Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto does. *sob* I also don't own any of the songs used.


Chapter Seven

[That night]

The party was already in full swing but the band hadn't gone on yet. He should have been thinking about the band and the songs they were going to sing and trying to get himself in the zone. But all he could think about was Sakura with Nagato. Nagato of all people. When would she have gotten the chance to even talk to that guy? He was... an asshole!

"Hey, Earth to Dobe. We're about to go on," Sasuke muttered to Naruto, jarring him out of his thoughts. He hadn't even realized that while he was daymaring about Sakura with another guy, the rest of the band had been doing what they were supposed to and getting ready to perform.

Naruto looked at Sasuke sheepishly. "Shut it, teme. I'm ready. Come on."


[In the actual party]

Sakura was alone. Well, relatively alone. There was a huge crowd of anxious guests waiting around for Naruto to go on, so she wasn't technically alone. But she didn't know any of the dozens of faces that were around her because her friends had disappeared shortly after arriving. Tenten and Neji left to go dance with one another half an hour ago and never resurfaced. Ino was drinking to piss off Shikamaru later. Hinata was speaking to another one of her family members who had actually been invited to the party without having to bribe the Akatsuki members. So Sakura was just alone, being the lonely VP.

"Haruno-san, I see you made it," Pain said behind her. Sakura whirled around to see him standing really close to her with a plastic red cup in his hand. Even though the party only started a second ago he already looked a drink away from wasted. His eyes were glassy and unfocused and the smirk on his face was lazy. He was far from his normally composed self.

Sakura nodded and took a discreet step away from him. He reeked. "Yeah, I did. Naruto's here," she revealed, nodding her head towards the curtain in the middle of the room that the elite club had set up to hide their main event.

Pain nodded. "Yeah, I know. But you know, I never really cared if you brought Naruto here. I wanted you to come anyway. "

A shiver - and not a good shiver - ran down Sakura's spine. "Oh really?" she asked uneasily.

Pain's hand reached out and touched Sakura's upper arm. "Yeah. I've always kind of admired you."

Sakura grabbed his fingers and pried them away from her. Again, she stepped away. Thankfully at that moment, Bowling for Ramen decided to part the curtains and make their appearance, so she had an excuse to get away from him. "Look, Naruto-kun's getting onstage. I think I'm going to go get a closer look."

Unfortunately, The redhead wasn't taking the hint. "I'll join you."


Naruto stood with the mic in his hands, cursing himself repeatedly. He'd performed for millions of screaming fans all over the world and still he got nervous when it came to performing in a room full of his peers.

"Come on, Dobe! Get a move on," Sasuke hissed at him from his left.

Naruto glared at him for the insult, but took the hint. He looked back at the waiting faces of the party-goers and stepped a little closer to the microphone so they could hear him clearer. "Hey," he greeted them. Cheers sounded at the sound of his voice. It helped to calm him a little. "I'm Naruto and this is Bowling for Ramen." More cheers. "Alright, are you ready to party?"

"Yeah!" The room full of teenagers cheered.

"One, two, three, go!"

8 o'clock, Monday night and I'm waitin'
To finally talk to a girl a little cooler than me.
Her name is Saku, she's a rocker with a nose ring,
She wears a two way, but I'm not quite sure what that means.

And when she walks,
All the wind blows and the angels sing.
She doesn't notice me!

...If you were me, then you'd be
Screamin' "Someone shoot me!"
As I fail miserably,
Tryin' to get the girl all the bad guys want.

Naruto's eyes glanced over the crowd like they normally do when he's performing. His fingers danced purposefully over the strings of his guitar as he looked down at his fans from high school. They landed on a scuffle between two people in the front row, a girl and a boy. The boy was trying to grab at the girl's arms and keep her still but the girl was fighting him off and making it difficult. He managed to get a hold of her for a moment, but she ended up kneeing him in the stomach and running off. He recovered fairly quickly and followed her. As Naruto entered the second verse, he could just barely make out a flash of pink hair.

She likes the Godsmack and I like Agent Orange
Her cd changer's full of singers that are mad at their dad
She says she'd like to score some reefer and a forty
She'll never know that I'm the best that she'll never -

"Sakura," Naruto breathed, realizing what he'd just seen. Was Sakura fighting with Pain?

Startled at his outburst through the mic, the rest of the group stopped playing and the music stopped abruptly. There was a shrill squeak as Sasuke screwed up a chord or something, which he hadn't done since middle school. But Naruto didn't care that suddenly everyone was staring silently at him and the cheering stopped. He was eying the doors where Pain was chasing Sakura. Quickly, he pulled his guitar off and tossed it on the ground. He ignored Sasuke calling his name and ran straight for the doors. The crowd parted for him like the Red Sea.


[Outside]

Sakura ran out, heart hammering in her chest and sweat pooling on her skin. She felt utterly disgusting but her hygiene was the last of her troubles.

A hand grabbed her roughly, pushing her against the wall beside the door. "Where do you think you're going?" Pain slurred drunkenly. He smelled even worse outside and away from the smell of sweat and alcohol. He smelled like he'd been drinking since noon.

"Pain, get off!" Sakura growled, shoving at the stupid jerk. But he wouldn't budge.

"And if I don't? What are you going to do about it?" he rasped.

"I'll break your neck," Naruto snapped from the doorway. "Get off of Sakura-chan. Now," he demanded.

Sakura breathed out a sigh of relief. Naruto was here. She didn't have to handle Pain all by herself.

Pain turned away from Sakura and faced down Naruto. "Shouldn't you be performing?"

