I'm loving life right now. :)
Anyone else seen 'Avatar' yet? It's effing
amazing!
Seriously, its epic. Totally epic.
Anyway, I am just
so excited about writing this story right now! ...Probably cause I miss my band friends!! So I want you to know I started writing this chapter the day after I put the last chapter up. Yeah, I'm either that awesome or that much of a nerd, depending on how you want to look at it. :D

All hundred and thirty students met in the band room, in arcs, crowded around Mr.D. None of them dared talk, cause this was serious time. Time to put the game faces on and go.

Everyone was in full uniform, including shakos (yes, the little marching hats, that's what they're called), and when everyone got situated in their spots, all was silent. The officers stood in the front of the room, ready to make their speeches. It was a tradition that before every game, both drum majors, brass, woodwind, colorguard, and percussion captains, the historian, the chaplain, and Mr.D all said a little something to the rest of the band.

Neji, being Neji, was, of course, first.

He stepped quietly onto the director's podium, cleared his throat and started to speak.

"I know I push you guys pretty hard. But the reason I do it is so you'll be ready. And, you guys, we just got our last piece of drill on the field Wednesday. I just want you to know that I'm very proud of all of you, and I truly believe you're going to do great tonight. Just keep in mind all your basics. Keep your toes up, stay in tune, take all the counts to get to your set, that kind of thing. If you guys focus like I know you can, you're gonna be awesome tonight." He smiled hopefully and stepped down to gloved applause.

Next was Tenten.

"So the whole show's on the field." She remarked, huge grin on her face.

That was recieved with cheers and whoops from her bandmates.

"And we're takin on the Pirates tonight, so get ready for the Hey Song about 50 times, cause if this year goes like last year..." She laughed, and her band laughed with her, thinking of the epic win. As in 58-3. Obviously, the KHS Ninjas* won. The other school's band was super friendly though, and every year they had a good time together during 3rd quarter.

"Anyway, tonight's gonna be a great night, so don't stress too much. Focus. Focus is important, but I want you guys to have fun too. I love you guys, so go out there and rock it tonight!"

The band applauded for her and someone shouted "Yeah baby!!" as she got down and the brass captain took her place.

What Tenten didn't know was that Neji had been watching her affectionately, happy that she seemed to have cheered up, hoping it was real happy and not fake.

What Neji didn't know was that Sakura was carefully watching him, and saw that look in his eyes. And knew exactly what it meant.

What Sakura didn't know was that at this moment, Kiba was watching her nervously from the opposite side of the arc, wondering if she was still mad at him for saying what he said.

What Kiba didn't know was that she had seen him and Ino and was now extremely jealous and vengeful, as only she could be. And he was gonna get it.

The brass captain finished his speech and stepped down, letting Tayuya, who was woodwind captain and the only senior flute player, step up.

"Ah, an easy takedown." She commented, her smile somehow implying that she took this way too seriously. "I love being on the winning side. So let's show em what we got. Let's knock 'em dead." She ended with a creepy grin, and her captive audience applauding mainly out of fear.

Next was Ino, who was colorguard captain. Sakura gave her a death glare as she stepped up, and Kiba looked over at Sakura. 'Oh shit...'

"Well, I just wanna say... That I love all of you!"

-Well... that was obvious- Sakura thought. -whore-

"And I'm proud of all my girls over here, cause we work real hard, and they are sooo amazing! I would not be here without them, cause they are my best friends in the world, and I wanna thank the band for finally getting everything on the field, cause you guys are so good! Especially the trumpet players, cause you sound really great." She commented, looking right at Kiba.

Kiba fake-smiled back, wishing she would just leave him alone. When she looked away, Naruto elbowed Kiba and shot him a 'what the hell?' look. Kiba gave him a 'not my fault' look.

"And I just wanna say that tonight is gonna be a good night," Again directed right at Kiba, "And we're gonna have a great performance."

She stepped down, leaving Sakura furious. 'A good night? What the hell? How did nobody else catch that?'

There were a few more speeches, and then a prayer, before they headed outside.

They got back in arcs outside and warmed up, much uneventfully, and headed out to the field for pregame.

Now, pregame was basically just a neverending source of stress that had to be suffered through every week.

Why? Because the football team loved torturing them. Because every week, the team absolutely had to have a different song played as they came out, to the obnoxiously loud, frenzied cheering of the crowd. Because every week, they either took so long to come charging out that everyone's mouth got tired from trying to play so long and so loud, or didn't even give them enough time to get all the way through the song they had spent all week trying to learn for the ingrateful assholes.

And, because every once in a while, they happened to 'accidentally bump into someone', which really meant some football player (usually the starring quarterback Sasuke or one of his dumbass friends) would, right out of the sight of the crowd and the coach, slam one of the band kids in the back of the head with whatever was handy, i.e. fist, elbow, helmet, etc.

And the worst part was, there was nothing anything could do about it, because there was never any real proof. So they just had to put up with it and go on like nothing happened. Which was especially hard for brass players, because if someone hits you in the back of the head while you have a mouthpiece to your mouth, it hurts the hell out of your lips and your teeth.

So, tonight, as always, there was a thick feeling between anger and dread as they marched in a disciplined manner to pregame set.

They ran through a talented rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner and the KHS Alma Mater, then got in a tunnel for the players to come through, and started playing the latest song to get the precious football players 'pumped', which tonight happened to be an arrangement of 'Run This Town'.

Tonight, as the football players ran through, there was no violence. Only a few select guys got called 'fagboy' and 'cocksucker'. Why? We're not sure.

In any case, everyone got off unharmed, and walked off the field gratefully, getting to the stands and sitting back, slightly tense, as it always was at the beginning of the game.

