When Love Fades

Chapter 22 - Life Goes On I

Sasuke closed the door to his office behind him before taking of his suit jacket and laying it over the back of his chair. It was the second presentation to the Board of Directors that he'd made in the past two months. This one had gone significantly better than the first, largely because his boss, Kabuto, hadn't been invited this time. There would be fallout from that, but the meeting had certainly gone more smoothly this time without his boss actively trying to throw him under the bus at every turn. Not like the first board meeting he'd gotten pulled into a month ago.

-flashback-

Sasuke's phone buzzed. Neji glanced over at him, but Sasuke had refused to follow the 'no phone' rule after all the fall-out of the last time he'd done it. Neji hadn't pushed it, and simply arched a brow in enquiry as to the nature of the text.

"Kabuto's asking me about some of the specs," Sasuke murmured as he quickly punched out a terse reply. Kabuto hadn't been doing shit for the project for months, now he was pinging Sasuke endlessly with questions about it.

A few minutes later, Sasuke's phone buzzed again and frowned slightly in annoyance. More questions from Kabuto, but this time about the other products in the market. Kabuto was competent, but he was a political climber who spent more time on his machinations to curry favor with the CEO, Orochimaru.

After the third time Sasuke's phone buzzed, Neji was rolling his eyes. "Kabuto should have just have had you come with him." Sasuke snorted. "What, and share the limelight? He was pissed enough that I got asked to do the analyst call."

"Hm," Neji murmured, the dry tone of his voice conveying exactly what he thought of Sasuke's boss.

The door opened, and the CEO's chief of staff scurried in, looking flustered. "Sasuke, can you come with me to the Board room right now?"

Sasuke glanced down at his suddenly silent phone, then arched a brow at the chief of staff.

"Orochimaru has asked that you join the Board meeting."

Sasuke stood, knowing that Kabuto was going to be jealous as fuck that Sasuke was being sent in to handle the questions on the project, but Sasuke just mentally shrugged. It was Kabuto's own fault for not keeping up. He picked up his jacket from the back of his chair, wishing he hadn't left his tie in his office. The team room was pretty informal, especially with the long hours they pulled. But the Board room was a whole different thing. There would be no time for him to go pick up his tie, though, judging by the way the chief of staff was already heading towards the door. He pulled his jacket on and was surprised to see Neji quickly removing his own tie, then holding it out to him.

"Here. You can tie it on the way." Neji's face was impassive, handing Sasuke his tie as though it was a normal occurrence for them to exchange clothing.

Neji's tie probably cost more than Sasuke's entire suit, but Sasuke just nodded in thanks as the Chief of Staff hurried them down to the board room.

-

Sasuke returned to the team room over an hour later, looking calm, as though he hadn't spent the last hour getting grilled by the CEO and the board with absolutely no prep time.

"Everything ok?" Juugo asked, looking Sasuke over as though checking for physical injury. The Orochimaru had a reputation for chewing people up and spitting them out if they came to the Board meetings unprepared. Of course, there was no way for Sasuke to have prepared when he literally had thirty seconds warning about the whole thing.