(A/N):Hmm… relatively swift update, no? For me it is.
Note #2: It hasn't been asked but I think I made the seating arrangements for the three connected booths in back a little hard to follow. All three tables are semicircles and connected from the side. From left to right working around the seats we have Xaldin on the end then Roxas, Axel, Demyx and Xigbar. Middle table: Sasuke on the end, then Sakura Kakashi, Naruto and Hinata. Last we have Leon then Sora- Riku has yet to sit down.
Demyx climbed over Xigbar hurriedly as an idea suddenly struck him. "Sorry!" He hastily told the man as number Two grimaced under his weight. Demyx was fairly certain that he would catch that Riku guy in time to suggest a song. He ran up to where the other boy stood staring at the music selection.
"…don't know any of these." Riku muttered under his breath. A lot of the songs sounded cool, but a person couldn't be too careful. He looked up as he felt a tap on his shoulder.
"Need some help?" Demyx asked. "I happen to know a lot of songs from this world. There is one bit of music that I've been wanting to hear again and if you sang it we'd both win. You would get a song that would humiliate you and I'd get to listen to one of my favorites."
Riku looked at him skeptically, "Was the song you sang one of your favorites too?"
Demyx nodded but was quick to elaborate after catching the look on his face, "But this isn't anything like that one. Different style and everything. Here, move over and I'll see if it's even a choice." He gently pushed Riku out of the way so that he could stand beside him as he stooped over the screen.
"What's this song called anyway?" Riku questioned.
-Scene Change-
"Hey, check out the cutie who's going next." Temari said while poking Kankuro in the arm. Her brother sighed and turned to look at whoever she was referring to.
"Yeah so? Why should I care?" He asked while grapping her finger so she'd stop prodding him.
Temari huffed, it was so hard on a girl when the only people she really associated with were her brothers.
"Why don't you just go and talk to him once he's finished?" This unexpected suggested came from Gaara, who unceremoniously tossed another French-fry into his mouth from the plate he'd ordered. His siblings looked at him suspiciously, he usually wasn't in any kind of a good mood unless he'd just beaten someone into a pulp; yet, here he was calm as ever and seeming to be enjoying himself. "Don't waist your time drooling over him from way over here, it gets nothing accomplished. Pointlessness gets on my nerves." He added as a way of giving an answer to his helpful suggestion to Temari.
"What would I say, though?" Temari half whined, slipping out of her usual witty and collected self. She was actually asking Gaara for advice, that just added onto the list of uncharacteristic things she'd done so far.
"Why are you asking Gaara? His idea of romance is probably giving someone a still beating heart." Kankuro said with a chuckle, unintentionally he glanced out of the corner of his eye to make sure he hadn't angered his brother.
"That never works…" Gaara replied while dipping another fry into his depleting supply of ketchup.
Temari and Kankuro exchanged glances before giving Gaara yet another strange look. "Well anyway…" Temari said deciding to change the topic of conversation, "he's about to start!"
-Scene Change-
"Hey!" Sora called out to Demyx as he made his way back to his table with a satisfied smirk on his face. "What did you and Riku talk about?"
Demyx turned to him and shrugged, "I just helped him pick out a song." He said before returning to the booth. Xigbar stood up this time and let him into his seat without pain to his person.
"It's so weird to see them like this." Leon remarked, glancing over at the table of Nobodies. It was begining to get hard to continue to demonize them.
"Hm? Like what?" Sora asked, not knowing what the man meant.
"Like normal people." He said, lifting an eyebrow as he watched their antics. One of the older men, the one with dreaded hair, for some reason had pushed Sora's Nobody, causing the blonde to knock heads with the red-haired teen. Leon tapped his fingers against the table in slight agitation at the thought that their supposed enemies sat just a foot or so away enjoying themselves.
"You should loosen up, Leon." Sora told him upon seeing how tense the man seemed. "You kn-" He stopped short as Riku took the stage as music started.
o0o
Riku adjusted the microphone and had just barely finished with that before the music started quickly, forcing him to begin. "I'm just a normal boy who sank when I feel over board. My ship would leave the country but I'd rather swim ashore. Without a life beside me stuck again, wish I was much more masculine, maybe then I could learn to swim like fourteen miles away. Now floating up and down I spend colliding into sound like whales beneath me diving down. I'm sinking to the bottom of my everything that freaks me out, the lighthouse beam has just run out. I'm cold as cold as cold can be. Be." Riku read the lyrics flawlessly while skimming ahead and keeping tempo nicely. He wasn't sure if he had the beat 100 percent right but he used the music as a clue and by the lack of boos he figured he was doing good enough.
"…sometimes it feels just like I'm falling in the ocean. Let the waves up take me down, let the hurricane set in motion, yeah, let the rain of what I feel right now come down, let the rain come down. Where is the coast guard I keep looking each direction for a spot light, give me something I need something for protection maybe flotsam junk would do just fine, the jetsam sunk I'm left behind…"
"Ooh, he has a cute voice too." Temari gushed. "But what's he singing? Do you think he only speaks English? He looks Japanese."
"Please Temari, stop acting like such a girl." Kankuro told her in a false exasperation. She knew he was only messing with her so she shoved him in the arm playfully.
"At least I'm not like this all the time." She said before going back to listening to the older teen.
"…now waking to the sun I calculate what I had done like jumping from the bow, yeah, just to prove that I knew how yeah. It's midnight's late reminder of the loss of her the one I love, my will to quickly end it all set front row in my need to fall. Into the ocean end it all, into the ocean end it all, into the ocean end it all, into the ocean end it all." He paused like the lyric screen told him to and female voices that were already on the track echoed him. "I want to swim away but don't know how, sometimes it feels just like I'm falling into the ocean. Let the waves up take me down, let the hurricane set in motion, yeah, let the rain of what I feel right now come down, let the rain come down." The female voices came again but he read to sing over them, "Into space, I thought of just your face." The music ended and Riku dramatically bowed, causing the audience, like every act before hand, to applaud loudly.
