Warnings: AU, nothing else.

Pairing: Zaku/Naru

Summary: A school play, a great way to make new friends, or get extra credit, sadly when Naruto was forced to join he didn't know that the shortage of females would cause him to be the female lead with an annoying male lead bugging him every practice.

Genre: Drama (?), Romance

Rating: PG 13

""-speech

''-thoughts

Naruto knew he was lazy, he knew he was a procrastinator and he knew that despite his 'best efforts' he'd never, ever pass a course with over seventy percent. He knew that most students were beginning to buckle down now, it was almost the end of the year after all, but Naruto found himself not caring at all. Too bad his English teacher was actually concerned over his marks, or else he'd have never gotten into the horrible mess that he was in.

English in the morning was such a horrible thing, hell, the teacher was late everyday, so Naruto was sure that he couldn't point fingers at him for not handing one or two assignments in.

Alright, so maybe it was more like a dozen assignments, but he did this with every class and he wasn't outright failing… Yet.

"Oi Naruto, you have a forty five in this class…" Kakashi lazily began as he flipped through a couple of papers and Naruto frowned and glared at his teacher. 'So? I just need to study hard for the exam!'

"I don't know if you depend of passing your exams to pass for every one of your classes, but I'm not going to stand for this." Kakashi stood up and walked around his desk, grinning.

Naruto held back his shiver of fear. "So what exactly do you plan to have me do?" "An extra credit assignment, I'm sure you'll like it." Naruto seriously doubted that. "And what exactly am I going to be doing?"

"You were in Iruka-sensei's drama class last year, weren't you?" Naruto blanched. "What does that have to do with anything?" Kakashi's grinned widened. "I'm proposing that you take part in a play that Iruka has created to be performed at the end of the school year. Or I won't let you write the exam." "B-But that's only two weeks away!" "Well then, I guess you'll just have to work really hard. Now go to the drama room, I already told Iruka you'd be there after school."

That man was far too confident that he'd go along with this, far too confident. Too bad he had to do this, there was a certain air of finality in Kakashi's voice when he said that if he didn't participate in this play he couldn't write the exam. He was not going to summer school dammit! That was finial!

So he begrudgingly made his was to the drama room and slowly entered as quietly as possible, tip toeing past a pile of backpacks and shoes and-

"NARUTO!" "AH!" Naruto twisted around and looked up at Iruka with wide eyes. 'Scary, scary man…'

"Oh Naruto, I'm so glad you agreed to help me with this!" 'Agreed?' "I managed to force most of my class to take part in this-" 'Forced?' "and then I let other students sign up for it, but hardly any did and I still needed one of my main characters." Iruka looked up at the stage, his eyes sparkling with unshed tears and Naruto sweat dropped. "But from the moment when this play began forming in my mind I new that you were the right person to play this part. The stubborn but gentle, the loud but subdued, the obnoxious but sweet-" 'I'm not gentle, subdued or sweet.' "heroin of the play, Scarlet Mayflower!" "….. What?" "You're going to be playing a girl." "WHAT!" Naruto backed away from his teacher, his cheeks red with embarrassment.

"I'm not playing a girl!" "B-But Kakashi-sensei said you would." "Well he lied!" "Please Naruto? Pleeeaasseee." Naruto back away from the teacher more and into a male chest.

"Oi Iruka-sensei, what do you need this untalented kid for?" Naruto spun around. "Untalented! I'll have you know that last year I got a ninety eight percent in Iruka-sensei's grade nine drama class!" He screamed at the older boy, his eyes narrowing at the other's boy's smirk. "Then prove it." "Fine! I will!" Naruto turned and stomped away angrily.

"Does this mean you'll be Scarlet!" Naruto turned to Iruka, vaguely went over his argument with the other boy and inwardly cursed. 'Shit.'

First he was given a script to memorize over the weekend, a thirty page script over one weekend! And then Iruka had asked a girl to take his 'measurements' in order to make his costume.

A red dress, and his name was scarlet, how surprising.

When he finally made it home that night he felt abut ready to scream and cursed Kakashi to the seven hells and back for making him do this. 'What does this have to do with my English mark anyways! He just wants to get on Iruka-sensei's good side, the pervert.'

