Part 1: Chapter 3

Inuzuka Kiba sat behind the cobalt blue acoustic drum set and picked up the light wood sticks, looking slightly nervous. His narrow yellow eyes skipped around the room and fell behind the majority of us—I didn't have to follow his stare to know he was looking at the pale, dark-haired girl. It was almost painful to watch him, with the unrequited love issue looming over him. And I got an idea.

I glanced over at Naruto, "Do you mind if I give him something?"

"By all means," he gestured toward the set-up. I opened up my notebook and walked up to an apprehensive-looking Kiba. I handed him the book and pointed at the page I wanted him to read. He looked down at the book in his hands and I saw his eyes scan the page dutifully. Then he looked up at me again, this time in shock. I nodded and took the notebook back.

"Play that," I said. "Invent a rhythm to it." I crossed the room back to where the others were and sat on the same couch I had for Sakura's audition. Naruto plopped down beside me and gave me a questioning stare. I shook my head and inclined it toward the guy in front of us. He looked at a loss for a second or two, then he closed his eyes and tapped a cymbal lightly: tik, tik tik tik, tah. Tik, tik tik tik, tah. I counted the beats in my head; would four be enough? Ta-ra tat ah, tik tik tah-ah. I blinked. He changed beats in mid-song? Now that was interesting. I saw Naruto's eyebrows shoot up and he looked over at me quickly. Ta-ra tik tik, tik tik tik, tah tah. I assumed Kiba was working out a beat in his head, because his eyes were still tightly shut and he had a mask of concentration on his flushed face. And finally…

Ta-ra-rum tah tum tum, tum-tum tum tum, ta-ta-tum, RUM!

The drums were suddenly singing hard, and Naruto and I both watched in awe as Kiba played with all his heart to impress the girl he loved—I don't even think he cared about the audition anymore. Bah-pa-pa! Trum! I glanced over my shoulder at the others: Sakura and Ino were snuggling on a couch together, oblivious; Shikamaru and Shino both looked uninterested, as if they had heard him play a million times; Neji was looking up at Kiba as the other performed, his eyebrows drawn tight in a frown; Hinata was hugging Akamaru close, her smile gone and her blank eyes closed as she listened to the music coming from in front of her. I grinned to myself as I turned back around. My ideas are kick ass sometimes.

Kiba lost his groove after another half minute and his music faltered. Instant Problem: lack of concentration. Which could be dealt with. But for now, seeing the look on my blond friend's face, we had a drummer.

"Okay, okay!" Naruto stood and Kiba stopped, looking for the world like a suddenly-kicked puppy. "You're good. A kink or so to work out, but that's fine—"

"It was excellent!" Hinata cried from her chair in the back. Kiba blushed dark red.

"You're in, Kiba," I quickly finished what Naruto had been saying. "Do you have a drum set of your own?"

"Yamaha RD2F56W, five-piece acoustic, six-ply Mahogany shells, black, double-braced frame," he said automatically. From the blank stare Naruto was giving him, he didn't understand enough about drums to be impressed either. But if this guy owned anything, I'm sure he'd want the best. I was convinced.

"Here?" Naruto asked. "On campus? Or at home?"

"It's back home," he looked ashamed. "But I can call my dad up and ask him to bring it when he visits."

"When's that?"

"Two weeks."

"Right, so for now, we'll continue borrowing the school's set. We'll say it's for educational purposes," Naruto winked at me. "Thanks. Come back so we can have the next audition." Kiba rose and Akamaru leapt from Hinata's arms, running up to him and yipping excitedly. He scooped up the white dog and ran a hand back through his hair (his hood had fallen off while he had been playing), crossing to Hinata's chair and handing her the dog again.

"Akamaru, you stay with Hinata at all times," he commanded softly, in a voice unlike the one he used while speaking to his peers. At his words, the dog barked the affirmative and snuggled into the girl's lap. Naruto called again for next applicant.

Neji stood slowly. "I'll go," he said and I shivered at the cold in his voice. And they call me an anti-social bastard?

"Try-outs were amazing!" Naruto grinned, zipping up the electric guitar case. I nodded, working around the drums that were apparently going to stay here for two more weeks.

"Everyone so far seems to have some real talent or love of music," I agreed.

"By the way," he began unplugging the amps, "what did you have Kiba play?"

"The first thing you read," I answered simply, lowering the microphone stands. "Hinata was a good singer. Not too bad. Are you really considering a back-up singer?"

"Well, I said that because it suddenly hit me, really," he admitted with a shy grin. "If you're not okay with it though, we don't have to say yes to her tomorrow."

"I think it's an okay idea," I shrugged. "You can't sing them all, right?"

"I thought you were our lead singer," Naruto blinked at me.

"We never agreed on it," I shook my head. "Like I said, I've never tried singing before."

Naruto glanced around, then pointed at the microphone in my hand. "Try now."

"What? Here?" I glanced around.

"No," Naruto rolled his eyes with a grin, "we'll just drag a mike, a stand, and a speaker up to my room and you can do it there."

"Ha," I threw his headband at him. How it had ended up in my possession, I can't really remember. I think he asked me to hold it while he started taking the set-up away and I just joined him. He picked up the red cloth and stuck his tongue out at me, tucking it into his back pocket.

