Summary: Tenten, a talented young violinist, moves to Konoha and joins their Youth Orchestra. There she meets new friends and enemies... and Neji Hyuuga.
Chapter 3 – Going on Tour
"Are you sure you're gonna be fine by yourself?"
"Who's the parent, you or me?"
Tenten half-smiled. "Bye, mum. Love you."
"Bye, Ten-chan!"
Seika waved Tenten goodbye as she left the house with her violin in one hand and her bag in the other. She was all set for the KYO tour, and looking forward to seeing her new friends again. The orchestra was meeting at the Academy, where they were getting buses to the hotel where they would be practising and staying the night. As she expected, it was extremely hectic when she arrived. Three buses were there and the poor drivers were putting up with having twenty instruments and suitcases shoved in their faces at once and being asked to put them in the boot of the bus.
Tenten checked the form that Shizune had given her. It said she was on bus 3, which was the smallest one. She could see Neji over at Bus 1, making sure his cello was safe in the boot.
She handed her violin case and bag to the driver of Bus 3 and was about to climb inside and find a seat when she sensed someone behind her. She turned, and saw it was Hinata, the shy girl she'd met the day before.
"Hi, Hinata. Are you getting on this bus too?"
"Yes. Would you mind if I sat next to you?" the blue-haired girl asked quietly. Hinata played the harp, which was too big for the bus, and Tenten saw it being loaded onto an expensive-looking car. She wondered if Hinata was rich.
"Not at all!" said Tenten, relieved that there was someone on the bus she actually knew.
She and Hinata went climbed onto the bus and found themselves some seats. As the bus began to fill up with people, Tenten asked, "So, this happens every year?"
Hinata nodded. "The music festival in the Sound Village is something Tsunade never wants to miss."
"It's that good?"
"Sort of. When we reach the festival we participate in the advanced orchestra competition against the Sound Village orchestra. Everyone's very competitive about it. It's normally OK, but I don't know about this year..."
"What could go wrong? It's just a competition."
Hinata shook her head. "I suppose it's a matter of pride. The trophy that the winning orchestra gets is probably the most desired item in the world of music around here. They also say that the Sound Village's orchestra's new conductor, Orochimaru, will do anything to get that trophy. I just don't like the sound of it. Anyway, any youth orchestra is allowed to compete for that trophy, but the two biggest are Konoha and the Sound Village, so it is almost always one of us who wins it. There are also other competitions in the festival, but this one's the biggest. If you win the trophy, then there is also a cash prize, both for the orchestra and for the conductor."
"So that's how you can afford to go on tour every year, and have personalised music stands and everything?"
"Yes. We don't always win the trophy, but around half the time we do. We won it last year, but things have changed since then."
"What's changed?"
"Last year we had one of the most brilliant violinists ever – Kabuto. He was talented, popular, and he seemed like a really nice guy. But after we won that trophy, he changed. I don't know how or why, but suddenly he abandoned Konoha and the orchestra, and moved to the Sound Village. He plays for their orchestra now, and they say he's really friendly with Orochimaru the conductor. In fact, I think it was around the time when Orochimaru became conductor that Kabuto abandoned us."
"Just because he moved home didn't mean he necessarily abandoned you," said Tenten uncomfortably, feeling a slight pang of guilt, wondering how long she would be staying.
Hinata shook her head. "He really changed. He started to skip rehearsals, he stopped hanging around with all of us, and whenever anyone tried to talk to him he'd just snap or sneer."
Tenten shrugged. "OK, so the orchestra has a good violinist. That doesn't necessarily mean they're a better orchestra."
"I know... but a good leader can count for a lot, and as I said before, they say Orochimaru will do anything to get that trophy."
"Is Tsunade worried about this?"
Hinata shook her head. "Tsunade is a gambler. That's partly why we go to this festival every year – because if we win, she gets money."
"She did strike me as a gambling type," said Tenten dryly, remembering that the word written on the back of the woman's jacket. She decided it was time to change the subject. "It must be difficult moving a harp around."
Hinata nodded. "I'm all right most of the time. I can normally fit it into one of our cars easily."
"You have more than one?"
Hinata blushed. "Sorry, I wasn't trying to boast."
Tenten laughed. "Don't worry about it."
They spent the majority of the bus trip in a comfortable silence, and Tenten watched the scenery go by, gradually changing. They left Konoha and drove through the country, presumably on their way to another town or city. After a couple of hours the bus stopped in front of a hotel in an unfamiliar town and her jaw dropped.
Her old orchestra had practised in a hotel a few times, but not one like this. She'd known that the KYO had money, but not this much. It was the type of hotel she'd never been to in her whole life. She didn't know hotels very well, but even so she was almost certain it was a 5 star. It was big and impressive-looking with a huge entrance and car park.
Hinata nudged Tenten lightly to bring her back to reality and the two of them got off the bus. Hinata's car (which Tenten now knew was one of many) was already there and the shy girl hurried over to help the driver unload her harp. Tenten wondered just how wealthy Hinata was, because she could tell by the way the driver acted that he was not any relative of Hinata's, but a chauffeur.
She got her own bag and violin out of the back of the bus, and walked into the hotel with Hinata.