He went over the script, happily noticing that although 'Scarlet' was in almost every scene, she didn't actually start talking till about halfway through.

'She vowed to her father that she would not speak to any mere person, only to people of good blood? What the hell, how is this supposed to be like me?'

He finished flipping through it with a sigh. 'So the gist of the play is girl thinks everyone is below her, girl hears about guy, girl thinks guy is arrogant bastard, which he is, guy hears about girl, guy thinks girl is snobby, which she is, guy and girl meet and don't know that they are each other, when the finally figure it out they don't care and 'true love conquers all.'' Naruto frowned. 'Iruka-sensei is like a woman at heart, or maybe he's just girly…'

It was easy for him to memories the lines, even if it was by himself, but there were two things bothering him.

Number one. This play involved dancing, Scarlet dancing and although Naruto didn't want to admit it, not only did he not know how to dance, he wasn't exactly the most graceful person on the planet.

Number two. There was a kiss scene at the end, now, Naruto wouldn't have minded it so much if Iruka had cast a female as the male lead, but judging by the looks he got when he had to sit around the drama room for twenty minutes while Iruka got him a script, it was a guy.

He didn't want to be kissed by a guy dammit! He didn't want to dance with a guy! He also didn't want to be dressed as a woman, although dancing and being kissed were a lot more important to him than being in a dress.

But if his mark ridded on this then damn, he was gonna do it. Kakashi must have known his complete and utter hatred of summer school, sneaky bastard.

He managed to memorize the script entirely and managed to use his English class to make sure he could go through all his lines in his mind. Kakashi didn't seemed to care, he just grinned.

'Stupid Kakashi-sensei, making fun of me cause I'm gonna be a girl.'

But despite his memorization he knew that with only ten school days, nine since the last day was there performance, and with only one hour after school for rehearsals… 'This is going to be tough, but at least the other students have already begun to rehearse, we might be able to make it.' Naruto leant back in his chair, chewing on the end of his pen. 'But the costumes and props, those will definitely take up time to make, and if they cut into rehearsal time-'

Whoosh. Smack.

"Owwww."

Naruto wearily made it too the drama room, happy to notice that he wasn't the last one to come in as he made his way strait to Iruka's desk.

"Iruka-sensei, mission of memorizing the script is complete." Iruka looked up from his paperwork with a smile. "Marvelous! Now you can start being trained to dance!" "ohh, is it with a kawaii girl?" Naruto asked hopefully and Iruka shook his head. "No. It's with you're the male lead, Abumi Zaku." Naruto's shoulders slumped. 'Aw, I have to learn how to dance with a guy? Not fair.'

"Yo Iruka-sensei, your dance teacher is here." Naruto stiffened his heart beat in his chest like a fluttering bird. 'It can't be… I won't be…' He turned around slowly. 'It is!' The boy from Friday was standing behind him, a superior smirk on his face. 'No fucking way!'

Zaku held out his hand and bowed. "Would you like to dance, my lady?"

'I must not hit him. I must not hit him. We need him for the play. We need him for the play.' Naruto took hold of the other boy's hand reluctantly and let out a squeak when he was pulled close to the other boy's chest.

"Relax little lady, it's hard to dance when the partners are so far away from each other." 'He called me little lady… The bastard!'

Naruto frowned up at him, eye glaring daggers. 'The fast I learn how to dance, the less time I have to dance with him! YOSH! I will do my best!'

His best definitely wasn't good enough.

"… You stepped on my foot again." "Didn't I apologize in advance for this kind of stuff?" "You really lack grace, we're going to be going at this for the rest of the week." "Whaaaaattt?"

'The rest of the week? I can't be that bad? Can I?' "B-But then we'll only have a week to rehearse." Naruto argued, trying to keep the timing in his head synchronized with the movement of his feet. 'One, two, three, one, two, three…'

"That's no problem, I already memorized my lines, and so did you. One week is enough to get all the blocking and movement we'll need to do, organized." 'You sure are confident about that aren't you? If this thing fucks up I'm blaming it all on you!'

