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And the Beat Goes On
Chapter 1: Piano Solo

Uzumaki Naruto moved his pencil back and forth across his paper, bored. He wasn't five minutes into his lesson and already, he was bored beyond belief.

The teacher droned on and on and on. . .The monotone words buzzed about his brain like a fly and he wished he could swat them away.

The room was unbearably hot. Outside, a soft September breeze blew and the sun shone bright, warm and inviting. Naruto wished he could be outside. A butterfly drifted lazily by the window and out of sight. He sighed and turned his attention back to his paper. At least he wasn't the only one not paying attention today.

It was science class, the last class of the day and by this point, everyone was just waiting, counting down the seconds till the bell would ring and they'd be free. He looked at what he'd managed to scribble on his page without even thinking. It read, " I love Sakura," several times over, in very sloppy handwriting.

He glanced across the classroom at the pink-haired beauty. She was sitting beside Yamanaka Ino, resting her chin on her hands, her green eyes looking glazed and far away. He wondered what she was thinking about. He didn't have to wonder long as he caught sight of a head full of dark hair and realized she must have been staring at Uchiha Sasuke. It was no secret the girl was infatuated with him.

Naruto gritted his teeth and nearly snapped his pencil in half. He didn't get it! Why did she like Sasuke anyways! He was cold and stuck-up and haughty and - and . . .

The pencil snapped. A couple of kids turned to glance at him and he glanced back down at his paper quickly. After a few moments, he deemed it safe to look up again and glared at the sight of Sasuke.

The Uchiha boy was sitting as still as everyone else, looking decidedly bored. He was supposedly a genius - he got all the top marks in school, but here he was, sitting at the front of the class, not doing any work. Just sitting there. Naruto wanted to punch him.

Then he realized that the aforementioned boy had already filled in all of the blanks. He glanced back at his own sheet. Sure, this was an easy exercise but . . . Weren't they supposed to wait for the teacher to tell them what went in the blanks? He snorted and went back to glaring at his paper. He still didn't see what was so great about Sasuke.

The class dragged on for what seemed like eternity, until, finally, the bell screeched out their liberty and the students of Kohona High flooded out of their classrooms, into the hallways. Naruto wove his way through the crowds, making his way toward the music room.

He peered in the door, then grinned broadly at the sight of a brunet man, sitting at the desk, leaning over some papers. He burst into the room, badly startling the man by screeching, "Iruka!" at the top of his lungs.

The teacher, Umino Iruka, mock-glared at him, holding a finger to his lips and shushing him. "Naruto, don't do that," he said, his eyes smiling at the blond student.

Naruto smiled. "Whatever, Iruka. I was just going to tell you that I was going straight home and-
"

Iruka's smile dropped. "Oh. You're not going to stay for band practice?"

The blond shook his head. "No, Iruka. I've got a lot of homework and-"

Iruka ruffled Naruto's hair fondly. "Okay, Naruto. But you know, I really would like you to stay and practice with us some time."

Naruto glanced around fretfully, having caught sight of some of the band members filtering into the room, among them, one Uchiha Sasuke. "Sure, sure."

He gave Iruka a brief hug and dashed out of the room, exclaiming, "See you at home!"

Iruka shook his head at the bubbly blond. Naruto was his adopted son, and he really felt that the boy, however bright and bubbly he was, needed to make some friends. As much as he hated to admit it, Naruto was a bit of an outcast and it hurt him to see the boy all alone. Most of Naruto's friends were actually Iruka's friends, and adults at that.

He sighed and stacked his papers before getting up. He walked out of his office, into the actual music room, where the band was setting up. He gazed about at his pupils. He really liked this extra-curricular crap. He felt it gave the students a chance to get to know people who shared the same interests.

He clapped his hands to bring the chattering students' attention to him. "All right everyone. Are we ready to begin?"
Everyone in the room nodded and Iruka smiled. "All right then. If you'll get out Allegro from Piano Sonata in C. . ."

- - - - - - - - -

Iruka opened the door and walked into the house, slipping off his shoes and shutting the door as quietly as he could. He was home a lot later than he'd expected - an urgent teacher's meeting had been called quite unexpectedly.

He walked into the kitchen. Naruto had already eaten - he could smell the lingering scent of miso ramen on the air. The dishes had been washed, dried and put away. Iruka smiled. Sometimes, Naruto was just too much.

