"Naruto! We weren't expecting you in today!" The loud woman known as Anko shouted across the theater in order to project over the noise of power tools and banging hammers. Different set designs were scattered about the stage and the crew was already hard at work. Naruto felt a small surge of excitement at the thought of what their set might look like in the end.
"I know..." he began with an apologetic bow of his head, "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for yesterday."
"Yesterday?" She asked with a tilt of her head, a thoughtful gaze was cast towards the ceiling as if trying to remember something important. "Did you do something?"
"Well, Kabuto called me in yesterday for rehearsal, but I never showed up," he explained with another remorseful wince.
"I was wondering, too why I was called in," another voice echoed over the background noise, despite its naturally soft and gentle tone. Haku emerged from backstage fanning himself with, what looked like, a pink and white laced Victorian fan. "I figured you were supposed to be here as well, but I was left alone with the stage crew."
"I'm so sorry about that!" Naruto pleaded with a low bow, feeling his face become flushed with embarrassment. He wanted to do everything he could to live up to the other boy's expectations, but he was turning out to be more trouble than he was worth. "I didn't mean to make you and Kabuto wait around all that time!"
"Kabuto?" Haku questioned, a brow raised in confusion before his eyes lit up. "Oh! He wasn't here yesterday either because of urgent business with a class of his. But I'm sure he expected that we would at least practice in his absence."
"Which brings me back to the fact that I'm really sorry," Naruto mumbled while scratching the back of his head. "Something came up."
Haku's pallid face remained stoic, though his eyes had a trace of skepticism that he must have chosen to keep to himself. Naruto knew that the boy was smart enough to figure things out on his own. He was perceptive enough as it was, but it seemed that he either had no interest in his affairs, or was simply courteous enough not to ask.
"Well, we can't change the past!" Anko chimed in with a long stretch, trying to shift the tension. "So, apparently, you were called in and didn't show. Nothing we can do about it. Let's just try to not make a habit of it." She winked at the blond playfully before beckoning the two to follow her onstage. "But now that I have the both of you we might as well use out time wisely. Any objections?"
"You read my mind, Anko," Haku replied as he folded the fan with a single flick of his wrist. "Unless you have a problem with it, Naruto?"
The blond shook his head vigorously while frantically waving his hands. "No! Not at all! I would love to practice to make up for yesterday!"
Anko leaned in closer to him with a narrow stare, as if scrutinizing his features for something. Naruto leaned back instinctively with a nervous flinch, wondering if he had said something wrong. "Umm..."
"God, you're gloomy," she stated with a harsh jab at his forehead. "Cheer up, will ya? Just looking at you is depressing. It's like you have dark clouds looming over you."
He laughed anxiously, trying to dismiss her claim, but it only drove them into an awkward silence when no one made a move to continue. "I... I'm sorry. It doesn't feel that great for me either."
"You don't have to explain," Haku assured. "There's nothing wrong with it."
"Yeah, if you like having your soul ripped apart by just looking at him. Those clouds better clear up soon, kid!"
"Yes!" He replied hurriedly, trying to shift them away from the topic altogether. It's not like he wanted such a tense atmosphere to follow him wherever he went; conditions made him that way and there was nothing he could have done about it.
He scrambled onto the stage with his script in hand, trying not to look down at the words and remember what he could from his practice with Shikamaru. The further they got into the scene, the more he felt the frown weigh down on his cheeks, unable to fully absorb himself in anger. As he spoke, Haku moved along the stage as he recited his lines almost flawlessly, looking to Naruto as if he knew his blocking too, but he was left sitting at center stage looking as helpless as before. It had only been a couple days but he could clearly see that the gap between them had only grown. He hadn't been as dedicated to this as he should have been.
"If I may, Naruto?" Anko finally interrupted with a loud clap of her hands.
Haku joined them at the center with nothing more than a pleasant smile, though Naruto was only disheartened by the gesture. "I'm... not doing so well, am I?"
"No one said that," Haku answered with mild surprise at the suggestion.
"Calm down kid, I just wanna help you with your blocking. That's all," Anko stated reassuringly with a thumbs up. She seemed just as calm as his partner, but exerted an eagerness that made him feel at ease.
"Okay. I've never actually had to worry about blocking before..." he admitted, receiving puzzled stares in reply.
"Never?" Haku reiterated with an apprehensive glance to Anko. "But you said you've acted before."
"It was a monologue," he clarified, hoping that he wasn't making the other boy feel worried by telling him this.
"Oh, is that all?" his partner sighed with, what seemed like relief. "Then it shouldn't be too difficult."
"What do you mean?"
"Whether you may have realized it or not," Anko explained while wrapping an arm around the blond's shoulders, "even during a monologue, you're stage blocking. The person you're talking to may not be real, but your actions are what make the audience believe that they are."
If only this woman knew that the entire time he stood on stage reciting those lines, he was actually talking to Sasuke. And though the words weren't actually his, he did everything he could from his voice to his expressions to make them convey his own feelings. In the end, it must have worked.