"Alright, go." Gaara said, boredom lacing his words. He reached over and pushed Temari as she got up out of her seat, unintentionally, or maybe not, causing her to fall from the force.
"Better hurry up if you want to catch him alone." Kankuro said.
Temari shook of their joking manners and strode forward with an air of confidence, after collecting herself. Once she reached the boy she calmly blocked his bath. "Hi." She said silkily. "Do you speak Japanese?" She asked.
Riku shrugged, "Is that what you're speaking?" He asked in the same language. He really didn't know what such things were called here. His answer caused the girl to laugh.
Leon chuckled as he looked ahead at Sora's friend, Riku, who seemed perplexed about the young lady that was talking with him. Then he glanced over and saw the look that Sora himself wore: an expression of confusion. "Looks like your friend has his first groupie." Leon joked lightly. Slowly but surely he had allowed himself to unwind. In fact, he was finding himself greatful for the pause in stress. He'd get back to war and brooding when he had too, it wasn't in his nature to neglect his brooding side, after all, but he couldn't deny himself a well earned break.
Sora shuddered. He never liked the term groupie, or the thing it represented. He'd once gone to a concert in Twilight Town and had gotten a nasty taste of the fan girls. 'She'd better not be a groupie.' He thought sourly while giving Riku a sympathetic look.
-Scene Change-
"Alright, come on!" Anko said while tugging at Itachi's collar. She tried in vain to pull the man up from his seat but he remained stubborn.
"I'm not drunk enough yet." Itachi replied. It was a valid excuse in his book but apparently not in Orochimaru's. The other man boldly turned and shoved him off his stool. Luckily for Itachi, the alcohol hadn't dulled his reflects to the point that he couldn't catch his balance.
"Trus' me, you don' want to go up there too drunk. You can't not see the words good that way." Orochimaru told him.
"Let's go already! Before someone else gets up there first." Anko pleaded.
"Are you sure that's the song you want to sing?" Itachi ventured as he shot a glare at Orochimaru for getting him up.
"Yeah, it's sooo funny!" Anko answered as she grabbed the poor Uchiha by the wrist to drag him along.
Itachi freed his hand and walked with faltering dignity behind the slightly swaying woman.
-Scene Change-
"Okay Sakura, your turn!" Naruto announced enthusiastically. One of the people from the table behind Sasuke and Sakura cleared his throat for their attention.
"It looks like she just lost her chance." The cloaked man said with a crooked smile.
"Isn't that your brother, Sasuke?" Hinata asked timidly.
The younger Uchiha turned and nearly yelled in astonishment. Itachi was going to sing? And who was that with him… the exam proctor? "Yeah that's him." He finally managed to reply.
"This could be great blackmail." Naruto suggested.
Sasuke shrugged, "I doubt it." He grumbled, then pointed to his sensei, "He plans on making me go up there as well so Itachi will have something to use against me if I tried."
"But, at least you're not going next." Sakura grumbled. "What am I going to sing?"
"If my guess about this tune is right then I don't think it will matter what you sing, Sakura, because everyone will still be reflecting this performance too much to care." Kakashi said with a grin as he looked up at the stage.
Itachi decided against acting like he didn't want to be there, because, then no matter what the reasons really were he would seem weak because he wasn't able to get out of it. So, he was just going to have to play it off as if he was having a fairly good time and just doing it for kicks; not the truth of the matter, which was him about to toss his dignity away similar to how Orochimaru had done. Yet, his case was worse, he wasn't even drunk! 'Oh shit… Sasuke is still here.' He realized as he looked out at the people in the audience. It was too late to get out of his situation, though, because Anko had already selected the song and was joining him on stage.
A malicious idea came to Itachi as the music began, he'd already missed his cue for the fist line of the song but there was a musical interlude before he had to repeat it and as he did so he pointed to his brother, "Oh you touched my tra la la. Mmm my ding ding dong."
As he expected all eyes in the place turned to look at Sasuke and Itachi smirked to himself as the boy turned red in the attention. He turned at the feel of Anko jabbing him in the side, she wore a goofy grin and winked at him. His smirk widened as he turned back to the people to continue singing. He didn't need to look at the lyrics, he and Anko knew this song well. A bad collage party a few years back was to blame for it. "Deep in the night, I'm looking for some fun. Deep in the night, I'm looking for some love. Deep in the night, I'm looking for some fun. Deep in the night, I'm looking for some-" Itachi noticed with much amusement as he glanced up to look at it; that the blue screen in back actually said 'beep' to correspond with the noise that came over to cover up the obscenity.
Anko leaned forward into the microphone to sing her part. She had on a bright smile and one could tell she was trying not to giggle, "You tease me oh please me; I want you to be my love toy. Come near me, don't fear me. I just can't get enough of you, boy."
"Oh, you touched my tra la la. Mmm my ding ding dong."
o0o
'He's going to die, he's going to die, he's going to die…' Sasuke thought fiercely as he gripped the table so tightly it was starting to crack under his fingers. Even though almost everyone had turned away from him to look back at the stage once the Anko woman started singing, Sasuke was still embarrassed.
"I'm not paying for damages." Kakashi warned. "Leave the poor table alone."
(A/N): So what do you think? Riku performed Blue October's "Into the Ocean" and Anko with Itachi are singing Gunther's "The Ding Dong Song". I seem a little bais as to how much of one song I'll actually write the lyrics down for don't I? I don't mean to... Well anyway, is this good enough for you? There'll be more next chapter and Sasuke does plan on getting a most fitting revenge.
