A/N: So let's see how this goes...
title: he could be like them
author: pandastacia
pairing: SasuSaku
inspiration: the strangest conversations happen in orchestra. For serious.
summary: Maybe he isn't Aladdin or John Smith or even The Beast, but maybe that isn't important. To Iz and her luffly birthday.
Notes: Happy really late birthday, Iz! And I do adore Disney, so any seemingly-anti-Disney-anything is purely for the purpose of entertainment. Rated for a few swearwords...
"Jasmine had the whole 'Arabian Princess' thing going on
"Ino, Jasmine had the whole 'Arabian Princess' thing going on."
"Jasmine, Temari sweetie, was a whore. I mean, she barely had any clothes on!"
he could be like them
by pandastacia
"Mulan=win.
Li Shang=fuckable."
"And Hyuuga is the Shang to your Mulan."
It was a beautiful day- blue skies, sunbeams dancing along the various shades of green grass, and a cool breeze to cool the otherwise hot and humid air. Trees in the mini-courtyard were blown, whistling noises floating away like the leaves surfing in the nearby koi pond.
Too bad it was a Monday morning in August and the two girls in question were stuck in class.
Orchestra, to be precise.
"Sakura, what the hell are you talking about? Princess Aurora would kick Belle's gold dressed-ass any day!" Ino hissed at her stand partner as they both continued to follow the first-chair violinist's liquid bow movements in front of them. His black hair was gelled back, sticking out in little tuffs, but his discreet look backward with an exasperated look was not noticed by the two arguing girls.
Sakura turned her head to the left to face Ino to properly mouth "Princess Aurora was a lazyass." They were used to such discussions, so the fact Sakura's right cheek was settled on her violin's chinrest instead of her left one was not so bothersome. "I mean, seriously! She slept for, what, a hundred years? Not even Shikamaru sleeps that much and he's the king of all lazy people."
Ino couldn't really refute the statement. After all, the guy was leaning on his bass while the conductor kept on throwing him evil eyes like nobody's business.
"Nara! Your bed is for sleeping. Your bass, on the other hand, is reserved for playing beautiful music! In other words," yelled Anko Mitarashi, jabbing her baton at him, "SLEEP AT HOME!"
The guy said something under his breath
("I bet you two cookies it was 'how troublesome,'" whispers Ino to Sakura.
"No need to bet," mutters Sakura. "Temari's always grumpy about how much he says it about her!")
before slowly picking up the large bass bow and dragging it across a low-sounding string.
"Back to our discussion, Sakura. Since we can't decide who's the sexiest Disney princess, let's go for hottest leading man."
"Ooh, a toughie. There's John Smith, who seems to be the type who'd follow a woman if he thought she had a plan. God knows he basically stalked Pocahontas. And who saved the Native Americans? Pocahontas!"
"Then there's Shang, who's like John Smith's exact opposite. He's a total sexist, but he's hot."
"You can't forget the Beast." Flicking her ponytail over her shoulder, Ino smirked at Sakura. "He truly loves Belle and he's an awesome dancer."
For a few minutes, they just follow instructions, deep in thought, before turning to each other and yelling, "ALADDIN!" so that the whole orchestra class could hear.
"He's totally hot!"
"He can make anything happen!"
"And he's got a monkey!"
"And you two are going to detention!"
They jumped before groaning.
To detention they would go…
"What?!" wailed Sakura. "Why's she in a different detention than me? We're always in detention together."
The confused pink-haired girl was mumbling to herself as she absentmindedly traced the indents in the desk. So many people had dug into the wooden piece over the years, creating a river of lead to swirl around the writing top. "And since when have they ever used more than one room for detention…?" Thoughts ran through her mind faster than she could actually catch up with them.
A small creak filled the otherwise quiet room as the door opened slightly.
"Kakashi-sensei," she greeted, not bothering to turn to face the door.
Even though he had the 'youth-filled, sacred duty to help students regain their youthfulness', as said by Gai-sensei, Kakashi never arrived on time. The one day he had ever arrived on time, Tsunade-sama had won the lottery and there was this gigantic fire in the Foods' room.
So it was best when he wasn't on time.
"Talking too much with Ino-chan again?" he asked her before pulling out his usual book. The one that made the blonde principal's eyebrows twitch and normally caused all manners of giggles and snorts and flushed looks to pass over the generally cheerful man's face.
It could be said that, while he was a teacher with a penchant for being late, he was probably one of the favorites. Because, you see, not every teacher knew who Sakura Haruno's best friend was, that she hated being called Pinky because her older brother who was at college was the only one allowed to call her that, that she loved strawberries and VitaminWater, and that her birthday was on March 28.