He walked into the living room and stood in the doorway, watching the blond. Naruto was sitting at the piano, playing quite the sad, complicated tune. He'd lit several candles and turned off the lights, "to add effect," as he often claimed.

He watched Naruto play for a while, until the blond hit a wrong note and stopped, glancing up at him sheepishly. He smiled. "Hi, Iruka," he greeted.

"You're really very good, Naruto. I'm sure the band would be glad to have some piano accompaniment," was the brunet's reply.

Naruto blushed and slid off the bench. Iruka had been prodding him for weeks to join the band. He apparently thought it would be good for the blond. "Iruka, I don't really want to. I'm not that good and -"

He stopped himself short, having been about to say, 'the kids don't really like me'. He didn't want to upset Iruka. He glanced up at his caretaker, then looked back at his feet, mumbling, "I'll think about it."

"Thatta boy," Iruka praised, patting the blond on the head affectionately. "Now, go do your homework."

Naruto grumbled something, but plodded out of the room and headed up the stairs. Iruka smiled, the disappeared into the kitchen to get something to eat.

Around eight o'clock, Naruto padded back downstairs, claiming loudly that he was finished his homework. He sat down at the piano and started to play again. Iruka rolled his eyes.

Naruto kept glancing over at him every so often. Finally, he stopped playing and looked at his guardian. "Iruka," he started.

The brunet glanced over at him, ready to give him his full and undivided attention. Naruto slid off the piano bench and walked across the living room to kneel at Iruka's feet. "I. . .I'll join the band," he said softly, looking at the floor to the left of him.

Iruka beamed. "Great! I'm really glad you decided to join us, Naruto. You'll have fun."

Naruto smiled at seeing the older man so happy.

"We practice tomorrow morning, okay, Naruto? You'll be a bit behind, so we'll go in a bit early, okay?"

Naruto nodded, doing his best to seem enthusiastic. "Yeah!"

In the pit of his stomach, he was as nervous as hell. He knew that everybody hated him. He was sure this wasn't going to be fun at all.

- - - - - - - - -

It was well before seven o'clock when Iruka and Naruto arrived at the school. It was dead silent and that creeped Naruto out. He helped Iruka carry his mark books into the music office and turned on the lights, before they headed into the music room.

Iruka took the cover off piano, while Naruto grabbed the piano books off the shelf. The blond seated himself on the bench and cracked his knuckles, earning himself a disproving frown from Iruka.

"I really wish you wouldn't do that. You'll give yourself arthritis," the brunet scolded, moving some of the music stands about the room.

Naruto shrugged and started his warm-up. He went up the scales, and back down them again, then played a couple of short, simple pieces.

He flipped open the music book. "So, which piece are we practising?" he asked, flipping idly through the pages.

"Allegro from Piano Sonata," answered a voice that was most certainly not Iruka's.

Naruto jumped and looked up in surprise. His eyes narrowed as he found one Uchiha Sasuke standing against the doorframe, arms crossed, watching him with mild amusement.

The black-haired boy, realizing he'd been discovered, strode across the room to the piano. "I didn't know you played, dobe," he said.

Naruto hissed. "Don't call me that!"

Sasuke shrugged and took a seat in the front row. He turned his attention to unpacking a assembling his own instrument and his music. After a moment of silence, he glanced up at Naruto. "Please, continue," he said, almost benevolently, then sneered, "I'm sure you need the practice."

Naruto gritted his teeth and counted to ten inside his head. He'd show that jerk! He could play, he could play better than the rest of them! He glanced at the instrument Sasuke was now holding. He blinked. "You play a flute?" he asked, slightly incredulous.

"Yes," Sasuke growled, glaring the 'say any more and die' glare.

Naruto shut up and turned back to his piano. He snickered to himself. Sasuke played the flute! What a girly instrument to play! Of all the instruments in the world, Sasuke played the flute! Naruto frowned when he thought of what Sasuke's fan girls would think of that - that he must be so intense, and so sweet and so sad and lonely. He snorted and glared at his music. The notes had started to blur together.

Iruka walked back into the room, from wherever he had gone. He noticed Sasuke and smiled. "Good morning, Sasuke," he greeted brightly.

"Hnn," Sasuke said in reply and lifted his flute to his lips.

"You've met Naruto, right?"

Sasuke glared up at the teacher, who seemed oblivious. "We've met," he said poisonously.

Iruka was still beaming. "That's good. Naruto's going to be playing the piano for us. Won't that be nice?"

