Disclaimer: Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto. I'm sure every single anime fan in the world knows this by now (whether or not this was their choice is a different matter...).
Author's Notes: ... I know. I know I know I know. I'm a terrible, horrible, no-good person. I've committed a sin. I started another story. And this one is a multi-chapter one, too. I'm so sorry. But this little plotbunny was tearing me up.
Anyway, the main reason I wrote this was because I've never, ever seen a story that includes my main favorite pairings, so I wanted to write one for myself. Also, every time I listened to Avril Lavigne's newest CD, "The Best Damn Thing" (Great CD, btw, if you feel like rocking out like a little kid again and swearing at the top of your lungs. It makes me smile every time I listen to it. Total girl-power-type pop/rock.) I imagined our favorite Genin girls singing the songs. Especially vivid was the image of Temari singing "The Best Damn Thing" (the song the CD was named after) with Tenten mainly and the other girls backing her up. It was great. Also, in every band story I've ever seen, it's one of the males in the band and the girl/boy he's paired with is a groupie. So I changed it and made the guys the groupies this time. (Reluctant groupies, on Sasuke's, Neji's and Shika's parts. XD But they'll get over that.)
Thank you, Bonfiore'sGirl, for beta-ing this and coming up with the name for the band and the story! You're an inspiration. X3
If any of these events seem illogical to you... I don't really care. Suspend your disbelief. I try my best.
Story Notes: So, the main pairings will be SasuNaru, InoSaku, KibaHina, ShikaTema, and NejiTen. If I can fit anything else in, I damn well will. If you don't like any of those pairings... I don't really give a rat's ass. Deal. And don't say anything about the one you hate. Ignore. That's what a mature person does.
On to the story!
At 11:13 in the morning, two weeks exactly from that glorious Saturday, the world changed completely. For some, their futures were destroyed. For others, their wildest dreams were finally fulfilled, and they could die happy. On that dramatic Saturday morning...
... Tickets to the Girls of War concert sold out.
Haruno Sakura awoke that morning two weeks later to a squeal of, "Oooh, Sakura! Look, we sold out!" Blinking her jade eyes sleepily and brushing messy bubblegum-pink hair from her face, the grumbling girl crawled out of bed and wandered, half-awake, down the hallway of her lavish hotel suite.
In the other room, Yamanaka Ino was already showered and dressed, her pale blond hair pulled into a tight ponytail. She was sitting cross-legged in front of the computer, situated on the other side of the attractively plush living room. As soon as Sakura ambled in, Ino spun her chair around, grinning brightly and snapping gum.
"Good morning, sunshine!" she chirped playfully. One of Sakura's pink brows raised.
"You woke me up to say that we sold out, even though I knew we had sold out two weeks ago, seeing as we're, you know, only one of the most popular pop bands in all of Konoha, and you have the nerve to say 'Good morning, sunshine!' to me?" Sakura asked dryly, leaning against the door frame.
Ino considered for a moment. "Yeah. Yeah I did. I guess you don't like that greeting?" she smirked and stood up fluidly. Suddenly, Sakura was hyper-conscious of her near-bare body, covered only by a clingy, sexy silk nightgown. Ino's intense gaze sent fire over every nerve in her skin.
Ino sailed forward and pinned Sakura to the wall with her own body. "How about this one?" Ino breathed into her ear. "Good morning, beautiful." Without another word, Sakura tugged Ino's head forward and claimed the other girl's lips.
Ino tasted faintly like toothpaste. Sakura realized too late that most certainly did not taste that minty. Laughingly, Ino pushed Sakura away.
"Eww!" she scrunched her face up and danced out of Sakura's reach. "Brush your teeth, morning-breath!"
"Shut up, pig!" Sakura cried, smiling nonetheless. Ino never failed to turn her on, even at the most inconvenient times. "I'll get you for that, I swear!"
Ino winked at her as she twirled toward the phone. "I hope you do." Sakura stuck her tongue out at the other girl and disappeared down the hall again to brush her teeth.
Ino, meanwhile, flopped on the couch next to the phone and dialed another room's number.
"... H-Hello?" a timid female voice answered after a few rings.
"Hinata-chan! Good morning! Are those other two lugs up yet?" Ino greeted brightly.
"Tenten-san is up, but we're having trouble with Temari-san." Hinata admitted quietly. "Nothing we aren't used to..."
