Part 1: Chapter 10
Haku rushed in, his hair looking wind-swept, some of the strands coming loose from the tie he wore. "Here! I have them!" he waved a stack of papers above his head and began passing them out among us—the finalized music sheet, complete with lyrics. "I'm so sorry, but my printer ran out of ink and I had to run to the library before it closed!" he panted, dropping into an armchair by the makeshift stage. Garra made a face and left his synthesizer, coming over to his boyfriend and moving a gentle hand along his long black hair, tucking back the wayward strands.
"Breathe," he commanded softly. Haku instantly closed his eyes and tilted his head back, taking in a deep breath as everyone else scanned their eyes over their papers.
"Is it really already midnight?" Ino lifted her head from her arms. Sakura gave her girlfriend a sympathetic look.
"Ino, you can go back to the room. I'll be there in a few hours," she said. The blond shook her head and scooted closer to her, laying her head on the other's shoulder and peering at the sheet in her hands. "This guitar solo looks complicated."
"But you've been practicing, right?"
"Mm-hmm."
"I have faith in you."
They smiled and exchanged a soft kiss. I glanced over at Naruto, who was deep in concentrated thought as he looked at the paper in his hand. "Tabs," he murmured finally, nodding his head. "Tabs are good. Tabs are easy. Thanks Haku," he glanced up. The dark-haired man waved as he continued to breathe deeply. Garra kept running his hand through the other's hair idly, glancing at his music sheet.
"Slides aren't," he puffed his cheeks slightly in agitation. "Haku…"
"I wouldn't have wrote it that way if I didn't believe you could do it," he lifted a hand to point at his lover and returned to breathing. The red-head awarded him with a charming smile—which, unfortunately, he did not see. But I'm pretty sure he knew it was there anyway.
"Tabs, really?" Sakura brightened, double-checking her sheet. "Oh, awesome! I love these things!" Ino laughed at her affectionately. Both Shino and Shikamaru were asleep on the long couch, leaning against one another and snoring mildly. Kiba, who had moved to his drum set which his father did indeed deliver, propped the sheet on one of his cymbals and picked up his neon-green tape-wrapped drumsticks. Tak! Tak! Tak! Tak!
"Wait, Kiba," Naruto sighed, standing up and shuffling over to him. He was tired—it showed. "We've been practicing solo for the longest time; all the rehersal's have just been about the minor songs, the one's leading up to the main event. This one's big. This will make or break us. We've gotta get it perfect."
"Then get your asses up here so we can do this, if you please," Kiba snarled impatiently. Sakura kissed Ino's forehead and stood, slinging the leather, flower-etched strap over her shoulder and across her chest, grabbing her dark wood instrument and walking up to the two up by the set-up. Garra leaned down and brushed his lips against Haku's, which earned him a beautiful smile. I felt slightly jealous as I headed up last. It must have shown on my face, because when I took my place beside Naruto, he tapped me on the shoulder.
"Sasuke?" he beckoned me closer. I leaned over and his lips found my ear. He flicked his tongue across my earlobe and I shuddered hard as I felt his hot breath caress the side of my face. "Don't get distracted," he was grinning. I turned my head to press my temple against his forehead, closing my eyes for a moment.
"I would have liked a good luck kiss," I was smiling slightly.
"I'll kiss you later," came the heavily-suggestive reply.
"Promise?" I kissed his nose. He laughed and pulled away. Kiba was looking impatiently at us, so I lifted my hand and motioned for him to go. And an instant before the music started, I realized that no one else but Naruto had ever heard me sing.
The room phone rang. I looked up from my notebook, Haku from his laptop, and Garra and Naruto from the sports car magazine they were both ogling over. I hoisted myself off the bed and crossed over to the desk, catching up the phone on the third ring.
"Hello?" I turned to face the others in the room.
"Neji's just dropped her off," Shino's voice informed through the earpiece. "He's taking the stairs down."
