Back at it again with a new story!
It's good to finally have an actually finished piece to publish to you. It's been a long while since I've written stuff (for multiple annoying reasons), but I'm pretty proud of myself with this one. Also before disclaimer: I haven't really written from Sasuke's point of view so he might be slightly ooc, but meh. Enjoy!
"Shikamaru, you should really listen to this song! Even you would probably like it."
Sasuke sighed at the familiar sound of Ino's overly loud voice. The blonde was shoving her phone in front of the poor boy's face, who was trying to seem interested enough to keep his girlfriend sane. The completely bored Uchiha stuffed his hands in his pockets and kept his gaze in the ground as he and his group of friends made their way to lunch.
Sasuke Uchiha was the most popular guy in the university of Konoha. He was the son of the richest people in the country and the brother of a famous rock star. He and his friends were on top of the social hierarchy, even though it was mostly because of him. And who couldn't resist a young, handsome and, most importantly, filthy rich man like Sasuke Uchiha? Guess people didn't change much after high school.
Sasuke had sat through a three hour lecture on international business affairs, a class he didn't want to be in to begin with. To make it worse, it had started at nine o'clock sharp. Usually the famous Uchiha was a morning person, but that was when it wasn't after a night of clubbing with Naruto. He had barely gotten into bed when it was time for his routine morning run. To top it off the lecturer didn't really seem to like him, which didn't help the situation in any way. He was tired, he was frustrated and all he wanted to do was go home.
"I still can't believe why you let Naruto out of all people pick where we're eating!" Tenten complained, wrapping her arms across her chest. She wasn't wrong. Ichiraku's wasn't Sasuke's favorite either, but after the annoying day he'd had it was just better to let the blonde get his way rather than have him whine all day about it.
Naruto's offended voice called out somewhere from behind them. "Hey! Don't you talk badly about my favorite restaurant in front of me!"
Sasuke couldn't resist the subconscious eye roll. Ichiraku's was Naruto's favorite restaurant and he would probably eat there every day if his not-an-official-but-plain-obvious-girlfriend Hinata didn't stop him from doing so. The dumbass would have ramen broth practically running in his veins otherwise.
"Hn." Sasuke didn't bother to give a better answer, he just didn't care enough for the time being.
Ichiraku's was a popular ramen restaurant in the center of Konoha and possibly the best – at least in Naruto's opinion. It was located by the main shopping street, in the street floor of the biggest mall in the whole city. It was an ideal location for a restaurant that wanted customers and a lot of them, but that wasn't always the greatest. It was always busy, but for some reason they always managed to nudge themselves in there somewhere.
"Teuchi!" Naruto called out the second they got inside of the restaurant. Almost instantly a familiar head popped out of the kitchen. It was Teuchi, the owner and head chef of the restaurant, who Naruto had befriended during the many years of regular lunches and dinners.
"Naruto, my boy!" Teuchi greeted, waving his hand in the air trying to get the attention of his daughter, Ayame. "Get the boy and his friends a table!"
Sasuke eyed the familiar waitress. Ayame was attractive to say the least and it was a miracle that Naruto didn't have a thing for her. She had a nice, slender figure and beautiful porcelain skin. Her brown hair was neatly tied to a ponytail and her black eyes were tastefully lined with eyeliner and mascara.
"It's nice to see you again, Naruto." Ayame kindly greeted the blonde boy, who was already drooling from the smell lingering in the restaurant. She showed them to a large, round table that fit all six of them and Naruto basically flung himself at the table.
"Hinata, come sit next to me!" He cheerfully invited the lavender-eyed girl who, with a slight blush, nodded and approached the seat next to him.
That earned another eye roll from Sasuke. He wasn't the biggest enthusiast of romance in any shape or form. He didn't find women interesting enough to keep around in that way. Of course he had women in his life that he respected, like his mother and the few friends he had in his inner circle, but girlfriends were rarely his thing. From time to time he would have his usual no-strings attached flings that were purely physical and nothing more, but that was about it.
But even though he didn't care much for romance, the idiocy his friend showed by not actually asking Hinata out was something completely unheard of. Sasuke knew the blonde already acted like Hinata was his girlfriend, getting all jealous when guys asked her out and such, but he couldn't just get it through his thick skull that the girl was head over heels in love with him.
Sasuke, once again, put it off his mind and sat down. He sat opposite to Naruto, with Shikamaru on his right and Neji on his left. Ino, who was sitting next to Shikamaru, was still going on about the same new singer that she'd discovered and was loving. She showed her phone around and stuck headphones to anyone she possibly could, encouraging them to listen to her music. She kept going on and on about her, but Sasuke tried his best to ignore the blonde. He felt the familiar feeling of pounding at the back of his head, which usually meant that he would have a killer headache later.