"Hnn. He'll only slow us down," Sasuke said evenly and brought the flute back to his lips.

Iruka frowned. "Now, Sasuke."

The black-haired student forced the flute to make a long, angered noise, almost like a hiss. He opened his ebony eyes and glared at Iruka. The brunet dropped the topic.

Several minutes later, Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino came into the room, bickering loudly. "I'm telling you, the answer is five -"

"I know for a fact, Ino-pig, that it's seven!"

"Five!"

"Seven!"

"Five!"
"Seven!"

The girls glared at each other, before spotting Sasuke. Then, they burst into giggles and high-
pitched squeals. Naruto noticed Sasuke wince.

Almost instantly, they were latched on to his arms. "Sasuke," Ino purred, "the answer to question two on last night's math homework was five, right?"

She batted her eyelashes for effect.

Sakura tugged on his other arm. "No, it's not! It's seven! Tell her it was seven, Sasuke," she cooed.

Sasuke kept his eyes closed. "Fifteen. The answer was fifteen," he said, as blandly as ever.

Both girls fell over in surprise. "But of course it was fifteen!" Ino cried. "I only said it was five to confuse Sakura!"

"You liar!" Sakura screeched, pointing an accusing finger at Ino. "You told me the answer was seven so I'd look like a fool in front of Sasuke!"

"Are you calling me a liar, Sakura-big-forehead!"

"Maybe I am, Ino-pig!"

"Yeah, well, at least I don't have a wide forehead!"

"At least I'm not a dumb blonde!"

Naruto huffed at that comment. "Not all blonds are stupid," he muttered and put his elbow down on the piano keys with a loud 'clunk'.

It was then, and only then, that the girls noticed him. "Oy! What are you doing here, Naruto!" they screeched in perfect unison.

Sasuke, who was still sitting in between them winced. Naruto ignored him and grinned broadly. "I'm playing the piano," he said, loudly, hoping to impress Sakura.

Ino snorted. "You? Play piano?"

"He'll ruin us!" Sakura exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air.

"Will not!" Naruto shouted defensively.
"Will you please shut up?" Sasuke asked, one eye closed and teeth gritted, as if he were in pain.

Sakura and Ino glared at Naruto. "Be quiet, idiot! You're hurting poor Sasuke's ears!"

And they went back to fawning over him. Naruto wanted to gag.

The other band members began to trickle in. At seven-thirty sharp, Iruka appeared from where ever he'd been hiding (Sakura and Ino suspected he'd been visiting Hatake Kakashi) and began the practice.

Naruto tripped up about a dozen times over and each time, Iruka made them stop and start again. By the seventh time, everyone was glaring at him. He kept his head down, focussing on the notes, on the keys, trying to ignore the fact that everybody in that room, with maybe the exception of Iruka, hated him at that instant.

Everyone else was so far ahead of him, so wonderful at what they were playing. He didn't allow himself to credit the fact that they'd had much more practice than himself. The string section was mournful; the flutes and clarinets were mysterious and sad; the brass was bold and the drums were perfect. He felt so out of place.

At long last, Iruka dismissed them. The room slowly emptied, leaving Naruto sitting at the piano, staring at the notes, teary-eyed. He felt like such a failure.

Iruka sat down on the bench with him, putting his hands on the blond's shoulders. "Hey, hey, now. Don't cry. You did great."

"No, I didn't," Naruto said miserably, "I screwed up. This was a bad idea."

Iruka frowned. "Don't be so hard on yourself! You just haven't had as much practice as everybody else. You can't expect to get it perfect the first time."

"Maybe," Naruto mumbled, "maybe I'd be better just playing solo at home."

Iruka sighed and patted him on the back. "Buck up, kiddo. It's gonna be okay."

- - - - - - - - -

Naruto trudged to his first class, feeling absolutely rotten. He tried to take Iruka's advice. He'd get better with time, of course and he really did need to be a lot nicer to himself. He wasn't perfect and he knew it. So why did he try so hard to be?

He put on a bright smile. At least they, they being the other band members, were probably talking about him and how horrible he was. At least he was in their thoughts, even if they weren't nice thoughts.
He meandered into his home room class, just seconds before the bell rang. He plunked down in his seat. The teacher, Tsunade-sensei, glared at him. He shrugged. He wasn't late. He'd been there before the bell. He was ready to point that out to her, if she decided to start an argument. Surprisingly, she didn't.

Instead she clasped her hands and smiled, looking decidedly evil. Naruto felt his stomach drop. That look could only mean one thing. . .

