Disclaimer: Yep...still don't own naruto....

(Author's note: I liked to thank my two reviewers for the R&R and giving me their two cents...thanks Silent Trowa and Wormkaizer...feel free to complain at any time.)

CHAPTER ONE: Enter the Divas

Old man Sarutobi sighed as he looked down at the busy streets from the fifth floor. It did not look like anyone would be coming to audition today. He couldn't really blame them. Who would want to work for this run down looking company? He looked around at his decrepit surroundings, stroking his short white beard. The room looked better suited to be a storage room then a music studio. Guitars, drums, chime and keyboards….instruments seemed to take up a space all over the studio. The only part of the room not occupied by musical instruments was the one corner that was cleared for a desk and some chairs. He sighed again, this time longer and louder.

The door at the other end of the room creaked open letting in his talent scouts. Gai swept into the room with his usual flourish. He flashed the Hokage one of his famed toothy smile. The rest of the Konoha talent scouts followed Gai into the room without as much flair. The Hokage acknowledge them with a nod as they entered. "Gai, Asuma, Kakashi, Kurenai……oh, who do we have here." Kurenai stepped to the right which left the shy girl without a hiding spot. Feeling unnerved and having nothing to hang on to, she started to twiddle her fingers.

Kurenai put her hand on Hinata's back and gently nudged her forward. "This is Hinata."

Not wanting to be rude Hinata bowed to the old Hokage. And retreated, again finding a sanctuary behind Kurenai's back.

"I would recognize those eyes anywhere. From the Hyuuga clan, isn't it?"

"She was. It seems the Hyuuga family has disowned her. I thought that maybe she could audition for a position here. What do you think?"

"Of course, everyone is welcome. Besides, it would be an excellent addition for our company to have the legendary Hyuuga voice among our talents."

"Umm…the thing about that is…Hinata seems still reluctant to sing. She is still not confident about using her voice," as if to underline that point the silence around Hinata seemed even more pronounced, "but she is an excellent violinist."

Kurenai opened up the case that she had with her and handed the violin to Hinata. Hinata accepted the violin and tucked it under her chin holding the bow poised over the strings. As she was about to begin she made the mistake of looking at Kurenai-sensei and the others. Everyone was looking expectantly at her again. Gai-sama was giving her a reassuring smile and wink….then again he could just have an eye twitch. Everyone was waiting for her to start. At least Kakashi-sama did not seem to be looking at her. He was engrossed in his Come Come Paradise novel, but still he leaned his ear towards her, also waiting. She felt her stomach rolling around and the bile rising up her throat. Not again…not again. She could already feel the chunks on her tongue. No…not this time. Making a sour looking, bitter-beer face she swallowed the vomit before it could get out. She took another deep breath from her mouth to air out the vomit. Focusing her eyes at the soles of their feet and anxious to finish, she played frenzied notes on the violin which sounded curiously like the theme song an angry bumble bee. Everyone watched the timid girl in confusion and a bit of amazement.

The corners of her mouth tilted downwards when she finished the piece. For a split second there seemed to be absolute, unnerving silence. They hate me…I failed again. She hung her head lower, her chin nearly touching her chest.

Kakashi walked up to her and gave her a light smack on her back. He startled her into looking up. His one visible eye was crinkled into a smile. "What's wrong? You look like someone died. That wasn't too bad… it's actually good." Everyone in the room nodded in agreement, grinning. Asuma leaned against the edge of a keyboard with a cigarette hanging from his lip in speculation. Hmmm…not bad…there's potential. Kurenai beamed at her young charge proudly. Hinata smiled back, not sure what she did right but feeling good all the same.

Putting his right arm around Hinata's shoulders Gai punched his left fist into empty air. Tears of happiness streamed from his thickly lashed eyes. "Yosh!!!!! I will make it my sworn duty to make Hinata a……SUPER STAR!!!"

Kurenai pried Hinata out of Gai's grasp. "That's alright Gai…….I'll personally watch over Hinata. She is my student after all."

While the two were still arguing about who was going to be watching over Hinata's progress the Hokage walked over to Hinata and grasped her hands. He smiled engagingly at her. "Welcome to Konoha Records. You're our first band member."

Nara Shikamaru, man of his own destiny, was sure he did not in the least like girls because they were a troublesome lot; so why the heck was he following a domineering, annoying, overly loud blonde girl around? "Ino, remind me again why I'm going with you to this audition."

Ino looked over her shoulder at Shikamaru, flashing him an evil smile. "Because if you don't I'll tell your mom where you went all day yesterday. Imagine what she would do if she found out that you didn't help her at the Bakery shop because you were busy playing shogi with the old people at the park."

Ino had him there. He had told his mom that he and Choji were going to hang out at the arcades. It wasn't a complete lie. Choji was with him for a while until the game got too long and he ran out of snacks. If his mom knew that he ditched the shop yesterday to play shogi with some ojisans she would take away his Shogi and Go boards again, roll her eyes and say 'Shikamaru I don't know what I will do with you. You're only 15 years old and you act as though you're a retired sixty year old man. Why don't you just play sports or hang out with friends like normal kids your age?' Women.Letting out a long and loud sigh he dug his hands deeper in his pockets, hunching his shoulders. He was resigned to his fate as the bossy blonde's servant for the day.

