Disclaimer:
Me: Naruto say it.
Naruto:(shakes head and pouts)No!
Me: Saaay it…
Naruto:No
Me:Naruto!
Naruto:I said no!
Me: say it or I'll turn my next fic into an Itanaru rape, accidental impreg! And no body doubles!!!
Naruto: (gasps and garbs his ass protectively) I, the blonde one are not owned by Aidan Artimis(hesitates) though I am her bitch.
Me: Naruto…
Naruto: I mean, proudly her little kitsune bitch.(blush)
Read, enjoy, review!!
Chapter 4
Monday morning, the day before they left Konoha, Sasuke was back at the studio apartment for his bands last rehearsal, and his finale lesson with the ex-guitarist of HLV. Shikamaru had spent almost every waking hour for the past two days going over each song they planned on playing on the tour. During that time he was all the more convinced that the Uchiha was the right choice as a last minute replacement, besides the attitude, he was a fast learner, which meant that Shikamaru didn't have to unnecessarily repeat anything, and he was dedicated. Again, if it wasn't for the attitude, he might actually begin to like this kid.
"So, you comin to the farewell dinner tonight?" he asked the one mentioned as the raven haired one was picking soft notes on his guitar absentmindedly.
Sasuke glanced at Shikamaru who was leaned against the open window sill casually exhaling the smoke from his cigarette out into the fresh air. He recalled the annoying blonde ranting earnestly about some dinner party with the long haired Hyuuga (who in turn complained faintly about doing all the planning himself). The band and all their friends were going to be there, better yet, it was to be held in a ramen restaurant. Oh joy!
"No." he said.
Shikamaru shrugged, he thought that he should remind the guy that he was now part of a group of people who he was going to be spending a large majority of the next two months in a clustered bus and shared hotel rooms with. The Uchiha hadn't really spoken in depth with any of the members, besides him, and, he already had the loudest, most hyperactive member irked by his every movement, going to this dinner might lighten the tension a little (or make things worst), but Sasuke seemed just as stubborn as Naruto and Shikamaru didn't want to have the energy.
"Let's finish off the last song." he told the raven as he oust his cancer stick on the sill, Shikamaru slung his guitar and started playing, that's another thing he liked, he only had to play a piece once and the Uchiha could play it back perfectly.
Meanwhile, on the homemade stage, Neji was also practicing on his keyboard when Naruto entered the room through his bedroom door holding a crumpled piece of note paper. "I found it!" he shouted to Neji and Sasuke glanced at the blond one then put his attention back to Shikamaru.
Neji took the paper from Naruto and looked over the messy words and scribbled music notes around the edges that he would have to somehow interpret and play. "This is the new song?"
"Yeah." Naruto grin, he was a little proud of himself, mostly for finding it, the song had been lost in his room for a few days now.
"It's about time; I was beginning to think you had writer's block or something." Kiba told him from the couch where he was lounging and being the only person not practicing.
"Damare!" Naruto shot at him, he didn't have writer's block, nothing that bad, but something was up with his creative energy these days and Naruto was slowly beginning to understand what. He was running out of steam, after more than a year of venting years of teenage angst and bad experiences in the form of song (and of course rocking out on stage like the hyperactive beast he was) Naruto was finally seeing the end of such emotions, he almost couldn't believe it, but he was actually getting over his past, his parents deaths, his lonely childhood, all the scummy memories that used to stick onto like a thick layer of mud had disintegrated, now that he had friends and something to live for in the band there was nothing left to complain about.
He watched Neji's lithium eyes follow the words on the paper quickly as he thought about it. Sasuke's attention had wavered again, the dobe wrote the band's music? He couldn't believe it.
"So that's the first part, until the chorus where you replace F major with B7." Shikamaru said gaining Sasuke's attention again. "Let me hear it." and Sasuke tried to remember what he'd heard.
Neji gave Naruto back his song and placed slender fingers on the correct keys and then nodded for him to begin.
"Yeah, it goes kinda slowly." Naruto explained to the brunette and he opened his mouth to sing as Neji played the first notes.
