A/N: Have you ever randomly picked up a ten-foot pole and poked a complete stranger with it?

Neither have I, but it sounds like a lot of fun! XD

Enjoy!

Chapter 14: Competition

Neji stormed away from the group, heading for who knows where.

"Neji!" Shikamaru called, running after him.

"Don't talk to me!" Neji snarled. Shikamaru stopped dead in his tracks. Neji walked out the front door of KM Studios.

Tenten watched him go.

"Tenten," Itachi said, suddenly beside her. "You should go after him."

"Why me?" Tenten asked. "Besides, he said not to talk to him."

"You stopped him from fighting Shika, Naruto and Sasuke. You should be able to calm him down."

Tenten sighed. "Fine, I'll try." Tenten turned and walked out the door to look for Neji.

Neji sat in his car with his forehead pressed into his hands. It was the first time in ages that he had lost his temper like that. He was brought out of his trance by a gentle tapping noise. Neji looked out the window and saw Tenten standing outside the car.

Neji rolled down the window. "What?" He asked, his voice coming out sounding bitter.

Tenten twitched slightly. "Itachi told me to come find you."

"I'm fine, Tenten." Neji said harshly. "I'm just ticked off."

"I can see that." Tenten hesitated. "Can I come in?"

There was a click as Neji unlocked the doors. Tenten walked around to the passenger door and opened it, and sat down.

"Are you all right, Tenten?" Neji said suddenly.

"What do you mean?" Tenten looked at him. He turned his eyes on her. Tenten's face burned and she quickly looked away.

"Did he hurt you?"

"No." Tenten replied honestly. "He just startled me. That's all."

Neji nodded. There was a few seconds of awkward silence.

"Did I frighten you?" Neji asked.

Tenten was taken aback by the question. "You helped me Neji. Why would I be scared of you?"

Neji rubbed his face. "I don't usually lose my temper like that. I feel like hell now." Neji put his hand down. "I don't even want to perform anymore."

"Don't say that Neji!"

"I'm dead serious, Tenten."

"You just need a pick-me-up."

Neji sighed. "Like what?"

"What do you like to do?"

Neji rubbed his face again. "All I want to do right now, is go home and curl up in a corner or something."

Tenten thumped Neji on the back of the head. "I don't think so. You're playing in this contest." Tenten opened her door, walked to the driver's side, and pulled Neji's door open. "Come on, out of the car."

Neji stared at her incredulously. "Excuse me?"

"Out of the car." Tenten repeated.

"I don't want to get out of the car."

"Don't make me drag you out."

Neji ignored her.

"Don't make me mess up your hair."

Neji glanced at her and turned looked through the windshield again.

Tenten reached in, grabbed a fistful of his hair and messed it up.

"HEY!" Neji cried and slapped her hand away.

Tenten laughed at his new Mohawk. "How rock and roll!" She laughed.

Neji tried to pat his hair down. It wasn't working. "Great. Thanks Tenten."

"Oh come on. Out of the car, and I'll lend you my hairbrush."

Tenten eventually coaxed Neji out of the car and back into KM Studios. After Neji fixed his hair, they hunted down the band. They had been sent to a soundproof room to rehearse.

"Nice to see you again Neji." Itachi greeted him when they walked into the room.

Neji nodded in reply.

Tenten sat down with her friends.

"Tamed the dragon, huh?" Temari whispered to her.

"I heard that." Neji said from across the room.

"Sorry, Neji." Temari said honestly.

"So are we going to rehearse?" Sasuke asked.

Neji sat down. "I'm not in the mood."

Itachi buzzed his lips. "Why don't we just have a pep rally then?" Itachi pulled out his iPod and proceeded to hook it up to the amplifier. Itachi selected a song, and the Hamster Dance began to play.

Naruto and Sasuke laughed and immediately began to dance to it. The girls laughed at their hopeless attempts at dancing. Shikamaru jumped up and immediately proceeded to pull the Potato Masher. Naruto did the Scuba Diver. All Itachi could do was move his head from side to side. Temari and Sakura jumped up and began to do the Funky Chicken, laughing while they did. Hinata and Tenten joined moments later. Neji was being a party pooper.

Tenten got sick of seeing him sitting on the sidelines feeling sorry for himself, so she walked over to him, grabbed his arm and pulled him off the bench, ignoring his protests.