Ino giggled. "Yeah, same with Sakura. She just got up. She's brushing her teeth now."
Faintly, from the other line, Ino heard another girl in the background shout, "Is that the lovebirds in the other suite? Let me talk to them!" The phone obviously switched hands, as a more confident voice replaced Hinata's. "Ino-chan? Sakura-chan?"
"Just Ino." Ino repressed a snicker. "Good morning, Tenten-chan."
"Hey, Ino-chan. You'd better hurry up, or Tsunade-sama will be pissed, and I am not going to be late because of you two!" Tenten snapped irritably. Ino fiddled idly with the ends of her hair. Tenten was usually like this in the morning. She could wake up early, but she'd be angry until she could get her coffee, which she obviously hadn't gotten yet.
"Ah, so sorry, Tenten-chan." Ino sighed. "But you see, we stayed up too late last night, screwing like bunnies..."
"Ah! I don't want to hear it! I don't want to hear it!" Tenten squealed. "We got a separate room for you two so the rest of us wouldn't hear you!"
Ino chuckled devilishly. "But I hope Tsunade-sama won't be too angry with me when she find out how I wore out Sakura's voice..."
With another squeak and a click, the line went dead. Ino burst out cackling, rolling over and clutching her sides in her mirth.
"What did you do?!" Sakura shouted from the bathroom, sounding agitated. The sounds of streaming water hitting porcelain reached Ino's ears.
"Nothing, sweetie!" Ino said, fighting off the remainder of her hysterics. "Just scarred Tenten-chan for life!"
"Again." Sakura replied faintly, then went silent. Ino sighed and stretched out on the couch to wait.
Half an hour later, Sakura and Ino took each other's hands and left the room to meet their other bandmates in the hallway outside their room. Tenten was smiling vaguely, precious coffee in hand, Hinata was fiddling nervously with her fingers, as usual, and Temari was tapping her foot agitatedly, grumbling and snapping gum.
"Finally, they show up." Temari cheered sarcastically. Ino threw her a dry look.
Just as the group was about to leave the hotel, Tenten looked around at Ino and Sakura, her expression filled with pity. "... We're going into public now." she said quietly. The other girls stopped and glanced furtively around at the couple.
Sakura squeezed Ino's hand, as if whispering, "I don't want to let go, ever." Ino squeezed back, as if replying, "I don't, either." But they silently let their hands drift apart. Like a trigger had been pulled, Sakura darted away from Ino to walk beside Hinata, and Ino drifted into place between Temari and Tenten.
They walked silently into the beady gaze of the public's eye.
The teen pop idols tried to sneak into the studio as surreptitiously as possible, but...
"Welcome, girls." A steely voice froze them in their tracks. Grinning uneasily, said girls turned to the entrance of their practice room. Standing in the doorway, arms crossed over her expansive bosom, their blond manager stood, smiling menacingly. The room temperature dropped at least three degrees.
"H-Hi!" Sakura squeaked like Hinata in front of a boy. "Um, Tsunade-sama, we can explain..."
"If it has to do with you and Yamanaka, I'd rather you not explain. I can imagine." Tsunade waved her hand carelessly. "If it has to do with anything else... I'd still rather you not explain. Because I don't care either way. Just get in there and practice." The manager stepped aside to allow the girls inside.
The band sighed and did just that.
"Okay, let's run through the concert's lineup, quickly. People are expecting your band to be spotless, remember." Tsunade barked. Obediently, the girls picked up their microphones.
"Why are we called a band if we all sing and none of us play instruments?" Tenten whispered for possibly the millionth time since they formed their "band" so many years ago.
"Shut up, Tenten. You're a pop group. You're cute girls with cute voices and catchy songs. That's why you're popular." Tsunade answered mechanically, waving her hand again. "Now put those cute voices to work!"
The girls did as they were told.
Sakura and Ino exchanged glances throughout the whole practice.
"They sound good today." Tsunade murmured to her assistant Shizune. Shizune nodded in assent. "Now, where's my sake...?" Tsunade wandered off, grumbling to herself. Shizune let out an explosive sigh.
"Tsunade-sama, drinking on the job is irresponsible--!" she cried vaguely, hurrying after her boss. The pop stars, though amused, continued practicing.
"So, you're the new girls, eh?"
