Story: Umbra

Author: MizukiYukiko

Rated: M

Pairing: SasukeXSakura

Disclaimer: Standard disclaimers apply. I don't own Naruto.

Summary: Sasuke has a crush on an international pop-star, the Queen of J-Pop, as dubbed by Rolling Stone Magazine. Except, he doesn't, not really, anyway.

Notes: 50-shinobi theme #20. Springtime of youth.

Part I: Particles

"And if this thing goes wrong
Oh put me back together
However you want"

– Particles by Nothing but Thieves

Blowing one more kiss from the stage into the screaming fans that were packed into the Tokyo Dome, Otsuka Kaori waved to the blaring mass of over 50,000 people who had come to see her first performance at the venue.

The noise had been overwhelming from the moment she had risen from a platform beneath the stage to appear as if she had arrived from thin air, the fog machines obscuring the view of her, until she made her last bow after her encore. The incredible collection of Otsuka Kaori fanatics had only calmed down for the two ballads that she had sung. Then, her loyal admirers had lit up their lighters and cell phone flashlights to sway along to the softer tempo.

The moment she stepped back stage, she ripped off the ridiculous high heels her manager had asked her to perform in, dropping her height down several centimeters. An assistant handed her a cool water bottle and a towel, which Kaori took with a smile. Only a moment later, aforementioned manager was pulling her into a sweat-slicked bear hug, to her utter disgust.

"YOU DID AWESOME, KAORI-CHAN!" he exclaimed excitedly, taking the moment to twirl her around, his booming laugh all she could hear so tightly pressed to his broad chest.

"Kisame, you disgusting gorilla, let me down!" the petite girl protested, straightening her tank top once he acquiesced. It was black and fell just past her hips, but the entire front was taken up by a gold shimmering skull and crossbones. Her shorts – which were shorter than she would have liked, coming up a few centimeters short of her fingertips – were black with gold and silver polka dots.

The young woman smiled at him despite her lackluster ire, dark brown eyes sparkling in the lights that were slowly coming on backstage, clearly still high from her stellar performance; adrenaline was rushing through her like a drug. It had been the largest show she had booked so far, and the tickets had sold out in a matter of hours.

Her manager grabbed her cheeks in his hands and planted a kiss on her forehead before ushering her further backstage. Usually, he was not nearly as affectionate, tending to be a stoic, caring (in his own way), and gruff man. But the night had been a rousing success, and the excitement surrounding her achievements seemed to be infectious to everyone. Many of the people on her team were coming up to give her congratulations, tapping her shoulder affectionately, and in one bold case, ruffling her elaborately pinned hair.

Picking up the golden boots that she had worn, Kisame and Kaori made their way backstage where her makeup artist sat. He gave her a thumbs-up when he saw her.

"Amazing as always, yeah," he told her, guiding her to the makeup chair he had previously been sitting in. After blotting some of the sweat off of her warm, perspiring face, he picked up a few brushes and began dipping them in various powders.

"Thank you Deidara," she replied, but Deidara's blush brush moved at the wrong moment and powder got stuck in her mouth, causing her to start to cough. Deidara snorted, patting her on the back as he did so to help her clear her lungs from the foundation powder.

Kisame ignored her momentary fit. "There a small line of fans that we pulled out to meet you. They were the ones that got in line for general admission at 8 this morning. Picture, autographs, the works. Spend some time with them, and then you can go home," he told her.

"I have an exam on Monday, so I can't stay too late," Kaori reminded him. Deidara pulled back from the makeup, having fixed anything that had smudged during the performance.

The hairdresser, Sasori, had gone home already, having stayed through her one outfit change, so Deidara took a moment to tug her hair in different directions, straightening it out and making sure all the pins stayed in place. The crown of her hair was brown on top, gradually dyed red towards the end, and fell down past her breasts. It was braided on the top and pinned back to stay out of her face. Tapping her face a few times with his thumbs and forefinger, careful not to disturb her makeup, Deidara gave her a smile.

"Beautiful. Now go make your fans' night."

