I have to do is wait for the dates to catch up!" she roared back at the figure stalking after her.

"What? Do you even realise what you're doing? Don't you care about your future at all? The way you're going you're going to end up in a ditch or a jail cell!" her mother snapped, catching up.

Naruto whirled on the gravel path to face the woman who had given birth to her; who did she think she was? She didn't have any right to tell her what to do with her life!

She didn't give a shit about her unless she was doing something that could embarrass her, she had given up trying to make her actually work for a grade in the classes she didn't care about when she was in her second year of high school! Why the fuck did she care if she had decided to drop out of school a year early?

"It'll be a heck of a lot better than being stuck here with you!" she hissed.

"Damn it Naruto, you're ruining your life! Do you think your father is going to be happy about this?"

How could the woman even think to bring him up? She was the one responsible for driving him away in the first place! She preached and shouted about how she was ruining her life, but she was the one who as messed it up in the first place!

"Don't you talk to me about Dad! He'll be fucking cheering me on and you know it!" Naruto snarled.

There was a sharp wet slap as her mothers hand hit her face; that was rare. The woman must be seriously pissed off if she was resorting to slaps to get her point across.

"Don't you dare use that tone with me! If you can look after yourself so well then why don't you do it? You won't last three months!" Kushina snapped.

"Fine by me! I'll be glad to get out of this shit hole of a house and away from you!"

With that final statement Naruto slammed the gate closed behind her and ran down to the car parked just beyond it; Karui had scored prime tickets to see Red Dawn at the city arena, and she would rather roll over and die than let her mother get in the way of enjoying the concert!

Besides, her mother had just given her permission to move out! It didn't get much freaking better than that in her book.

"I can't believe this! I thought I finally had it this time Omoi!"

Naruto was completely incensed as she came in from the raging thunderstorm that was currently hanging over Kumo; it had been going on for almost two weeks straight, and she was getting sick of the weather.

Technically, she was still under her mother's guardianship until she was sixteen, but she hadn't spoken to her mother since that rainy concert trip two months after her fifteenth birthday.

Still, she lived with Omoi. It wasn't exactly perfect, but she probably sorta loved him, and she liked sex too, so it was a great set up. She had left school before her final year, satisfied with her grades in Drama, Art and Foreign Languages. She had a job, but she was still trying to find someone who would audition her instead of her name.

She was not having any luck. She was beginning to wonder if it was worth trying her luck in one of the other countries, specifically Fire Country, considering that was the only one she would be able to communicate in with any degree of fluency.

"What happened? I thought this one was working out?" he asked, looking up from the cross-country motor-sport programme in surprise as she hung up her soaking rain coat.

This weather was absolutely disgusting! It was always fucking raining, or snowing, or some other wet cold shit! There was always thunderbolts crashing all over the place too – the damn things gave her a headache!

"So did I! The he goes and tells me to make my angry face more like Dad's! I asked him after the practice and he said he only tested me because he had to!" she raged, flopping down on the sofa beside her boyfriend.

"Maybe you should give it a break for a while? It might clear the air up a bit if you give it few months before trying again..." he suggested.

Naruto grunted in reply, curling up beside him and turning her attention to the fast paced cars on the screen; she didn't think that would work for a minute, but she wasn't going to tell Omoi that.

You had to constantly hound these people if you want to get what she wanted from them, and all she wanted was a fair audition – one where she could say she got the role off her own back. She didn't know if she was going to get it here though, and she didn't think that – if push came to shove – Omoi would be up for her going to try her luck for work in Fire Country.

He still thought she was going to be able to reconcile with her mother one day, but Naruto knew the chances of that happening were about as certain of the chances that Kyuubi would stop collecting criminal records.

Their relationship was just too violent to be repaired, the same way Kyuubi was a bit too open-minded and strong in his beliefs to avoid being a heretic in the eyes of Earth Country law.

Omoi was a great guy, but in spite of all his good points, he was still... kind of naïve.

"So, how's life treating you Sis?" Kyuubi asked from the other side of the bars.

She didn't bother asking what he had done – he was usually protesting this or causing an uprising for that somewhere, or getting into bar fights. The fact that he had bothered to come home to get his latest in a long list of minor infractions didn't really bother her – it was actually kind of sweet, in an odd sort of way.

His crimes were usually only punished with a fine though - he never really did anything truly violent, and that ban from Earth Country had been a whole other kettle of fish.