"Shouldn't you be detoxing?" Naruto replied, stepping closer to Pain. "I saw you chasing Sakura. Your guests probably won't be happy. Especially after I tell them that their precious Akatsuki class president is molesting innocent girls. I repeat, get away from Sakura-chan."

Pain took a step closer to Naruto and Naruto did the same. Soon they were in each other's faces and staring one another down like the battle between good and evil depended on it.

Pain narrowed his eyes. "You've always had a problem with stepping into other people's battles, Naruto-kun. Let's not forget what happened to Kushina, huh? Why don't you run along and go play for the guests and I'll pretend this didn't happen so I don't need to smash your face," he threatened.

Naruto flinched but otherwise didn't back down. "Is that a threat?"

"A promise."

Naruto's knee came up and connected with the taller boy's gut. And since it was still sore from when Sakura kneed him there, he fell to the ground and fell hard. But he managed to grab Naruto on the way down and now both of them were tussling in the grass.

Sakura's eyes go wide. "Naruto, Pain, stop it!" She shouted, afraid that Pain would hurt Naruto. Naruto was smaller than him after all. But it looked like regardless of how big Pain was, Naruto was holding his own. Still, she wasn't happy about the fight. "Stop!"

Her shouts seemed to carry into the lobby where a quiet murmur was still going around the room after Naruto's absence. Soon, a crowd was outside and forming a circle around the fighting boys. The chants immediately sounded again, although instead of shouting for a good performance the crowd was now bloodthirsty and looking for a battered loser.

The fight seemed to go on forever before suddenly a figure parted the crowd and stood directly in front of the sprawl. "What the hell is going on here!?" Tsunade boomed, face red and a vein pulsing in her forehead. The crowd hushed and watched as the irate principle stomped over to the still-fighting duo and forced them apart. "Uzumakis! Honestly! Is this the kind of impression you want to give of your family!?" She screamed. "My office! Now!" And grabbing both boys by the collar, she started shoving them towards the office even if school hours were over.

Sakura stood there dumbfounded. Had she just said Uzumakis? She bit her lip and scurried after the trio. Somebody had to defend Naruto. He was just trying to help!


[Outside Tsunade's office]

"Ouch, Sakura-chan!" Naruto griped, grabbing Sakura's wrist and forcing her to stop applying the stinging alchohol pad to his face. It was littered with cuts and bruises, though he didn't have a shiner like Pain did - who was now in the office getting screamed at by Tsunade.

Sakura frowned. "Stop being a baby, Naruto. I have to clean it," she muttered, forcing the pad back to his face. Naruto winced, but let it stay there.

"It hurts."

"It's just a sting."

Naruto whimpered but tried to stop complaining. Even if Sakura was hurting him. "You know, this reminds me of when you were my nurse last year. Remember?"

Sakura nodded. "Mhm. I remember. You were my favorite patient." She smiled to herself and leaned back, looking at her handiwork. She pulled out bandaids and started applying them to the cuts over his body. He'd need a lot.

"Thanks for volunteering to fix me up, Sakura-chan."

"No problem, Naruto. I owe you. You got them protecting me from Pain. Who knew he was such a jerk?" she muttered. She plastered a bandaid on Naruto's forehead. Then she covered it with his spikey bangs so it was relatively invisible. "No one'll be able to see this one."

"I should have warned you about that."

"Right, you probably should have. Did you know that you and Pain were from the same family?" she asked abruptly. No sense in beating around the bush. She was curious.

Naruto hesitated but nodded slowly. "...Yeah. He's my second cousin. On my mom's side. We were never very close but my mom used to have him around a lot when we were kids. His parents, her uncle and aunt died when he was kind of small and she felt bad for him. My mom and Pain were close."

Sakura frowned. "You never talk about your mom very much."

Naruto shrugged. "I don't like to."

"Do you not get along with her?"

"She's dead," Naruto said simply. He shifted uncomfortably on the wooden bench they were sitting on and rubbed his forehead. "But we did get along. That's why I don't like talking about her."

"Oh Naruto," Sakura said sympathetically. "I'm so sorry. You flinched when Pain mentioned her. He said something about..."

"...'You always had a problem with stepping in the way'," he quoted. "Yeah, low blow."

Sakura scooted closer to him. She could tell he was uncomfortable, so she grabbed his hand and squeezed it reassuringly. "What did he mean?"

Naruto squeezed her hand back, which made Sakura feel better about them. He scooted just as close as she was and rested his head on her shoulder. "That's a story for another time. Not now. I don't want to talk about it under these... circumstances." He stuck his tongue out.

Sakura nodded. "I understand."

The door to the Principle's office opened and Tsunade emerged gripping Pain's shoulder. "You wait right out here until I can get someone to take you to the local jail. I won't having you stumbling around my campus and marring my school's good name. You can spend the night there until you're sober and I'll arrange for you to be brough back first thing in the morning. I'm giving you a break," she told him. Her eyes darted to Naruto as Pain stumbled to a seat across from Sakura. But he didn't look to have the ability to bully her at the moment, with his black eye and lethargic movements across the small waiting area. So she wasn't afraid. "Naruto, your turn. And I swear I will kick your ass to the next town over if you're even the slightest bit drunk," she threatened. She glanced at Sakura as if just realizing she was there. "You, go to your room. Show's over."

Sakura nodded obediently. "Yes, ma'am."

Naruto stopped her. "Sakura, wait." She did. "There's this thing on Friday. A Function. It'll be my first one without my dad. Do you think that maybe you'd... wanna be my date?" he asked, biting his lip anxiously.

Sakura raised an eyebrow but then smiled softly at him. "Sure thing, Naruto."