Who Am I Really(COMPLETE 5/4/10)

Author: Zimm
Title: Who Am I really
Warnings: Lets see strong language, and the start of character death. Angst, oh and anything else I happened to forget haha.
Author note: Um... let's see, what can I saya bout this chapter... not a whole lot without giving it away really. I hope all of you are enjoying this because I'm enjoying writing it, er rewriting it. lol So I hope that I'm not confusing you guys or anything, and I hope you stay til then end of it. I'm pretty excited to get there, but I'm determined not to rush it!
Extra Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN ANY NARUTO ANYTHING. I am just barrowing them for my own intertainment and yours. I am in no way making money.
Thanks: Thanks to MangaMistress, I love you lots, you give me insoiration to rewrite the damn thing.
Dedication: This goes out to Ryuksuapplesofdoom (this is her messenger alias) because I wrote this for her originally. It also goes out to MangaMistress for the obvious reason that I'm revamping it for her and adding more depth to the otherwise short story.


Chapter Two: Home Bound


He was finally heading home, home to his highly upscale condo above all the Skyscrapers in town, on the top floor. He was an American living the American dream, except that he was hated by everyone and he was utterly alone in the world. The again for some of the other men and women worth millions that was part of living the dream. Being able to look down your nose at the other people who weren’t as rich as you was a large part of said dream.

That thought alone was the worst part, the knowledge that he had bought into that bullshit and had stepped on everyone to get where he was now at. Maybe he could get a pet of some sort, if he could take care of a pet he could move up to higher life forms. Wasn’t that what was recommended to recovering addicts? No wait it was a plant for a year, then a pet.

Sam thought a moment on that as the rain pitter patted in lazy patterns on his tinted window while he watched as people, cars, and buildings blurred by. He shrugged, given that he wasn’t an addict he probably could skip the plant, or maybe he could do both at once. After that he would work on being better with people… Then again he would probably need to work on that right away but not obsessively so, no one would buy into it other wise.

The limo stopped at a red light and the car driver seemed to get nervous when he sighed. To that he rested his head on the side of the window it's coolness lessening the headache he felt coming on. Was he really that bad, was he really that much of a pretentious self serving asshole? Yeah, yeah he truly was that horrible of a person to work for.

He had bought the small town business right out from under his parents’ noses and then fired them because they weren't thinking innovated enough for his tastes. They had wanted to keep it in the small town he had thought them to be ignorant. His reasoning at the time had seemed justified. Who in their right mind wanted to live and die in a po-dunk town where everyone knew everyone and they were all some large happy family? Why wouldn’t some one want money and prestige? His mother and father hadn’t seen it that way which had earned them the axe.

His father had died a few years back, his mother following shortly after. Had he gone to their funerals? Nope, he’d been to busy being an ass making his money so he'd sent some lowly person instead. Yep, to busy and awe inspiring with his money to attend. He sorted, what the hell was fucking wrong with him? Who the fuck was ever that cool to skip out on a family funeral? Nobody was, if they did they were just a bunch of shit eaters.

He was now a thirty five year old rich bachelor who nobody wanted because he was just that much of an ass. Worse than Sasuke... No wait, the doctor told him he couldn't think like that anymore. Thinking like that could cause another break. Right, he was Sammuel Tanner owner of Zem Corp, leader in innovative higher quality hotels. He was even international as of three months before his psychotic break, which was about a year and half ago. Time certainly flew by when you were a raving loon.

The driver pulled up to his hotel, got out and opened the door for him the sound of an umbrella snapping open so he wouldn't get rained on. Seriously what did it matter if he got rained on? Then again maybe when you were a filthy rich asshole you ran the risk of melting away under water. He stepped out of the car and watched as hotel personnel scampered around and tried to do last minuet tidy ups. The driver looked absolutely terrified.

"You're new I take it." He said to the black man.

The man looked a little shocked to be addressed but he nodded in reply. It was probably a bit strange for him to talking to the lower ranks, he couldn’t recollect ever doing it before. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet.

“What’s your name?” He asked.

“Levier, Alcon Levier sir.” the man answered.

