{sasuke}

Sasuke sat in the backseat of Suigetsu's car, silently bemoaning the fact that he wouldn't get to watch Naruto in action, not that he'd admit it out loud. He just wanted to see what the big deal about Naruto was. After all the praise he'd heard and the sudden improvisation session Naruto had slapped down with someone as flakey and inexperienced as Ino as his partner.

"What's with that face you're making Sasuke?" Karin spoke up from the front passenger seat. "It's so unattractive."

Suigetsu tried to hide a laugh in a cough. Ever since Sasuke had stopped forcing his embarrassingly somewhat mob-boss mentality on them after they graduated high school, Suigetsu always got a kick whenever someone put Sasuke down in front of him. That's not to say he wasn't on Sasuke's side, he was there when it counted, but whenever there was a punchline on Sasuke, Suigetsu was in the front row clapping.

Keep laughing like that and you might lose one of those fingers you're pretending to cough into, 'Getsu. Sasuke thought to himself, darkly. Purposely using the pet-name Karin had started using for him a couple of years ago, when they had apparently started dating. How had I not seen it?

"It's Naruto, for sure." Unfortunately for Sasuke, while Suigetsu wasn't the brightest star in the night sky, he was definitely the sharpest sword in the arsenal. While he wasn't good at most academic activities, Suigetsu was unbelievably good at observation and never over or underestimated anyone - in fact his instincts about a person were always on point - including himself. He was a self-aware realist with a penchant to play the fool. "You should see the way his eyes follow that ass. Sasuke, is this a late experimental phase? Are you gay? Or is it a just Naruto thing?"

"I think it is a Naruto thing. We were at Tsunade-baa-chan's place and he got hit on three times! Once by Neji!" Karin added with a self-satisfied grin on her face.

Suigetsu grinned back at her. "As far as I can tell, Sasuke is basically asexual. What, his brain tickles your fancy, Mr Uchiha?"

"What brain?" Sasuke bit out and the two in the front seat shared a look of amusement. To think just chatter about Naruto would get a rise out of him.

"Oh! Did you hear what Naruto called him? Baby Uchihahahahahahaha!" Suigetsu cracked up before he could finish the sentence.

"Oh, haha. Yuck it up while you can. When I get my law degree, I'll sue your asses into the ground." Sasuke threatened half-heartedly.

"On what grounds, baby Uchiha?" Karin challenged.

"Defamation of character, mental and emotional harassment!"

"With what proof?" Karin pushed as she peeked over her seat

Sasuke smirked as he slid in his seat, getting comfortable. "Oh, don't worry Karin, I'll manage something, somehow."

Karin took a second then snickered. "You know, Sas, I don't think the law wants you on their side."

"Maybe not...but they'll need me." Sasuke looked out the window, his mind drifting to Orochimaru's unofficial business.

"Anyway, so the thing is, I lied... Nothing's wrong with Juugo's dog." Suigetsu interjected so casually that Sasuke and Karin almost nodded their head in acknowledgement of his words before they realised what they were listening to and froze.

"Then what the fuck are we doing here?" Karin yelled and Sasuke couldn't help agree with her.

"Saving someone else..." Suigetsu said as he parked the car after having gone round the block a few times and turned so he was looking at Sasuke through the gap in the front seats. "Sasuke, you can't be interested in Naruto."

"Why not? He is gay." Sasuke let out, despite not wanting to lay his interest in the blond out in the open. Being told he couldn't pursue it was grating at him like an itchy sweater.

Karin softly wondered aloud. "He's gay? I thought he was bi."

"I'm pretty sure he's pan." Suigetsu contributed.

"But—"

"Excuse me, I need to go back to set." Sasuke opened the door and two hands, each from a different person, shot out and grabbed at his hooded navy sweatshirt.

"Sasuke, you can't date my cousin, that will make us related and I don't like that one bit!" Karin squawked out passionately.

"Really Karin? I'm sure you'd love to call him brother-in-law. Buuuuut I'm pretty sure Naruto is seeing someone. Someone Hyuuga." Suigetsu smirked at her.

"He is not! Baka!" Karin rubbed at her forehead. "Hinata is just a friend."

"Not from where I sit across them at the bar every Saturday, baby." Suigetsu pursed his lips at her challengingly, in the way she normally did at him. Every Saturday?

"Naruto isn't into shy, voluptuous women, 'Getsu. He likes quiet, arrogant, thoughtful, dreamy—" she cleared her throat at being nudged by Suigetsu. "Case in point both his exes, Utakata and Gaara."

"He never dated either of them!" Suigetsu protested

"Gaara and he spend an awful lot of time together for just friends." Karin pointed out.

"In that case, he wouldn't be an ex, he'd be a current, Karin!"

"Oh but if he's flirting with Hinata every Saturday...Naruto is a one-woman-man, or a one-man-man."

"A man's man?" Sasuke offered softly.

"Yeah!" Karin then looked at Sasuke and frowned. "Wait, who told you that?"

"He did..."

"He told you that? Aw, crap." Karin looked at Suigetsu and frowned, her voice lowered as if Sasuke wasn't right there and wouldn't be able to hear him if she lowered her volume. "Getsu, do you think Nars likes Sas?"

"Well, Sas looks like he likes Nars." Suigetsu offered.

Sasuke wanted to shut them up, he really fucking did, but he also really wanted to hear all the information they were spilling, stuff he'd been mulling over for a week. For the first time in years, he was grateful he hadn't just locked them up in Orochimaru's basement and burned the house down.

"I'll make you guys a deal, you guys let me go now and I'll host a drinking game at my place this Friday where you can discuss the pros and cons of me being somehow related to Karin and I'll pay for the booze, okay?"

Karin and Suigetsu stared at him in surprise.

