The evening approached like an otter trying to out swim a hurricane: too fast, but not fast enough to avoid the impending doom. Naruto hadn't expressed it to his bandmates, but for some reason, having Sasuke in the audience was giving him some serious performance anxiety: something he'd never had trouble with before.

He ringed his hands and plucked his guitar strings. The group was backstage tuning, which he'd done a few minutes earlier. He was sitting on the edge of the stage trying to get aquainted with the space. He wasn't interested in surprises; he'd had enough of those that week.

Groups of people filtered into the wooden tables and chairs about the wide space. They stopped to admire paintings hanging on the wall- the only splash of color adorning the mostly wooden area- and sat in the center of the audience. Naruto ignored the diverse groups, smiled so they'd feel free to chat amongst themselves until he officially began.

His fingers danced across the frets, muscle memory kicking in from his countless hours of practice. He could do this. He'd done it before. It was no different.

A familiar head of hair wandered into the audience, glancing around blankly. His sable eyes met Naruto's glinting blue ones, and his lips quirked up at the sight of them.

Naruto tried to act equally as dismissive of him as he did to any other observer. The boy stopped before him, and Naruto found his fingers speeding up from either anxiety or the need to impress.

The first thing that popped out of his mouth when Sasuke's inky gaze met his was truthfully the thought he'd been wondering since Sasuke agreed to attend the concert that afternoon:

"Why did you come?"

Naruto's fingers had fully halted. He didn't believe his own words: how brave he could be when he wasn't expecting his own move. It took his courage and resistance to his life preservation instincts to maintain their wavering eye contact as Sasuke replied.

"Do you want me to leave?"

His voice didn't shake. It was steady; genuine: perhaps sensing Naruto's discomfort. Naruto wondered if it was obvious, or if Sasuke was simply excellent at reading him.

"No, I was just wondering." He replied honestly. Sasuke gave a self satisfied smirk.

"I don't know why you invited me. You don't know why I came."

He turned and stalked toward the back corner of the theater. Naruto should have been perplexed. Instead, he grinned his wild grin and acknowledged that for once in Sasuke's weird game of "Who Kept the Most Secrets," they were even.

He didn't need to pluck anymore, as his stomach settled into his abdomen once again.

Naruto would normally go on stage before the others and make some witty remarks about the audience to loosen them up. He'd joke around, maybe introduce the band in a snarky way, or play an original solo so his bandmates weren't anxious. But they'd been performing for almost four years, and Gaara, Kiba, and Sakura's performance anxiety had long since disappeared. Only Hinata had the nervous twitch of the thumbs, and the excessive wrist stretching habit. Even so, once she got on stage she became a whole new person and could practically bury the audience with her talent. They were all like that.

So, when Naruto stood behind the curtains with his guitar and amp, the guys were already laughing and shoving each other in the joking way they always did. Sakura and Hinata decided against a grunge look today since the band wasn't going for any particularly loud, dark songs that night. Rather, they were playing classic rock, jazz, and singer-songwriter, laid-back works. The venue was musically complex, unserious, and a bit outside the band's comfort zone of Evanescence and dark rock...not that that posed any issue.

"Naruto," Kiba said. "I can't believe this."

Naruto turned to him, pausing his fumbling with his and Gaara's wires, which were tangled. As usual.

"What man?" Naruto grinned, knowing what was coming.

"He's not only here, but...this is horrible."

Sakura capped her water and adjusted her mic in front of the curtain. "What's horrible?"

"It's the tutor. He's talking with my sister's best friend!"

Naruto laughed so hard tears rolled down his cheeks. He tested the amp's volume, then went to setting up his mic. He and Sakura split the vocal part of the show tonight.

"Seriously?! Are they arguing or flirting?"

Gaara peeked out from under the curtain, his bass long since set up.

"Just talking." he informed them. Kiba scoffed, and Sakura raised a cocky brow. Naruto loved it when she did that.

"I told you guys he wasn't bad."

"Since when did he listen to rock? Or...whatever weird variety we're about to do in front of a bunch of wealthy theater patrons?" Kiba asked.

Gaara chuckled at Kiba's confusion, helping him lengthen the symbols the way he liked them. He read Naruto's face openly. Naruto knew his best friend sensed a change in his relationship with Sasuke. Naruto gave him a smile to read, and Gaara nodded knowingly.

Hinata looked at Naruto. Sasuke's presence didn't seem to bother her, either.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Stop judging him. You all say people aren't accepting of people like us, but look at yourselves."