That was an interesting name, Sammuel briefly wondered how it was spelt as he pull a hundred dollar bill out of his brown leather wallet.

"Here's a hundred dollars Alcon, go do something fun." He grabbed the umbrella from the man and shoved a hundred dollar bill in his pocket.

"Thank you mister Tanner Sir."

"Call me Sam."

The man nodded, thanked him a second time, got back into the limo, and off he went.

A man who looked to be a real tight ass walked out to him his own umbrella carrier following him. Sam frowned at this, who the hell was this guy to have his own damn umbrella guy? Was that even allowed? Shouldn’t he be carrying his own damn umbrella?

"Sir was that driver not to your liking? I can have him fired and a new one to replace him if you so desire it." He said as he came into talking distance, his voice and mannerisms all snooty.

Never mind tight ass, the guy was a kiss ass... what was his name? Oh right he never thought to learn it. Good he had no intention to either, this guy was getting canned right here and now. The man irritated the hell out of him, and now that he thought about it always had, but he’d never given a shit enough to do anything about it before. Well that ended today.

"You're fired, I don't like you. You, carrying the umbrella, what's your name?" He asked the younger guy with dark hair and blue eyes.

The boy stammered "Ja-james, sir."

Sam nodded. "You have any previous knowledge of how to run a hotel?"

"I went to school for it Sir."

"Good your hired then. Make sure ass wipe there gets thrown off my property." He answered pointing at the man who seemed like he had just then shit his pants with surprise.

The boy nodded standing up straight and started to order people about, but in a fashion that Sam could handle. Good, he'd do fine confidant stern but not pompous. If Sam wasn’t allowed to be an ass anymore neither were his employees. Besides that, it made the hotel look bad.

He walked in and ordered someone at the front desk to get him employee rosters and bring them to his room. The woman quickly did as told disappearing into the back somewhere. On his way up to suite he stopped and helped a woman carry her bags to her room then he was back on track towards his own.

There was no reason why he couldn't at least sort of be the man he became in his world of make believe. He decided to start by firing those who kissed his ass and hire those who would do their jobs in a respectable manner. The snooty guy he had just fired had given him the idea. Plus he would profit from doing so, his business would look better with friendly people helping out the customers.

Finally making it to his suite he walked towards his bedroom entering it only flop down into his double king bed with Arabian silk sheets of blue and gold and closed his eyes. He felt just an inkling better about himself, which was a start, but he had such a long way to go. Sam wasn’t entirely sure he really had what it took to totally change himself, or if it was really worth it in the long run if people were going to continue to hate him anyway.

The door bell ran forcing him to get back up and answer his door. A blond woman awaited him nervously on the side and upon taking the file list she nodded quickly and turned to leave.

“Thank you.” Sam called out to her.

She stopped, paused, then turned and smiled at him with a nod. “You’re welcome sir.”

He closed his door flipping through the list giving it a cursory glance over. There was a lot to go through and just looking at it was starting to make him feel headachy. Tossing it onto his counter he decided he'd start to deal with matters of rearranging his business in the morning, right now he wanted to sleep. Maybe even a shower, it’d been awhile since he was able to shower in privacy after all.

******

The blond slammed the door closed behind her and growled it was all so fucked up. Even with two days of diagnosis she still wasn't sure what number they'd pulled on her gaki. Two days of investigating did resolve one thing, none of it good, there was nothing she could do. As she turned the corner of the waiting room four pairs of eyes focused on her.

"How is he?" The pink haired girl asked looking to her sensei for hope.

"It could be worse." Tsunade replied with along sigh her hands on her hips.

"What the hell is wrong with him?" Sasuke asked from the back of the group leaning against the wall.

Ah, the black sheep that had returned to the fold no thanks to her little blond that was now completely unresponsive.

We not totally sure just yet, it looks to be something specially made just for him. I have all my best med nins on it.” She paused in her explanation and turned to her apprentice. “SAKURA I expect you to get moving now, seeing as you're one of them."

"Hai!" The young woman went running down the hall.

"I'm confused, why isn't the demon helping him?" questioned the strangest of team seven.

