"Come on Ruri! They're going to be on soon!" Naruto said dragging a brown haired girl behind him.
"I'm coming Naruto!" Ruri replied trying to keep up.
"Naruto, would you stop dragging Ruri around?" Sasuke asked getting annoyed as he tried to keep up with the blonde.
"Not until we get to our seats!" Naruto replied getting through the people in the aisle. "I mean Ruri you listened to their CDs right?"
"The ones you forced on me? Yeah I did they are good," Ruri said as she could slowly feel her arm go numb. Naruto smiled widely and let go of Ruri so she could sit. Sasuke sat beside her not looking the least bit thrilled. Ruri looked at him.
"Why are you so moody?" she asked.
"No reason," Sasuke replied crossing his arms looking up at the currently empty stage. Ruri sighed then looked at Naruto.
"So how did you get these tickets Naruto? I heard they were really expensive, and hard to get," she said.
"Oh well, the guitarist Eri, she's a friend of mine so she sent me some, but she didn't get me backstage passes so I had to get that myself," Naruto explained taking out the passes and giving them to Ruri and Sasuke.
"Wait, you know her?" Ruri asked as she took one.
"Yeah that is before she skipped town, we didn't know what happened to her till I heard her singing with the Akatsuki band, and I became a fan right away!" Naruto grinned.
"Oh is she nice?" Ruri asked. Naruto nodded. Sasuke rolled his eyes. Ruri looked at Sasuke confused, "why are you rolling your eyes?" she asked.
"Oh… right you don't know about this. Sasuke and Eri used to go out, a little after they broke up she left," Naruto explained.
"Why'd you guys break up?" Ruri asked.
"I don't know she just broke up with me because she was mad about something…" Sasuke grumbled. Ruri nodded thinking it was best to not keep asking her boyfriend about such things. Suddenly there was cheering and shouting. The three friends looked at the stage; there was a person with long blonde hair. Whoever it was wore a black shirt that had the band's logo on it, which was a red cloud, along with some ripped jeans. Between the long hair and the fact that they were a bit scrawny, it was hard to tell if it was a boy or a girl until they spoke.
"Ladies and gentleman!" they shouted. By the voice Ruri instantly recognized it was a boy, and not just any boy. He was Deidara, lead male singer of the Akatsuki. "Are you ready to rock with the Akatsuki?!" He yelled into the microphone. He was answered by a loud roaring of cheers and applause. Deidara smirked and held out a control with a big red button for all to see. "Well then, let's get started with a bang un!" he yelled pressing the button. There were loud explosions and smoke covered the stage making it hard to see anything. When the smoke started to clear, the members of the audience could see there were more people on the stage. Ruri looked over all of them, starting with the girl who was now next to Deidara. She had long white hair that was tied back into a ponytail and she wore a tight black shirt that also had the band's logo, along with some shorts. Ruri blushed a bit looking at her, she was really cute. The girl wore fingerless gloves as she played with the strings of her navy blue electric guitar making the fans scream more as the wind blow what remained of the smoke off the stage. Ruri concluded that this was Eri, along with being the lead guitarist she was also the lead female singer. Ruri quickly looked to the other members before anyone could see her blushing. Her attention turned to the drummer who had a swirly orange mask over his face. He had short, messy dark hair and wore a sweat jacket on over his shirt as he excitedly pounded a couple of drums with the sticks in his gloved hands. If she remembered correctly his name was Tobi. The bassist's name was Sasori, Ruri saw that he was a read head as he quickly checked that his bass was at the right volume, seeing that it was he messed up his hair a bit causing fangirls to squeal. Remaining was the rhythm guitarist Hidan, and the keyboardist Konan. Hidan had silver hair and anyone could tell he had a cocky attitude as he was already shirtless and was flexing for the crowd with the biggest smirk. He glanced over at Eri and again showed off his muscles. Eri rolled her eyes at him and continued to check her guitar. Konan had blue hair and was wearing a short skirt with boots; she was looking out and smiling a bit at the crowd's applause.