"If you can get your own car to take the harp, why not ride in it yourself?" Tenten asked her.
Hinata looked uncomfortable. "I don't really want to seem..." She trailed off.
"Yeah, I guess I understand." Tenten checked the number on the room key she'd been given by Shizune as they walked up the steps towards the door of the hotel together. "315... I wonder who I'll be sharing with."
"Me," said Hinata with a smile. She held up her own, identical, key and again, Tenten felt relieved that she knew and liked her roommate.
"HEY!!! Tenten! Hinata! Wait UP!!!" Even though she'd never heard that voice before yesterday, Tenten recognised the shout of Naruto Uzumaki instantly. He was running towards them awkwardly, holding a trombone case in one hand and with a rucksack over the other shoulder. Hinata's face went suddenly very red and they both stopped to let Naruto catch up.
"Thought you two were gonna leave me behind," he said, panting for breath. He then turned and yelled back at his bus, "Neji, Fuzzy-Eyebrows, are you two gonna take forever?! I'm hungry!!!"
"Well, you've certainly made sure we're all fully awake," sighed Tsunade as she walked past. "You never change."
Neji came walking towards them, accompanied by a trumpet player with a bowl-shaped haircut and very thick eyebrows. As they got closer Tenten could make out what they were saying.
"So what did you score? I'm sure I beat you this time!" said the trumpeter enthusiastically.
"142," said Neji in a bored voice. "Pass with Distinction."
"And once more I lose," the trumpeter replied dramatically. Tenten wondered whether he was acting or not. "But I will beat you, my eternal rival! With the power of youth!"
Neji said nothing. From the look on his face, Tenten could tell that he'd heard all of this before.
"Stop arguing about exam results," said Naruto sulkily. "Like anyone cares about that sort of stuff."
"Says the guy who failed," smirked Sasuke as he walked past.
Naruto started yelling about him being the greatest and one day becoming conductor of the orchestra (despite the fact that Sasuke was now out of earshot), so Tenten tuned it out.
Neji sighed. "Shall we go in?"
The inside of the hotel was just as grand as the outside and had very large lifts, but there were about fifty people trying to crowd themselves in, along with their bags and instruments. In the end, Tenten, Hinata, Naruto, Neji and the trumpeter (who had introduced himself as Lee) managed to get to a lift and squeeze themselves in.
"We need to go to floor 3, I guess," Tenten said, looking at her room key.
"Same!" exclaimed Naruto, holding up his own. He shuffled his way over to the buttons and slammed his hand down on the number 3, in the process knocking into Hinata's harp which knocked into Tenten, throwing her to the side. Instead of hitting the wall of the lift, she hit something soft and glanced up to see that she was leaning against Neji! "Oh, sorry!" she said, straightening up again. A blush spread across her cheeks and she wished he wasn't quite so handsome.
"That's OK." Luckily he didn't seem annoyed, just surprised.
The lift stopped at the third floor and they all tumbled out. It turned out that Lee, Naruto and Neji were all sharing a room right down the hall from Hinata's and Tenten's. They promised to meet up for lunch in ten minutes and went to their rooms.
Tenten and Hinata's room was big. Very big. Tenten's old orchestra had gone on tour only once ever, and everyone had ended up staying in a youth hostel where it was six people to a room, with everyone crowded in bunk beds and one bathroom shared between four rooms. This hotel had two large beds and their own private bathroom, complete with shower and bath. "W-o-w."
"Which bed do you want?" asked Hinata, putting her harp into the corner of the room where it wouldn't get in the way and was unlikely to get knocked over.
Tenten had no clue which to pick since she was still getting over the fact that they were big but she knew that Hinata was so shy she'd feel uncertain choosing the one she wanted. "I'll take the one by the window," she said, going to put her case down on it. As she placed her things down, a flash of movement out the window caught her eye. The window was facing out towards the back of the hotel, where there was no car park, just a plain grassy area with a few picnic benches. There was a stone path leading around back to the front of the hotel and Tenten could have sworn she saw a figure with long, bright red hair on that path. When she looked again, there was nothing.
"Something wrong?" asked Hinata.
"No, nothing," said Tenten, but as she unpacked her things, she kept glancing out the window. "Anyway, let's enjoy this tour. I have a feeling it will be interesting."
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Sorry about the slight gap between chapters, I was ill for a while. I've also been practising for our own music festival which is coming up. Luckily I'm not playing a solo at it though, just playing in a String Quartet (which is actually tonight) and a String Ensemble.
Anyway, I thought today was a good day for adding this chapter because it's Tenten's birthday! Happy birthday Ten-chan! Maybe as a present Kishimoto will give you more screen time? But I kinda doubt it.
Sorry I'm not very good at describing buildings, it's just something I'm awful at _
Who was the mysterious red-headed stranger? Just something for you to ponder. I also felt I should explain a bit more about the competition which will be one of the main plot lines.
I'm going to make the story a lot more interesting from now on! I feel like I'm not including Neji enough at the moment, but there will be more of him. He's quite difficult to write about, actually, or at least I find him difficult to write about. Ah well, he's still one of my favourite characters.
Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, believe me, you'd know it
Please review, it makes me very happy! Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far!