"Who's there with you?" I asked him. Naruto was mouthing at me: 'Is he gone yet?'
"I'm heading down to meet Shikamaru in the band room," he answered, and I heard his voice echo as he entered the West Building's stairwell. "Kiba's walking around the campus, paying off the security guards."
I relayed this information to the others, then turned back to my original conversation. "Meet you guys in front of the music room?"
"Yeah, see you." Click. I hung up the phone. Naruto leapt off the bed, magazine all but forgotten.
"Woohoo!" he raised his fists into the air. "We are gonna rock this campus!"
"I can't believe I'm not in class," Garra mumbled, rising from the bed at a much more dignified pace.
"Isn't it exciting?" Haku shut down his laptop and beamed at them. "Let's go! I don't want to be late."
We trooped from my room out to the rotunda where Ino and Sakura were waiting at one of the tables. They stood as we approached and we all nodded at one another in silent understanding and continued. This was it—we were officially skipping class and heading straight for trouble as we descended the stairs and made our way out to the breezeway, where we ran into Kiba conversing with a school security officer. He saw us, said a hurried goodbye, and scuttled over to us, giving a solemn nod. There was no need, no room, to talk to one another: if we talked now, we would get nervous. It was as simple as that. We crossed the campus hurriedly and as we all drew closer to the destination building, we spotted Shino and Shikamaru leaning against the wall of the gymnasium that doubled as the band and music supply room. Naruto slipped the ring of keys from his jacket pocket and selected the one to the padlock on the front door (he had these thanks to the head of the music department, who was actually the only other one who knew about this fiasco and was looking forward to it). With a click he removed it and yanked the doors open wide. The equipment sat waiting where we had left it. Everyone grabbed what they were assigned to carry—this was pre-planned, there would only need to be one trip. Naruto locked up storage behind him, stashed the keys in his pocket again, and we hauled everything back to the gazebo in the center of the West Lawn. A few students were about and gave us odd looks as we lowered the speakers and amplifiers and cords and microphone stands to the concrete. Kiba, Shino, and Naruto ran to the common room to grab the guy's drums and bring them out. Several people stopped their Friday afternoon business to watch us set up the stage.
One hour later.
We still hadn't turned the amps on. Sakura plucked on her Cobra's silver strings with the ease of a long-time expert. Naruto stood beside her, ear-tuning his deep red Spruce and Flamed Maple Fender DG22S. It was his pride and joy. Garra was glancing at the music sheet he had received two weeks previous, adjusting his synthesizer's knobs and dials according to the notes he had scribbled on its borders. Haku was running the last wires from his set up to the power strips taped down to the cobblestone on one side, Shino at the other and doing the same thing. Kiba adjusted his drum set accordingly, making sure his leg had enough room to reach each of the pedals and his arms were loose and free to swing around. He was going to play hard, whether the song called for it or not—this was his last chance before Christmas break to get Hinata back. Shikamaru was setting up the mike stands for Naruto and myself, and he had a third one specially designed to attach to one of Kiba's drum stands. Ino was checking the microphones herself, making sure each was on and properly adjusted. I just closed my eyes and let them all work—I had to get in the mindset. I had to remember the lyrics. I wasn't even paying attention as Ino jammed one of the mikes into my hand and led the wire back to the closest amp, plugging it in.
"Sasuke?"
I opened one eye slightly. A blur of orange met my vision but I didn't wince; I was used to it. I no longer despised the sun.
"Yes, Naruto?" I looked up into his eyes. And I stared.
"Are you ready?" he asked me softly.
I rose, nodding: "Let's do this."
Click—I turned the mike on.
SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
If that didn't get the entire damn campus' attention, nothing else would. I raised the microphone to my lips and cleared my throat.