"Wait!"Naruto was stopped instantly by Kiba, he looked at the spiky-haired teen for a problem, then watched as Kiba placed the head phones of his Ipod into his ears then said, "Go ahead." Naruto glared muttering curses then went back to where he left off, about to sing. Neji began again:
"I can't get out,
I need to break out,"
Sasuke's fingers stumbled over his guitar strings jerking the notes he was playing to a discordant stall, he swung his head around to see where the sound was coming from.
"I'm suffocating here, the malice -" it was the Dobe, "-the lies are a stifling poison," Kiba turned the volume higher on his Ipod, Sasuke couldn't help but cringe a little-
"The pepper bombs of reality,
Stroking the chaos inside to grow-"
The only ones who seemed unaffected by the sound that crawled out of the blonde one's mouth, was Shikamaru and Neji. Sasuke closed his eyes in an attempt to concentrate better on ignoring.
"So it can eat me alive and send me-" the dark one's eyebrow's twitched as the screeching went to a higher pitch. "Back to hell where all this could be good for something."
"Dobe!!" Sasuke barked, he couldn't bare it any longer, Naruto looked over at him angrily for interrupting, "Nani!?!"He shouted angrily and Sasuke inwardly smirked, hn, he knows his name.
"What are you trying to do, kill me?!" Sasuke told him, his dark eyes glaring into the reflective deep, his ears were ringing and he wondered if it was blood he felt in them. Kiba, who had paused his music the moment the angry blonde had turned onto the Uchiha, snorted and Naruto shot him a heated glance.
"What the fuck are you trying to say?" Naruto asked aggressively and Neji watched as the drummer unconsciously began to step towards the object of his passionate loathing. He frowned and got to his feet to prepare himself to hold Naruto back when he pounced on Sasuke, he hope that Shikamaru was also prepared as Neji was confident that Kiba would most likely delight in just being an audience to the oncoming hostility.
Sasuke smirked, the same way he did that day of the auditions, right before he gave the dumb blonde his new title. "It's a good thing you're stuck on the drums dobe, cause you sound like a dying animal. Now hold back on the squawking I'm trying to figure this out."
Naruto's eyes widened again in disbelief at the obnoxiousness of the raven haired one, Sasuke could practically see the dobe's bright blonde hair stand on end the same way a cat's would when it was threatened, then the snarl that curled at Naruto's lips showing abnormally sharp canine's, the six weird marks on his cheeks rose like whiskers, the color of his eyes deepen even, to a blue that Sasuke again couldn't find words for, he looked like a perfect beast, not an ugly one, more like a very angry--(thinks of a word) fox. But the raven haired one was both entertained and annoyingly dissatisfied, when the blonde one got provoked that fast it almost made it not worth it, he realized that he preferred when these antagonistic interactions with the dunce lasted.
"Sasuke!" was all Naruto could say, his anger had choked all the words in him and his mind was hotly blinded with many enticing and violent possibilities that all ended in Sasuke's untimely death.
Sasuke knitted his brow suddenly, he didn't have time for this, they were leaving tomorrow and he had decided, as Uchihas did all things, to take this seriously. He wouldn't look like a fool on stage, not because of Naruto.
"Are we done?" he asked Shikamaru without shifting his glare off of Naruto (no way he was backing down!).
"Yeah, that's about it." Shikamaru told him unconcernedly.
"Hn." Sasuke finally broke the glaring contest and turned to grab his guitar case and then headed for the door, Naruto too stormed backed into his room and both doors banged shut, one after the other.
"This could be problematic." Neji observed aloud.
Shikamaru shrugged as he lit another cigarette, "It's not my problem, I'm not in the band anymore."
~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~
"Lookin good Naruto-kun!" Ino asserted as she gave the blonde one a smart smile and wink, he came to sit between her and Sakura. Ichiraku was fairly crowded tonight, Naruto observed the busy but professionally calm waiters and waitresses as they moved between the tables doing their jobs, memories of working there as a younger teen whispering in his mind, it wasn't exactly a restaurant back then, more like a ramen shack. He wondered if the old man would still give him free ramen if he washed the dishes…
Sakura had turned to look at Naruto because of Ino's comment but her smile dissolved and she rolled her eyes when she saw Naruto's orange hoody that was spotted with graceful black butterflies and sharp gothic writing. She gave Ino a weary look and Ino frowned.