Everything around them was so imposing, from the desk that separated the girls from the woman who held their future in the palm of her hand, to the woman herself (that much cleavage was pretty intimidating).
"Y-Yes, ma'am." Tenten mumbled, cursing herself internally for stuttering. Only Hinata was famous for stuttering, dammit!
"Now, what makes you think you have the talent to be the world's next pop idols? What makes you think I should waste my time managing you?" Tsunade asked in a deep voice, leaning back in her chair and staring them down with an intense brown-eyed gaze.
"We're good." Temari interjected, scowling. "We sing well together. And let's face it, we're five sexy girls. Why couldn't we make it big?"
Tsunade barked out a laugh. "That's a good point. All right, ladies, I think you've got talent. What's more, you've got looks and spunk. I think you'll make it big, too, and I'm going to help you. Welcome to the fold."
Bright, relieved smiles broke over all the girls' faces, and they sighed and laughed, breathless with happiness.
"Hold on, girls." Tsunade barked. The girls jumped back to attention. "What's the name of your group?"
Temari glanced at the other girls, then spoke up, "We're called the Girls of War."
"Girls of War, hm? That's cute." Tsunade grinned genially. "I like it." The girls tittered cheerfully.
Sakura and Ino instinctively caught each other's gazes and held them, warm, loving smiles painting their faces. They knew they loved each other. They just didn't know if the other knew it yet.
Sakura awoke on the day of the concert to Ino's gentle but insistent prodding.
"Sakura, wake up." she whispered, sounding giddy. "Wake up, love! Let's go early!"
Sakura moaned groggily. "Early? Where're we going?"
"To the concert, silly!" Ino pecked Sakura's (large and charming) forehead briefly. Sakura took a moment to curse the heavens for making the love of her life a morning person. "I want to mingle!"
"Mingle...?" Sakura asked warily, her eyes opening wider as her awareness rose.
"Yeah, with our fans!" she grinned. Sakura saw something decidedly evil behind that grin.
"And get mauled?!" Sakura cried disbelievingly.
"No, no, no, silly." Ino clicked her tongue, smirking a cocky smirk. "We're going to go disguised."
"You're crazy." Sakura muttered and tried to fall back into the covers, but Ino ripped the warmth away from her. Sakura yelped like a puppy.
"Hell yes I am! And you're going to go along with it! Now scoot! Get your butt out of bed!" Ino ordered, and hopped out of the room. Grumbling what sounded oddly like death threats, Sakura followed, albeit reluctantly. She always did, and always would. Ino smiled softly to herself. What a lucky girl she was!
When they were both showered and dressed, Ino dragged Sakura off to the other's room. "Maybe we can rope the other three into it too." Ino was saying distractedly.
"I doubt it." Sakura sighed, "Seeing as you're crazy."
"Oh, come on, I'm not that bad." Ino winked again and rang the doorbell to the other suite.
Hinata answered the door. "Oh, Sakura-kun, Ino-kun." she smiled in that naturally frail way of hers. "What can I do for you?"
Ino pushed past her into the room. "Are you the only one up, Hinata-chan?" she asked incredulously. Hinata nodded.
"She isn't!" a voice cried from the bathroom. "I'm up!"
"That's r-right, Tenten-san is in the shower." Hinata said quickly. "Temari-san is still asleep, though."
"That's expected." Ino muttered at the same time Sakura grumbled, "I wish I was still asleep, too..."
"Anyway, Hinata-chan. Since you're the only one up, we're kidnapping you." Ino said sweetly, linking arms with Hinata. At a sharp glance from Ino, Sakura sighed and linked onto Hinata's other arm.
"Sorry, Hinata-chan, but I don't want to endure her craziness alone this morning." Sakura apologized. "We'll protect each other."
"Where are you going?" Tenten called from the shower. Ino cackled evilly.
"We're going to mingle! Tell Tsunade-sama not to worry, we'll be there in time for the concert! See you then!" The door slammed behind them.
Without her precious morning coffee, Tenten didn't have the mindset to tell them what an incredibly stupid idea that was.
Ino was a stupid, stupid moron. Sakura's diary could attest to that. Pages and pages of phrases like, "I hate Ino so much, she's such a pig," and "Ino's so stupid! She's a jerk, a stupid, stupid jerk!" filled the little book, plus a few rare tear-splattered pages.
