The band could hear the sound of the crowd as they unloaded their equipment behind the huge stage. They had just arrived, and Sasuke had his guitar case slung over one shoulder. The audience was cheering and hyped; it sounded like they were between acts.

"Who's playing before us?" Sasuke asked Naruto (drummer and close friend of a reluctant Sasuke), frowning. He had no idea what the lineup was, only that their band was closing the show. It was some sort of spur of the moment concert, in Ishi's outdoor arena, and they were stopping in before they continued on to the Ame Music Festival the following week. Just show up at a few shows, get the crowd excited for next week, their manager had said.

"Sakura Haruno." Naruto grinned widely.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed immediately. "You've got to be kidding me."

Sakura Haruno was quickly rising to fame as the New Thing. Despite being in the music business, Sasuke had never met her, and preferred to keep it that way. Just the fact that she, an indie-ish pop star (and typical one-hit wonder), was playing before their band, was absurd.

The only reason Sasuke had agreed to the last minute show was because it wasn't a pop concert, but apparently that had been a lie.

"Why are you so disappointed?" Kiba, the band's bassist, looked at Sasuke incredulously. "She's amazing! She'll get us so much press."

"We don't need press. And her stuff is completely different from ours. It's a joke," Sasuke said through gritted teeth. Press, from Sakura Haruno? She'd need press from them, not the other way around. She wasn't even close to their level, as far as fame and respect went. Not to mention musical quality.

Actually, he'd never really listened to any of her stuff, besides the one or two songs they played nonstop on the radio. But that was irrelevant.

"Oh, come on, teme, just play along for once! You know she's gorgeous..." Naruto wiggled his eyebrows.

"You have a girlfriend," Sasuke said. Naruto was dating Hinata Hyuga, an incredibly nice sound technician.

"But you don't." Naruto grinned and clapped Sasuke on the shoulder. "Maybe she's your type."

"Shut up, dobe." Sasuke glared at Naruto. "And she's definitely not my type." There was no way.

Their band watched her come onstage five minutes later, clustered by their equipment offstage. Sasuke had seen Sakura Haruno's face on plenty of billboards, he knew she was pretty, but she was about a hundred times prettier in person, if that was possible (it would be stupid to disagree with that). She was wearing a tight black dress, jean jacket, and heels; her pink hair was loose and wavy. The crowd went wild when she appeared; Sasuke would've been more surprised if he didn't know what hordes of teenage girls were like at concerts.

The rest of Sasuke's bandmates watched her with gaping mouths. Idiots. Sasuke just scowled at them, at then at Sakura Haruno. He was determined to be unimpressed.

"Hi, everyone," Sakura Haruno said, giving the crowd a smile that made them go crazy. So she was going for the modest appearance, was she? "I'm gonna start it off fast." She gave the signal to the guys in the band behind her and then she started to sing.

Her foot tapped the beat and she took the microphone in one hand, smiling at the audience.

Well, she could sing. Sasuke wished he could deny it, but it wasn't autotune that gave her voice that sound. She had a powerful voice, not really a belter but incredibly warm. He couldn't help being drawn into it, even though she was probably insufferable in real life. She had pink hair, for God's sake.

Someone handed her a guitar for the last song. She tuned it standing on the stage in front of everyone, and Sasuke was surprised. "My last song's a little slower," she said. "You guys might have heard it before, it's called 'Numb.'" There were cheers.

She started strumming the guitar and Sasuke realized she knew exactly what she was doing.

Singing acoustic, her voice still had the warm quality, but it also went low and raspy. And it was dead sexy. Her fingers moved easily over the guitar, picking out complex rhythms, and Sasuke couldn't help raising his eyebrows. It was going against everything he'd decided, but he was slightly impressed (and extremely angry at himself for it).

When she finished, there were deafening cheers and applause that went on forever. She smiled to the crowd. "I'm going to be at the Ame Bowl on October 10th, so hopefully I'll see some of you there. Thanks, everyone!" She waved and then walked offstage.

"Holy shit," Kiba said.

The rest of the band seemed to be thinking the same thing. Everyone's mouths were open. Sasuke just rolled his eyes. He'd never, not in a million years, admit that Sakura Haruno was ridiculously good.

"You guys are idiots," Sasuke said instead. "Come on."