"The usual for me, please." Naruto told Ayame, who instantly nodded and didn't even write his order down.
"Mine too." Hinata's soft voice called out. She hadn't even reached for a menu. Naruto's left arm was wrapped around her slender waist and a slight blush decorated the tops of her cheekbones.
"The rest of us probably need a moment, but could you bring us drinks?" Neji, Hinata's cousin, asked Ayame after coming to the conclusion that nobody else knew what they wanted off-the-bat.
"Sure, the usual drinks." The waitress smiled and nodded before retreating from their table to the kitchen. Sasuke eyed her as she walked back into the kitchen before he resumed running his eyes through the familiar pages of the menu.
"I think I'm having pork.." Tenten muttered as she pointed to a dish on the menu that she and Neji shared. The brown-haired boy silently nodded, still not sure of what to decide. Sasuke wasn't that hungry anymore, but he knew that it was better to just get something.
"Hey Teme", Naruto's voice distracted his menu-examining, "when's the next band rehearsal?"
Sasuke sighed, lifting his eyes slowly away from the menu. "Monday."
Naruto's brows furrowed, his face twisting when he heard the word. "Monday? Why Monday?"
"Because we decided that yesterday." Shikamaru joined in, his voice sounding just as tired as he looked. "We have that live thing on saturday that Ino set up."
Ino lifted her eyes from her phone screen the second Shikamaru mentioned her name. "Yup and you better be great, because I've put a lot of effort into it. I already have thousands of fans tweeting about it."
"Don't worry babe." Shikamaru rested his head on top of Ino's. "Everything will go great as long as Naruto shows up at practice."
"Hey!" The blonde protested at Shikamaru's snide remark. "That was just one time!"
"That one time nearly cost us a gig, dumbass." Sasuke reminded him of the time he missed a rehearsal slash meeting with a club owner potentially wanting to hire them, which got the blonde boy sheepishly kneading the back of his head.
"And for that reason alone, we are not calling our band hokage." Neji added, earning a glare from Naruto.
Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "Or anything else you came up with.."
"Well hokage is still a much better name than sharingan!" Naruto tried to defend his idea, but was met with cold, disapproving looks and he knew that he'd lost the fight.
"We voted on sharingan and it's going to stay that way. We can't keep changing the name every third gig." Shikamaru stated, placing his menu on the table.
"Yeah, it's bad for your image." Ino agreed, not lifting her eyes off of her phone screen. She'd finally switched from obsessing over "the new rising star of music" to scrolling through social media; her own and their band's. Ino had taken the job of managing their social media herself, which was a relief for the guys since the girl really knew her business. Anyone could have an account on instagram or twitter, but Ino, for reasons unknown, had really gained some attention and was becoming very popular. That was a blessing for sharingan.
Suddenly a familiar object vibrated in the Uchiha's pocket, which distracted him from the conversation going on in the table. Sasuke lifted his phone up so that he could see the notification right in the middle of his screen. He could see the small icons of his social medias and such pop up on the top bar that meant that he would have to check those later, but the ones he was actually interested in were notifications of things that he'd set in his calendar with a reminder.
Meeting with dad at 5
Itachi's gig at 10
"Fuck." Sasuke cursed, not really thinking about the situation he was in. He had totally forgotten that he had any sort of plans for the day. He'd generally just had an annoying day and comforted himself with the thought of crashing into his bed and just sleeping. Maybe playing with his guitar if he felt like it.
Guess that wasn't happening.
His sudden cursing caught the attention of his friends, who stopped talking and turned to look at him with confused faces and raised eyebrows.
"What?"
Sasuke, now even more annoyed than before, aggressively stuffed the black phone back into his pocket. "I have a meeting with my dad later today."
"What's wrong with that?" Hinata carefully asked before anyone else could get a word out.
It was normal for him to visit is dad at work, he did it pretty regularly. Sasuke's father owned the biggest record label in the country, which was one of the reasons he and his friends had started a band in the first place. Sasuke grew up around musicians and artists, spent lots of time around in the studio and grew to thinking of the music business as a part of his life, not just a job or a hobby. Only his father expected him to take over the company when the time came, and not play around with his friends in a silly band, which he didn't think would make it in the long run.
After a heated discussion with his father a few days ago about the same issue they'd been arguing about for the past few months, Sasuke didn't really want to see his father or talk to him about anything.
Sasuke chose not to answer the blue-haired girl's question and continued on to another topic that wasn't about him or his dad. "Itachi's gig is tonight."
Ino's eyes widened in shock. "That's right! I totally forgot."
Yeah, well so did Sasuke. Even though he wasn't a fan of his brother's band, akatsuki, he still would have to go. He would always go whenever his brother played in their hometown, that was just a ritual. Akatsuki was a heavy metal band started by his older brother and a group of his friends, much like the one Sasuke had with his friends. Though their music wasn't quite as heavy as akatsuki's. The big difference between them was that while Sasuke's band hadn't been out for more than a year, Akatsuki was widely known and very popular. Itachi didn't spend much time at home since he was constantly touring around the world with his band.