"Not bad – you owe me your bail money. I was saving up." she replied as the guard opened the cell door, letting her rampant brother loose on the poor world once again.

"Saving up? What for?" he asked as they headed for the window where Kyuubi would collect his possessions – after retrieving his wallet and cigarettes, the left they police station.

"I was... I need to get out Kyuubi. I'm going to go nuts if I stay here – the only thing that's really holding back is Omoi and..."

"...you never really liked him as much as you should?" he grinned, throwing a cheerful arm over her shoulders as if he hadn't woken her up at 3AM asking her to pay his bail for him.

"It's about time though Sis, you should have come with me and dad when he left, lawyers or no lawyers; this place is bad enough, but that crazy woman does weird shit to peoples' heads... Any idea where you're headed?" he asked as they headed for a taxi rank.

Naruto hadn't really given it some specific thought; she knew she wanted somewhere urban so she could pursue that elusive audition that wouldn't be testing her name, but she wanted the sun too, and that left her with quite a lot of options.

"Dunno... any recommendations? She asked, climbing into the taxi after him.

"Huh? Oh... Konoha's pretty good. It's got that show-biz thing you and dad like so much, and there's stuff to do... it isn't stuck under a permanent shower of the gods' piss either" he replied, turning to the driver to give them the address to the flat she shared with Omoi.

Trust Kyuubi to know what she was thinking; the taxi drove through the streets, and Naruto stared out at the black icy winter rain with contemplation on her face.

"What are you doing?"

Naruto looked up into the wide eyes of her boyfriend and cursed; she had thought he would be working the late shift! She had been planning to leave a note – less messy that way – but that plan was screwed.

She had finally managed to save up enough to let her get a few months rent down in Konoha, and her plane ticket. The bus would be cheaper, but that would be too slow, so she had saved up for a cheap plane ticket; crap seat, crap food, but one first class ticket to freedom all the same.

"What does it look like I'm doing Omoi?" she asked, stuffing a pair of jeans into one of her two backpacks.

She didn't take a lot of stuff with her when she left her mothers house, and she hadn't added much to it in the almost-year she had been gone; she didn't like collecting things and putting them on show. It screamed money, like her mothers obsession with art – it was all over her house...

"...Where are you going?"

"Konoha, for the moment at any rate..."

She moved past the dark man blocking the doorway and went into the bathroom, grabbing her toothbrush and paste – she could get the rest of the stuff when she got there. She didn't need any more baggage than was necessary.

"Why didn't you... You're not coming back, are you?"

"It wasn't part of my plan, no."

She pushed past him again, returning to the bedroom and stuffing the two object into her bag; what else? She had her money, her phone, enough clothes, ticket, passport, the photo of her dad and Kyuubi on holiday that one time... that was about it really. She didn't really need anything else.

"What...? Why are you...? This isn't something I've done is it?"

He stared at her as she moved past, two bags over her shoulder; she dropped them on the floor only momentarily to pull on her rain coat and a hat, then started to pull on her leather boots – they were nice and comfy, and were good of kicking irritating people.

"Of course not – you're a great guy Omoi. Really, you are, but I can't stay in Kumo... it just isn't... I don't fit in here. The only reason I got stuck here in the first place was because she started talking about lawyers when dad tried to take me with him..."

He was definitely pissed, and probably upset – she didn't really like being such a bitch about the whole issue, but if she let herself be talked to, if he started that whole 'leaving scene', she wouldn't ever make it out of the door, and she didn't want to be behind the door anymore.

"Can't you just…? Look, just wait till the morning! Please! You can't just spring this on me like this!" he protested, a hand reaching out to grasp her arm – she dashed it away with a sharp movement from the hand he was reaching towards.

"If I wait for the morning, I'll miss my flight, and plane tickets are hardly transferable! I'm sorry Omoi, I really am okay? You're really nice, and I'm being a complete bitch to you, but... I'm sorry okay?"

She turned around and pulled one bag on her shoulders, and then the other over her side with one strap almost like a satchel; placing a hand on the door handle, she twisted the lock open and stepped out into the thunderous rain, slamming it behind her.

Naruto's flight left at exactly 12AM on her sixteenth birthday.

"What time does he get back?" Sakumo asked.

"His train gets in at about 7:30, so he should be her for 8:00… do you want him to call you back?" Naruto asked, glancing over the new script in front of her.