Eri glanced at them all then nodded at Deidara smirking. Deidara nodded back at her and she started the chords for their first song. The rest of the band stopped what they were doing and joined right in as Deidara starting singing. To Ruri hearing their CD's was one thing, seeing them perform was a whole new experience. She found herself watching Eri for a lot of the first song as Eri played and moved her lower body to the rhythm smiling. Ruri recognized this song and knew she wouldn't be able to hear her sing in this one. The times she did glance away from the guitarist she learned that Hidan handled most of the screaming in the band's songs. It seemed that even Sasori and probably Tobi (but one couldn't tell because of his mask) song a few parts as they played their instruments. The fans' screamed and applauded with they finished. Eri smiled and took the mike that was on its stand in front of her.
"Hello Konoha! How'd you guys like that?" She smiled. She was met by more screaming and applauding.
"Tobi thinks they liked it a lot," Tobi joked into the one that was attached to his drum set. Eri giggled and nodded.
"Fuck yeah they did," Hidan smirked.
"Yeah, well it's nice to be here and play for you guys. Just remember no crawling onto the stage and try not to hurt yourselves or each other! We're just here to have some fun," Eri said. With that she motioned towards the other members who nodded and started playing when she did. Ruri sat up more in her seat. She loved this song! She watched and listened to Eri and Deidara blending their voices together as they sung. Ruri was beginning to love the song even more. As they played more songs Ruri didn't tear her eyes away from the band until it was time for an intermission.
"Alright guys we're going to take a short break, but we'll be right back!" Deidara grinned when the cheering for the last song had died down a bit.
"Yeah, so don't leave just yet the show's only half-way over!" Eri smiled. The crowd cheered as the band waved and exited stage right. Ruri noticed that Tobi had run up to Eri and took her hand as they left. Was there a thing going on with them? She couldn't find out as everyone started to stand and move about to get snacks, drinks and maybe some merchandise. Naruto got up and stretched.
"That was great!" he shouted. Ruri smiled and nodded. Sasuke shrugged.
"It wasn't bad," he said.
"Don't be like that, they were good," Ruri said standing up.
"Whatever," Sasuke muttered.
"Come on Ruri let's get something to eat and drink, and if we want souvenirs we should get them now since we're seeing the band after the show is over," Naruto said.
"Yeah," Ruri agreed and followed Naruto to the stands as Sasuke stayed in his seat.
Meanwhile in the band's room, the Akatsuki's manager Pein was instructing the band members. "Now you got them all fired up, but don't waste all your energy in this concert, you still have a big job tonight before we leave this dump," he instructed.
"Yeah, yeah, we know sama," Eri responded unamused from Tobi's lap.
"You did remind us about this one a lot lately," Sasori added looking over his bass again, obviously convinced something was off about it.
"We always get your fucking jobs done without getting caught ok? Give us a break well yea?" Hidan grumbled.
"Just get it done!" Pein growled as he left the room slamming the door behind him.
"Geez, I wonder what so important about this one?" Eri wondered out loud to no one in particular as she leaned against Tobi's chest.
"I don't know Eri-chan," Tobi responded hugging her. Deidara shrugged.
"Well let's not worry about it till the concert is over," Konan suggested. The members of the band nodded and agreed. Then the door opened and a blue skinned man, a browned haired teen and a raven haired man walked in. These three made up the band's security.
"So what was Pein whining about?" The blue one asked.
"I bet it was that job again Kisame," answered the raven haired one.
"He has been making a big fuss out of this one," said the brown haired one.
"Hey maybe you guys can go out for a head start, you know scope it out and such," Eri suggested.
"We'll need at least two back here to keep the fans under control un," Deidara said.
"Then it'll just be me I guess, I'm a bit better with these things," said the brown haired one.
"You sure Angeru?" Kisame said. Angeru nodded, and left the room quickly.
"Well I guess it's time to go back out then," Deidara said checking the clock. The rest of the band nodded. Eri, Hidan, and Sasori got their instruments and lead the way out as Tobi, Deidara and Konan followed.
"Wow can you believe the stuff they're selling?" Naruto asked sitting back down into his seat, of course having some ramen. He put the bags of souvenirs down beside him.
"Yeah," Ruri said sitting in her seat with some dango along with her purchases. The crowd cheered again as the band came back on.
"Hey everyone we're back!" Deidara grinned. More cheering as heard as the band started to play for the second half of the concert. Ruri smiled and sat back to enjoy the rest of the performance. As the concert drew closer and closer to an end she began getting a bit nervous. When this ended she would be meeting the band. Little did she know that the encounter would change her life.