Or well…
"And he's gonna be home until they pack up and leave for Europe." Sasuke muttered as Ayame brought drinks to their table.
"Your drinks." She cheerfully announced and left the tall glasses in the middle of their table, moving on to serving other customers. Sasuke didn't even feel like drinking anything, but still slid the glass with light brown liquid in front of him.
He needed the alcohol to get through the day even if his headache would get worse. That's what painkillers were for.
"Cheers." The Uchiha took a sip of his beer and gulped down the liquid, easing the dry feeling in his throat.
"But Itachi is cool, right? Isn't it fun to have your brother home once in a while?" Tenten asked, twirling the ice cubes in her soda with a black straw before taking a sip.
Once again, Sasuke didn't feel like providing a proper answer. "Hn."
It wasn't that he didn't like his older brother. Itachi had always been a great brother to him. He taught Sasuke how to play guitar and helped him with school work when he needed it.
The fact that Itachi was always so great and perfect was what bothered Sasuke. The constant competition over attention and approval was what annoyed Sasuke about their relationship. But now Itachi had been gone for a few months on tour, and his relationship with his dad had just gotten worse.
"Well tonight is going to be awesome." Naruto grinned. "Akatsuki gigs always are."
Sasuke closed his eyes and downed the whole drink in one go.
'Yep, they sure are.'
"Come in."
Sasuke entered his father's office the second he heard him respond to his knocking. It was good that he answered quickly, because the younger Uchiha would've burst in anyways, with or without a permission.
On the other side of the office, standing by the window and looking at the high skyscrapers of Konoha's metropolitan area was Fugaku Uchiha, Sasuke's father. Without hesitation the younger Uchiha waltzed into his father's office, as unemotional as ever. There were two leather chairs placed right in front of the rather large wooden desk that displayed his computer, a few important looking papers and a picture frame that he knew had a picture of their family on the other side. He chose not to sit. He didn't care to spend any more time there than he was obliged to.
"You wanted to see me." Sasuke, broke the silence that fell into the room. He had his hands stuffed into the depths of his pockets, lips pressed to two thin lines. His eyes stayed strictly on his father, who slowly turned to him after he heard the doors .
"Yes, I did." Fugaku answered, his facial expression changing to content when he recognized the person who'd entered his office. "I wanted to talk to you about taking more responsibility around here."
Sasuke wasn't surprised by his father's words. Might as well get straight to the point. It wasn't the first time he had offered Sasuke more responsibility over things. It was only natural to slowly have him on the ropes as he would most likely be the next person to take over his father's company.
"I'm busy." Sasuke unemotionally let the words slip out of his mouth, which caused his father to scrunch his eyebrows together and sharply glance at his direction.
"You're busy?" He repeated, meeting the cool glaze of the younger Uchiha. "If this is about your attempt of a band, I'm not interested to hear about it. Only if your brother was here now to tell you-"
Sasuke's body became electric when he heard his brother's name. "Oh so this is about Itachi now?" He felt a dry, humourless laugh gather up in his throat. "He abandoned your plans to pursue his own career and now you're stuck with me. Because he left. "
"Sasuke!" Fugaku raised his voice, placing his hands on the table and leaning forward towards Sasuke. "Your brother has nothing to do with this. You will do what I say."
Sasuke felt his fist ball up inside of the pockets of his pants. His gaze narrowed and his breathing tensed, just as his voice did. "Then what more do you expect from me? I already go to the school of your choosing, major in what you want me to and spend my time here at the studios downstairs, working tasks for you."
His father's gaze was bordering on dangerous, but the raven-haired man decided to ignore it. He wasn't the least bit afraid of his father, and for once he would speak his mind. "If you want me to take over, you need to let me do things my way. I'm not Itachi. I won't listen to you question my decisions. Just because you wanted Itachi to follow in your footsteps and that failed, you can't expect me to just abandon everything for your company."
Fugaku stayed silent as his son angrily turned to stare at the framed records with engraved plaques on each one that decorated the walls of his father's office. Sasuke wasn't sure why he didn't just storm out of the room. He could feel his father's eyes on him and the tension in the room had his throat slowly drying out. The only real reason he had to speak to his father in that way was the fight before, which didn't exactly leave the two feeling warm and cuddly.
Sasuke had things in his life that bothered him, many that involved their sometimes dysfunctional family life and his older brother not being in the picture, but he rarely spoke of them.
"I see." Fugaku finally answered. Sasuke was almost surprised by the calmness of his father's voice. "We'll talk about this later, Sasuke."
