Part II
"What is this place, Lee?" Neji asked, acting completely normal.
"This," Lee started, then turned on the lights, revealing the expanse of the room to his friends, "is where I practice my own 'talents'" Lee grinned at his stoic teammate.
Looking around at their surroundings, the boys noticed that the contents of the room included a drum set, acoustic guitars, a baby grand piano, a violin, a marimba and a variety of smaller instruments. Almost all the instruments present in the room looked pretty beat up, like someone threw the instruments out of disgust, vowing never to lay eyes on them again. Curious, Kiba went over to the baby grand, it looked ancient. Most of the paint was worn off the lid and the legs looked like they could use a metal bracket to keep them from snapping. Lifting the cover, the canine-nin pressed the C key and a clear steady note rang throughout the room.
"Gejimayu, where'd you get all this stuff?" Naruto asked.
"Well, Gai-sensei said that I should not just train my body, so I –"
"I asked where you picked up these beat up instruments, not why you took up music."
"Oh, well, one of the stores near the outskirts of town was going out of business, and the poor owner was not able to sell these, so I took them." Lee shrugged.
"Did you pay for this junk?" Kiba asked.
"Of course!"
"We'll discuss the minor details later. Now, what kind of show can we put together?"
"I have an idea —"
"Who else has an idea?" Shikamaru added quickly, not wanting to hear Lee's version of singing again.
Everyone shifted uncomfortably, none of them denying or confirming if they had any musical talents or not. Seeing no reaction from any of his friends, Shikamaru sighed and shoved his hands in his pockets. Pulling out a cigarette, he chewed on the filter before lighting the stick of tobacco. The little swirls of smoke hovered above his head like small grey halos before disappearing into the air.
"Troublesome, "Shikamaru muttered, "We're not getting anywhere like this. Naruto, what can you do?"
"Huh?" the blond dumbly answered Shikamaru's question. A slight blush had started to creep its way across his nose.
"We're wasting time like this. Naruto, can you sing, play an instrument, do standup comedy, something?" the lazy nin repeated, slightly irritated.
"Well, I can mmrmm" Naruto mumbled the last part, making it difficult for anyone to catch what he said.
"Naruto just come off and say it, dammit!" Kiba yelled at the blond.
"We don't have all day for this." Neji added, giving a stern stare at the blond.
"Wh-why are you all picking on me for?! What about you, Dog-breath, what can you do?!" Naruto yelled out.
"Shikamaru asked you first." Kiba countered.
This continued for a few minutes, until the lazy nin walked over to one of the drum sets and kicked the bass drum. The sound reverberated against the walls, Shikamaru then noticed an acoustic guitar with chipped green veneer that was leaning against the china cymbal. Without paying any attention to the curious looks he got from his comrades, Shikamaru picked up the instrument and sat down on one of the chairs in the room, the lazy nin started plucking the strings. Slightly adjusting the tightness of the strings, Konoha's laziest ninja started to play something, soon he was singing to the music he was creating. Listening intently, all four shinobis noted that Shikamaru had a nice, smooth and soft voice. Without stopping, Shikamaru turned his attention to his friends.
"I can sing and play the acoustic guitar. Anyone else?" he said this in his usual bored tone, completely ignoring the awed looks of his comrades.
"Well, I…I can sing, play the guitar and…"Naruto broke off once again, head bowed down in embarrassment.
Glancing at his teammates through his bangs, Naruto bit his lip. Never one to back down, he shoved a hand into his pocket and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. Holding it out to Shikamaru with his head turned to the side; the hyperactive blond had a slight blush to his cheeks, but ignored it as he waited for the lazy nin to take the offered paper.
Raising an eyebrow, Shikamaru got off of the chair and took the paper from Naruto's outstretched hand. Skimming the contents, the pony-tailed shinobi raised a questioning eyebrow at the blond.
"You wrote this?" Shikamaru asked, wondering if the blond simply ripped it off of someone else in the village.
"Yeah…but it's really random though" the blond answered, scratching the back of his neck.
"It's pretty good. You even have the music to go with it." The lazy shinobi commented, once again surprised by what the jinchuuriki was able to accomplish, without anybody realizing it.
"Let me see." Kiba took the sheet of music from Shikamaru's hand without even waiting for a reply. Scanning the lyrics and the music, Kiba frowned, slightly jealous.
"Kiba." Neji held out his hand, waiting for the dog-nin to hand him the sheet of music.