"You're not sitting down!" Tenten ordered him.

Neji rolled his eyes. Tenten knew he wouldn't dare hit a girl, so she felt safe pushing her limit. She grabbed Neji's arms and forced him to dance. The group laughed at him.

"Poor Neji." Itachi said with a grin on his face. Itachi switched the song to Michael Jackson's Thriller. The group immediately began doing the zombie. Itachi proceeded to do the Moonwalk. He nailed it.

"Nice Itachi!" Sasuke cried.

"CLEAR A SPOT!" Naruto cried. The group backed away, and Naruto proceeded to do a knee slide, before break dancing.

"Yeah Naruto!" Sasuke cried. He immediately joined Naruto in the break dancing. Temari followed, but epically failed at it. Tenten heard a faint laugh beside her. She turned her head to see Neji, with his hand over his mouth.

Shy Hinata suddenly stepped forward, dropped to the floor, and did the worm.

Itachi started to laugh. "OW! OW! OW! OW! OW!" He cried.

Even Neji was laughing now.

"You do it Neji. You do it better than me!" Hinata told him.

Everybody whooped. Neji shook his head, dropped and wormed right off the ground. Tenten was amazed that the room stayed intact with how loud the laughter was.

Itachi was now crying from both pain, and from laughing so hard.

Tsunade suddenly walked into the room and raised an eyebrow. Itachi yanked the iPod cord from the amp.

"This is...New..." Tsunade stared around at the group. "I hope you're all warmed up?"

"We haven't even picked up an instrument." Shikamaru said with a shrug.

"Your loss. All bands are to meet back stage."

The girls broke away from The Fifth Element to stand in the crowd.

"Oh shoot, I forgot!" Tenten turned and ran out to her car.

"Well save your spot!" Sakura cried.

Tenten ran out the doors and made it to her car. She popped the trunk and pulled out the posters she had made. Then she ran back into the crowd, and handed the posters to her friends.

"Nice, Tennie!" Temari said happily, when she saw the "GO SHIKAMARU!" sign.

Neji sat with his band backstage.

"Which song is it again?" Neji asked.

Itachi held up his iPod. Neji read the song on the screen. Then he nodded.

A band was called out. Neji watched as they walked out on stage with their guitars and drumsticks. Everyone could hear each other's performances. The bands did their best not to let the pressure get to them. The band would go up, play their song, and then be judged by the judges.

Bands went by faster than the groups would have wanted.

Neji watched as Pains band wandered on stage.

Next up, is a band from Amegakure! Please welcome, Black Death!

"Yikes, what a creepy name." Naruto muttered.

The group listened to their thrashing guitar.

"Metal..." Sasuke murmured.

Neji twitched when their vocalist began to sing.

"She sounds like Evanescence." Shikamaru said with a smirk.

Neji began to get nervous. The vocalists before this group sang out of tune. Either they sang sharp, or they sang flat. This vocalist sang perfectly.

"Relax, Neji." Sasuke told him. "She may sound good, but I guarantee it, she doesn't have half the passion for music that you have. Personally, I think that's the main thing."

"Well said Sasuke." Itachi complemented.

"What good is passion if someone sings better than you?" Neji asked bitterly.

"Oh, Neji." Itachi sighed. "The thing is; a musician is there to help listeners feel the music. Dancers do the same thing. They pour their emotions into their performance, and the crowd feels that emotion. You pour more emotion into the performance than anyone else I've ever seen. That's because you love what you're doing. We all love what we're doing. We're not in this to be famous; we're in this to have fun. Remember that." Itachi patted Neji on the back. "And that's what separates us from some of the other bands. Who cares if we sound like crap? When we first formed this band, we expected to fail epically. We were in it to have fun. And we still are." Itachi said confidently as Black Death's song ended.

Neji smiled. "Thanks, Itachi."

"You're welcome."

"The Fifth Element! You're on!" Someone called.

"Let's go guys." Neji said confidently and stood up.

They wandered out onto the stage and they passed Black Death along the way. The group ignored them. The curtain was down, but they could hear the cheers. They died down quickly.

"Put your hands in the middle," Shikamaru ordered.

The group smiled and put their hands on top of each other, ready to do their newly formed pump up cheer.

