o.O I make no statement (except for warnings).

-Alternate Universe (because all Shinobi have a 747 ::eye roll::)

-Homosexuality (SasuNaru, among others)

-Heterosexuality (ShikaTema and HinaKiba, among others)

-Probably mentions of abuse (Mostly Sasuke-related)

-Angst

-Humor

-An original character (she dies early on though, for my own twisted pleasure, in a non-heroic way).

-Exploitation of manga characters this writer has no claim too. She is stealing. Hit her (or not).


Mozart.

Mozart.

Calming, calming Mozart.

Not so calming shouting of blond child, angry speech of chaperone. 'School trips are the devil, stuck on such a small plane. The disruptive twerps.' Another high note. So calming. Skip next song, cello, cello, sad cello…

Sasuke opened one eye. Two seats over, he could hear his classmate whining about something. "Shut up!" he heard someone bark before he had a chance to. He shut his eyes. Probably Haruno Sakura. 'This is unpleasant on so many levels…' he thought miserably.

Well, it was either this or spending spring break with Orochimaru. Very little sounded as miserable as that, even if it meant being in a majorly crowded 747, trying not to strangle the person next to him. Or the person two seats over, since the person next to him was fast asleep and completely normalized.

"Shut up!" A rather obnoxious voice shouted over the din. "Jesus, Uzumaki, stop running that mouth for half a second, okay?" If the speaker, one Inuzuka Kiba, hadn't been best friends with the blond loud-mouth, it would have almost sounded threatening.

Unfortunately, they were best friends, which meant more din as the two argued. Sasuke turned up his music so loud he swore he could feel the piano all the way down in his toes. It tickled. Sasuke hated it when stuff tickled. It was like pain, but not enough to hurt, but enough to--

'Okay, when I start exploring the psychology of pain, it's time to listen to a different song.'

There was a huff. "Okay," came a loud voice. The plane went silent. Sasuke could actually hear the music. Miracle of miracles. He turned it off though, because the person talking was one of the chaperones. A tall, pretty blond girl with a commanding stance and dangerous eyes, there was no ignoring her.

Sasuke took off the head phones.

"Excuse me, Konoha High School." Everyone who wasn't a part of Konoha High School looked away and went on working on their various projects. "Konoha High School, please remember to be kind and courteous to all of those around you."

"Are you stoned?" someone shouted.

"Unfortunately not. The vodka is in the hold and I left the hard drugs under my mattress." No one seemed to deeply care about the legalities. Besides, she couldn't be serious, could she? Sasuke was pretty sure she was only eighteen, nineteen tops. She was a senior, after all.

"As such, we'll be landing soon-ish. Yes. No. Maybe. Just sit tight, we'll get off the Good Shit Lollypop soon enough." She smiled with faux pleasantness. "Translation: sit down, shut up, I won't pull out my Kung Fu on your ass. Seriously. Do not tempt me, I will do it."

For some reason, the plane went quiet.

"Tema, you're being scary again."

Sasuke recognized Inuzuka Kiba's voice.

"I'm sure I am," the girl hissed. Sasuke recalled her name to be Temari, and that she was the elder sister of Sabaku Gaara. Gaara wasn't a bad guy, actually. Quiet. Sasuke liked quiet. Well, perhaps not so much liked, but at the very least tolerated. There was something to be said for that.

Temari sat down again, up at the front of the plane. It was very quiet for a few minutes. Sasuke turned his music up a little because he wanted to hear it and he hadn't been able to. From near him he could hear the noise swelling so he turned up his iPod just a little higher to try and block out whatever was left.

It was peaceful. The stewardess, who kept offering Sasuke drinks and exposing her cleavage to the cool plane air, had finally run off to pester someone else and the various chatter had actually ceased for a second.

"We're hitting a bit of turbulence," a voice boomed from nowhere and everywhere at once. This was disconcerting, especially since it, no doubt, interrupted the music Sasuke was listening to. He winced. 'Will I never actually get a second of peace?'

School trips? Just say no. They're all an excuse to try and teach children character building skills. No matter what they say, they're not going to allow for any piece of the budget to go to a Hawaii trip without some sort of educational compensation. And by educational compensation, they mean legal torture.

Sasuke was apparently the only person to notice this.

Well, Sasuke and Temari, but that's only because she'd been in the system for almost twelve years. At the end of the year, this particular brand of torture ended and she was off to college where you don't actually have to be at class ever. If they want to call walking through the cemetery an educational experience, they can.

Ekphrastic poetry is a great art, really. Not that anyone was really sure what it was.

Of course, there's a special college-specific brand of torture commonly known as 'tuition fees', but those are far too horrendous to be spoken of so lightly. Best be left for those who must deal with them and let the ignorant remain ignorant. Sound familiar? Didn't think so.

Sasuke shut his eyes. 'Too many thoughts,' he murmured. 'Need to shut up.' He tuned out the background noise, sound by sound, until it was just him and the classical tunes that wafted out of his white earbuds. It was peaceful, he decided.

At least, until another bout of turbulence hit the plane.

There was some swearing from the other side of the plane. "Damn it," shouted the voice, over Sasuke's music. The dark haired boy gave up and dropped his iPod into his carry-on bag. No use wasting the battery.

"I spilled my juice. Look what you made me do Naruto." Haruno Sakura's voice, the passive aggressive little wench.

Not that Sasuke really disliked her all that much, except when she had taken to harassing him. She was getting better about that though. Over the past few months, she had dropped more into the 'good friend' category and out of the 'insane stalker category'.

"Please remain calm," Temari again. "It's just ginger ale Sakura. You'll live. We can wash it when we get to the hotel. On Hawaii. Where it's all…pleasant…" Her voice began to fade off.

Another bout of turbulence hit the plane full force. Storm clouds?

"Would everyone please put on their seat belt," this was the pilot's voice. Sasuke knew it well, since he seemed to have some sort of perchant for endless speaking. "There's only a minor detail with the fuel, please remain calm."

Whatever hit next was not calm. There was a sudden, disgusting lurch and it seemed like the plane had turned itself upside down, threatening to spill its contents all over itself. Sasuke felt his heart begin to beat a bit faster.

'Mayday-mayday-mayday…' It was just his mind, right? He was always like this, always so paranoid. Sasuke shut his eyes and sucked in his breath. His heart was racing, pumping the adrenaline through his veins and into his head, into his brain and crushing his mind. 'Calm down,' he told himself, 'calm down.' As if that did any good, really, no matter what the yoga video had said.

"We have to prepare emergency landing procedures. The instructions are on the bottom of your card. Please follow them at this time."

Or not.

Temari stood up. "You heard the man! Up with your sorry asses!"

"I don't want to die like this!"

"You think I do?" The one Sasuke recognized as Temari's brother snapped. "Jesus, a plane crash. Puts Cobain to shame."

"Kankuro," Temari snapped, "the only way you're going out like Cobain is if you don't get the hell up and start doing what I say right now. Homicide? It's just three letters off from 'suicide'."


Off to a bit of a slow start, but it will improve. Really.

To be continued?

I'll honestly only ask once: if you read this far and you liked it, please review. It would mean a lot to me. Want to make sure I haven't randomly developed suck over the past few months.

And yes, that probably is a Kurt-Cobain-was-murdered-conspiracy-theory-jibe.

Ignore.