"Faculty and staff, and fellow classmates," I said clearly, hearing my voice ring out across the mid-day sky as clear and sharp as any shard of glass. I smiled. Good. "We are the band, Sharingan. We formed near the beginning of this semester, and are already scheduled to perform in the live Battle of the Bands competition that takes place from January to February, right here in this school." We were definitely getting attention now—some students were even hanging out of the dorm and building windows. "We've set up on the West Lawn this afternoon as both a promotion of our music, and to relay a message to a dear friend. Hopefully, this will get her attention." I looked back at the others. Naruto winked and readied his guitar. Sakura flashed me the victory sign, grinning broadly. Kiba nodded gravely. Garra looked at me, his fingers hovering over the keys of his synth. I turned back to the rapidly-growing audience. "Here goes nothing."
Pa-pa-pah pah dah! "Like a wildfire," Para pa-pa-pah! "It's out of control…" Bah pada pah! "I let the flames take me," Ba-dah! "Burning me to the core."
Pah da-da-da-da-da-dah! Da-da-da-da-da-dah! Dah dah dah da-dah da-da-da-da-dah! "Holding me still at the point between; Zero and Infinity," Parrum! "Where both extremes are nothing...And I'm not sure what to do."
Dah dah dah! "Your blue eyes stand out strikingly," Badah dah! "From the sunset glow…of your face." Da-da dah! "Your aura speaks in silence, Of fire, anger, and pain…" Parah da-da-dadah bah! "But the cool sweet blue of your gaze," Padah dah dah! "Contradicts what you really feel..."
Daradaradaradaradah! "I'm not angel, but you take me to heaven," Ba-doom! "Just take me to heaven… In ways I've never known." Barah doom doom! "Hold me in your arms and take me far away," Bah! "Take me far away, and let me die beside you..." Barah da-da-da!
I breathed heavily. The crowd was cheering. The crowd! The others were eating it up! Naruto latched onto me with one arm and leaned over my shoulder to scream into the microphone:
"Last song! Are you ready to rock?" His response was a throaty, deafening roar. He retreated to his ownmike and strummed his chords to loosen his fingers. Kiba's cymbals tinged softly as his drumsticks hovered over them in anticipation. But I had to say something before we started. It was all planned. All of it. Including the dean yelling at security to get us out of there. But there were so many people swarming around us that it would have been impossible. I took a deep breath and glanced at Shino. My throat burned. He tossed me a water bottle instantly. I unscrewed the cap and took a huge swig, relishing the cool sting that slammed into the back of my throat. I looked back at the others for confirmation. They were ready. I faced the audience again. I can't believe we have an audience!
"This is dedicated to our friend." I practically had to yell over them. When they realized I was talking again, they calmed down almost instantly. "She's going through a hard time right now, but then again, the guy who's in love with her—" I pointed back at Kiba. Instant catcalls from the crowd. "—isn't allowed to see her anymore." I swear, Ino must have been holding up cue cards somewhere or something. They were responding exactly the way I wanted them to. "So, he came up with the idea for this next song, and wants her to know that he misses her. We all do." I looked. And there she was, her hands clasped together and laying on her chest, her pale complexion attacked by two harsh red patches on her cheeks. "That's right, Hinata," I winked and a lot of people turned to see who I was addressing. "This song is for you." I looked back at the drummer. Kiba had his eyes closed and he looked so nervous and sick that I really did feel sorry for him. But we couldn't back down now. His yellow eyes found mine, then skipped over my shoulder and spotted the same woman I had. Tears finally came into his eyes. He clenched the drumsticks so hard, his knuckles turned stark white, clashing harshly with the neon-green tape. It just accented the fact that his hands were shaking.
"You can do it, Kiba," Naruto said so only the five of us could hear him. "Hinata's waiting." With that, the aforementioned man straightened and lifted his arms, looking at all of us expectantly. We all nodded. Haku, Ino, Shino, and even Shikamaru nodded as well from their places around the gazebo.
Tak! Tak! Tak! Tak!
Pah-pah, ba-da-da-da-da da-dah! Bah dah-da-da-da-da da-dah! Ba-dah bada bah da-da-da! Tah ta-pah! Tah ta-pah! Tarararararararatah!