The raven-haired man watched his father turn back to staring out of his office windows, not saying another word to him. Sasuke knew that the conversation was over. His father had gotten the last word, but he didn't care to challenge him. He had said everything he wanted to get out of his mouth and now the ball was in his court.
Sasuke turned around and walked to the large doors that blocked his way to freedom from the constricting silence. He grabbed a hold from one of the metal door knobs, but was stopped by his father's voice calling his name.
Sasuke didn't turn around, but he didn't open the door either. "What?"
"You do know that Itachi is playing tonight."
Sasuke didn't answer.
"I expect you to be there."
But before Fugaku could have another look at his son, the doors of his office loudly closed as Sasuke marched his way out as fast as he possibly could.
Sasuke silently glanced and nodded to the familiar chauffeur as a thank you before banging the car door shut behind him. He'd figured that it was best to get a car for him and his friends, because none of them were going to be in the condition to drive after the night was over.
Even though Sasuke wasn't happy with the little things going on in his life, he wasn't suicidal. He liked to keep his handsome face the way it was. Perfect.
The stuffy smell of cigarette smoke flowed in the air as people stood in front of the closed doors. Now Sasuke couldn't even see the red tail lights of the black car that had dropped them off. A tired sigh escaped his lips, there was no avoiding this now.
"We are NOT going over there." Ino loudly stated, pointing to the long line of fans that were waiting to enter the venue. Sasuke shook his head at the crowd. There must have been over a hundred people in line and the warm-up act wasn't going to start playing for another hour.
The tower was a popular concert venue, usually preferred by metal bands for the bold and alternative look and feel. Apart from the modern and flashy entrance, the building was lined and covered by pipes of all different sizes from top to bottom. It had an abandoned factory kind of a feeling to it, which Sasuke knew to be popular among some bands. And now that akatsuki was performing, the place would be packed. Sasuke most likely should've guessed that beforehand.
"I guess there are perks to knowing the brother of the lead singer." Tenten smugly stated, nudging the raven hair's side. Sasuke didn't say anything in response. He tiredly sighed and started walking down the street to the back of the building.
They could've just walked past the line and gone inside the normal route. The bouncer would've let them in because he was he, but the young Uchiha knew better than to start a riot. People generally don't think fondly of other people cutting the line, and the last thing Uchiha wanted was to cause a scene. He was in no mood for such. It was simpler just to avoid large crowds and go in the more inconspicuous way.
"I wonder what they're going to play tonight." Ino said, starting up a conversation behind Sasuke, who didn't bother to get involved. "I heard that they're having someone on stage joining them."
Sasuke rolled his eyes at the thought of akatsuki's former choices of guest stars. All he could imagine was lots of leather, boobs and no talent what so ever. What a way to ruin a gig that wasn't that good to begin with. The screeching sound of female growls and horrible screams had him holding back a shiver.
'I wonder what kind of a bimbo Itachi has on for us this time..' Sasuke thought, annoyed by the fact that he was even going.
He just wanted to go home.
Even though it wasn't that late in the evening, it slowly starting to get darker and darker outside. The dimly lit street lights didn't help much, but they were standing in front of the back door sooner than they even realized.
Sasuke climbed the few steps in front of the massive door and loudly banged his fist against it, startling Ino and Hinata who were right in the middle of a conversation and not paying attention. Soon after the door was opened by a muscular, strong-built looking man that gave Sasuke one glance and immediately stepped aside to let them in. A slight, content smirk rose to the Uchiha's thin lips as he walked in, his friends following him closely behind.
It wasn't the first or the last time Sasuke Uchiha was at the backstage of a gig at the tower. It wasn't the first time he was at the backstage of an akatsuki concert either. He knew the place like the insides of his pockets and led his friends to where he most likely thought Itachi and his bandmates would be.
After walking through half a dozen hallways they arrived somewhere behind the screen that separated the bulky equipment and messy black cords covering half of the floor from the actual stage. The warm up band was already starting out with their sound check based on what they were hearing, so they calmly walked past the area, through a burgundy curtain and down another almost identical hallway.
At one point the hallway widened into an even larger space that had been turned from a storage area into a semi-comfortable looking lounging area. Sasuke noted the dressing tables resting against the back wall with leather sofas providing a comfortable looking seating area. This hadn't been here a few weeks before when he had been working out a few details for his father.
Not wasting another thought on the décor, Sasuke took a quick turn to the left and led his friends into a large room with music blasting from multiple speakers placed around the room. There were a few couches and an armchair at the back of the room, a huge tv on one wall and a bar on the right side of the room. The young Uchiha breathed in the smell of spilled alcohol as he watched the mass of bodies inside the room. A few of them he recognized as the same groupies that followed akatsuki wherever they went on a tour, but most of them were complete strangers to him.