"What?! It's a great hoody!" she said in her defense.
"Ino, when are you going to stop forcing Naruto to wear your clothes?"
"Hey, I don't force him to do anything, he agreed to be my company's spokesperson/promoter/model, and he gets paid."
"With free clothes?" Sakura chimed sarcastically.
Naruto folded his arms in between the two girls as they fought over him, his eyes lingering on the menu before him, he wondered why Ino and Sakura don't just make-out already, he knew they wanted to! Ino was in an arts school in Konoha studying fashion design and merchandising, the same university Chouji attended for culinary arts, she had just started her own label called "Papillon Noir" (Chouji came up with the title), thing was that everything in her line was orange because Naruto so far was her only customer (though customer might be the wrong word to use as he got most of the stuff free for his promotion work-Ino just thought it was a miracle she hadn't gone bankrupt yet). The drummer couldn't exactly remember why or when he had decided to take up such an irritating and imperative role in Ino's venture, it was probably all the free orange stuff, and they really didn't look half bad.
A waitress came to take their orders and the table quieted a bit as everyone took their turn, Naruto for the first time since he came looked around at everyone: Chouji sat next to Shikamaru ordering what he thought was the best for both of them, Kiba was leaning against his boyfriend Shino to peer into the shaded teen's menu even though he had one of his own, and Ten Ten, Neji and Lee were catching up with Hinata as she told them softly about her psychology classes. Naruto grinned as he quietly savored his friend's presence. "Hmm, everyone's here."
"Not everyone." Kiba spoke and Naruto gazed at his sly smirk, "Our new guitarist is absent."
The blonde one's brows turned down as he flushed from the angry memories and at Kiba's mischievousness in bringing it up. Naruto was doing just fine not thinking about that baka ka for once.
"Oh right!" Ino looked up from her menu and her eyes went over each HLV member, "Where is he?"
"He's not coming." Shikamaru told her matter-of-factly.
Ino frowned, "Why not?"
"Cause he has a stick stuck up his ass." Naruto grumbled.
"Naruto!" Sakura said disapprovingly as Ino chuckled.
"Sorry, it's more like a tree trunk." he added.
"Is he that bad?" Ino asked.
"He is a bit-temperamental." Neji said, especially when it comes to Naruto.
"Oh, but he's really hot!" Sakura told Ino touching her hand and moving closer the way all girls did when they were discussing an interesting topic (boys).
"Really! Too bad I won't get to see him if he's not coming tonight." Ino said, but Sakura just smiled dangerously at her friend and turned in her chair so she could rumble through her purse which hung besides her.
"Thank you." the waitress said as she took back their menus, Naruto heard the strangest high-pitched sound that was a lot like giggling and looked up to see Shino locking lips with a blushing Kiba. He grimaced but was then suddenly shoved further back in his seat as Sakura plopped down half her body on his lap so that both she and Ino could look into the screen of her cell phone.
"Hey, Hey watch the elbows!" he shifted his legs so that Sakura was no longer impaling his groin. But Ino also draped her arm around him bringing herself closer so that she could see better. Naruto felt claustrophobic and wondered why all his female friends thought that because he was gay he had no personal space bubble when it came to them, but he watched the screen too nonetheless, out of curiosity.
Sakura pressed play and a familiar scene appeared in the small window, Sasuke playing that day of the audition, Naruto leaned closer as his moth fell open, the bitch got the entire thing on her cell phone!!
Ino gasped as she blinked almost flirtingly at the video, "Oo, bishonen!"
"I know, and he's so cool too!" Sakura blushed from the actual memories, soon Ten Ten and Hinata were also leaning in over Naruto's head to watch the video and Shikamaru couldn't help but feel sorry for the guy, he looked like he was under a teepee of girls.
"Ahh! I can't breathe!" Naruto exclaimed and he began pushing them away, the girls scattered, Ten Ten and Hinata went back to their seats and Sakura fell into hers and off Naruto's lap.
"When did you even record that?!" Naruto asked her "I was looking at you the entire time. Where was the camera?"