Sakura grinned and threw on a pair of black converse boots she kept with her so she wouldn't have to wear those forsaken gold high-heeled boots again. After taking a moment to lace them up, she ran to where Kisame was waiting for her impatiently, constantly checking his phone for the time.

"If you want to make that 11:30 bus, you're going to have to be quick."

Kaori frowned and worried her lower lip in her teeth, considering.

"Could you get me a car instead?" she asked. Her fans had spent a lot of time and money to come see her, and she wanted to make sure they got the time they deserved for being so loyal. The pop star just didn't feel right not giving them her undivided attention for the few minutes she was able to carve out with them.

Kisame smiled at her, a sharp-toothed grin. "You got it, Chibi-Koneko."

Growling at the insipid nickname, Kaori went through the door to see the 10 or so fans that they had picked out for her, quickly plastering on a smile for them. An hour later, after pictures and autographs and dogged hounding questions about her personal life, Kaori slipped out of the room and back into the makeup area where Kisame was still waiting for her. The lighting and sound crews were working diligently to get all of her special effects put away carefully.

With a relieved sigh, Kaori expertly pulled the wig from her head, allowing her shoulder-length pink hair to fall down from where it had been confined with a cap since that afternoon. Then, she opened her contact case and plucked the too-thick brown contacts from their places to reveal bright, sparking jade eyes.

"Ah, Sakura-chan's back," Kisame declared, letting a small chuckle escape him. He was sitting with his arm propping his head up on her makeup stand, his eyes not leaving the screen of his phone that he was scrolling through. Sticking her tongue out at him, Haruno Sakura wiped the gobs of makeup from her face with a wet cloth. Moving behind the changing screen, she pulled off her stage outfit and pulled on a pair of jeans and a purple hoodie with a caricature of an ice cream cone with a smiley face.

"The concert reviews are already going up online. Seems to be all good," he told her when she emerged.

"Good. I really hope everyone had as much fun as I did. This crowd was amazing," she replied, handing her stage outfit off to Haku, her personal assistant, with a smile. He would be sure to make sure it got cleaned and put away correctly (Sakura had used to try to do this herself, but she kept getting her stage outfits wrinkled or dirty, so Kisame hired her an assistant to make sure she "didn't screw up" along with other things).

"Is the car out back?" Sakura asked, grabbing her phone and wallet and shoving them in the pocket of her hoodie.

Grunting an affirmative, Kisame led her through the winding hallways in the back of the Tokyo Dome where he made sure she got into the nondescript black sedan he had called for her safely. She gave him a thankful wave, and the car pulled out onto the busy night streets of Tokyo.

From the car, Sakura texted her roommates to let them know that she wasn't taking the bus back. It was only a fifteen-minute drive from the arena to the small apartment she shared with Ino, Tenten, and Hinata. After bidding goodnight to the amiable driver, she made her way up the stairs of the high rise building. It was only a twenty-minute walk from the University of Tokyo's Hongo campus, which was perfect for her and Hinata, who were both students at Todai.

Sakura finally began to feel the adrenaline from the night begin to wear off just as she opened the door to the apartment. Most of the lights were off, but she heard the TV in the living room going. It took forever for her to unlace and rip off the converse, but when they were finally removed, the pinkette made her way into the main area where Ino was sitting with a bottle of wine and some popcorn.

"Heard on the radio that the concert was incredible," she said with a Cheshire grin on her face. Sakura nodded, feeling the excitement coming down and a bone-wariness start arrive in waves. Ino pointed to the kitchen, where Sakura found an already prepared cup of chamomile tea with just a bit of honey and lemon for her throat.

"It was great," Sakura agreed after thanking her roommate and best friend of 16 years for the tea. "The crowd was really into it, and that makes it so much easier to be energetic and happy."

Ino hummed. "You've got one in Osaka next weekend, right?"

"Yeah, on Saturday. I'll probably take the train on Friday night and spend the night in a hotel. An expensive one. You want to come? I'll treat us to a spa night. I'm going to need it after all the projects I have due this week," Sakura moaned, reminded of the large pile of school work waiting for her on her desk. Her blonde friend rolled her eyes.

"Yes, it must be so hard being an international pop star," she replied sarcastically, but with no real heat.

