Chapter 11: Motivation

-N-

It had been a week since Naruto's run in with Sakura. He had been looping those few minutes over in his head relentlessly, mercilessly looking for the exact moment, the precise time, the very word, that caused the love of his life to choose Sasuke over him. 'It's not a big deal', his friends had repeated to him over the days. Maybe they were right, but one thing was for sure. She left with man that wasn't him.

He wrote this into a song he made and named it "A Chance". The rest of the guys liked it although Shikamaru thinks it could be better. Just like him, Naruto thought. He should be excited since his very first show is approaching, tomorrow, as a matter of fact. He had one more day of school left and that night, he and Full Nelson will head downtown to a small club to play three songs. Ten minutes that will change his future forever!

Or maybe not.

Naruto sat there in class trying not to lose his mind in anticipation. He looked around at the other students, those people who always viewed him as a second class citizen. He smiled with the thought of him singing in front of an audience while they sat at home doing homework, preparing for college. College! As if that will make them happy. He knows what will fill that small empty compartment in his heart. His music, and his Sakura.

Shikamaru was to his right, and begin packing up his things to head to his next class. The noise broke Naruto from his thoughts and he too packed up his things. A notebook and a pen he borrowed from the girl who sat behind him. What was her name, he thought to himself. He nudged Shikamaru and asked him. "Who?" he replied nonchalantly. Naruto rolled his eyes and urged Shikamaru to keep quiet. "How do you think, the dark haired girl behind me". Shikamaru glanced over at the girl and smirked a little. "Hinata, Naruto. Hinata. You've been in school with her since you were twelve. You're such a bad friend."

Naruto frowned at Shikamaru's tone. "Shika, you know I don't remember names," he said. Shikamaru stood and stretched. "Yeah, you still don't remember Shino's, although I don't blame you". Naruto thought hard for the name to match the face but couldn't connect thw two. "Shino. Is that the guy in the drama club?" he asked. "Nope. No it is not, Naruto. Sorry but you are all out points for today. Wanna buy three more tries for a nickle?" Shikamaru asked holding out his hand. Naruto smacked his hand down and turned to return the pen to Hinata. "Here you go Hinata! Thanks for lending it to me, I uh, didn't use it much," Naruto smiled and placed it on her desk. The girl seemed taken aback by this gesture and suggested he keep it. "Nah, its fine. I have gym next anyway, see you later!" Hinata informed Naruto that class wasn't over yet as he and Shikamaru begin walking away towards the door. Right when she finished her sentence, the bell rang and Naruto turned around smiling and pointed at the speaker on the ceiling. He and Shikamaru waved goodbye and left.

They were the few in the hallways already. Shikamaru took some sunflower seeds from his pocket and gave Naruto some, already expected him to whine and ask. They entered the stairway and headed down the three flights. "Yo Naruto, you do know that she loves you right," Shikamaru asked. Naruto replied with a quick 'Who' without putting much thought into it. Shikamaru rolled his eyes at Naruto's obliviousness. "Hinata, Naruto. Hinata."

A long winded 'What' escaped the blonds mouth, fully not believing what Shikamaru was saying. Before he could reply, though, someone had bumped Naruto's shoulder. He turned to look at the guy but did not recognize him. "Watch where you going," the guy said. He had a moment of realization as he looked at Naruto and Shikamaru. "Oh, wait, you're the guys in that band aren't you," he asked. Naruto smiled and replied happily. The guy stopped his friends and pointed at Naruto and Shikamaru. "Look, it's those guys from hat band, what a bunch of fags!" He and his friends laughed and pointed. Shikamaru restrained Naruto as he moved up the steps to confront the antagonizers. "What's wrong? You wanna fight? How about you go get the rest of your gay buddies and we'll show you how to really beat somebody's ass," he laughed and left with his two friends.

"Shika we should have kicked their heads in!", Naruto shouted at him. "Just let it go," he said walking down the steps, without looking back at Naruto. Naruto looked up at where the guy was and back at Shikamaru and followed him. "What do you mean 'let it go'? You heard what they called us!" he said as he grabbed Shikamaru's arm.

Shikamaru continued down the stairs with Naruto still attached to his arm. "Naruto, how many times has someone called you that? How many times have they called us that," he asked. "It's just words, you're such a hot head."

Naruto let go of Shikamaru's arm. He was right, Shikamaru's always right. This wasn't the first time someone called him or the others that. But that doesn't mean it still doesn't make him beyond angry. They reached the end of the stairwell and saw Kiba approaching. They greeted each other and Naruto turned to head to gym. Kiba put his arm around Shikamaru and held up a piece of paper. "Dude, I got the song list for tomorrow."


-K-

'Full Nelson, fifteen minutes.'

"There is no way we can do a fifteen minute set," Kiba said, standing next to the rest of the band on stage inside the Bells Bar. If you can even call it a stage, it was practically an inch high. The group was standing around a speaker, looking at the overview sheet of tonight's show. They were the second band playing tonight. The main band was one none of them had heard of before. Dirt Poor, representing Schism Records. Kiba had never heard of that record label before either.

They were doing their sound check for tonight. They all knew that they had only three songs in full form, they'd have to wing one or two more in order to round out the time allotted to them. Neji was explaining what songs to use from the list Kiba made them yesterday. 'Recover', 'The Other Side', and 'Again' were the songs they picked to play. The bonus, as they embellished, would be the unfinished 'In My Head' and if they had time left, would play an all instrumental that Naruto hadn't yet written to.

The guys had agreed to practice 'Recover' once more and went to their instruments. Kiba grabbed his guitar, so old and used, he felt he would snap it every time he held it. He was met with some feedback and looked towards his right to see Naruto stumble with the microphone. He shook his head and inhaled a calming deep breath. He moved his fingers to play the first chords and played the wrong strings. He flinched and breathed out again. He had to keep calm if he wanted to get through the night, his stage fright hasn't relented it's hold on him in the slightest. Pitiful, he though. The only people in the audience is Choji and Shino, What is he so nervous for?

They finished the song and Kiba hurried to remove the strap from around his neck and leave the stage as soon as possible. "That was good, you guys. Kiba, you were a played the wrong strings in the beginning," Neji had said while removing his bass. "Yeah, no shit," Kiba responded without stopping to chat. Of course he knew, how would he not? It was his fingers, his guitar, his mistake. He stood behind a curtain and grabbed a water bottle and threw it hard enough for it to break and water to splash out.

Shikamaru walked over shifted his gaze from Kiba to the broken bottle on the floor. His silence annoyed Kiba enough for him to sharply ask what Shikamaru wanted. Shikamaru sighed, "That was mines, ya know." Kiba had wanted to express his anger but withheld it and replied with a simple sorry. "I don't think 'Sorry' is going to bring the water back into my bottle."

Kiba rushed to retrieve Shikamaru's bottle and held it out in his hand for him to retrieve it. "Here then, take it back."

Shikamaru looked at the bottle and back to Kiba quizzically. He took to it from Kiba slowly. "This isn't about the bottle, isn't it?" Kiba turned his head in annoyance at his friend. "What do you think," he asked. Shikamaru tossed the bottle in a nearby trashcan and asked Kiba why the stage fright was still bothering him so much. "How the hell am I supposed to know?"

Shikamaru walked past Kiba and motioned for him to follow. "Step outside for a minute," he said. The walked out into the cool air and Kiba put on his hood. Shikamaru looked around and dug in his coat pocket for something. He found what he was looking for and held it out for Kiba to see. "This should help," he said. Kiba looked at around to the door they just walked through and back towards Shikamaru.

"Weed?"