The first thing going through his mind was to get as much alcohol into his system as he possibly could in a short amount of time. He went instantly to the bar and reached for a bottle of beer that was conveniently sitting in a bucket of ice on the counter, as if it had been left there just for him. After the meeting with his dad and the day he'd had, the beer at Ichiraku's wasn't nearly enough. He needed to lose half of his consciousness to alcohol before being able to deal with what was about to come.
"Sasuke!"
The young Uchiha instantly recognized the voice of the man calling him. He opened his beer with a familiar fizz and eyed his brother who had spotted him earlier than he would've liked.
"I didn't know if you were coming or not." Itachi said the moment he reached him and his friends, before poking his little brother's forehead like he always did. "Foolish little brother."
Sasuke twitched and took a step back from his big brother. "You really should stop doing that."
Itachi just smiled at his younger brother, bringing an arm around his shoulder. "I'm going to borrow Sasuke for a little while."
"I'll be back." Sasuke said to Naruto, who was busy talking to his unofficial but very official girlfriend, Hinata, and clearly didn't hear a word that he'd said.
The younger Uchiha sighed and rolled his eyes at the blonde idiot before being taken over to the other side of the room where the rest of akatsuki was sitting. "Look who's here."
"Wellwellwell, look who came." Deidara, the drummer of akatsuki called out. He was sitting on a large sofa with Konan on his other side, waving his hand around and almost knocking down the beer on the armrest next to him. Sasuke watched him, he hadn't changed a bit in the year or so that he'd been away on tour. He was the same old Deidara with his long, blonde hair on his classic half-up ponytail with sidebangs covering his left eye.
"I thought you were supposed to have beer in and not on you." Sasuke sarcastically remarked, which had Deidara smirking and shaking his head.
"Always a pleasure, Sasuke."
"And he brought the annoying blonde with him." Sasori sighed, interrupting them and pointed to the direction where Sasuke's friends had scattered to. Sasuke eyed the clearly bothered redhead, who was glaring to the direction of his friends, slipping black rings into his fingers one by one.
"Which one?" Konan joined in on the conversation before Sasuke could get a word in, pointing one of her neatly shaped, long nails at Ino. "Because she's hot enough for me not to mind."
Deidara's eyes lit up and he turned to Konan. "Wow Konan. I didn't know you swing that way."
The purple haired woman just shrugged and let a smirk curve her pierced lower lip. "There's a lot you don't know about me."
At this point Sasuke wanted out of the conversation. He didn't find the dialogue between a tipsy Deidara and Konan interesting at all. Itachi's arm was now gone from his shoulder and the raven haired man was somewhere behind them talking to a woman with thin glasses and bright red hair who was wearing their trademark pattern on her low-cut top; a red cloud with a black background.
"So how's your band doing?" Sasori suddenly spoke out that snapped Sasuke straight out of his thoughts. It took a second for the Uchiha to realize that the redhead laying on the sofa was speaking directly to him.
"My band?" Sasuke impassively responded. "We're doing fine."
He didn't really feel like having a conversation about their band with Sasori of all people. Even though Sasuke had nothing against him, the idea of discussing sharingan with anyone in the club that night seemed repulsive.
"So you decide on a name yet?" Sasori questioned further, clearly ignoring Sasuke's emotionless, uninterested behaviour. His brown eyes were staring straight into Sasuke's black ones, and Sasuke knew that he was only talking to him because he knew it would annoy him.
Sasuke took a big gulp of the bitter liquid from the bottle in his hand. "Sharingan."
Sasori raised his eyebrows. "Sharingan? That actually doesn't sound that bad."
Sasuke had to choke down his urge to smack the stupid expression off of Sasori's face as he knew he had to play nice with Itachi's friends.
"It actually doesn't. Guessing Naruto didn't come up with that one." Sasuke hadn't even noticed the gray haired man before he joined the conversation. Sasuke turned to look at the man to his right. Hidan was sitting in the only armchair with a barely clothed, clearly wasted girl sprawled across his lap.
"Nice to see that you didn't paint yourself to be a skeleton this time." The younger Uchiha remarked, which angered Hidan.
His face twisted. "What did you say? A skeleton?!" Hidan growled. He sounded hurt and angry at the same time, which caused Sasuke to impassively rise one of his eyebrows at him and gulp down another mouthful of his beer. Hidan, not too pleased with him, tried to get up, but his movements were blocked by the limp girl on top of him.
Sasuke, coming to the conclusion that he'd seen and heard enough, made a move to leave the conversation. He quickly downed the rest of his beer and waved the empty bottle by its neck smirking.
"Gotta get a refill." And that was Sasuke's ticket out of the unnecessary, unwanted conversation with Sasori and Hidan, who was still yelling at him about his art. He walked straight to the bar, ignoring Deidara protesting him leaving them, and lifted a small glass from under the counter before examining the options he had for a shot.