Ino knew how hard Sakura worked to keep her celebrity life separate from her normal, day-to-day medical student activities. It was hard work, especially when so few people even knew of her double identity. Outside of their roommates, Sakura's parents, and her personal staff members that helped with her transition when she became Otsuka Kaori, nobody knew about her secret identity.

"Tenten and Hinata-chan are coming, right?" Ino confirmed. Sakura hummed her affirmation over the ridge of the tea cup that was raised to her lips.

"Not until Saturday. Tenten works Friday night and Hinata-chan has a prep class for law school entrance exams on Saturday morning," Sakura answered.

"Okay, I guess you've convinced me." Ino stood up, corked the wine, and walked into the kitchen where she put it in the refrigerator. Sakura dug her hand into what was left of her friend's popcorn and popped it into her mouth but grimaced; it was not pleasant with the aftertaste of the chamomile tea. Seeing the look on Sakura's face, Ino snorted. "It's what you get, klepto. Now shower and go to bed; you stink of sweat and fame."

Quietly making her way down one hallway as not to wake Hinata, whose bedroom was adjacent to hers, Sakura stepped into the bathroom across the hall. After washing off the sweat and glitter (and fame, according to Ino), Sakura got into her comfy pajamas, an old pair of Naruto's orange sweatpants and a baggy old t-shirt, and plopped face down into bed. Still a little wound up, she flipped the 'on' switch to her white noise machine and tried to meditate. After a while of reliving every moment of the concert, she fell into a heavy sleep.

X

"Help me with this paper."

Sasuke plopped his backpack down in the space on the table next to her, sighing as he ran a hand anxiously through his hair. Sakura tutted quietly under her breath so she didn't bother those studying intensely around her, shaking her head in mock shame. "Why don't you try asking instead of demanding?"

Sakura tried to ignore Sasuke, who was staring at her intensely, waiting for her resolve to falter, which she was sure it would at some point. With his dark eyes watching the side of her face so intensely, she felt her cheeks unconsciously flush. It made her so mad – after years of friendship, and years after getting over her little crush ("Psh, little crush. You were in love with him. You're still in love with him. You will always be in love with him," Ino had told her), that he could still make her blush like she was twelve.

"But it's on boring medical stuff. You love it," he coaxed, leaning further into her so she could smell his cologne. Her heart fluttered a bit, and her stomach twisted in knots. She was a pop star, could have anyone she wanted, but the one person she had known for years could still turn her to mush.

Rolling her eyes and getting an evil idea, Sakura grabbed her pencil and stuck it up Sasuke's nose when he got too close. He cursed, pulling it out and throwing it at her. It would have hit the pinkette in her head had she not dodged. The offending pencil fell to the ground on the other side of Sakura; the university student who was sitting to her right pulled his head out of his book long enough to give them both a wicked glare.

"Sorry," she murmured, cheeks flaming, this time with shame from the ruckus they had caused. Sasuke was looking away when she turned back, hauling out his laptop and opening it to pull up his paper. "Plus, don't you want to get your Masters in Psychology? You will have to know boring medical stuff in order to do that."

Sakura's phone vibrated. Swiping the screen open, she saw it was a picture from her stylist, Konan. She often got photos from her of different outfits for various events she had coming up. This time, it looked to be a piece for a concert – a loose fitting, three-quarter sleeved tunic that would fall mid-thigh. It looked like a patchwork of different fabrics, patterns, and colors, and there was a pair of opaque black tights that shimmered in the light. A pair of flat bottomed colorful basketball shoes was to the side, which were much more practical for jumping around and dancing to the complicated choreography she did.

There was one word with the picture: Osaka?

Thinking it over for a moment, she typed back that she'd rather have shorts as the stage lights were very hot, and because it was late winter, the venues often turned the heat on in the beginning of the evening. Just as she was about to set her phone down, another text came through. This one was from Kisame.

You have a break from school in the summer, right? Label is thinking short international tour. China, South Korea, Taiwan, and maybe a few shows in America.