Only one page actually said the forbidden words. And even that was said in a mean way.
"Damn that Ino. I love her so much. Damn it."
Flying into her bedroom and slamming the door shut behind her, Sakura flung herself onto her bed, fighting in vain against the tears threatening to waterfall down her cheeks. Once in private, however, the battle was lost, and Sakura let her violent sorrow wrack her body.
"Dammit, Ino!" she choked, tears making her face and pillow damp. "Dammit! She's such a bitch! A bitchy- God!" she couldn't speak through the shuddering sobs for a moment. "She just teases me like it's nothing, in public, too! I'm nothing to her! Nothing, nothing, nothing..."
She heard the door creak, but she couldn't stop the crying even though she wanted to. As it was, she just pulled her pillow up around her ears and wailed, "Whoever that is, you aren't allowed here! Get out and leave me alone!"
"Are you sure you want that?" a too-familiar voice murmured. The bed whispered softly as a body sat down beside Sakura.
"No! Not you!" Sakura moaned, hiccuping with more suppressed sobs. "Go away! I don't want to talk to you! I hate you!"
"Really?" The usual confidence had faded from the voice. Now it sounded slightly anguished. Sakura took a bitter sort of pride in that.
A sudden pressure on Sakura's back made her start. Like someone had pressed their forehead against her shoulders... "Because I love you." the voice whispered. Water droplets fell onto Sakura's back. Sakura tensed.
"... What?" she asked hoarsely. "Say it again."
"I love you, Sakura. Can't you see that?" the voice was rising hysterically. Heart thumping madly, Sakura shifted the body pressed against hers until she could turn around.
It was Ino now lying in her lap, fighting against tears just like Sakura had earlier. When she felt Sakura's gaze on her, she looked up with a watery glare. "Do you get it now?" she asked, voice low and husky. Her frown deepened.
"How long?" Sakura asked, wiping a tear softly from Ino's cheek with her thumb.
"A while." Ino replied, letting herself relax into Sakura's touch. "I don't know how long."
"Good." Taking Ino's face in her hands, Sakura leaned down and kissed the girl gently. "Because I feel it too."
Just a few hours from the concert, the crowd waiting outside to get in was already crazy.
"Wow." Ino whispered, staring wide-eyed at the gigantic mass of people. "Look how many people came early too!"
"Th-They must want good seats." Hinata murmured.
"That's a lot of people!" Sakura murmured, awed. "I know we perform for even more people at once, but this is different!"
The girls were well-disguised in plain outfits, hats to hide their distinctive hairstyles and sunglasses to hide their faces. Confidently, Ino lead the other two into the crowd.
It was suffocating, being surrounded by so many people at once, Winding casually through the crowd, the girls caught occasional snippets of conversation.
"... Can't wait to hear them..."
"... Love their music! It's so cute, and catchy..."
"... Don't care for the music much, but the girls are so sexy, how can you resist? ..."
"... Temari-chan is so hot, right?"
"Nah, Ino-chan is way sexier! Can't you see how she..."
"Are you kidding? Temari-chan has a bigger rack!"
"Hinata-chan's rack is bigger than both of those."
"Seriously? No way!"
Hinata blushed so profusely that steam may have risen out of her ears. Ino chuckled uneasily, and Sakura had a hard time holding in her giggles.
"You have small boobs!" Sakura choked to Ino over her pent-up breath, then finally let loose a stream of hysterically stifled laughter when Ino punched lightly her in the gut.
"Bigger than yours, billboard-brow." Ino hissed. Sakura snorted.
"Are not."
"What do you mean, not allowed?!" an outburst nearby drew the trio's attention. A security guard was glaring, trying to be intimidating, at a young man, who was glaring right back. The girls' eyes widened. The shaggy-haired young man was holding a white puppy protectively in his arms.
"I mean, dogs are not allowed inside. You'll have to bring him home before you go inside." the guard replied, irritated. The puppy yipped threateningly at him.
"You can't take Akamaru away!" the boy exclaimed, clutching the dog a bit tighter.
"I'm not taking him away." The guard rolled his eyes exasperatedly. "I'm just saying they won't let you in at the main door with your dog."
The boy tossed him a final scathing glare before turning his back and departing. Ino motioned to the other two to follow him, which they did.