"Oh so we're in the mood for that, huh?" Sasuke didn't even look at his brother, who came to sit on the stool on the other side of the bar. "And get one for yourself too."
"Hn." Sasuke grunted as a response, taking the glass bottle filled with clear liquid and pouring some into the small glass in front of him before sliding it to Itachi.
Sasuke dived under the counter again to get another shot glass for himself.
"So Ino told me you got someone to go on stage with you." Sasuke said, placing the small glass on the table. Itachi easily downed the shot without his smug expression changing one bit.
"Mhm, you'll might even like this one."
Sasuke shook his head and downed his own shot. "I highly doubt it."
The room-temperature vodka burned the back of his throat. Had nobody ever mentioned that vodka was supposed to be cold when served? Itachi urged his little brother to pour him another one by pushing his empty glass towards him. "Well, you might be surprised by her."
Her.
Sasuke once again shook his head and poured Itachi's glass full. They both gulped down the shots without either of them wincing, an Uchiha specialty that Naruto loved to show off as a conversation starter whenever alcohol was involved. Itachi then took the bottle of liquor from Sasuke and placed it back with the rest. "I'm cutting you off. You can't be throwing up before I perform, now can you?"
'Not with vodka that cheap.' Sasuke wanted to add.
In a way the younger Uchiha was offended. He throwing up? Sasuke never threw up. He would feel sick and hangover, but he never threw up. He wouldn't let his body do something so uncontrolled and sloppy.
"We also got a new promoter, who's probably more for your taste anyway. She should be around here somewhere." Itachi's lips curved into a slight smirk
Sasuke rolled his black eyes at his big brother's words. "I'm going out."
The black haired Uchiha found the cool late summer evening quite calming. The stale scent of spilled alcohol was gone and he was greeted by a fresh breeze. It was a nice change from the stuffy air of the lounge inside. He was only standing in the doorway of the back entrance, he didn't bother going further. He just needed to get away from his brother, his irrelevant band mates and the whole situation in general.
Sasuke didn't smoke, but if he did, this would've been the exact moment he would've been filling his lungs with the toxic smoke. In turn, he just inhaled the fresh air in and out. It was way too easy to just slip away when nobody was watching. He even considered it, but he knew he wouldn't hear the end of it. He didn't want to be nagged by Naruto, Itachi and his parents.
Not to even mention the hell that would break loose if Ino heard he left.
"Why did I even come.." He groaned as he walked back inside, hearing the door loudly slam shut behind him. Time for him to get another drink.
Sasuke slowly made his way back through the dozens of corridors. At this point he was just annoyed. He was repulsed by the sloppy, drunk people that reeked of alcohol and knew that the more he stalled the slower he would have to go and find his friends.
He could hear that the warm-up band had already started, which meant that it wouldn't be long until akatsuki would be on, maybe an hour or so. That would mean that he was already closer to the night being over and he would be back in his beloved bed in no time at all. The hollow sounds of the distant music being played filled the nearly empty halls. Everyone that was backstage was hanging in the lounge with the members of akatsuki, including his friends.
Except for one person.
Just before the entrance to the lounge, he spotted a figure on the couches in the seating area in the hallway right before the doorway to the lounge. It had been empty the few minutes before when he'd walked by them to go outside, but now there was someone there.
He let his eyes wander on the hooded slender figure. It was a girl, definitely a girl.
'Why would someone be out here all alone?' Sasuke wondered, intrigued by the girl that was all alone here in the hallway instead of hanging out with the band.'
She was scrolling through her phone like she couldn't care less that she was at the backstage of an akatsuki concert, which for some reason got Sasuke even more interested.
She was out there all alone, as if just waiting for him. What if the universe was offering him a little treat for being exceptionally bitchy before?
He could see the few strands of pink hair escaping the black hood that covered the rest of her head. Pink hair? She could've been an akatsuki fan based on the overall look of pink hair and dark clothing, but why wasn't she with the band then?
He halted just before the hallway opened up into a slightly wider space with the couches. The young Uchiha could either be his usual self and ignore her or he could stay here and avoid going back into the lounge. Easiest decision he'd made all day.
Sasuke, determined to get what he wanted, sat on the u-shaped leather couch across from her. His eyes were drawn to her looks. She had on a black oversized hoodie and black ripped jeans with leather boots. Very basic clothes to wear to a metal concert. She wasn't that tall, but she looked nice overall. He could see her plump lips and defined jawline, but the hood hid most of her face away from his eyes. At first he waited for her to react, but soon he found himself completely ignored. She didn't notice or care about his presence what so ever, which was a slight surprise to the Uchiha. Now he didn't know what to do. Was he supposed to say something to her? Usually girls were all over him before he even got a single word out.