Sighing, Sakura responded the dates that she would have a break on and asked to have at least a week off from work. A reply from Konan came in with a picture of white shorts with a colorful embroidered pattern on the bottom hem, which she answered with a thumbs-up emoji. When she put her phone down, Sasuke had finally gotten his computer screen open, and if Sakura had been drinking anything, she would have spit it out.

On his computer was a picture of her. Well, not her, but of Otsuka Kaori. It was a still from one of her concerts. There was a dazzling smile on her face, and her hand was up in the air, splayed to the sky. It looked to be from a show she had done in Taiwan the year before.

"Sasuke?"'

"Aa?"

"Do you have a pop star as your wallpaper?"

Scowling and slamming his laptop shut, Sasuke shot her an acidic glare. "What's it to you?"

Sakura giggled and patted him on the shoulder, trying to hide her discomfiture. With a grin, she replied, "Nothing. Just that one time you said pop music was the bane of the world, from Japan to America and beyond, and that you would rather break all of the fingers on your left hand than go to a live concert for a pop artist."

Sakura watched as a tinge of pink began to spread over the bridge of Sasuke's nose and his cheeks.

"Otsuka Kaori is different," was his response. The secret pop star tilted her head in confusion, waiting for his explanation. "She can actually sing and dance, and she writes her own music. I watched a few of her live performances, and she's talented. And she cares about people other than herself. When the earthquake hit Kamakura a few years back, she donated 20 million yen to the relief efforts, and she chartered a private plane, filled it with clothing, food, and water and had it sent down there."

Oh yeah, Sakura remembered, Kisame had been furious with her when she had done that without permission as she had borrowed a plane owned by her label.

"And she is kind to her fans. Did you know she chooses like 10 fans from each show to pull to the back and meet her? They don't have to pay extra for it, like some celebrities, and –"

"Sasuke," the pinkette interrupted his long winded justification of his love for her alter ego, another blush rising in her chest and up to her ears from his inadvertent compliments. To her relief, Sasuke seemed to catch himself, realizing what he was saying, and blushed a little more too. He wasn't making eye contact with her; instead, he kept his eyes on his hands, which were clenching on the table in front of him.

"You're a fanboy."

Growling, Sasuke turned to defend himself, but instead focused on the near-hysterical laughter about to pour out of Sakura, and realized there was no defending himself from this.

He was a fanboy.

Scowling at her but not quite making eye contact, Sasuke allowed some of the irritation he felt for her fade away. "Are you doing anything this weekend?" he asked. "She has a show in Osaka that's not sold out yet. We could go if you wanted."

Leaning back in her chair to peer at the ceiling so he wouldn't see her nervousness, Sakura shook her head. "I have plans with my parents this weekend. Ino, Tenten, and Hinata are all going, so you can see if you can tag along with them. I'm sure Naruto will join if it means seeing Hinata-chan."

Since she was still staring at the dome-like windows that covered the roof of the building, which allowed natural light to flood the library, Sakura didn't see Sasuke frown at her in disappointment.

"Yeah," he sighed. Reopening his computer and pulling up the screen, Sakura took another look at herself in her hair and makeup before it was covered with Sasuke's paper. The pinkette peered over his shoulder while he typed, pointing to small errors in his wording and helping him with the assignment.

X

Later that day found Haruno Sakura throwing her hand out to karate chop one Uchiha Itachi in the shin after he touched an ice cold water bottle to the back of her exposed neck during one of their breaks. The more stoic of the Uchiha brothers let out a huff of laughter and slid down on the mirrored wall next to her.

The pop star was flipping through one of her social media profiles as Otsuka Kaori and liking fans' posts and comments about her, responding to a few. She put her phone down and turned towards her choreographer/dance teacher.

"So why didn't you tell me?" she asked with an accusing point of her finger, which she slowly pushed into the dark haired man's cheek, leaving a crescent moon shaped indent from her nail in his pale skin. Pushing the offending finger away, Itachi arched an eyebrow at her, telling her to elaborate. With a melodramatic sigh, Sakura fell on her side so the side of her face was pressed to the cool floor of the dance studio. "That Sasuke-kun likes Otsuka Kaori."