The boy and his puppy led the girls back to his friends, which consisted of the most eclectic bunch of boys Ino, Sakura and Hinata had ever laid eyes on. One hyper blond with the loudest, most eye-watering orange clothing ever to exist was talking nonstop at a pale, raven-haired one who had the looks of a supermodel (though he didn't seem very interested in whatever the blond was saying... he wasn't even pretending to pay attention). Another pale-skinned, dark-haired male was lingering in the back against a fence, milky-white, iris-less eyes that looked eerily like Hinata's scanning the crowd like an X-ray. Next to him, a ponytailed brunet was staring up at the clouds... or he could have been asleep where he stood. It was hard to tell.
The first boy with the white puppy stormed up to them, drawing the attention of his friends.
"No go, huh, Kiba?" the blond asked promptly, pausing in his ramblings. The raven's perpetual frown deepened.
"Those fucking-!" Kiba the dog-owner ranted furiously, but cut himself off. "They said I can't take Akamaru in with me. Huh. Those bastards. Whatever. I'll just sneak him in anyway. Wherever I go, Akamaru goes." Kiba muttered petulantly, scratching Akamaru's head absently. Akamaru growled in content agreement.
"Why are we here, again?" the raven asked the pale-eyed boy in a drawl that seemed accustomed to insults. The brunet shrugged.
"Naruto conned us both into this."
"Three of us." the ponytailed skywatcher put in lazily.
"The music isn't even good."
"Too estrogen-charged."
"Come on, guys!" Naruto the blond said, punching each of their arms playfully. Had the girls not been watching as closely as they were, they might not have noticed Naruto's arm linger very briefly on the raven's. "It's not that bad, plenty of guys are here. And come on, tell me you aren't hot for those sexy girls!"
"I'm not hot for those sexy girls." the raven said cynically. Naruto, shot him a dirty look.
"You're such a liar, Sasuke. Look, over there. Isn't that girl cute?" Sakura's jade eyes widened. Naruto was staring right at her. Cheeks heating, she quickly looked to the side, pretending to search through her pockets (and hopefully hiding her face).
"Are you only here for girl-watching?!" Sasuke snarled. Naruto seemed taken aback.
"Well, yeah." he scoffed, and turned away from Sasuke, muttering something about crazy emo mood swings. Sasuke's fists clenched at his sides.
"Now, now." the pale-eyed boy interjected calmly, as Naruto and Sasuke were glaring thunderously at each other. "Don't cause a scene here, or we'll never get in." Naruto's intense blue glare focused on him instead.
"Easy for you to say, Neji! You could probably get in free if you pulled your Hyuuga card!"
The girls held in their gasps. Hyuuga was Hinata's name.
Neji's dark brow rose. "Naruto, there are over one hundred Hyuugas around the world. If every one of them tried to use their familial connection with Hinata-sama to get in free, the Girls of War would lose a lot of money."
"But you said it yourself! You're, like, her cousin or something!" Naruto whined.
This time, the girls couldn't restrain their gasps. Kiba, who was closest to them, whirled around, frowning. The girls resisted the urge to clap their hands over their mouths and tried to look like they'd been talking to each other the whole time. Kiba's hazel eyes searched the crowed, narrowed, and landed on the trio of girls. He observed them closely for a moment, a moment where the girls' hearts pounded painfully against their ribs and paranoia clawed at the edges of their senses, but he seemed to shrug the noise off as another random conversation around them and turned back to his friends. Akamaru, though, continued to watch them over Kiba's shoulder, nose twitching.
Sasuke, meanwhile, was watching Neji's and Naruto's interaction with narrowed eyes.
"That doesn't matter." Neji snorted and dropped his gaze to the ground. "She wouldn't want to see me."
"Usuratonkatchi, just shut up. If you hadn't opened your stupid mouth, none of this would have started anyway." Sasuke scoffed suddenly. Naruto glared at him.
"Oh, shut up, Sasuke, you bastard! You'll never get a girlfriend with that mouth!"
Sasuke's chilly scowl hardened, if possible. "I could get any girl I felt like having, dobe. You, on the other hand, are the one who's always getting beaten for your advances. You'll never get a girlfriend like that, stupid."