The speakers blasted one of their songs to the audience as a huge curtain came down, and the technicians pulled off Sakura Haruno's stuff while the band set up their own equipment. Sasuke took out his old guitar (he wouldn't let anyone else touch it, let alone tune it for him) and tuned it quickly, then pulled the battered strap over his head. Everyone else was situated, and Shikamaru nodded to the person standing by offstage with a headset. The music on the speakers stopped abruptly.

"And now..." The announcer's voice boomed over the speakers. "Give it up for FIRESTYLE!"

The crowd went crazy. The curtains opened and they launched into the opening notes of 'Explosive' to huge applause. Sasuke smirked as his fingers moved effortlessly over the chords, ripping up the solo halfway through the song.

Shikamaru's lazy voice finished the final notes of their last song, and Sasuke was satisfied that they'd at least caught up the crowd as much as Sakura Haruno had, if not more (they were Firestyle, after all).

But when the four of them got offstage, Sasuke was shocked to see Sakura Haruno was still there. He'd expected her to have been shuttled off to her luxury tour bus by now, surrounded by a mass of assistants.

"You guys were great," she said. "I'm Sakura Haruno, by the way." She held out a hand with a smile and Naruto ran up to shake it enthusiastically.

"It's so good to meet you, Sakura!" He said excitedly. "You were awesome!"

"Oh, God, thanks." She smiled, and Sasuke was annoyed by how sincere it was. What's she playing at?

"Hey," Kiba said, coming up to get his own handshake. "I'm Kiba. Nice to meet you, babe."

She raised her eyebrows.

"Ignore him," Shikamaru said with a sigh. "I'm Shikamaru. You were really good just now."

"Thanks. That really means a lot, coming from you guys." She was blushing slightly.

Suddenly, everyone looked expectantly at Sasuke. "You still haven't introduced yourself, teme." Naruto said.

She looked at him, eyebrows raised slightly. "I'm Sasuke," he said in a low voice, frowning at her.

"Pleasure," Sakura Haruno said. Her eyes were laughing and she was nothing like he'd expected. She was relatively short, and had to look up at him, but he could see that he didn't intimidate her at all. It was strange...And infuriating to no end.

"Are you going to the Ame Festival, Sakura?" Naruto asked eagerly.

"Yep! I'm playing the main stage for the first time, I'm really excited," she said.

"Oh, wow, awesome!" Naruto said. "Congrats."

"Thanks. You guys are going to be there too, aren't you?"

"Yeah," Shikamaru said with a yawn. "We'll make an appearance."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. They were headlining, like they'd done for the past two years.

She grinned. "Right. Well, I should get back, I've got another concert tonight."

"Really? Where?" Naruto asked.

"An auditorium in the city," Sakura said. "Eight to nine."

"What're you doing afterward?" Naruto asked her with a grin.

"Um...Nothing, I don't think. I'm leaving for Ame in the morning."

"Us too. We're staying at the hotel uptown." Naruto said. "You should come out to the club with us tonight."

"Really?" She looked surprised.

"Duh! You're awesome," Kiba said with a grin.

"You've known me for five minutes," Sakura said.

Sasuke almost smirked, and then realized what he was doing. He frowned.

"Come on, it'll be fun! We'll show you the best spots!" Naruto said.

Sakura smiled. "In that case...Okay. Sounds like fun."

"We'll meet you at ten!" Naruto gave her the address.

"Cool, I'll see you then. It was nice to meet you guys," Sakura said with a smile before going to meet her entourage waiting by the back entrance. They disappeared outside.

"She is smoking," Kiba said.

Sasuke looked at him with narrowed eyes, annoyed for some reason even though Kiba was like this all the time.

"Why'd you invite her out, dobe?" Sasuke asked, irritated.

"Because she's super nice! And she seems really cool," Naruto said. "Why do you hate her so much?"

"I don't hate her," Sasuke muttered. "But she's got pink hair. She's a pop singer."

"So?" Naruto said. "Her set was awesome!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

"Come on, teme, it'll be fun!"

Sasuke sighed. 'Fun' wasn't the word he would've used.

A/N: I've been writing bits of this over a long period of time just because it always puts me in a good mood (and I couldn't resist doing a musician AU). I figured I'd post the first chapter. Be warned it's ridiculous and full of drama and smut and celebrity stuff. But it's Sasuke and Sakura so who cares.

Also since this is a music-centric story, every chapter will be a different song title (crossing my fingers that doesn't violate some copyright thing?). For the most part it'll be songs that I actually like, so check them out if you want; my music taste is sort of all over the place, so should be interesting. Anyway, enjoy :)