Looking up at the Hyuuga, Kiba held out the piece of paper wordlessly, but didn't budge from where he was standing. Wordlessly, Neji walked over to where Kiba was standing and took the offered paper from the brunette without a word and he too scanned the contents of the paper. Scrunching his nose, Kiba returned to the baby grand and looked around for the bench that should accompany it. Finding the bench underneath the belly of the piano, the brunette pulled it out and parked himself comfortably in front of the keys. Ghosting his fingers across the 88 keys, it was almost like the dog-nin was greeting a long lost friend.
"How were you able to bring a baby grand down here without anyone noticing?" the brunette asked
"Oh, I carried that down here. It's not that heavy actually. It's all thanks to the Spring of Youth that I was able to do it really." Lee grinned and gave his 'nice guy' pose.
Chuckling at the response, Kiba pressed a few random keys, testing out the tune of the piano. Smiling at the results and the confused looks on the other guys in the room, the brunette cracked his knuckles and began playing Claude Debussy's Claire de Lune. The soft and somewhat sad melody echoed throughout the room. Since the so called 'studio' was not soundproofed, the walls worked as a natural reflector for the music.
"Who would have thought that Dog-breath could play so well?" Naruto asked jokingly, his trademark smile in place.
"Hn" Neji simply grunted in response.
Feeling slightly out of place, the Byakugan user looked around at the various instruments that were strewn around the room. There was nothing that he could play, Neji was never really into music and he never saw the need to distract himself from his duties as a guard for Hinata-sama or as a shinobi. All his efforts, since he was young was all focused on training; even more so than Lee. Breathing a deep sigh, the lavender-white eyed teen honestly had no idea how he was going to contribute to the task. On any other mission, he would have been the one to give orders and he knew that was capable, but now this; this was beyond even his knowledge.
"Okay, so we have a drummer, a pianist, two vocals, two on guitar and a lyricist." Shikamaru ticked off his fingers as he listed off the talent.
"What do you plan on doing?" Neji asked, slightly eager to contribute.
"I honestly don't know."
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Keichiro walked down the crowded streets of Konoha, looking for a certain pink-haired kunoichi. Five years have passed since Sasuke Uchiha's return and it seemed as if nothing has changed, save for everyone having a lot less time to spend hanging out. Of course there were criminals and corrupt officials here and there, but it seemed like the Hokage was sending the shinobi out more like a chore than a necessity nowadays. No one was complaining about the down time they had, it provided more time to train young genins and there was always the Chuunin exams in the fall. And yet, every so often, villager or shinobi alike would look over their shoulder, expecting danger.
Sighing in frustration, the kunoichi glanced up and down the main street, hoping to catch a glimpse of pink. But to no avail. Today was the only day any of them had any time off, save for Tenten, who was off on an errand with her grandmother.
"Where is she?" she grumbled under her breath
"Where's who?"
Jumping slightly at the voice, Keichiro turned around, hands on her hips and ready to give whoever it was hell. But she was surprised to see Sasuke standing there, smirk firmly in place, onyx boring into her own onyx eyes.
"Sasuke?" her brows furrowed slightly at the sudden appearance of the Uchiha, arms falling back to rest at her sides once again.
"Problem?"
"Yeah, you're an asshole." Crossing her arms over her chest, she looked sternly at the raven-haired teen standing in front of her.
Sasuke frowned slightly, his eyebrow twitching slightly. Rolling her eyes, Keichiro shook her head slightly.
"I'm only kidding," punching his shoulder lightly, "So what brings the Great Uchiha here?"
The raven smirked at the midnight-haired girl in front of him, having always enjoyed the kunoichi's company ever since they were young even before they studied to become shinobi. Since their childhood, Sasuke had spent quite some time over at the Hakuryuu compound, his mother being sisters with Keichiro's mother. So whenever Itachi couldn't watch him, he would tag along with his Okaa-san and of course the children were often sent out to play amongst themselves. Under no obligation was he to trust this meek looking girl, but in the end it proved advantageous to the both of them.
"Could we talk…privately?" Sasuke asked.
"Sounds serious. Is everything all right?" Keichiro replied, slightly concerned.
"Of course everything is all right. But can we talk?"
"I'm supposed to meet Sakura and the girls."
"It shouldn't take long."
"Last time you said that, I was 2 hours late…remember?"
"You are speaking as though I knew we would be attacked by a resurrected Kabuto." Sasuke ground out, irritation started to creep into his voice.
"I'm not saying it's your fault." Keichiro shrugged, "I'm just reminding you of what happened."
"I know what happened. I was there. Now can we please speak in private?"
Sighing, Keichiro checked the time on her phone, it read 2:30pm, the girls were late.
"Sure, where to?"