This next group hails from Konoha itself. I give you, The Fifth Element!

Cheers erupted as the curtains rose.

Shikamaru lead the cheer. "WHEN I SAY GO, YOU SAY FIGHT! GO!"

"FIGHT!" The group yelled.

"GO!"

"FIGHT!"

"WHEN I SAY WIN, YOU SAY TONIGHT! WIN!"

"TONIGHT!"

"WIN!"
"TONIGHT!"

"WHEN I SAY BOOGIE, YOU SAY DOWN! BOOGIE!"

"DOWN!"

"BOOGIE!"

"DOWN!"

Then they broke into song, putting the cheer together.

"Go, fight, win tonight, let's boogie on down all right, all right! Go, fight, win tonight, let's boogie on down all right, all right! YEAH!" They finished.

The group took their places behind their instruments. "Pep talk. Don't ask." Itachi muttered into this mic, making the crowd laugh. "His idea." Itachi pointed to Shikamaru who shook his head.

"GO SHIKAMARU!" Temari's voice screamed from the crowd. Shikamaru looked up and started laughing at the giant 'GO SHIKAMARU!' sign.

Neji saw Tenten grab the sign and flip it over. 'GO NEJI!' It said. Neji smirked.

Naruto clacked his drumsticks together, to count the group in. Itachi and Shikamaru immediately shredded their guitars. Moments later, Naruto began to pound, along with Sasuke's bass line. The guitars quieted, but the rhythm was still there. This song was the loudest song they've ever written, and it included having Neji sing very loudly, sometimes pushing the fine line between singing loudly and screaming. Neji added his voice to the mix. The crowd cheered. The chorus started up, and Neji suddenly found the microphone stand to be an obstacle, and decided to pull the microphone out and ditch the stand. He found it much easier to sing without the bloody thing anyway. Who doesn't sing better when they don't have a microphone stand to tango with anyway?

When the second verse began, Itachi began singing in harmony with him, and Shikamaru echoed his words on occasion. The chorus began, and ended with a long note that wasn't quite a scream, but nor was it a gentle note. Shikamaru shredded his guitar like the guitarist he was. 'GO SHIKAMARU!' popped up in the crowd again. Shikamaru's solo was drowned out by a sudden screeching as Itachi took the stage and tore the air with a series of trills, and chords. A new poster appeared in the back: 'ITACHI ROCKS MY SOCKS!' was divided up on four different panels, and each girl held one above their heads. Neji watched Itachi grin and hit the final note.

'ITACHI ROCKS MY SOCKS!' suddenly flipped as Neji began to sing the bridge, and turned into 'THE FIFTH ELEMENT FOR THE WIN!' Neji smiled when he finished the bridge and Naruto smashed the tom toms into oblivion without actually breaking them. Neji sang the final chorus. When the song ended, the whole crowd cheered.

The Fifth Element walked to the middle of the stage and pulled their signature high five.

"I didn't know you rocked socks, Itachi." Sasuke laughed.

"Oh shut up!" Itachi muttered, even though he was grinning.

The crowd began to chant. It took the band a few seconds to realize what they were chanting.

"WINNERS! WINNERS! WINNERS! WINNERS!" They cheered. 'THE FIFTH ELEMENT FOR THE WIN!' appeared again.

The cheers died down as the judges began to judge, as that was their job, and that's why they're called judges.

Tsunade spoke first. A very promising band you are. Very promising. My agent didn't lie. Tsunade then held up her score for the band.

The crowd erupted into cheers at the sight of the 10.

The judge in the middle stood. It has been a great pleasure to watch you play. If this weren't a competition, I would call for an encore- The judge was cut off as the crowd erupted into cheers again. When the cheers died down, the judge cleared his throat and went on. As I was saying, you could really feel the energy coming off you guys. It's infectious. Keep practicing though. The judge held up his number.

The crowd cheered at the sight of the 9.5. Neji could just faintly hear some booing going on though.

The third and final judge stood. Incredible. Absolutely incredible. You're definitely a love it or hate it band. There's no middle option for you guys. And it just so happens, that I love it! The judge held up her score.

The crowd roared. Neji got lightheaded at the sight of their second 10.

"Twenty-nine point five?" Sasuke cried.

"Aw, man I think I'm going to cry..." Shikamaru rubbed his eyes while he was smiling like crazy, laughing.