" - major project. This project is worth thirty per cent of your final grade," she said.

Naruto swore she planned this, just to get back at him for all the times he'd called her a hag behind her back.

She had picked up the chalk and was writing on the board, her handwriting sprawling across the width of it. "You will have one week to complete the project. You will work with one other person on part of it. The other half will be done on your own."

Immediately, there was excited chatter amongst the students about who would be partners with whom. Naruto slumped in his seat. He hated assignments, but more than that, he hated group assignments, because everyone always excluded him. They thought he was a dunce and that he couldn't do anything right.

Tsunade slammed a ruler on a desk to get the class to sit back down and be quiet. The ruler snapped in half. "Now, now. I've taken the liberty of assigning you partners." Her eyes glinted evilly.

All the kids groaned. Naruto perked up. Maybe Tsunade would partner him with Sakura! The pink-haired girl would never work with him willingly, but now, maybe he had a chance! Tsunade picked up a piece of paper and started to read off names. "Hinata and Neji will work together."

The entire class winced. Everyone knew how much Neji hated his cousin, Hinata. Hinata sat and twiddled her thumbs, looking down, while Neji glared daggers at the teacher. Tsunade continued regardless. "Lee and Tenten will work together."

Lee's face fell. He wasn't going to be working with Sakura. Tenten's face didn't display disgust or happiness. Tsunade continued down the list. "Sasuke will be working with. . . "

She paused and all the girls who hadn't been paired up yet, including Sakura and Ino, leaned forward listening intently. Tsunade's lips curled up into a positively evil smirk. Naruto shivered. He had a bad feeling about this one. . .

". . . Naruto."

Ah. There was the death knell. He sunk back in his seat, but couldn't avoid the potent glares of Sasuke's fan girls. They were going to beat him into a bloody pulp, he knew they were. Hey, it wasn't as if he chose the list, right? They should have been beating Tsunade. He would have even helped them out. All right, that was it. He wasn't going to take the glaring anymore. This wasn't his fault. He was going to object. He hopped up out of his seat, pointing angrily at Sasuke. "I refuse to work with him!" the blond shouted.

Tsunade turned her withering gaze upon him. "I'm sorry, Naruto. But the list is final."

Oh, somebody up there hated him today. He sank back into his seat, dreading to hear what the actual assignment would be. He hoped it wasn't anything too stupid, or too hard. He didn't want to look like a fool in front of Sasuke. Vaguely, he heard the last set of names called. "Sakura will be working with Ino."

Naruto sighed. He waited for the damned hag to tell them just what exactly they'd be doing for this so-called "major assignment." "Each of you will be dramatizing part of a scene from Romeo and Juliet, which, if you remember correctly, was our play of study. If the scene you're assigned calls for more than two characters, you will be allowed to included a third person in your group. Most, however, should not need a third person."

At this, everyone, once again, began excitedly chattering over which scene they'd perform. "Ahem." Tsunade cleared her throat. "I've also assigned scenes to pairs."

Everyone groaned. Why did their teacher have to be so evil? "Hinata and Neji will perform Act One, Scene One, until Abraham and Balthazar enter the scene." She glanced up at the class. "Make note of this."

Everyone took out a pen and paper and began scribbling things down. When Tsunade told you to do something, you did it. "Lee and Tenten will perform Act One, Scene One from where it says enter Romeo." And she continued forward and onward. "Sasuke and Naruto will be preforming Act One, Scene Two, from where Tybalt exits, 'til the Nurse speaks with Juliet." Hastily, Naruto flipped open his book. Wasn't that. . . Oh, yes. Yes, it was. Oh. Oh no. This was not good. Definitely not good. Very, very bad. This scene had kissing in it. This scene had love and other such things in it. This was not a scene two boys should be preforming! Tsunade had finished giving them scenes now. "It's up to you who plays which character. I want this to be as realistic as possible. Costumes and props are expected, unless your scene doesn't call for props. I want to know that you understand what's going on and why Shakespeare wrote what he did." She began scribbling a mark break-down on the board. Then she turned back to them. "You're not going to have any time in class for preparation, so I suggest you make arrangements to meet with your partner." She was about to continue, when the bell rung, cutting her off. Students stood up, gathered up their stuff and fled the stuffy classroom. "Remember," she hollered after them, "you only have a week to prepare! We begin giving presentations next Wednesday!"

- - - -

TBC.