Naruto applauded her internally. She was right that he'd judged Sasuke too harshly initially, and intended to change that. In his defense, they didn't meet under the best circumstances.

Kiba scoffed. "It's not like he wanted to come. I dared Naruto to invite him."

"He did want to come. He's here, right?"

Kiba glared at her. Naruto jumped to her defense.

"He might not like it, Kiba, but he's trying it. Let's give him credit for that."

Gaara wore his typical, blank expression. His best friend always took his side.

"Anyway guys, shall I introduce us?" Sakura offered, since she was the first one to sing. Naruto had already tuned her guitar for her, which was an acoustic plugged into the amp. He handed it to her and he picked up his own electric orange one.

"Nah. You and Hinata are doing an original midway, right?"

Sakura nodded.

Naruto glanced at Gaara, who shared his clever look.

"Let me and Gaara do it. Just trade guitars with me for a bit."

Kiba shook his head at Naruto's usual spontaneity. They never really knew when he was about to do something completely unplanned.

The band retreated to the wings to fuck around a bit more while Naruto and Gaara signaled for the stage crew to open the curtains.

"Dude, I forgot how this went." Gaara remarked, completely unfazed.

Naruto simply doubled over with laughter, just as the curtains folded to reveal him to the audience.

"We'll just make something up, then."

"Hmm. Wouldn't be the first time."

The curtains were completely rolled back as Naruto stepped up to Sakura's pink microphone. Gaara snorted.

"Yeah," Naruto commented at the chuckling audience members, "it's my favorite mic."

Gaara shook his head, trying to hide the laugh.

"I got nothing to hide."

Naruto shrugged, shifted on his feet as he tilted the mic up to account for his and Sakura's height difference. Gaara wiped a tear from his eye, and the crowd's giggle augmented into a full laugh at their freeness.

"Anyway. Hi. I'm Naruto, and this is Gaara." He paused, maintaining strange eye contact with Gaara. A surprised chuckle erupted.

"He doesn't talk much, but he sure looks nice." Naruto commented after a beat. "Can you please say something?"

Gaara shook his head no, and from the corner of Naruto's eye, he saw Sakura face palming at their usual antics.

"What a crowd tonight." Naruto filled in, scanning it for Sasuke. He found him somewhere in the middle, but slightly stage right. He was surprised to see a ghost of a smile playing across his lips. At the sight of it, Naruto craved more.

"Sure are a lot of polos and flannels, eh Gaara?" Gaara nodded sagely. "At least their shoes are tied."

Gaara looked at his feet. His sneakers were completely untied.

"We're the two least prepared members of our band, Rookie Nine. Which is obviously why they've sent us to introduce the whole show to you."

The crowed seemed to lay deeper into their seats, comfortable at the boys' humanness and humor.

"Yeah. There are actually five of us, but I'm failing math, so that explains the name. Are we supposed to play them something, Gaara?"

Gaara shrugged. "I guess we should stop wasting your time. Anyway. Here's a song."

They ended up opening with a profane song with the lyrics, That guy's an asshole/that girl's a bitch/fuck that guy, he's just an asshole/what an asshoooooole.

Naruto and Gaara got the song's lyrics from Kiba's seventh grade poetry project. (He'd failed it. Hard.) To mock him, two years later, they wrote the song and had been waiting to surprise him with it for another two.

When Sakura, Hinata, and Kiba emerged from the wings, they shared the same laughter-flushed faces as the rest of the audience, which howled with the ridiculousness.

The first thing Sakura said upon taking her place at the mic was, "Well that was classy."

"I know. It was a perfect way to lower their standards for the night." Naruto replied.

Sakura could work a crowd about as well as Naruto could. With the two of them up there, things went swimmingly. Each member had an intense solo on his/her instrument, and they made sure to tap into a variety of styles. In the end, Sakura and Hinata's original work was so phenomenal they had a standing ovation. Naruto was sure to show off everything he had by the end, which, in retrospect, was a lot.

In the end, the audience was massively impressed, despite the hilarious beginning to the concert. Each band member was expert at their instrument, and together the group combined individual talent with team work and surging creativity.

Sakura thanked them for coming and informed them that they'd be coming out with an album in about a year. When the curtains closed, Naruto hugged Hinata, because she'd seriously knocked the socks off of all of them with her jazz piano solo. He knew she had it in her, and fully believed in all of his band. But, she'd attacked the damn keys like she was mauling meat after living alone on an island for a month.

"That was incredible, guys!"

Sakura smiled in thanks, and Kiba pounced on her. "Dude, seriously. That was a great refresher in the middle of the gig."

