Notes: Wow, you guys like this story more than I thought you would! ; Thanks for all the reviews so far—they keep me going, really! Oh, and a biiiiiiiiiiiig thank you to akai amaterasu for letting me know Ino's eyes are in fact blue and not green! My bad! And thanks for the big review too! (by the way, my brother's a music freak and I've taken classes; I love music a lot )
Part 1: Chapter 4
Sunday's practice wasn't as successful, and so we stuck with Kiba and Sakura. We told Neji and Shino we'd get back to them about our pick of the synthesized keyboard player, and Hinata agreed to be an on-call singer; she promised to fine-tune her voice a little bit. We had all the main parts of a normal band, but Naruto said he wanted something more. He just didn't know what. It wasn't until I was researching traditional music for a paper due in Ancient Culture class that I quite possibly stumbled onto the answer…
"Brother! Brother, teach me how to play that thing!"
"This? But Suke, this is a traditional Japanese instrument; it's nothing like the guitars and drums you're interested in."
"But you make such pretty sounds with it, brother! It's much better than any instrument I've ever heard!"
"Well…as a song writer, I suppose you need to be open to different instruments and styles…"
"Do you mean it?"
"Yeah. We'll start practice tomorrow, how's that?"
"Thank you, Itachi!"
"Traditional instruments?" Naruto raised an eyebrow. "What, you mean, like a koto or something?"
"Yeah," I handed him my research paper. "The koto, the shamisen, and the shakuhachi."
His sky blue eyes roved over the paper, one of his eyebrows cocked in semi-amusement. After skimming through the article, he looked up at me with that same skeptical look. "It says they're traditionally used in temples and folk songs."
"That's true, but it could add that thing you're missing from your music," I pressed. "Think about it—no other band out there has traditional Japanese instruments."
"You have a point," he nodded. "But where would we get our hands on these kinds of instruments? Your paper says they can only be found in museums and temples."
"And homes of the wealthy," I added, opening his door.
"Where are you going?" he sat up, blinking at me.
"To my room—come on," I closed the door and started walking down the hall, a grin on my face.
"Sasuke!" I heard his voice coming from inside the room. "Wait up!" Shuffle. Thump. Shuffle shuffle. "Sa-su-keeeeeeeeee!" Naruto hopped out of his dorm room, pulling on his orange jacket. "Wait for me, I said!" I ducked into the inner stairwell and headed down the two flights to my own floor, still grinning. "Dammit man!" he cried. Ka-THUMP! Ka-THUMP! Ka-THUMP! He bounded down the stairs after me. I clapped a hand over my mouth to keep from laughing.
We exited the stairs on the second floor and I turned down my hall to face my room all the way at the end. Naruto practically ejected himself out into the hallway, stumbling and trying to follow all at once. I grabbed my keys and began unlocking the door, knocking as it swung open.
"I'm back," I called, entering. Naruto followed—he'd never been in my room before.
"You're back rather early," the red-head with the tattoo over his left eyepeeked over the top of his book from his position on the bed.
"Uzumaki Naruto, my roommate Isoshigi Garra," I pointed. "And that one at the desk over there is Akusui Haku."
The black-haired, slightly effeminate man turned and gave Naruto a good-natured wave. "Hello, Uzumaki! You can call me Haku."
"Call me Naruto," the blond nodded back.
"Garra," my other roommate closed the book he was reading and laced his fingers together, looking at the newcomer. "So, you've been stealing my roommate."
"Aha," Naruto grinned. "Sasuke hasn't told you? I snagged him as lyricist for my band!"
"You have a band?" Haku looked excited. "Really? Sasuke never told us!"
"He didn't?" I could feel Naruto glaring at me and I shuffled over to the triple closets over by the back of the room. "Haku, do you mind if I show him your koto?"
"You have a koto?" Naruto whirled on Haku, who laughed.
"Yes, it's been in my family for years," he admitted. "But no one was really interested in carrying out the tradition anymore, so I took it and taught myself how to play. My family runs a shrine," he guessed the next question.
"I play the synthesizer," Garra said off-handedly. And that's when Naruto saw the keyboard set up in red-head's corner. "Yamaha MOTIF ES8, eighty eight key synthesizer," he added at the blonde's long stare.
"This solves our little problem," he mumbled to me and I had to agree. As long as Neji and Kiba weren't in the same place, all was good.
"Garra, do you want to play a bit?" I gestured toward our guest, coming back with the koto in my hands. "We're still looking for a synth player for the band."
"Band, huh?" Garra rose and slipped behind his board, tweaking a few knobs and sliding some switches before he lay his fingers on the keys.
"So, we have Sakura on electric guitar," Naruto scribbled down on the back of a leftover flyer. "Kiba on drums—which we still have to borrow from the school. Garra on the synthesizer…"
"Liked him, huh?" I grinned.
In response I got a wide eyed stare. "And me on bass guitar. Now, there's you as singer," he lifted an eyebrow at me.
"I promise I'll let you hear my singing before our first concert," I smiled innocently at him. He threw his pillow at me and kept on thinking aloud.
"Hinata agreed to do backup, and this koto thing," he frowned. "We'll try it, but it's not a definite."
"And the shakuhachi?" I cleared my throat.
"Can you play it?" he pointed at the case in my hands and I flinched. After a moment of silence, he put the paper and pencil down on the bed and leaned over to look at me. I looked up into his eyes and felt the exact same way I had the first time I looked into them—blissfully lost. "Sasuke," he called me name and I shivered slightly. There was something about his tone of voice that registered as sensual in my brain, but I wasn't about to admit that…like I did just now… "What's up with you?" he continued. "You seem bothered."