"Were we honestly that good?" Neji asked.

"Neji, you were amazing. The way you ditched that stand..." Itachi gave a fake sniff. "I'm so proud of you man!" He said with a mock sob. "Now get over it!" Itachi finished with a drill sergeant voice.

The Fifth Element left the stage. The chances of a band scoring a perfect thirty were next to impossible. They had this in the bag.

When all the bands went, the top five bands went out on stage. The top five included The Fifth Element and Black Death.

In fifth place, with a score of twenty-five... The band that won fifth place began to scream before the band name was even announced. Yes, you guys... The announcer finished. The crowd laughed.

In fourth place, is Water Under the Bridge, with their score of twenty-five point five!

"We need to seriously change our name." Itachi heard one of the band members say.

In third place...Is Blizzard! With their score of twenty-eight! Blizzard made a sound that sounded like tires screeching.

Naruto decided to make the same noise for a laugh.

"Guys...We're either in second place, or we won this thing." Itachi said softly so Black Death couldn't hear.

In second place... Nobody in the room breathed as the announcer paused for drama. Is...

Neji's heart began to pound.

The Fifth Element was looking around at each other, their eyes wide.

No, I'm sorry. The crowd gave an audible sigh.

The WINNER! The crowd held its breath again. Why tell you who's second, when you can just say the winner?

"GET ON WITH IT FOR GOODNESS SAKE!" Hidan screamed at the announcer.

"Give us our prize so we can go home already!" Deidara added.

The announcer cleared his throat. The winner, of Konoha Music Studios Rising Stars contest is...

Naruto grabbed the snare drum and proceeded to do a drum roll.

Thank you...The winner is... Pause again.

The Fifth Element!

The room exploded as hundreds of people cheered.

The Fifth Element could only look at each other in shock. Black Death walked off the stage. Finally, it kicked in.

Naruto screamed, and leapt right off the stage and into the crowd. He laughed as the crowd pushed him around in a full circle and put him back on the stage.

"I have always wanted to do that!" He screamed. Music filled the room as Itachi played the Hamster Dance in celebration and did the Moonwalk across the stage, causing more cheers to erupt.

Neji unplugged the iPod.

"HEY!" Itachi cried.

"HEY!" Neji screamed in response. "HAY IS FOR HORSES!"

Itachi whinnied. The crowd laughed.

Tsunade came up on stage.

"Well done! You deserve it!" Tsunade gave each band member a slip of paper. "You all ready have sponsors!"

Neji read the paper. Apparently, he was wanted in a clothing ad.

"You get the clothing thing too?" Naruto asked peeking over his shoulder.

"I think we all did, Naruto." Sasuke said.

"Holy..." Shikamaru's voice said with awe. They realized why a moment later. A very shiny trophy was being carted over to them.

"Can I kiss it?" Itachi asked.

Sasuke slapped him on the back of the head. "Hell no! It will probably tarnish!"

"Only silver can tarnish, Sasuke." Shikamaru reminded.

"You know what I meant."

"I now present this trophy to the winners of Konoha's Rising Stars competition! Can I have a big hand for THE FIFTH ELEMENT!"

The crowd cheered again. Naruto ended up receiving the trophy first. After a moment, he passed it to Sasuke, who passed it on to Shikamaru who passed it to Itachi, who passed it to Neji.

"Thanks." Neji said and walked away with it.

The crowd roared with laughter.

"NEJI!" Shikamaru cried.

The group followed Neji through the crowd. The crowd was reaching out to them. Neji tucked the trophy under one arm and high fived every hand he could. Behind him, Sasuke, Naruto, Itachi and Shikamaru were doing the same.

"We're celebrating tonight!" Shikamaru cried when they reached their biggest fans.

The four girls followed The Fifth Element out the doors, along with their instruments, shiny trophy in hand.

A/N: I had someone ask me what Neji writes his songs about. I'll leave that to you to think about. I am awful at writing songs, and poetry isn't my forte either. Now why am I relating poetry to song writing? Because they are technically the same thing. Songs require just as much care in writing as writing poetry does. The easiest way to think about it is like this: A poet is a musician who can't sing.

Two lovely chapters in one night! I hope you're happy -_- XD Kidding

SilverEyeShinobi