Gaara nodded. "I think the finish was almost as great as the start."

Kiba pushed him. "Yeah. Guys, I just wanna point out one thing before we leave."

Sakura worked on the microphones while Hinata wrapped the amp wires. Naruto placed his guitar in its case, and Gaara returned the drum kit with Kiba.

"I wanna say that when we formed, we were awesome. Like, seriously awesome. But we only played hard core rock like Evanescence and Linken Park."

He grunted when he moved the drums into the stage wings, as he found it. Gaara moved to help Hinata with the electric piano, which belonged behind the stage.

"I'm really happy we're doing other styles. I think we've reached a level I didn't even expect."

Naruto smiled, punched Kiba in the arm, and picked up his guitar. "Sakura, you really threw me a curve ball with that pink microphone."

"You threw us a curve ball when you sang that song! YOU'RE the asshole!"

She shoved him lovingly. He picked her up and threw her over his shoulder while she wailed in shock and joy.

Hinata spoke quietly. "I like singing backups. I never thought I'd say that."

Naruto set her down, and Sakura took her hands. "You don't realize how beautiful your voice is."

Naruto slung his arm over Hinata's shoulders. She blushed wildly. "Thank you. I want to do it more with you guys."

Gaara smiled. "I think we've really grown up since then. Less critical of ourselves. Less critical of others."

Naruto looked meaningfully at him. He was talking about Sasuke.

"I think we can do even better. This was just a taste of what we should do."

Hinata nodded. "I want to sing more. I want to write more music."

Sakura grinned in approval. "I feel much more confident on the guitar, but I still can't play solos like you can, Naruto. I'm gonna crack down on it for next time."

Kiba nodded. "I'm perfect, so."

They snorted, keeping in mind how they would like to improve on their main instruments, the new styles they'd wish to try, and how they could expand.

Naruto reflected for a moment: his fingers were calloused from the work he'd put into his guitar. He'd memorized every chord, every augmentation. He'd trained every day. He could play anything. His voice had finally lost its preteen gruffness, its subtle cracks. It was strong and full. Perhaps he could expand its range.

"We should talk about this more, guys. But, right now, I'm not in a thinking mood."

"Damn right." Sakura commented. "Let's get some food and chill somewhere."

From the center of the audience, he could honestly say he wasn't expecting what he'd seen that night. Because his map of what was and what wasn't didn't include a venn diagram of "people failing high school" and "musical geniuses" with Naruto and his weird friends at the overlap.

It was for the better, he thought. He'd always wanted that map singed into oblivion.

Naruto and Rookie Nine made their way out of the building riding off the performance high. They carried amps and instruments in over-packed tote bags and wires in deep sweater pockets as their voices, shrill with laughter, and throats, warm with breath of stories, reverberated off the walls of the tall, illuminated buildings in the chilly night. In the air was the dry ghost of frost, slowly approaching as autumn wore into winter, and Naruto regretted his lack of gloves. His companions' knuckles were pinked with the cold, but heat radiated off their flushed cheeks and white hot air.

Shutting the door behind him, Naruto jogged to catch up with the group, making his way down the sidewalk toward the band's favorite diner, Kage's. It was a momenta of their freshman year, after their first big gig at a local bar, when the group found it on Yelp with a whooping 2.5 stars for food quality but 5 for cheapness.

"Hey assholes, wait up!" Naruto hollered, a laugh in his voice. Sakura turned, pink tongue pointed at him. He returned the favor as Kiba picked her up and spun her around. It felt like Christmas in November, cuddling with his misfit brothers and sisters.

A few feet from the crosswalk sat a figure with a dark petticoat and oxfords. The group waited as the few cars wizzed by, and the dark man stood up, seemed to say something unexpected, and Gaara looked at Naruto for answers.

"What's up?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke turned to him, but did not repeat himself. The atmosphere was dampened.

"He said congratulations." Gaara informed. Naruto nodded, glanced at the obviously perplexed and uneasy looks on his band's face. Kiba wore a look of accusation.

"Thanks, Sasuke." Naruto said, offering an easy smile. Sasuke nodded, studied his hands. Something had changed, and Naruto wondered if he'd intended it.

It was the eyes. They weren't dismissing his stupid ideas and telling him he was wrong. He looked like...

"What're ya gonna do now? Look for some cigarettes?" Naruto joked.

Sasuke scoffed. "Do you really think that's something I do regularly?"

"Do you have to answer my question with another question?"

"Don't I usually?"

Naruto raised a brow. "No. You normally answer as quickly and dismissively as possible."

Sasuke smirked. "Surprised?"

