Author's note: This is going to be a long author's note. In fact, it's so long that I'm going to number all of the points that I am going to make. Brace yourself.

1. I don't own Naruto. I don't own rights to any of the bands or songs that I will make reference to, either.

2. I don't know if the bands and songs I'm going to make reference to even exist in the Naruto world, but I'm going to say that they do (hey, it's my story). I'm pretty sure that rock music exists in the Naruto world because I saw this picture in a book of official Naruto drawings where Naruto was singing while the rest of Team Seven were playing instruments (that's what inspired this story).

3. I tried to make this story in continuity with the anime. It takes place between episodes 101 and 102.

4. Since this story is written in English, I will not randomly insert Japanese words into it. However, I will make exceptions with the suffixes "-chan", "-kun", "-san", et cetera.

5. Due to the fact that I can't keep the attack names straight in Japanese and I don't know them all in English, no one will be using any kind of jutsu in this story. If you're looking for action, you've come to the wrong place.

6. The characters' names will be as they are in the original anime, meaning that their family names will come first. Why they changed Uzumaki Naruto to Naruto Uzumaki but left Rock Lee's name the same in the dub is beyond me.

7. Naruto will not say "believe it!"

That has to be the longest author's note I ever wrote. I'm just glad that you're still reading this. Anyway, on with the show!

NINJA BATTLE (of the Bands)

Chapter 1: Naruto's Crazy Idea

Missions had been slow for Team Seven ever since Kakashi went on a high-ranking mission of his own. Mostly, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura spent their time doing trivial missions. After these missions, Naruto would usually be tired and grumpy, but after the team's most recent mission of garden-weeding, Sasuke and Sakura were surprised to find Naruto grinning from ear to ear.

"What are you so happy about?" Sasuke asked in an annoyed tone.

"I was thinking…" Naruto said slowly.

Both Sasuke and Sakura knew that this couldn't be good.

Naruto continued, "Why don't we start a rock band?"

"What?" Sakura said while raising an eyebrow.

"Well, you play guitar, right Sakura-chan?" said Naruto.

"I do… sort of," said Sakura.

"And Sasuke, you play bass, right?" Naruto continued.

"I haven't touched my bass guitar in a long time," replied Sasuke.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'," said Naruto, "So you guys both can play instruments and I'll be the lead singer. We've got a band!"

"But who will play drums?" asked Sakura.

"Kakashi-sensei will!" declared Naruto, "He's got 'drummer' written all over him!"

"He's on a mission," Sasuke pointed out.

"Aw man," whined Naruto, "WE GOTTA FIND A DRUMMER!"

"What's with this whole band thing, anyway?" asked Sakura, "I didn't even know you liked rock music, Naruto."

"Well, I saw this flyer for a battle of the bands contest," explained Naruto, "The winner gets this cool prize."

"Which is…" Sakura said, almost not wanting to know.

"FIVE FREE ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT RAMEN PASSES TO ICHIRAKU!" exclaimed Naruto.

Sakura shook her head, "How did I not expect that?"

"Please, help me out here! Please!" Naruto begged, "I really want those free ramen passes."

Sasuke and Sakura looked at Naruto who had gotten on his knees to beg.

Sasuke sighed, "Fine."

"And how about you, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked eagerly.

"Well, I guess I'll join, since Sasuke-kun agreed…" Sakura said as she looked down at the ground.

"YES!" Naruto jumped up in the air and cheered, "Now all we need is a drummer. OK, I'm going to ask the first person we come across to be our drummer."

Naruto began to walk with a spring in his step while Sasuke and Sakura reluctantly followed behind. They had only searched for a little while when they found Chouji leaning against a fence while eating a bag of chips, as he was known to do.

"Chouji!" Naruto called out to the heavyset boy, "I'm starting a rock band for this battle of the bands contest! Want to be the drummer?"

"Um, I can't play drums," said Chouji.

"The prize in five free all-you-can-eat ramen passes," Naruto said smiling widely.

Chouji began to think the matter over. He didn't know the first thing about playing drums, but on the other hand, he couldn't resist ramen. Of course, he could always learn to play the drums. How hard could it be?

"Alright," Chouji said, "I'll do it!"

"Yes!" Naruto shouted while raising his fists in the air, "We have a band!"

Naruto began to do a victory dance when he was interrupted by a quiet voice.

"N-Naruto-kun?"

Hinata peeped out from behind a nearby telephone pole and timidly made her way over to Naruto and his newly formed band.

"I-I couldn't help but overhear that you were starting a band," Hinata said softly, "C-can I please join? I can play the keyboard."

Naruto grinned at the pale-eyed girl, making her blush.

"Sure," he said, "Why not?"

A small smile formed on Hinata's face. Although she didn't express it completely, Hinata was overjoyed that Naruto had accepted her into his band.

"Alright, everyone," Naruto announced, "Let's have our first rehearsal at my place tomorrow."

As the members of the new band arranged an exact time to meet, Naruto could feel happiness and excitement swelling inside of him. He was going to enter that contest, and he could feel that he was going to win.

So readers, what do you think? Keep in mind that this is only the first chapter. It's going to get better. Trust me.