"I didn't know he did," was the elder Uchiha's reply, and he seemed genuinely surprised, not that his student could always tell from his relatively monotone inflections. Huffing, Sakura turned to face the white tiled ceilings so she was lying on her back. It made sense that Itachi wouldn't have a clue, as he hadn't lived with Sasuke since he had graduated university years before; it was doubtful they would talk about pop music when they got the chance to spend time together.

"This ruins everything, senpai," she whined out in a childlike manner. Itachi poked her in her side, triggering her to squeal and shoot up and almost hit her head on the balance bar that was attached to the wall.

"How so?"

"If Sasuke-kun finds out that I'm a pop star and asks me out, it would be because I'm Otsuka Kaori, not Haruno Sakura," she complained. Her stomach sunk a little as she realized how true her words were. Sakura did not see Itachi roll his eyes. These two are never going to get together that this rate. He thought to himself.

"You're being dramatic," he replied with a hint of steel to his voice, but he did not press the issue further. She just looked too depressed about it all. "Come on. Let's work on the choreography for Smile again. You end up a count behind your back up dancers because you come up too late from your windmills."

"Do not," was the grumbled reply, but she stuck her hands out and waved them into the open air, miming for him to help her up from the floor. He huffed another laugh but pulled her up regardless.

Itachi walked Sakura all the way to the train station (Uchiha Mikoto taught her boys manners, that was for sure) before he doubled back to make his way to his own apartment. Sakura took the subway to her stop and then picked up some menchi-katsu for a quick dinner.

The apartment was silent when she returned. A large whiteboard was hung on the wall in the kitchen with all of their names written out. They used this to know where each person was at any given time if it hadn't been communicated through their group text that day. Hinata was at the library studying, Ino was at work, and Tenten was spending the night at her boyfriend's apartment. Sakura erased the words that said "Dance Practice" next to her name and wrote "Home."

After eating and finishing some reading for her biology class, Sakura felt the weight of the day on her and started to hum a mellow tune. She didn't know why the revelation that Sasuke enjoyed Otsuka Kaori bothered her so much, but it did. She supposed it might have been because she had pined for him for years, yet he fell in love with her alter ego so easily. In a way, she supposed, Sakura was jealous of herself.

Making her way to her keyboard, she turned on the overhead lamp and pulled out her notebook. Her fingers had worn dark spots in the keys where they hit so many times before, and she ran the back of her knuckles over the well-loved keys. It was natural, for her fingers to press down in chords. First, she started with the tune that she had been humming, making changes so it would flow better.

Then, the lyrics came naturally, spilling from her lips like a running river. It was a ballad, brimming with lines of unrequited love and watching someone you could never hope to have after so many years of friendship, about how she would change herself to make the other person love her. Stopping after she got out a decent first verse and chorus, she moved to the bridge where her voice hit a crescendo, so she was singing from her chest and stomach, belting out the words loudly. As her voice hit it's loudest point, it cracked.

She pretended like it was vocal fry and not the consuming sadness that was taking over.

"It's good."

Sakura nearly jumped out of her skin. "Damn it Ino!"

Said blond was leaning against the door jamb between her room and the hallway with a small frown on her lips. Waiting for her to speak, Sakura stretched out her back and arms and checked her phone. She had been composing for almost two hours and had four unanswered text messages, two from Kisame, one from her parents, and one from Haku.

"Sorry, Forehead. I thought you heard me come in," Ino replied. The blonde was still in her waitress uniform, and it was clear she had come straight to Sakura's room when she heard her singing after returning from work. She walked over, toeing off her flats in the process, and joined Sakura on her bench. "The song was really good. Will it go on your next album?"

Sakura twisted her lips. "I don't know yet. I'll have to send a sound bite to Pein and see what he thinks of it."

Ino gave Sakura a sympathetic smile and patted her on the hand. Confused, Sakura tilted her head a bit at her friend. Ino grabbed Sakura's face in her hands, wiping her thumbs under the singer's eyes.

It was then that Sakura realized she had been crying.