Choji listened in on the conversation looking a bit confused himself. "So why am I coming along? I didn't do anything that Ino can black mail me with."

Shikamaru shifted his gaze from Ino's back to Choji. "You, my fine friend, are coming with us because, more likely than not, I'm going to be bored out of my mind. And if I'm going to be miserable I plan to share it."

He shifted his gaze back to Ino with exaggerated sigh. "Besides Ino bribed you into going by offering to treat you to Korean BBQ." That wretched woman knew their weaknesses all too well. That's what they get for being neighbors.

Choji seemed to daze off into his own world after Shikamaru reminded him that they were going to eat Korean BBQ later. He started to mumble excitedly to himself "….pork…mmmm….beef…spare ribs...mmmm…"

They stopped abruptly in front of a brick building. Ino frowned slightly. She had imagined that the music production company would be at a place that was a little bit more…….well impressive. This building just did not look like what she had thought it would. It seemed inconspicuous in between another brick building and a ramen shop.

Standing to her right side, Shikamaru tipped his head back to look up at the building. "Hey Ino, is this the right place?"

Ino looked down at her flyer than at the address again, 7604 Harmony blvd. They had the right place. She shrugged and continued into the lobby area of the building. The inside wasn't much more impressive than what she had already seen of the building. Ino walked over to the list of residence posted on the side wall.

"Here we go…… Konoha Records, fifth floor, suite 508."

Dragging a reluctant Shikamaru behind her Ino headed towards the elevator at the far side of the wall. Choji followed instinctively behind still munching on his bag of potato chips.

Shikamaru eyed the elevator suspiciously. "You know, I have a feeling that it wouldn't be safe to use the elevator. I think we better use the stairs."

Choji looked up from his bag of chips to agree. "Ino, you should listen to Shika-san he's usually right about these kinds of things."

Ino tugged harder on Shikamaru's arm, this time pulling on Choji's arm too. "Stop stalling. The elevator is fine…and faster. Come on, don't be so stubborn."

They had a brief struggle that went absolutely nowhere. Ino wasn't able to budge Choji a bit when he sat down while she tried futilely to pull him forward. Shikamaru stood there as equally unmoving. "Alright…alright…geez…you guys go ahead and take the stairs…I'm still going to take the elevator. I'll meet you guys up there."

"Geez….Stubborn, pig-headed girl," Shikamaru grumbled under his breath. "Come on Choji, we're taking the stairs." "Don't say I didn't warn ya," he tossed over his shoulders.

While Ino watched friends walk through the swinging doors that led to the stairs she did not notice that someone was already in the elevator when she backed into it. "Sorry," Ino turned around to see who she had bumped into. "Sakura….what are you doing here."

The pink haired girl seemed to be equally as surprised to see Ino there. "For the Konoha auditions…don't tell me you're auditioning too."

"Of course I am. I can't let my amazing musical talent go to waste. Besides once I become a star, I'll be able to meet up with Uchiha Sasuke ….." She finished the sentence with a heartfelt, worshipful sigh. "So why are you auditioning…from what I know you weren't really into music when we were kids. I've heard you before….and well…you know..."

"Well…we haven't seen each other since the third grade. What makes you think that I didn't get better since then?" Sakura didn't want to admit to Ino that she was also using this opportunity to get a little bit closer to Sasuke, too. The only way that Sasuke, the rising star of the music world, would take notice of her is if she were as famous. "I've gotten way better than you remember. I've probably even surpassed you in talent."

"Dream on Sakura…..no one's going to notice you when they've heard me perform."

In their preoccupation they did not notice that the elevator had started to jerk on its way up and had jolted to a stop. They were stuck in between the fourth and fifth floor. "What the heck was that?" Sakura shrieked.

"Damn that Shikamaru, he was right. You know Sakura, this is entirely your fault."

The pink-haired girl was taken aback. "How is it my fault? I didn't ask the elevator to stop."

"You're bad luck. It's that large forehead of yours; it deflects the light and brings in all the bad luck."

"Who says it's me, maybe you're the one with the bad luck."

"Whatever. Anyway we have to figure out how to get out of here. Let's see……hey there's an emergency phone over here." Ino held that phone to her ear, tapping at buttons. "Dang, no dial tone or anything….looks like it's out of order."

"So what do we do now?"

Ino slid down and leaned against the elevator wall. "I guess we can sit here a wait. I'm sure Shikamaru and Choji will figure out that something is wrong if they don't see me up there."

"Hey, what've you got in your hand?"

"What?" Confused she looked down at where Sakura was pointing. There was something soft under hand but it was a little to dark to see exactly what it was. She picked it up and brought it up to her nose. squeak "Eeeeeeek…..a mouse."

Dropping the mouse, Ino and Sakura's high pitched squeals echoed loudly within the elevator as they danced around trying to avoid the mouse. Ironically the mouse was trying just as desperately to avoid their deadly boots.

tbc.....

A/N: End-o- the first chapter....so how do you like it...Sakura's not one of my favorite characters but I hope I wrote her out well.....If you like or don't like it R&R because if you don't I will continue writing anyway....