"Now why would a pretty girl like you sit out here all alone?" The raven hair asked, trying to get the attention of the girl, but only managed to startle her.
Sasuke was instantly pierced by a pair of dazzling green eyes paired with a surprised expression. She lowered the bulky headphones from her ears to around her neck which caused the black hood to also fall back and reveal her unnaturally coloured hair.
'So that's why she didn't notice me coming..' Sasuke thought to himself when he recognized the exact pair of headphones he had laying on his bedside table.
"Sorry, I didn't hear you coming. What did you say?" She finally spoke out to Sasuke's delight.
Sasuke caught his first glimpse of her face now and even he had to admit that this girl was more than just pretty. Her glimmering green eyes seemed to match perfectly with her pink hair and her rosy pouty lips just seemed to invite the younger Uchiha closer.
She was the perfect way for him to release the frustration that was bottled up inside of him.
Sasuke let his lips curve into a slight smirk. "I was just saying how I haven't seen you around here before. You're not an akatsuki groupie are you?"
She shook her head with a slight smile. "Nope." A glint of amusement coloured her eyes.
"Well what are you doing here then?" Sasuke casually ran his fingers through his inky black locks. "Are you working here?"
Sasuke watched her eyes trail away from him to the phone in her hands and then back to him. "You could say that."
He raised an eyebrow at the girl's answer. What mysterious girl had the universe laid out for him?
She noted the change in his expression and leaned back to fully rest against the couch.
"I just got this job so that's probably why you haven't seen me before."
"Aa."
'So she's the new promoter Itachi was talking about earlier..' Sasuke thought to himself, examining her from head to toe with his dark eyes.
Itachi had been correct, she was definitely more his type than any skank Itachi was going to bring up on the stage with him.
The phone in her hand suddenly started to vibrate and blink and snapped Sasuke out of his thoughts. Her attention went straight to her phone and away from him. Sasuke felt the tingling urge to peek and see what she was looking at, but knew that it was probably stuff concerning her new job as akatsuki's new promoter. Her fingers quickly tapped out a message before sending it and once again turned her attention to him, turning the screen of her phone against her thigh.
"Why are you sitting alone? Everyone else is in the lounge." Sasuke asked.
"Let's just say I was waiting for more…interesting company." She replied, one corner of her mouth twitching into a slight smirk.
"Well I hope I meet your standards." Sasuke said.
"You most certainly do."
But then the conversation was cut off by her receiving another text, which again had her full attention and he was simply background noise.
Sasuke wasn't sure if she was playing hard to get or what. "So akatsuki is having someone come up on stage with them."
She turned her eyes away from her phone and raised a brow, but she didn't say anything.
"Yeah, but it's probably one of the same boring sluts that just want to get closer to my brother. All looks no talent." Sasuke rolled his eyes, but knew that her attention would be all on him now.
"Oh yeah. She's awful." She responded, a small grin curving her pink lips. "I heard that she's going to be the worst one they've had yet."
Sasuke felt a chuckle bubbling inside of him. He knew it. How could Itachi even consider him being interested in someone like that.
"Well we'll see what kind of a mistake Itachi has chosen for us today." Sasuke was almost looking forward to seeing the show now since he was sure that it was going to be a catastrophe. If someone that worked with them said that the performer was going to be bad, then it was going to be bad.
"Yup, we'll see." She laughed, twisting a strand of hair around her index finger. Her luscious voice seemed to wrap itself around the raven-haired man.
"I'm Sasuke Uchiha." He was sure he was starting the obvious, but her expression didn't change a bit. She leaned forward, an amused glint lighting up her eyes.
"Is that supposed to impress me?"
That was not the answer Sasuke thought he would be getting. This girl seemed to be quite something else than he'd expected, which only made her more intriguing. Someone who didn't care for his name, that was a rare delicacy.
"I wasn't counting on it." Sasuke acted like he wasn't surprised by her answer.
"But I've got to admit, I've gotten myself in quite the company." She rose to her feet and walked over to his side of the sofa, hips slightly swaying on each step she took. She was totally hot. Every ounce of her being was screaming sex to him and she sat down on the corner spot of the couch, right next to him.
Sasuke didn't say anything and just watched her eyes travel all over his body. She was becoming more and more attractive by the second. He knew he'd gotten her. Now everything else was just foreplay.
"So are you going to tell me your name?" He asked, tilting his head to the side. He didn't need her name to have fun, but he was curious.
But before he got to say anything else, a black haired woman popped from one of the random rooms and waved her hand vigorously. At first Sasuke was confused, why was someone waving at him? But as his company rose to her feet and turned to walk away from him towards the woman, he realized that it wasn't him she wanted.
The pink haired girl tiredly sighed as she rose to her feet. "And that's my cue to go."
Sasuke almost groaned out of frustration when watching her walk away. But before she disappeared to the endless hallways, Sasuke managed to call out to her.