"I'd like you to be lead singer," he admitted with something that looked like a blush—I couldn't fully tell, his face was turned down. "So really, who don't you try? You never know until you try."

"Later," I promised, slinging the three mike stands over my shoulder and maneuvering my way out the door of the student lounge and into the Breezeway. The music room was in the West Building, across the street from the school (why they built a school building nearly two blocks away, I'll never understand). Naruto followed me out with the guitar over his shoulder and two speakers under each arm. As we crossed the street, two shadows against the bank's concrete wall caught my attention. I stopped and Naruto did too, opening his mouth to say something and I shot him a glare: Shut up! We watched the two shadows swelling and bouncing as the flickering lamplight overhead both disclosed and then hid their position.

"I'm warning you, Inuzuka, stay away from my cousin."

"Look, Neji, she needs me—"

"Don't address me like you know me, street mutt."

A low growl. "The only reason I'm not gonna hit you is because of Hinata."

"I don't care if you think she loves you. She doesn't."

"I'll let her tell me that."

One of the speakers under Naruto's arm slipped and he silently flailed for balance, trying to stop it from hitting the floor.

"If you go near her again, Inuzuka, I'll kick your ass."

"Are you going to be the one to explain to her why her best friend's not spending time with her anymore?"

"All you have to do is not talk around her. She's blind; you won't be missed for long."

Naruto did drop the speaker. I almost lost my hold on the stands. The loud bang echoed up the night sidewalk and Kiba leapt out from the shadows, his eyes darting around quickly. They landed on us and he looked from me to Naruto and back curiously.

"Ah…sorry!" Naruto grinned, reaching down and recovering the speaker. "It's a lot of stuff to carry. Did I scare you, Kiba?"

"Hell no," he growled, shoving his hands in his pockets. "So… Need any help?"

He sounded so desperate. "Yeah, we do," I offered. "There's a ton of more stuff back in the lounge, but, help Naruto for now."

"Took on more than I can handle, that sort of thing," he laughed nervously. Kiba lifted an eyebrow as he came over, taking three of the speakers from the blond and stacking them in his arms. Then he led the way to the music room. I looked back at the corner he and Neji had been arguing under, but I couldn't see the other man. He had probably left as soon as the sound startled them both.

"Um, Kiba…" I tried. "What…was that all about? With Neji?" I saw him visibly flinch and I regretted my prying. "Sorry," I said quickly.

"…I'll explain everything, just not out here," he mumbled as Naruto pulled open the gymnasium doors with his now-free hand.

"We'll go to my room," he offered.

"Hinata was born with an illness. The doctors said she would loose at least one of her senses by the time she was six, and they were right—she lost her eyesight at age five, ironically, right after we met for the first time. She's a wonderful person, Hinata is. Born into a family of assholes, and the only redeeming quality about them, really. The only one that's more protective of her than myself is her first cousin, Neji; this guy will stop at nothing in order to keep her blissfully ignorant from pain. But only I know Hinata well enough to say that she'd rather endure a lifetime of hardship with her friends than be ignorant to the world. She's blind, not incompetent.

"I've loved her since as long as I can remember. I think it started when I first learned about her illness. All I could think about were ways to make it better for her when it finally happened. That's why I gave her Akamaru when we started attending different schools—I wasn't there to help her anymore, and Neji's constant nagging would drive her crazy, so the dog was the only other option. He's not a trained seeing-eye dog, but he grew up with Hinata and I and he knows her as well as he knows me, so, he understands that he has to do everything to keep her out of danger. The school let him stay under the conditions that neither I nor Neji would be in every single one of her classes."

"I knew it," I said, leaning back in the rolling computer chair. Which was bright purple. "You're head over heels in love with Hinata."

"Is it that obvious?" he blushed, tugging at the ends of his jacket.

Naruto nodded: "Even I noticed man, and I'm dense as hell."

Kiba laughed at this. "Sorry for the lovesick puppy syndrome."

"It's alright," I waved it off. "But you have to know that we're considering Neji as the keyboardist. That means being in the same place with him, sometimes for hours at once."

"I know," Kiba grunted, making a face. "I'll play nice, as long as he doesn't start with me."

"We'll have a talk with him too," Naruto put in. "But anyway, on a lighter note, Hinata might be in the band with us as a back-up singer."

"Really? You liked her?" he looked happy.

"She needs to overcome a major case of insecurity," I mumbled.

"She is pretty insecure about herself," Kiba nodded reluctantly.

"You heard me?" I blinked.

He nodded. "I have dog-like hearing; it's an advantage."

"Remind me not to whisper around you," I lifted an eyebrow.

"Well, Kiba, you need to help her over that," Naruto made a face, shifting on his bed. "She's very pretty, you know. No wonder Neji's so overprotective." A growl. I gave Naruto the shut up glare again. "Don't worry," he laughed. "I've already got my eye on someone else."

I blinked at him. He did? "I wasn't aware of this."

"Secret," he winked at me.

"You nearly blackmail me to read my lyrics, and they you won't tell me who you've got a crush on? You suck man," I made a face.

"It's all outta love, Sasuke," he laughed. "All outta love."

Kiba shifted his weight back on the red beanbag chair and scoffed: "You guys are so gay."

Naruto threw a pillow at him; I threw a crumpled up flyer. Then the three of us laughed.