"I'm not bothered," I lied and he knew it.
He gave me a bemused look: "Yeah, that wasn't a lie, and this isn't me flipping you off." He did so. I gave a soft, feeble laugh and he glared at me. So I sighed and looked down at the battered black shakuhachi case in my lap and traced the child-like paper fan symbol etched into its cover.
"My family was rich; we owned and headed a major computer software designcorporation," I felt my hands shaking, so I gripped the cover tighter. "That's how my mom afforded to buy this when she saw it in a market somewhere; I can't remember where. And she taught my older brother how to play. And I, in turn, learned from him."
"These are…good memories, right?" Naruto looked uncertain.
I lowered my eyes and shook my head. "I hate my brother. I hate him for how he just left, without caring about what happened to me." I hugged the case close to my chest. "I know it sounds selfish but I can't forgive him! I just can't…" I was crying and I couldn't stop myself. It always happened when I thought about my brother for too long, but I had never really talked about him to anyone before. Naruto was the first.
"O-Oy…" he slipped onto the floor beside me, "Sasuke, are you…alright?"
"Does it look like I'm alright, dobe?" I glared at him through my tears. He had a half-grin on his face, but his eyes were dead serious.
"I'm sorry I keep prying," he sighed. "It's just that…ever since I met you I want to know everything about you—the good and the bad. I want to know you, why you became a song writer, why I can't get you out of my head…" I froze and I felt him tense up beside me as well. He…thinks about me? An arm slid around my shoulders and I looked to him, seeing the red on his cheeks and the determined look on his face. "I… I want to help you, okay?" he continued, lowering his eyes sheepishly. "I know what it's like to be alone, but you know what a family is first hand and that's something I can't help you with." I had forgotten that Naruto hadn't even had a family to miss. I felt terrible and stupid; how can I go on like this while he's had so much worse…? Without thinking, I wrapped my arms around his neck and leaned against him, closing my eyes.
"I'm so sorry, Naruto," I murmured against his neck. "I'm such an idiot."
"W-Whoa, hey, calm down there," he said, and I felt the vibrations on my forehead, I felt his voice in my head. I was getting dizzy and happy and sleepy all at once.
"I'll sing for you," I heard myself promise as I slipped into a state between awake and asleep. "And the song will be just for you…"
And he held me. He didn't throw me off and he didn't complain. He put his other arm around me and smiled to himself, closing his eyes. The red in his cheeks receded, but not fully. And we stayed like that for a long time.
"Sasuke…"
Who's voice is that? It's beautiful.
"Come on, Sasuke, wake up."
But there's an angel in my dreams. I don't want to go yet…
"Oy, Uchiha!"
I snapped back to reality, where I was lying on the floor with Naruto, my face pressed against his chest. I blinked and looked up into hiseyes at a total loss of words. But he didn't look upset. In fact, he looked rather amused.
"Naruto…?" I mumbled in a sleep-filled voice. How long was I out? "What time is it?"
"Around two thirty," he said quietly, running a finger across my cheek. The touch made my face flush and I sat up abruptly, looking away and hurriedly wiping my wet cheeks. It still tingled where he had touched his finger to my skin. "You fell asleep," he stated the obvious. "I didn't want to wake you. You were…" he shook his head, blond strands of hair falling into his swirling blue eyes. "Anyway, I'll finish the list right now. You get to bed. And you can leave the shakuhachi here—we might be able to use it after all. That is," he added as an afterthought, "if you don't mind playing it. Though I'd really like to hear."
I stood, looked at the black case on the floor, and picked it up, placing it on his desk. "Yeah, you hold on to it," I said, turning for the door and scooping up my notebook on the way out. "I'll…see you tomorrow, then?"
"Yeah," he grinned. "Goodnight, Sasuke."
"Night," I let myself out and shut the door behind me. Closing my eyes briefly, I leaned lightly against the door of my friend's room and took in a deep breath. As I was staring into Naruto's eyes earlier, I had remembered the second meaning of the word 'uzumaki'—it meant 'spiral'. And that's just what I was doing. I was tumbling, spiraling down into the abyss that was the infinite blue of his eyes. I was getting lost in him, slowly, surely; I couldn't deny that. I felt him there, hesitating on the other side of the door just like I was. That was the funny thing about Naruto and myself—we were totally different, from styles of clothing to favorite foods, but the one thing we had in common was hidden emotion. Like I've said, I know Naruto like the back of my hand and it's only been three weeks that we've been friends. I know him so well because like it or not, we're alike. The lock clicks into place behind me. I take it as the final notice and stalk back to my room. Garra is snoring on the bottom bunk and the top is empty. I look over to Haku's desk where he's sitting in front of his Sony Vaio T3 laptop, typing diligently. I lock the door behind me.
"Oh, Sasuke, you're in late," he looks up from the screen and smiles gently at me. I attempt a weak smile back but just end up plopping down in my desk chair and looking over at him. He's still smiling, waiting patiently for me to say something.
"I want to write a song," I speak up in the darkness between us.
"Well, what's stopping you?" he asks.
I think for a minute before answering: "Nothing." I turn on my desk lamp and angle it away from the beds so as not to disturb our sleeping roommate. I open my notebook and lay it on the desk, the new blank page staring back at me like a white, unblinking eye. Haku puts his computer on standby and shuts the cover, yawning softly into his hand as he crosses the room.
"Good luck," he tells me and climbs up into his bed atop Garra's. I take a pen from the desk drawer beside me. It's blue. I smile slightly and start writing.
"Your eyes…"