Sakura just grinned innocently as she put index finger against her chin, "I have my ways."
Naruto moved away a little, he didn't see why they had to behave like that, so annoying, what was all the fuss about!?
"You d-don't seem to be very-fond of him-Naruto-kun."Hinata's delicate voice was almost drowned out by the general sounds of the restaurant.
Naruto shrugged, "None of you really know the guy, he's an asshole most of the time." Then realization abruptly bore its smirking, raven-haired head and Naruto's eyes widen till they looked like genuine sapphire on his face, and then he groaned, "Ga! And I have to spend two whole months with him, urgh!" he locked his fingers between messy blonde stands as he held his head.
Hinata couldn't help but giggle at the blonde one's animated expressions, "He can't be-that bad Na-Naruto-kun, you should give-give him a chance." Hinata realized that she was being rather straight forward and her head fell as she gazed at her plate and simultaneously began fidgeting with her fingers as she finished the sentence.
Naruto looked at her and sighed, mostly because he didn't understand Neji's cousin's shyness but also cause he was actually considering what she was saying.
"I think their made for each other." Naruto almost pulled a neck muscle when he turned sharply to glare at the person who had the nerve to utter such an illicit sentence.
Kiba
The teen grinned exposing rows of sharp, wolf-like teeth in the face of the blonde one's 'death stare'. Kiba thought, like he could ever hurt a thing with those cerulean eyes. Kiba tangled his arm around Shino's bringing himself even closer to his boyfriend.
"You should see them babe, they look so cute together." Kiba said looking into Shino's unmoving face, the only thing that expressed emotions on Shino were his sharp eyebrows just above his dark shades, one of which was now cocked in amusement. Kiba nuzzled Shino and said softly so that his warm breath aroused the other's neck, "Their almost as cute as us."
"Hm." Shino said before he shifted his head to clasp his lips on Kiba's again and the bassist let out a little squeak then giggled as he felt his bottom lip be bitten on gently.
Naruto sweat dropped as he witnessed this, "Jeez, you know, when Shino's around you turn into a real uke." Naruto muttered his observation which Kiba heard just fine and pulled away immediately from his lover's lips snarling. Suddenly the table jerked up causing all the utensils, especially the glass ones, to lift a little over an inch into the air and then fall back noisily. Hinata gasped and Naruto felt the solid kick that had caused the quake under the table against his knee.
"What did you say?!" Kiba shouted.
"Argh!!" Naruto jumped and lifted both feet onto his chair, he knew Kiba well, if he had the opportunity he would inflict more hurt, Naruto pouted and rubbed his aching knee.
Kiba watched him for a moment then sneered as he leaned over the table closer to the blonde one who was annoyingly out of his reach, "At least I can still make you cry."
Naruto paused in shock then he too came closer so that he could shout defensively, "You've never made me cry!"
Chouji chuckled and Naruto's head snapped in his direction, "He's never made me cry!" he said again with a touch of desperation in his voice that made Ten Ten have to hold back a blush because the blond one looked so guiltily cute.
Shikamaru sighed sharply, "Would you kids use your inside voices" he said a bit irritated, "We're in a nice place for Christ's sake."
"But-But-" Naruto stuttered as he looked between Chouji's smile to Kiba's content grin.
"You must feel lucky." Ten Ten said softly to Neji who was watching Naruto hopelessly.
The brunette looked at his friend, raising a brow at her words and her wide knowing smile.
Ten Ten just chuckled as if he was being silly and intentionally ignorant.
"You'll be spending a whole two months with Naruto, maybe you'll even get to share hotel rooms." she winked suggestively.
Neji almost choked on air, again, as his eyes widened along with his mouth and for a full two seconds Hyuuga Neji was at an utter loss for words.
Luckily, he recovered.
"Ten Ten!" he said sternly with a serious frown, "Don't be ridiculous, and stop speaking so loudly." Neji's silvery white eyes scanned the table for ease droppers but everyone's attention was on the approaching waitress with a platter of some of their orders in her palms.
Within a minute each had their order and was ready to dig in, Naruto snapped his chopsticks apart and smiled greedily down at his bowl, he got the largest possible order along with Chouji, but stopped when he realized that everyone seemed to be waiting for something, more surprising most of them were staring expectantly at him.