Naruto's eyes widened with true hurt. "You- You- You arrogant son of a bitch! Why would you say something like that?! Why the hell do I keep putting up with your prissy ass and- and- and your ugly face! You asshole! I hate you!" He looked like he quite wanted to hit Sasuke, but Neji had stepped forward in between the two. Naruto glared a fiery glare for a moment more, then relocated himself to sit beside the skywatcher, muttering something like, "Move, Shikamaru. I'm sitting here now."
"Troublesome." Shikamaru mumbled, but scooted over anyway.
Sasuke's jaw dropped indignantly, but Neji and Kiba were giving him poisonous black looks, so he stepped back to lean against the fence behind him, chewing his lip cruelly and throwing glances at Naruto every once in a while. His expression was tight, and if one didn't know better, he almost looked regretful...
Sakura and Ino could tell. They could see all the signs. Staring longingly at the person, desperately craving their attention, hurt when they don't see...
"He's in love, isn't he?" Sakura breathed into Ino's ear. Surreptitiously, she inched her hand into Ino's. "That Sasuke-kun. He's in love with his friend Naruto, isn't he?"
"He acts just like we did..." Ino sighed, sounding depressed. "How sad..."
"Maybe we can help!" Sakura whispered excitedly. Ino tensed with surprise.
"Help? How?"
"Let's go meet them. Come on!" Without another word, Sakura grabbed her friends and pulled them toward the boys.
Naruto was fuming, Sasuke was fuming, Neji was secretly fuming, Shikamaru was sleeping... Kiba rolled his eyes. Oh, what a sprightly bunch they were.
Letting his eyes wander, Kiba noticed those girls he'd seen when Neji was talking... coming right toward them. His brows lifted. Okaaay, that was weird...
"Uh, hi!" the girl in the lead said brightly when she noticed Kiba watching her. Somewhere behind him, he felt Neji's creepy white gaze on them.
'Weird.' Kiba thought, eyes narrowing. 'These girls are sure bundled up for a concert in the summer... hats and sunglasses on all of them... They seem familiar, somehow.'
Without voicing these observations, Kiba leaned coolly to one side, letting a friendly smile play across his face. "Hello, ladies, what can I do for you?"
"We wanted to, um..." the leader fumbled with her words. Kiba's sharp eyes noted her head flitting surreptitiously side to side, as if silently asking her friends for help. "Um, uh... we wanted..."
"To pet the puppy!" a girl on the left shouted suddenly. All three of them stared at her, and she chuckled nervously. "Yeah, we saw you fighting with that security guard about it. It's too bad, hm? It's such a cute puppy! Can we pet it, please?"
Kiba's eyebrows rose again. He smirked down at Akamaru, who seemed to be sulking a little. 'I told you that you were a chick magnet, little buddy!' Kiba thought gleefully, as if Akamaru could hear his thoughts. He swore the little dog could sometimes. "Sure, go ahead. He won't bite." Kiba winked a bit and held Akamaru out. The first two girls smiled (was that uneasiness he saw in their expressions?) and moved forward to stroke Akamaru, chatting incessantly.
The last girl lingered in the back, fiddling awkwardly with her fingers. Kiba glanced at her curiously.
"Are you okay? Do you want to pet Akamaru too?" he offered. The girl started, as if she hadn't expected to be noticed, and fidgeted nervously.
"O-Oh, um..." she had such a sweet voice. It made Kiba smile... and set bells of recognition ringing in the back of his mind at the same time. He could have sworn he'd heard her voice somewhere before... "Well, I-I..."
"Yeah, um, Hina-chan!" the second girl chirped quickly. "Pet the doggy! We'll be over here..." Together, the girls pushed Hina ('Hina?' Kiba thought, frowning deeply. 'That sounds so familiar... god, where have I seen this girl before?') into Kiba, practically knocking the two over, and slipped away behind the boy, toward his friends.
Exclaiming with surprise, Kiba instantaneously shifted Akamaru into one arm and wrapped his other arm around Hina's waist to steady her.
"Are you okay?" he asked concernedly when she regained her balance. Being in such close proximity with a boy apparently rendered the poor girl speechless. She nearly fainted. "Woah, uh... Don't fall over again!" Kiba quickly set Akamaru on his shoulder and grabbed Hina by the arms. Her cheeks were such a bright red that Kiba was slightly surprised that she still had blood left in the rest of her body. Akamaru yipped.
"Th... Thank you..." Hina covered her cheeks and stepped back a bit. Kiba tried his best not to be disappointed.