Leave it to Sai to notice gaps like that in her answer. Damn the brat, now she had to tell them the worse part.

"That's just the thing, somehow this Jutsu causes Naruto to push him away completely, not even the Kyuubii can get to him right now. Somehow, unexplainable, Kyuubii has been blocked away from Naruto‘s subconscious."

"What's the damage?" Kakashi asked knowing now how very serious this all was.

"This Jutsu is eating him from the inside out, starting with his nerves. It's killing everything. I don't know how much time we have left." Tsunade answered deadpan.

Sasuke growled and standing straight. "That's bullshit! He wouldn't give up that easily."

Everyone turned to look at him, Sai’s eyes widening slightly. Kakashi seemed to stay the same, but Tsunade knew that Kakashi was hurting as well. Hell she was hurting, she had believed so hard that Naruto was the one. That that boy was going to be the one that would change the world. Yet there he was in the room in the back laying in the bed slowly dying and unaware to it all.

Tsunade clicked her tongue. "It isn't a matter of him giving up Sasuke, but of him being deceived."

Sasuke stared at her long and hard before adding, "but this is Naruto we're talking about here."

She sighed, for someone who seemed to have the least amount of faith he certainly had a lot of it now. Of coarse Sasuke was always very good at hiding his true feelings about anything. The only one who understood him without words, and never doubted his inner feelings was now dying.

"We shall see." Was her reply.

She turned away before anymore could be said or asked. She wasn’t in the mood to deal with it at the moment. Right then she needed to get drunk and fast or she was going to loose it. Apparently the village was a cursed one, no Hokage would ever be able to simply retire, they would have to die before a successor would stick.

“Chk, damn it.” She sniffed wiping at her face as tears started to fall.

Gaki, please come back to us you haven’t even been gone that long and we’re already falling apart. She thought looking up to the ceiling as she walked as if it would give her the answers, as if it would give her Naruto back.

*********

Sam shot up in bed covered in sweat his sandy brown hair clinging to his skin. Panting heavily as if he had woken from a nightmare, which for him was close enough. Raising his hands to his face he wiped his face before pushing his hair out of his way. Reaching for his glasses on the bedside table he placed them on his nose.

He took a few calming breaths and focused on the sound of his heart beating. The doctor said this would happen, that it was highly likely to occur and happened to everyone. Only thing that he could do was relax and think about other things. Right, think about what he was going to do, how he was going to revamp his hotel chain. His personalities were going to fight to get to the top again, but he could resist and eventually move on.

Once calm, he looked around the room to help him remember who he was and where he was. Remember where he came from, remember that he was not Naruto Uzumaki. Sam then looked down at his hands on his lap, his eyes sad. Sometimes he felt that he’d rather be Naruto, but he also knew that this was self destructive thinking. He took a deep breath and breathed it out slowly, no reason to stay in bed now.

Flipping back the covers and swinging his legs to the floor he rose from bed and walked towards the bathroom wrenching the knobs to turn on the shower. Steam quickly began to billow out soon after. He'd take a shower to clean off the sweat of sleep get dressed then head out to begin his day anew.

He'd find the number for his shrink’s private office and call her. He talked to her plenty of times while he was in the ward hospital and she had told him to call anytime. So he would take her up on the offer. Then again he could just wait for the appointment in three days…

No, the doctor and the shrink both had told him that if he waited when something had happened could be highly dangerous. So he would call and talk to her, let the doctor know what had happened as well. Well, he thought, maybe he should wait to talk to his shrink and see if she thought the doctor needed to know first.

Right, it was going to be alright, he was going to stay Sam this time round, he was. There was no need to revert back to Naruto, he could do just as well here in this world couldn’t he? Of coarse he could, everyone had told him so. Then again they were on the pay role, they could just be telling him that to keep him around.

Sam laughed at himself for still being slightly cynical about other people when it came to him spending his money. He hadn’t really changed at all in some ways after all. It was possible he supposed that after the multiple personality things was solved he would just go back to being his asshole self.

What was a man to do in such a situation? Does one change himself, or does he stay the same? That was a question he figured would take time to answer, until then he would just take it one day at a time.

~TBC~