"Maybe we'll see each other later?"
"Oh we will." She winked at him before turning back around.
And with that she disappeared behind the corner and was out of his sight. In a way he was disappointed that she left, but he was sure to seek her out after akatsuki's concert and then he would have his ways with her.
Sasuke got back to the stuffy lounge. Everything was about the same, except for Naruto who appeared to be way more intoxicated than the last he'd seen of him. Sasuke rolled his eyes at the blonde. He definitely didn't expect anything less from him.
The sound of the screaming fans was almost deafening. They entered the massive hall from a small door on the side of the stage. It was filled with hundreds of fans talking, yelling and over all going crazy. The warm up act had just finished, which meant that akatsuki would be on in a short while and everyone seemed to be very excited by that.
Sasuke and his friends were escorted by two security guards to their reserved seats. Of course they got chairs while everyone else stood in one huge mass in front of the stage. The tower wanted to please the Uchiha family, which usually meant that they got the best seats they had to offer. This time, they had seats on the same platform as the guys that were in charge of sound and lighting, which meant that they were rather close to the stage and above the people standing in front of them. It was the perfect place to watch, not too close with a perfect view of the whole stage.
"Wow we really have the best view!" Tenten exclaimed as they rose the few steps to the platform. Sasuke, of course, got the place in the middle.
Ino, who was sitting next to Sasuke, nudged his side. "Did Itachi tell you who he was going to have on stage with him?" She practically had to yell for him to hear her over the loud noise of the hall.
Sasuke shook his head, but all he could think about was their new pink haired promoter. "No. I guess he wanted it to be a surprise."
He watched the workers set up the stage for akatsuki. They had some of their music playing on the background, which was a way to get the fans even more excited. He watched them moving the speakers around, change a few microphones, place water bottles next to the platform for the drums and bring out the rest of the instruments for the akatsuki members.
Soon they were done and they left the stage all set up.
Sasuke listened to the music slowly quieting down and Deidara emerged first from directly behind the drums. He lifted his hands in the air, resulting in the crowd cheering for him. The blonde sure liked the attention. He was wearing his signature akatsuki cape, which was a black and red cape with a long collar and red clouds painted all over it. Sasuke rolled his eyes as the front of the cape moved and his uncovered abdomen was visible to everyone.
'Typical Deidara..' Sasuke thought.
Deidara reached into his cape and pulled out a pair of drumsticks, holding them in his hands. He was obviously trying to get a reaction out of the crowd.
Which he got.
At first he only played for a moment and stopped, which resulted in a booing response from everyone else.
Sasuke knew the game plan already. Dedara would get on stage first, hype the crowd up and then everyone else would come and start play. It happened at nearly every single show, and it was no surprise to anyone.
"Oh boo you. I was just trying to see if you guys could make any noise." Deidara talked to the overhead mics above his drum set. "But now that that's established, are you guys ready to rock?!"
Deidara started to play, blonde hair whipping in the air as he violently moved his head. Soon he was joined by the rest of the akatsuki members, Konan first appearing behind the keys and starting to play as well. Hidan joined in with his guitar, Sasori with his bass. Lastly Itachi came, escorted by the band playing in all its glory and the crowd went wild. Itachi grabbed the mic and smirked, glancing to Sasuke's direction before starting.
Sasuke wasn't the biggest fan of akatsuki's music. It wasn't that he wasn't into heavy metal, they just didn't have that spark that would ever grab his attention and encourage him to continue listening. Power metal at its best, but he couldn't really find anything interesting about it.
Maybe it was because of Itachi, maybe not. He would never know.
But even if Sasuke wasn't that into their music, the crowd had gone absolutely wild over them. Even his friends yelled and rose from their seats when they finally finished their third song. Or was it fourth?
Itachi grabbed the mic from the stand.
"Are you all enjoying yourselves?" He yelled into it.
The crowd responded by yelling.
"Ah, definitely good to be home."
The crowd yelled even louder this time.
"So as many of you know this is our last gig before we start our tour in Europe." Sasuke watched his brother walk back to grab a water bottle in his hand and take a sip before continuing to speak again.
"So we have a little surprise prepared for you. As some of you might've heard, we have someone very special joining us on stage tonight and we've been working on a few new songs that we'd like to share with you. You interested?"
The crowd went absolutely wild. Itachi smirked.
"Well in that case, let's welcome our guest."
Sasuke's eyes followed the moving curtain at the side of the stage, when Itachi announced the woman joining them on stage. Suddenly he felt like choking as the crowd went absolutely nuts, resulting in deafening screams.
Right next to his brother, standing at the very center of the stage and staring straight into his dark eyes was the girl from the couches, emerald eyes sparkling as she smugly smiled.
Oh he had fucked up alright.
Goddess of Glam ❧