Meanwhile, the other two girls had sidled up to Sasuke and took their places on either side of him so he couldn't escape. Neji observed them carefully for a moment or two, then deemed them uninteresting and ignored them. Shikamaru was alseep. If one looked closely, however, one could see Naruto tense and alert, throwing occasional glances toward Sasuke and the girls.
"Hello, um..." the girl on Sasuke's left hopped from foot to foot, grinning widely. Too widely. It irritated Sasuke. If he squinted, he could make out a few strands of pink hair hiding under her hat. An oddball. "You, um, looked really sad. Is something wrong?"
"Sad?" Sasuke scoffed. Inwardly, he wondered why he was even deigning to give an answer. Then again, it's not like he actually was sad. So of course he had to correct their mistake, right? "I'm not sad. There's nothing wrong with me."
"Are you sure?" the girl on the left smiled knowing at him. It was infuriating. "Because you look really depressed over something... ah. Could that be what you're sad about?" Her eyes just happened to seek out Naruto sulking a few feet away... please. Did they actually think Sasuke thought all of this was coincidence?
"How long have you been eavesdropping on us?" Sasuke hissed, low enough so none of his other friends could hear. Except maybe Neji. But Neji didn't care about Sasuke, so he had no reason to be concerned over him.
"Long enough to make some very interesting observations." the right-hand girl said, dropping their pretenses.
"What kind of observations?" Sasuke asked tersely.
"Your friend over there." the girl nodded toward Naruto. "He's pretty cute, isn't he?"
"What are you implying?!" These girls were wearing Sasuke's nerves, and if they meant what he thought they meant...
"You're in love with him." the first girl said simply. Sasuke's eyes widened.
"What- What the hell? Of course I'm not! What a stupid thing to say!" His guilt was obvious, though, by the way he couldn't meet their eyes (which was admittedly pretty hard in the first place, with the sunglasses and all). They smirked triumphantly.
"You do. And its not like we're homophobes or anything," There was something slightly ironic in the girl's smile, "we just noticed how sad you looked, and, well, we want to help you."
Sasuke's eyes hesitantly rose to look into their sunglasses. "Help...?"
"Yeah, help you get the guy!" the girl on the right cheered and pumped her fist in the air, though she was quickly silenced by fearsome glares from both her friend and Sasuke.
"But... how? I don't even know you." Sasuke frowned and turned away from them. "I don't need your help."
Somewhere in the back of his mind, a little voice that sounded uncannily like Naruto's whispered, "That's what she said..."
"Yeah, because you were so romantic back when you called him a moron." the girl on the right said sarcastically.
"You were watching that?!" Sasuke whirled on her, glaring ferociously. She didn't even flinch.
"Of course we were. And it's obvious that you need help. So we've come to your aid! You should be thanking us on a bended knee!" she scolded.
"That's not my style." Sasuke snorted.
"We can tell." the girl said dryly. "Whatever. We just-"
"Time!" the first girl interrupted urgently. Her friend glanced at her watch and cursed softly.
"Okay, we have to go. So, um..."
Her friend suddenly grabbed her arm and turned her attention away. They put their heads together for a hurried conference, then smirked and linked arms with Sasuke.
"Oh boys!" one girl called sweetly, alerting the others to Sasuke's plight. "We're kidnapping your friend here. I suggest you follow us."
"Dammit! We knew this would happen someday." Kiba sighed, though his smirk of amusement was far from helpful.
Ignoring Sasuke's cries of, "Oi, what the hell? Let me go!" The girls snagged their friend and led the boys away from the crowd waiting to get into the concert.
Naruto tried not to watch them, honestly, but he couldn't suppress the frown that settled on his face.
"All right, we have the hostages." Ino giggled. Sakura rolled her eyes.
"Hostages? I thought they were friends." she said, smiling in spite of herself.
"Yeah, that too. Friends, hostages, it's all the same in the end, right?" Ino winked (or appeared to, it was hard to tell with the sunglasses).
"How in hell did I get myself into this situation?" Sasuke sighed for perhaps the millionth time. He'd originally fought his best against the grip the girls had on his arms, but their freakish strength won in the end, so Sasuke resigned himself to fate and allowed himself to be dragged off.