"What?" he asked.
Ino rolled her eyes, "Well Naruto, this is your farewell dinner, you've to got say something." Oh, it was his idea, which he thought at the time was a good one until he now had to play public speaker and come up with an oration on the spot. He glanced at Neji ready to give the brunette those pleading eyes that seemed to work each time, he might have introduced the idea of the dinner but Neji was the planner, besides, he was more eloquent than Naruto. But Neji for some reason that he had obviously missed looked annoyed and when his cloudy eyes meet the blonde's he looked away quickly with a skittish somewhat pained expression that Naruto in his current already distracted state couldn't decipher.
He scratched the hair just above the back of his neck, "Hmmm," Everyone was watching him, their eyes left no backlash of uneasiness on him though, these were his buddies, the ones that won't prone to broody personalities smiled at him affectionately, patient, he felt like he could say anything. "I'm really going to miss ya'll, we all would, though it's only for two months, aaannd- Sakura don't worry we won't do too many stupid stuff, Ino I'll wear your cloths every day-"
"Don't forget the hand outs." she said.
"-I won't, we'll bring back-um what are those things called again, when you travel-and-sorven-"
"Souvenirs?"Shino said flatly.
"Yeah-that. And Shikamaru we'll take lots of pictures and videos so you won't miss a thing." Shikamaru shrugged, you better. "And when we get back the Hidden Leaf Village would be even more famous than we were before" Naruto said the last part of his 'speech' with such a sudden turn into conviction that only he could accomplish, Lee's black board eyebrows made a stern V as he clutched his fist to his heart
"Well said Naruto-kun," he began, "I too will surely feel your absence from the very core of my burly chest, but will be reminded and inspired every day by the purpose of your youthful sojourn, I too in this time shall thrive in my own betterment, push forward in my own journey along life's trying path!"
"…"
"Oookay." Ino broke the awkward silence and pushed on a smile as she picked up her chopsticks and turned to Naruto, "So, let's eat?"
And everyone chimed, "Itadakimasu!"
~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~
"So this is what you meant." Neji said to Naruto, it was almost a hiss as the Hyuuga's voice was suddenly oppressed when he opened his mouth to talk by the weight of his growing impatience. Kiba never realized it before but the graceful and solemn brunette really didn't like waiting, which in a few seconds, after he thought about it, made sense as it must coincide with the whole control freak/anal thing Neji had going sometimes.
But even Kiba was beginning to get restless; he leaned back against Shino with a sigh and looked up into the quiet boys face in the same way Shikamaru would look at his clouds.
They were waiting at the bridge for their ever punctual bus driver to arrive, Naruto, Kiba, Neji and Sasuke, their luggage sprawled around them in the hot noon sun looking like a group of homeless rejects. Kakashi was supposed to arrive at the agreed hour of 9:00am and after three hours and countless unsuccessful cell phone calls and edgy, tongue biting voice messages left, all Neji could do was give the slow approach shiny black bus a glare that was hot enough to burn a hole through the thick windows and forehead of the person in the driver's seat like a laser sniper gun.
Kakashi screeched to a stop right in front of them and the mechanical door hissed open to show a lazily smiling face, but the grey haired man's grin faded a little when he saw the sweaty and dangerously angry faces that glared at him, he looked over each one with his good eye (the other was under a patch) and then asked, "Where's Jiraiya?"
"He left," Neji had to mentally compose himself before he spoke, though his voice still had a bite to it that made Naruto squirm a bit where he stood behind the Hyuuga, usually that voice was used on him as Naruto believed that only he could push Neji this far, until now of course.
Kakashi almost looked hurt by this news, "Really?"
"Yes, he left in his van with the equipment, three hours ago." Again Naruto took a step back when he heard the barely controlled venom in the last three words. Kakashi looked thoughtful, Kiba's annoyance left him as he found this now very entertaining. "Where were you?" Neji asked.
"Hmm, well, I was on my way here when I-"
"Err-Neji" Naruto stopped him, "Just so you know this could lead us nowhere."