They were finally starting on the last and final instalment of Fugaku Uchiha's brainchild trilogy, and she was already dreading some of these scenes; she'd done sex scenes before, but not in the cramped sort of spaces these stage directions were implying!

She knew they sort of needed to put them in since the plot of the previous two was completely based on the affair they were present in, but Fugaku had a very optimistic imagination if he thought she was going to manage that...

Oh well, at least Sasori would be in the same boat, and he wasn't the worst person to work with; a bit obsessed with his boyfriend, but a nice, easy person to work with. It would be good to work with Sasori again, even if her character had died and was only going to be in the yet-to-be shown flashbacks.

"That's odd… he told me he was getting back this afternoon… Well, tell him I called anyway – I think he forgets I'm still alive sometimes…"

Naruto laughed at the petulant tone in Sakumo's voice, frowning as she cagught sight of the dull tone in her now-red hair – she would have to dye it again soon; she hadn't wanted any connection to her father over here when she started out, so she had removed the glaringly foreign blonde colour.

It made her look like her mother, which she absoloutely hated, but she wasnt going to dye her hair a colour that was going to look odd in Fire Country, and in hopes of keeping it as natural as possible, she had to pick within the colours that had shown up in her own bloodline. That was either blonde or red.

"I'll tell him Sakumo – go get some rest. You shouldn't be up with your back acting up!"

The man muttered in irritation before hanging up; the laughter that had been on her face throughout the phone call disappeared almost immediately. Naruto replaced the phone back on its base and went to the drawer where all the bills and receipts were kept; it was a tiny, tiny little thing, but…

She pulled out the receipt that had been printed off the computer when Kakashi had booked his ticket to Tanzaku for the shoot on the wet-set. It said his train was due back in the afternoon too; she had found it on top of all the papers beside the computer that day. Why did he lie? Had he gotten the times mixed up?

She put the nagging thing to the back of her mind – she had a script to read. Almost four years to the day since she had left Kumo, and she was finally happy somewhere. Not to mention with someone.

Distracting herself, she decided to see what the world of the press was making of things, and opened up the daily glossy/broadsheet that appeared on every Konoha doorstep, flipping to the gossip section; about the only thing there was a story on Itachi's sex-crazed-model little brother.

It wasn't very interesting, so she skipped ahead to the sports section, and to cars; she was very tempted to drool over that driver with the glasses from Water Country - he had just won a cross-country motor sport, and was giving an interview.

Then she saw an advert for the newest in the range of Katon Kagutsuchis; the Kagutsuchi Blaze was a gloriously shiny, streamlined grand tourer, a godlike 4-door saloon/coupé with 470 horses cooped up inside its 6 litre V12 engine, coated in a shiny liquorice black…all for the piddly price of 17,15,074¥.

One look and she decided her drool would be better spent on that instead; Naruto didn't like her material goods much, but cars were her weak spot. She refused to have more than one at a time though - she didn't need more than one car at any given time. She had already had a gorgeous orange 5.4 V10 Fuuton SPHERE-S that still ran like a dream. She didn't need another car…

But those lines… it was sex on wheels! That thing was sex on wheels; maybe she could go down to the dealership and ask them to let her take one for a test drive? She'd watched the annual race at Unraikyo on the TV, and god, that engine…

No! No, she couldn't let it persuade her! But it was so pretty… so very, very pretty…

"I wondered when that one was going to catch your attention…"

Naruto shrieked, and dropped the magazine in shock as she whirled around on the sofa in response to the familiar voice.

"Kakashi! Don't sneak up on me like that!"

She protested at the surprise, but she jumped off the sofa to run to the door anyway; a few quick steps and she had her lips glued against his own, almost knocking him back into the door.

She was a bit more enthusiastic than she normally was, but he had been gone for two weeks at that stupid wet-set! She could hardly be blamed for being glad to see him again.

"Hello to you too Naruto" he replied, breaking the greeting perhaps not for lack of enjoyment, but lack of air, and changing the greeting to a hug instead.

Naruto could have sworn she smelled something odd about him, sort of flowery, but the impression passed almost as soon as it had arrived, and besides she had more important things to do (like getting re-acquainted with her boyfriend).

Two months later, there would be a media storm when they broke up.

Naruto's new favourite car is the new Aston Martin Rapide; it costs £127,899 ($199,950), and if cars could live off drool, that one would have plenty to spare. Her old one is a Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder (more drool).

Mini quote; 'Love Drunk' by Boys Like Girls.