"Working with me doesn't make it that much different," Haku added while unfolding the fan to hide a slightly devilish grin. "If anything, it'll make it easier for you. These lines are nothing more than a conversation, a lovers' quarrel to be more precise. You have to put yourself in this man's position."
Well, that won't be terribly hard...
Suddenly, he felt his wrists in the grip of the other woman as she began waving his arms around like he was a madman. "Wait! W-what are you doing!?" He stammered clumsily as he began to swing their arms in circles.
"For starters, you have to loosen up!" she declared. "Your character is a bit of a drama queen, which means you are too. Subtle conversational gestures won't do. You have to make the audience see them too! Be dramatic!"
"Dramatic! Got it!" He affirmed while shaking Anko off his hands. He leaned back with a satisfying stretch, feeling a contagious smile begin to play on his lips. When was the last time he had actually smiled at anything? For a moment, he had forgotten that he had walked into this place feeling absolutely dreadful and ready to turn and run out the door at the first sign of defeat. Regardless of how he was feeling, these people were there to help him while not seeming to care at all for what was bothering him. Though he could argue that such a trait made them neglectful and not at all caring, but it seemed that they all came to a silent understanding that his problems were too much for them to try and handle. He was in need of a distraction.
"Are you sure?" the woman cooed with a playful snicker as she stroked her chin in thought. "If you aren't, I'll have to make you run a lap around the seats to loosen you up!"
"I'm sure!"
"How do you feel about Haku marrying another man?!" Anko shouted, her naturally loud voice echoing through the theater and making the crew look up at them curiously, some hold back chuckles of amusement.
"Angry!"
"Is that all?" Haku gasped while hiding a 'distraught' expression behind his fan. "I thought you could do better, Naruto. Do I really mean so little?"
He could hear the giggles begin to accumulate behind him. They must have really looked odd to gang up on him with questions that were so ambiguous.
"I'm furious!"
"I hope you like running!" Anko chimed in.
"LIVID!" He shouted, his voice drowning out all noise as he stomped his foot down and threw his script at Haku's feet. The other boy peered at him over the lace and cloth with a slightly inquisitive brow. Without allowing anyone to interject he stormed up to Haku, tearing the fan away from him only to brandish it in his face. "How dare you let your father talk you into it! And how dare you act like YOU DON'T GIVE A DAMN!"
Haku's brows furrowed into an indignant scowl as his hands rested on his slender hips. "You're the one who doesn't give a damn, Naruto! How dare you expect me to read your mind! You gave me your advice!"
"Bullshit!" Naruto felt his voice rise along with a heat that coursed through his veins, flushing his cheeks with a rush of emotions that he was unfamiliar with. He grabbed Haku's hand and pulled the small boy to him, holding him tightly before proclaiming, "You're mine!"
He was breathing hard, his heart was beating out of control and he was sure Haku could feel it through his chest before he finally let go of him, not knowing if he was about to be punched or yelled at. It seemed like he really had upset him, but he had been too caught up in the moment to care. Naruto took a step back, first noticing that the stage crew had become silent, but continued to stare at him before he looked back at Anko and his partner.
"I.. I'm—"
"That was awesome!" Anko exclaimed before he had the chance to apologize. "It didn't take much to push you to do better, did it?"
"Huh?" he stammered, his gaze shifting to Haku in wait for his response.
"It's not that hard once you know your motivation, is it?" Haku answered his bafflement with a gentle smile, as if he wasn't scowling just moments before.
"N-no..." he replied slowly, trying to take in the fact that such wild emotions that ran free and were, quite, real had actually been fabricated rather than channeled through something he actually felt. It was almost surreal.
"Well, I think that concludes our lesson for today, kids!" Anko announced with a joyous round of applause, which was joined by few crew members in the back. "I think you guys will be fine without my help for the rest of the day, right?"
"Looks that way," Haku affirmed with a nod before giving the teacher a short wave. "So, would you like to take this outside? There would be less noise."
He heard a suggestive whistle call from behind them, but he had become too embarrassed to try and find out who it was. Instead, he nodded in order to hopefully get to a place where it wouldn't be easy for people to misinterpret what they were doing, however unlikely. Despite the slight feeling of embarrassment, the exercise still felt empowering, in a way, by making him feel like he truly did have control over what he did and felt. His emotions weren't controlled by poor circumstances or the words of another man; those weren't the factors that dictated the outcome of anything.
He had known from the beginning that he was to blame for his predicament, but he had, without realizing it, slowly lost the will to try and make things better for himself like he had before.
"What is it?" His partner's voice cut through the calming thought process as they were greeted by the pleasant warmth of the sun as they stepped outside. "You're smiling so freely all of a sudden."
Naruto shook his head, unable to hide the wry smile from view as he looked at Haku with newfound confidence. "Just figuring some things out. I guess dark clouds aren't as formidable as they appear."
"How could they?" Haku giggled in reply. "They're lined in silver."