His friends seemed to be having a grand old time, though. Kiba had seemed all too eager to continue lingering in Hinata's presence. Even Naruto had joined their (fairly one-sided) conversation, bright and cheerful like he usually was. Every time he heard Naruto's sunny laugh, an icy knife stabbed Sasuke in the heart.
Sakura seemed to sense this bitterness and held him more gently than Ino did. "He'll warm back up to you." she murmured comfortingly, rubbing his arm lightly. "It's all right."
"Where are we going, anyway?" Sasuke grumbled, glancing around. The girls had lead them...
"Around the building." Ino muttered distractedly. "To a secret entrance."
"A secret entrance...?" Sasuke repeated, eyes narrowing. "You know that I could kick your asses if you're trying to mug us, right?"
"Oh please. Mug you? With these pretty faces? We don't need to mug you." Ino winked (maybe... it was still hard to tell with those sunglasses), then spotted a door with a security guard standing before it, and whooped with triumph. "Here we go, girls!" She approached the security guard, Sasuke still in tow, and said, "Let us in please." She flashed an I.D card at him. The guard's eyes widened, and he straightened, flushing slightly.
"Of course! Right this way... um..."
"Those boys are with us." Ino waved her hand dismissively, but glanced around, just to check. "Yeah, all of them. Later then!" She dragged Sasuke inside, and the others followed quietly.
The hallways were bleached white and bright with fluorescent lights. Ino, Sasuke and Sakura marched on ahead, the others lingering the background, looking around warily. Naruto's eyes were wide and amazed, his jaw hanging down a bit too much. Kiba was in a similar state, though he was more suspicious than his blond friend. Akamaru didn't seem ill at ease, though, so Kiba figured nothing was too wrong. Neji and Shikamaru just walked in silence, letting nothing escape their alert watch.
Finally, Ino shoved a door open and led the group...
"... Backstage." Sasuke whispered. "This is the stage for the Girls of War concert! How...?"
The girls ignored him. "Shizune-san!" Ino called to a passing black-haired woman. The woman hurried over to them, looking harrassed.
"Finally, Ino, Sakura, Hinata! Tsunade-sama is so mad at you three! What were you thinking, running off like that?" she snapped.
A soft intake of breath from Sasuke drew Shizune's attention to the boys. "Who are your friends?" she asked, sounding suspicious.
"They're friends we met today!" Ino chirped. "Don't worry, we dragged them here, not the other way around! Can we give them backstage passes, please?"
"Whatever, take it up with Tsunade-sama." Shizune rolled her eyes and motioned the group forward. "Follow me!"
They weaved around workers setting up the sound and lighting systems, toward the back of the stage, where they entered a communal dressing room.
Standing in the middle of the room was a blond woman with the biggest cleavage any of the boys had ever laid eyes on. ('Prime porn material.' Naruto thought privately. 'Ero-sennin would love this lady.') To the boys' astonishment, behind her stood two members of the very superstars they were there to see.
"Ino-chan! Sakura-chan! How dare you drag Hinata-chan off like that!" Tenten stepped forward, shaking her head. "And who are they?" Her gaze landed on the boys.
"They're friends!" Ino shouted again. "Can they have backstage passes, pleeeaaase, Tsunade-sama?"
The busty woman frowned down at them. "You don't even know them, Ino. Why?"
"Wait a second, what the hell is going on here?" Naruto blurted finally, staring open-mouthed from one girl to the next. "Who- Who exactly are you girls?"
Tsunade's, Tenten's and Temari's jaws dropped. "You don't know?" Tenten asked incredulously.
"Well, yeah, we never told them out names." Sakura sighed patiently. She and Ino finally released poor harrassed Sasuke, and Hinata gently extracted herself from her place in between Naruto and Kiba. The girls stepped forward and slowly let their masks fall.
Pink hair cascaded around Sakura's pretty face. A blond ponytail fell from it's prison inside Ino's hat, and milky eyes blinked in the light as Hinata removed her sunglasses.
"We're Ino, Sakura and Hinata from the Girls of War." Ino smiled brightly at the speechless boys. "Nice to meet you!"
The only words that broke the silence that followed were spoken by Kiba. "Oh. I thought I knew you from somewhere."
Author's Notes: If you pelt me with rotten fruit for not updating my already existing stories, I'd understand. Although, I'd be much happier if you dropped a review my way. :3