Hinata watched, patiently unattatched. She'd never gotten majorly into football, but she knew enough from performing to know what was going on.

Naruto and Kiba, on the other hand, who were sitting on the row above Hinata and Sakura, were normally incredibly into it and would cheer everytime something good happened, which tended to annoy Sakura, who'd rather just sit and chat with the hilariously perverted clarinet players, without that damn noise to put up with.

But everyone was oddly quiet today. Something had happened. Something had been broken, inside.

There was no obnoxious cheering and hollering from Naruto. He was too busy wondering why Hinata had run from him, and, more importantly, if she was mad at him. Nor was there any from Kiba, who was focused on Sakura, trying to read any signs of hope for him. Sakura wasn't talking to the clarinet players, preferring to sit and rant to Hinata, too quietly for the boys or anyone else to hear.

"He doesn't like me. He doesn't like me cause he'd rather have that whore Ino. I just hope that he knows that I'm not going to chase after someone who doesn't give a damn about me. I'm not stupid. He should know that. He would if he cared."

Hinata hugged her friend. "I'm sure he knows that Sakura. Maybe he's the same. After all, you haven't exactly been, you know, sweet to him or anything. Maybe he just took it that you didn't like him and he didn't wanna get hurt."

Sakura just looks at her for a minute, before saying, appreciatively, "You are so smart."

"Um, thanks?"

"Of course. I know what I have to do now..."

A row above them, Kiba admitted to Naruto, "Girls are complicated."

To which Naruto laughed and gave him a "Tell me about it. I really need to talk to Hinata, but I don't wanna do it in front of everyone, you know?"

"Same here. But, you know..."

"Yeah. Sakura."

"Yeah. She's really pissed at me. All I did was say I didn't wanna get sexual with her, and she hasn't talked to me since. I feel really guilty..."

"I'd say go apologize but... knowing her, you might want to wait a few days..."

"That's what I'm afraid of."

As if the rest of the world was out to show that it was suffering too, the Pirates scored and the other band burst into an average rendition of their fight song.

Naruto sighed. 'Oh third quarter... How I long for you...'

-Halftime-

"And as we go to halftime, the score is 39-21, the Pirates are dominating the Ninjas on their own field. If CCHS wins this one, it will be the first time in six years they've beat KHS! Will they get their revenge? Or will the Ninjas pull out some secret weapon and come back for the win? We'll find out folks! But first, here performing for your halftime entertainment, Konoha High's own award-winning marching band!"

The crowd cheered, reassuring the nervous band kids as they stood in opening set.

Somehow, as many times as Hinata had done this, as many times as they ran this show on a daily basis, as many times as she had looked up at this crowd, she always got nervous before a show. Especially here in opening set, right on the fifty, behind that short little freshie clarinet, who was behind Tayuya, who was on the front sideline.

Hinata took a deep breath trying to move as little as she could. She didn't want a repeat of her very first performance. Ugh, she'd rather not think of that. Nothing could ever be as bad as that. Still, the bright stadium lights shone down on her, nearly blinding. The voices and noise seemed to fade as she focused on Neji silently counting off. As always, she tried to remember her first move, her first notes, but the thoughts evaded her. That always made her incredibly nervous, and she always stressed about it in those long seconds between getting set and taking the first rolled-heel step.

Somehow though, the knowing always flooded into her as soon as she went to take a step. It was like her body knew what to do so her mind didn't have to. Though she'd rather both of them know.

By the time they finished the first of their three pieces, she'd calmed down considerably, and felt a lot better. The whole crowd was cheering, Tenten was grinning hugely, and the other band was clapping for them from the sidelines.

This was the feeling that made all the sweat and tears on the hot relentless pavement worthwhile.

That's what Hinata was thinking as she backwards marched at a seemingly impossibly slow tempo, her calves starting to burn from having to stay balanced on her toes. Still, she smiled as she brought her sax up to her mouth, then started to play.

To say that Naruto never got nervous would be a lie.

To say that he was nervous about performing though, was thouroughly ridiculous. He had trouble understanding how anyone could feel nervous, doing a marching show with so many other people. Especially just halftime. Most people sitting in the stands didn't know the difference between a roll step and a high step, much less the difference between a bell tone and a long tone. No stress there.

No, what Naruto was worried about was the little talk he was going to have with his girlfriend.

Because as talented as he was at other things, he sucked at finding the right words to say. At least, that's what he thought.

So after halftime was when he felt his stomach twist into knots and his hands get cold and clammy. He just wished he knew what was about to happen.

He found Hinata waiting for him at the gate, smiling shyly, somehow managing to look cute even in a marching uniform, no makeup, and a moderate case of hat-hair.

"Hey beautiful." He said as he reached tentatively for her hand. "Talk to me."

*Haha, sorry, I had to! xD

I guess I'll end it there. It's... suspenseful. To be honest, I think this chapter sucked and I really owe you guys a lot more, but this one was kind of just a lull, an in-between of sorts. I had to tell what happened and, well, what happened wasn't all that great. So I'm sorry. And I won't be posting this chapter until I have the next one written.

And by the way, nothing really against football players, either. Some of them really are ingrateful assholes and stupid dickheads and idiots with brains the size of walnuts, buuuut most of them are perfectly decent human beings. Really. I know quite a few of them.

Also by the way, If you don't like the way I've characterized Sasuke well... That's pretty much too damn bad, because he doesn't change for the better. At least, not in this story.

Oh and... My favorite person in the whole wide world quit band.

Yeah. Yesterday was not one of my better days.

Anyway, go ahead to the next chapter, aka the good part of this one.

Less than three...
--Lina