Naruto paused. Kiba looked horrified.

"Not really."

But Sasuke looked surprised.

I should get going. I have work to do. I'm done with you losers, I fed my curiosity, I saw what I wanted to see, I don't appreciate your "art." Get out of my way, moron.

...he wanted to learn something from Naruto.

With the shock of a fawn first learning to balance on its own legs, Naruto shut off his pre-conceived notion of what Sasuke should be saying, and realized that people are capable of change. Though, who had changed? Sasuke, or himself?

"Do you maybe wanna come with us?"

Sakura looked at him with adoration and pleased surprise. Gaara wore his usual open face, but Naruto saw wary hesitation.

Sasuke seemed equally unsettled, but didn't decline. He scanned the group, sensing the mistrust.

"I don't socialize."

That wasn't a no. That was feeling out of place, or fear, or the completely unprecedented sound of Sasuke admitting he doesn't know something.

"Just come. We won't bite, right guys?"

Sakura smiled. "Yeah. I'm glad you came, Sasuke."

Gaara shrugged. Hinata nodded. Kiba scoffed.

"Fine."

It only took about a solid five minutes for the discomfort to fade, and soon the group was expressing their excitement once again, though in a slightly more reserved fashion. They remained on guard, but recognized that in this instance, Sasuke was the outsider, not them.

"And then when you did that improv in the middle of the Muse cover everyone started going NUTS! Where did you learn that?"

"Man, I've been fucking around on this damn lump of wood for like nine years!"

"But Hinata made it even better, no offense, when she did that jazz thing in the middle, it was like an awesome contrast to the hard rock-"

"Speaking of which, when you did that bass line-"

Naruto slung his arm over Gaara's shoulders, pausing his dorking out for a minute. Sakura and Kiba continued the relentless babble as he checked on his best man.

"Everything good?" Naruto asked.

Gaara nodded. "I'm just confused."

Naruto glanced at Sasuke, who trailed slightly behind Hinata. He appeared to be discussing something with her softly, but Naruto applauded his choice to interact with her first. She was the most careful, but also the most persuasive in the group. Naruto latched onto the movement of Sasuke's lips, the way the soft flesh precisely articulated, and how a flash of pearly white sometimes peeked out from beneath the pink. He latched onto a few words, "piano," "classical," "excellent," "brother." Naruto's ears, privy to making out soft words from his softest bandmate, managed to make out a few impressed sentences, a few thank you's and noticed a flattered flush on her ivory cheeks.

"I know you are. But I'm giving him a chance because he gave us one."

"I get that," Gaara motioned to the pair in front of them. "And they seem to be getting along."

Naruto watched Sasuke steadily, his long gate, his immaculate clothing, skin, hair...life. He was freshly cut and clean. He could see why Gaara - rugged and lost since birth - would dislike him, especially since Naruto had encouraged it.

Gaara continued. "But he could be testing us."

"So? Wasn't I testing him when I took him to the party?"

"I'm just saying that he's not like us."

So don't trust him was left out. Naruto frowned. He wondered why he and all of his band for the longest time seemed to agree that isolating themselves from people unlike them made them safe from judgement. Naruto himself once thought such a thing. But maybe they were judging who was 'different' too readily, because how different could people really be? Was wealth the difference? The amount of troubles a person had? Did it make someone bad to not know pain?

Naruto didn't know. But, he did know that if Sasuke was a rich kid willing to understand how other people lived, he was willing to show. Somehow, though, Naruto wasn't sure that was what was going on.

Perhaps they, in their insecurity and fear, wound up isolating themselves into being the judgemental ones. But, they were sure of who they were now. Maybe it was time to show that to others.

...which was precisely why Naruto ordered the booth in the back-left corner of the diner, where the jute box and the cheap waitress-by-day-hooker-by-night was.

"You gotta get a milkshake here, Sasuke. The Oreo one. It's required."

Sasuke nodded.

Kiba, amazingly, laughed. "Dude, you talked this guy into going to a party, to our rock concert, and now into a milkshake? You should be a politician."

Naruto smiled. "He's right, Sasuke. You're too easy on me!"

"Want me to go back to pushing you around?"

"DEFINITELY not. This is way cooler."

Sakura cut in. "So why did you come tonight?"

The group turned to Sasuke, now in the spotlight.

"Naruto invited me."

Kiba laughed again. "Do you usually do what Naruto tells you?"

"No. But recently... yes."

"Why?"

Sasuke shrugged. "Not sure. But... I'm glad I did."

Naruto smiled genuinely. "Me too."