X

The Osaka show, the last of Otsuka Kaori's Japan tour, was a huge success, and raving reviews of her performance were on every magazine in the nation. Rolling Stone Magazine, one of the most famous in the United States and the world, even called her The Queen of J-Pop and said she was the first Japanese artist to excite western countries to this level and even speculated about her tour to the US, which her management team was still working on finalizing the dates and venues for.

Sakura took the next few weeks to finish up school work and record the song she had written. There were others she was prepared to record for her third studio album, and she looked forward to getting back into the studio again. Her song, dubbed Umbra, was recorded and remastered by her producer and voice coach, Pein, but it stayed a piano ballad with very basic percussion laid over it to enhance the sound.

Unbeknownst to her, he sent the track to Itachi. Three weeks after the track was completed, two months to the day after her Osaka concert, Sakura received a video from Itachi. Plugging in her head phones and sitting at the bus stop on campus as she waited for her bus to take her to the gym where she worked out, Sakura pressed play on the video.

It was of two of her backup dancers, Hanabi (Hinata's sister) and Kimimaro.

They were both wrapped in cloth from just above their knees, up their bodies, ending just below their collarbones. Hanabi was in all white, while Kimimaro was in black. Sakura heard Itachi give a four count from somewhere off screen, and he must have pressed play on the music, for she heard the piano introduction for Umbra come over the loud speakers in the dance studio.

Hanabi's feet went into relevé and she began twirling around Kimimaro, her knees never buckling and her feet constantly in pointe. Somewhere in her turns, she grabbed and end of the black wrap that enveloped Kimiaro's knee and began twisting it off of him and placed it around her chest.

Kimimaro did the same to her outfit, grabbing the cloth on her chest and beginning to twist it around his knee. As the song progressed, the duo danced around each other in a mixture of lyrical and contemporary styles as they unwrapped each other and bound themselves in the opposite color. Never once did they completely touch, their fingers barely ghosting over each other as the two pieces of fabric were the only things that connected them.

When the song reached the crescendo that could still choke Sakura up when she sang it, the two completed wrapping each other and came together, their bodies pressed close as they grasped each other's hands, Kimimaro pushed Hanabi away from him as she went into a spin. The last few lines were soft, and the two were pushed to the ground on their toes and hands, stretching one arm out towards each other from across the room. The final notes of the piano faded out as the two finally collapsed, their hands still reaching for the other.

The video ended, and the pinkette just stared blankly at the concrete sidewalk, a few tears escaping her emerald eyes. She was so moved by the duet's performance, and not for the first time, she thanked her lucky stars that Itachi was her choreographer. Abruptly, most likely because she was so absorbed with her thoughts, two Nike-covered feet came into her vision, and Sakura dragged her eyes up to find Sasuke looming over her.

"What's wrong?" he asked as he collapsed in the bench next to her, dropping his heavy book bag onto the ground. Sakura took a shuddering breath and pressed her face to his shoulder, moving her eyes to the side so her cheek was resting comfortably on the side of his arm. Sasuke stiffened at the contact, and Sakura thought to apologize but didn't.

"Your brother…" she trailed off, taking another deep breath, "is just so talented!"

Sasuke made a gagging noise.

"He was supposed to become the disappointment when he decided to be a choreographer instead of a lawyer, you know," he muttered with a bite to this tone. Although his seemed miffed with her, he did not make her move her head from his shoulder while they waited for the bus, and he did not mention it later when she fell asleep and drooled on him, leaving a wet spot on his shirt.

Author's Note:

I have always wanted to do a fic that really incorporated the Akatsuki in a setting that was not in the Naruto Universe, so I got this idea one day and just ran with it. I thought doing a SasukeXSakura fic with AkatsukiXSakura friendship would be different.

This will be about 3-5 chapters total, so it will not be a super long fic. Also, I am not from Japan nor have I been to Japan (one day, I hope), but I did do a lot of research into all of the Japanese elements I put into this fic. However, if you see something that is wildly inaccurate, please let me know so I can correct it.

If you would like to hear the song that I had in mind when describing Sakura's song, listen to Particles (Piano Version) by Nothing but Thieves. The songs aren't the same, obviously, but that's the overall feeling that I was thinking of for Sakura's song. It's really a lovely piece.

Thank you so much for reading. Please review!