"You really want to ask him out? Dude, I was just kidding when I suggested..." Suigetsu's humorous start to the sentence trailed off at the unimpressed look on Sasuke's face. "Yeah, no, okay, sure. Your mother and I-" he gestured to Karin and himself, "Will make sure you hook him good."

"Hook him good? Really, 'Getsu? What is your suggestion? Mix-tapes and whipped cream?"

"It worked for you."

Sasuke scoffed and exited the vehicle, to return to the studio by foot. This was more information than he wanted.

Karin popped her head out the window and called after him. "Sasuke, don't be mean to Naruto. He deals with enough without having to deal with your princess-ass!"

His right temple was starting to throb. I just want some damned information.

He wasn't sure how he would get through Friday night's booze-fest, but he could easily glean the right material from them in what he called 'the window of opportunity'. That perfect time to interrogate unsuspecting, loose-lipped friends that came between shitfaced drunk and blackout drunk.

~

The trees rustle in the wind as the view pans away from green leaved boughs to a fair-haired male entering a police station in a specified fictional location named Konoha. The cars lined outside showcased the emblem for KPD printed.

He approaches the reception desk. "Hey, I, I'm looking for someone who can help me." The blond looked straight into the camera his eyes wide, panicked and blue. "I, I, I- I just came to town and, uh." He looked around then back to the person at the reception, the camera now looking on the scene from the side. "I don't remember who I am."

The receptionist's eyes go wide.

"And cut." Itachi leant over to get the scene replayed as Ino hovered around Naruto, playing with his hair and making sure his makeup was in place.

"That's perfect," Itachi said as he came up to Naruto.

"I want to try something different, though. Do you mind?" Naruto piped up from the set, purposely ignoring Ino as she fidgeted with his outfit and face. It was a latent professional habit he'd developed in the last three days or so of blocking and rehearsing.

"What are you planning?" Itachi asked.

"A little more show-to-tell." Naruto got up and walked to the chair his folder of manuscripts and other sketches sat. He pulled out a sketch in unnecessarily orange ink and pushed it to Itachi.

The boy returned to set and leant up against the plaque that read Konoha Police Department, 7th Precinct.

Itachi resisted rolling his eyes, but he did close them for a second of sharp bemusement. Fine, I'll bite.

Itachi went back to his seat next to the cameraman. "Focus the camera on the centre of that sign."

The camera zoomed out of the centre of the sign until the words were in full view but kept zooming out to show a blond man grinning viciously as he tore into a bar of chocolate. He took out his cell phone that was still on, the image of a person taken from a security camera on the screen.

He finished the bar, let the wrapper drop right next to the sign and he checked his face in the frontal camera, his expression suddenly tensed, he dropped the expression with a dismissive shake of his head and tried for something panicked. He shook his head in disapproval of that one too. Then he opened his eyes wide, a mix of fear and barely-there restraint.

Bingo.

He put his phone away, moved his shirt and hair around then made a running entrance to the Department, looking for the reception and running into the desk, almost crashing into it a little breathless, shaking it substantially while upsetting an almost finished cup of coffee. Brown liquid dripped down the side of the table.

The receptionist looked at him with eyes wide in surprise. "Can I help you?"

"I'm- I'm looking for someone...someone who can help me." The blond looked straight into the camera his eyes a wide panicked blue, hands fumbling for his wallet. "I- I- I- I just came to town and, uh, I don't know where my wallet is." He looked around then back to the person at the reception, the camera now sideways. "Hell, I don't, I don't even remember who I am."

"Cut!" Itachi was standing next to the camera as he let his eyes study Naruto.

Naruto was grinning at him, a hand on the back of his neck, rubbing nervously. "What do you think?"

That was some excellent thinking. To display the main character's inner feelings right off the bat. And to get a viewer invested in the scenario while also clarifying his not-so-innocent personality from the first frame was...ingenious.

"I like it." Itachi decided. He hummed with a moment of consideration of several angles of the scene some he dismissed, others, he collated. Then started listing out orders.

"Let's do it once more. Pan in from the trees to Naruto leaning against the sign already eating that bar." Someone ran up to Naruto to give him a new bar of chocolate. "And looking at that image in his phone. You there, camera four, get over his shoulder. Get everything we can from his point of view, start to end. I want more focus on his line of vision. You, camera three, I want a slightly more angled view for the establishing shot of him leaning against that sign."

Itachi spotted Sasuke's stunned face at the break table while he was turning to talk to Shino about sound. A sliver of pride and excitement raced up his sides at having found not just any talented actor to play his complex protagonist but also one brilliant enough to hold Sasuke's forever disinterested gaze and attention.

It's true that he had his misgivings too, for maybe three minutes at the audition. While Naruto was easy to read in the present, the brilliance of his daily act is a powerful tool. His method of acting is very... indulgent.

It worked because Naruto had perfected emotion control. The unbelievable restrain and careful choking control the man had was... impressive. Naruto's emotions ran deep, to an almost unending reservoir. So his...valve system... so to speak, was tight.

Itachi had seen Naruto handle a very upset, very sassy barista on their first meeting. Handle her with expert precision. His words and actions considerate, yet firm. It was like witnessing the man dismantle a ticking time-bomb. The woman had calmed down and given them a free pastry and waved at Naruto when she saw him three other times.

His emotional control was focused to such an extent that he'd made this 'rerouting' of it something of a talent. He somehow stored emotions and let them guide him. A few coaching classes with an unconventional expert like Jiraiya had done the boy wonders. His talent was a non-obvious crutch he used in his everyday life.

Itachi was sure he had found a star. And if he could help it, they were going to reign all kinds of screens together. Irrespective of Sasuke's positive or negative interest in the star Itachi had discovered.