"Naruto's right Neji-kun, we should get going, we're already behind schedule."Kakashi said and Naruto saw the flash in Neji's eyes and lived for one entire second in the tense possibility that the self-possessed Hyuuga was about to fly into a rage and the world was going to come to a firm end. But right before he fell off the brink Neji caught himself, Naruto noticed the subtle signs in the slender brunette's body that showed this and spoke up to distract him, "Hey let's put our stuff in the trunk thingy." he pointed to the small compartment on the bus's side which he didn't know the name of.
Neji glanced at the blonde one who smiled nervously at him and his stare soften,"Hn." was all he expressed before he did as Naruto suggested.
Naruto stepped up to the door as the others were preoccupied with their luggage, "What are you doing here?" he asked Kakashi and the older man raised a grey eyebrow.
"I'm your tour bus driver Naruto, I'd think the title would be self explanatory-"
"That's not what I mean! Aren't you supposed to be at school? Did you get fired or something?" Naruto smirked, if he did it would serve him right, Kakashi was his old History teacher in secondary school, he was a good sensei when he wasn't coming to class half an hour late, making out with the other teachers behind every presumably abandoned corner and reading crude books in front of the students with that weird glint in his hooded eyes, he was like a quiet version of Jiraiya (those are the worst kinds) really, Naruto was surprised his sensei eluded prison much less keep a job.
"Hm, Iruka took the term off to visit his ailing grandfather so I had no real reason to be there. And well, as I have no income at the time to support myself and your uncle is an old friend of mine, I thought I'd give this a try. Really I just had nothing else to do until my Ruka comes back."
"Hm, figured."
"You're in my way, dobe." Naruto heard the tenor monotone that made his blood just shot instantly to boiling point and he spun around to find the obsidian bulbs right behind him and unnervingly close, for a moment he just stared at how large he never noticed Sasuke's eyes were, they were black with a shadow of grey that deepened them and made them shimmer. What the hell, he shouldn't be close enough for me to notice that! He stepped back.
"Don't call me that." Naruto said with the dark tone of a threat.
"Hn, make me." Sasuke replied just as darkly as he stepped past the blonde one and went into the bus.
"Urrh." Naruto growled as he watched him disappear inside.
"Naruto your luggage." Neji called him.
"Oh, right." Naruto picked up his things and took them to where the others waited, Kiba and Shino were making out again, savoring their last kiss until two months from now and the bassist was taking in all he could get with his cloths still on, Naruto grimaced then feigned a gag as Kiba's moans became louder.
Naruto stuffed the larger pieces of his luggage into the compartment as Neji watched worrying that the way the blonde put it in the door would either burst open while they were driving or it would never close.
"I love you." Kiba whispered softly against Shino's lips and he was replied with another deep, long kiss, his mouth filling with his boyfriend's euphorically skillful tongue-
"Hehehe." Kiba's heaven was interrupted by Naruto's ever familiar mischievous chuckle and they parted so that Kiba could glare at him, his eyes immediately fell to a steely, suitcase that very much resembled the ones he saw in spy movies crammed with money or a desired item.
He looked from it to the blonde one's wide smile and then asked, "What's that for?"
"Oh nothing," Naruto's smile turned mischievous and a little shady, "Just, I wouldn't fall asleep on the bus, if I were you Kiba. Hehe"
Kiba just stared at the blonde one blankly, weighing if he was really serious or not, then he turned to the teen that still held onto his waist, displaying to him pouted red lips, from all the good bye kisses, and shimmering dark eyes, "Shino, buggy-boy, tell Naruto not to pull any pranks on me while I'm asleep." Shino's head suddenly turned slowly but steadily until his endlessly black, circular shades reflected Naruto's stunned then avoidant face, the blonde one shuddered, and the suitcase fell out of his hand and to the ground noisily.
"Sorry." he muttered before he stumbled quickly to the open bus door, he was sure that Shino's invisible but tangibly deathly gaze would be haunting him for the next few nights.
~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~
That last piece was so- hard- to- write, hmmm, it probably sucks, too bad I feel really Shikamaru-ish right now, re-writing would be sooo troublesome…I might just be a little over analytical though. Tell me what you think, so please review!