"We weren't talking that much," she grumbled.
It was at this point that her bored mind came to the Boy of the Moment.
Sasuke Uchiha, of course.
But he wasn't really Of The Moment, because she had been in love with him for so many years that she had her heart aching most of her life after this anomaly that wouldn't let go of her heart. He had stolen it and she couldn't find it in herself to actually go after it.
She gave a small sigh as she finished tracing the lines and moved on to the strands of pink hair whiffing away from the main mass, looping it in large circles.
At least, Sakura supposed, she had a friendly relationship with him, unlike the fangirls at her school. They talked- more like she talked and he listened, occasionally giving an input.
And maybe, she had long since gotten past the crush stage. No one else could tell that he loved tomatoes, that he hero-worshiped his older brother, that he was a complete and utter mama's boy, and that he enjoyed listening to people. Nobody could ever truly say that they understood him, but they had a connection.
She felt it in that place in-between your lungs, where there was occasionally restricted breathing when she looked at him.
She felt it the same way she felt when she stared off into the sunset, next to him on the roof and leaning on the chicken-wire fencing.
She felt it how it felt when he occasionally gave her a smile.
And knew she was in love.
"Sakura."
She jolted out of her reverie to see the young man of her thoughts in front of her. Sakura reoriented herself, sitting half in, half out of the desk, her legs placed sideways.
"Hey, Sasuke! What are you doing in detention?" With me, she wanted to add, but no. She wouldn't say it.
"Just sitting here until Kakashi-sensei gets back," he replied easily. Sasuke hesitated for a second, looking frozen in time for one brief second as he gazed in her eyes. Sakura noticed the calculating manner he was looking at her in.
Then he turned away and she noticed the redness spreading across the pale skin of his back. "Do you have a fever, Sasuke? You're turning pretty red."
"No." He instantly denied it as he would deny anything. "Just a second…" Voice muffled, he bent for a few seconds to tinker with a few things before, and suddenly music came on.
A few sweet notes from violins and flutes with a piano accompaniment flowed through the air. She recognized the melody- who wouldn't.
And she softly sang along with the soprano voice that came out, "Tale as old as time, true as it can be…"
She was so focused on the music that when a hand swept in front of her face, she jumped, banging her elbow into the desk (She could have sworn she heard the music stutter to a halt for a second before continuing smoothly). Wincing, Sakura looked into the face of her solemn friend (lovelovelove, insisted that little stubborn voice).
"Would you dance with me?"
She didn't hesitate- hadn't she waited for this moment for the past, what twelve years. Her hand rested in his as she stood up.
Giving him a shy smile, Sakura murmured, "Let's dance, shall we?"
And so they did.
So what if he wasn't Aladdin?
So what if he wasn't a prince?
So what if he wasn't perfect?
He was a friend she could trust (hadn't he had her heart for, like, forever?).
He cared.
He listened.
He knew her.
And, of course…
He could dance.
In the next room, a certain blonde girl continued waving her baton expertly, watching a lavender-eyed girl lightly blow her flute, her cousin precisely press the keys on the piano, and a young man pulling his bow across the strings of his violin, his long black hair tied into a low ponytail and black eyes closed.
Behind the conductor, a blonde continued her singing while a silver-haired masked man continued reading his pornography.
No one could see the smile he hid behind his book.
They ran through the song twice, though the second time had a duet of Tsunade and Kakashi singing, something no one had ever known the man could do.
Then there was silence as Ino slowly lowered her baton and Neji, Hinata, and Itachi laid down their instruments.
It continued as they stared at each other.
Of course, Ino just had to break the still air. "Do you suppose they've realized the music has stopped?"
Itachi peeked through the crack between the door leading to the room Sakura and Sasuke were in. "No."
His simplistic answer led to Ino frowning and looking through the crack. What she saw made her smile and so she closed the door on her best friend.
"Let's give them privacy."
And so they left the room.
Ino was last.
As she was just about to pull the door to the classroom closed, she paused.
Maybe, she pondered, something could be said about that tale as old as time.
And so she continued to close the door before allowing the patient Uchiha to cease his waiting for her.
-owari-
A/N: Yesyesyes, another one. But I just felt like saying- there is a little InoItachi in there for her being the loyal best friend who worked so hard to get her BFF with Her Man, so to speak.
And of course, my apologies for getting this out so late, Iz. For the millionth time. :)
~Sonya