The first couple of days went by slowly, Naruto slowly became accustomed to dancing while the other actors of the play collected and made props and costumes. On Thursday Naruto happily noticed that he had made no mistakes while dancing. Of course, then Zaku had to ruin it by going. "I can't believe it, my feet are still intact."

Naruto had come to Friday's rehearsal actually looking forward to it, acting was better than dancing, but as soon as he entered the room he was confronted by the girl who had taken his measurements the weeks before.

"Naruto-kun, you're dress is ready!" She said happily as she held it up by the shoulders and Naruto gawked at it. "Y-You made this?" He asked as he walked towards it and the girl nodded happily.

The top and sleeves of the dress were a light red, but around the midsection the fabric became darker until it reached the floor in a blood red pool of lace. The sleeves were long and bell shaped and around the bodice were small black beads making undistinguishable designs.

'I may have to wear a dress, but it's an awesome looking dress.' "It's breathtaking!" The girl smiled happily. "I'm glad you think so! You're going to be wearing it this whole period while we make sure you can still dance properly in it." "… What?" "It'll be harder for you to dance in a dress!" "But it took me four days to learn without one!" Naruto complained and the girl looked about to say something else, but she suddenly stopped, then Naruto felt a strong hand grip his shoulder.

"Have no fear my dear lady, all you have to do is get used to the skirt swirling around your legs and not trip on the hem, it should be too hard, even for an ungraceful person like you."

Naruto's eyebrow twitched slightly. 'I'll show you ungraceful! By the time we're done with this I'm going to be the best dancer in this whole school!' He grabbed the dress from the girl's hands and went to change. 'It won't be too hard, it's only a dress.'

Five Minutes Later.

'Damn you zipper! Why won't you do up!' He couldn't reach it anymore, he had started pulling it up and then it landed in an awkward place where he couldn't reach it with either hand, and trying to grab hold of it was quickly pissing him off. 'Aw hell, I'll get someone else to help me with it.' He slammed the changing room door open and stomped out, freezing when he heard a low whistle. 'Don't be him… Don't be him…'

"Whoever thought that my little lady would look so good in a gown?" "Grrr. I am not a lady, nor am I yours, leave me alone!" He began stomping away, Zaku followed.

"Wait, don't you need someone to do that zipper up for you?" "Yeah, anyone but you!" Naruto replied with a huff.

"Aw, don't be that way, I may be a bit cruel…" Naruto could suddenly feel Zaku's breath on his neck and his hands on his back. "But I'm not one to harm a lady in need." He slowly pulled the zipper up and turned Naruto, who was fuming at the lady comment, around to face him.

"Aw, what's that face for Naruto? Shouldn't you be happy to see me, your true love?" He took Naruto's hand in his and lead the other boy to the middle of the room.

'I will not kill him, I will not kill him, Iwillnotkillhim!'

Now then, the easiest way for you to not trip over your hem is by holding up your dress in one hand, do you want to try it that way, or do you think you can do this without falling on your face?" Naruto glared at him. 'Dammit, I just know I'll trip if I don't lift up these skirts, so for now…' He carefully grabbed some cloth into his left hand and grabbed onto Zaku's left hand. 'I'll just have to do what he suggested.'

They had managed to waltz around the room for several minutes before Iruka had said that it was good enough. Naruto felt rather proud of himself, being able to dance in a skirt was something he never thought he'd be able to accomplish before. Not that he really thought about it.

"Ano sa, ano sa Iruka-sensei, what do we do now?" Naruto asked, jumping from excitement as Iruka thought for a moment.

"Well, right now everyone is finishing up the props and costumes, the group rehearsals start Monday, and since both you and Zaku don't really have anything to do you can rehearse you're scenes together!" Naruto tilted his head to the side. "Nani?" "Go on, go on, I want my beautiful scenes of you two together to be brimming with your love for each other."

"I'm sure we can manage that, Iruka-sensei." Naruto turned and glared at Zaku. 'How the hell am I supposed to act as though I'm in love with this guy? He's so annoying!'

"Come on Naruto, let's practice somewhere private." Zaku grabbed the younger boy's hand and Naruto made soft sounds of protest, but in the end he was dragged out of the drama room and into the empty hallway.

"Alright, I get it! You can let go of my hand now." Naruto said as he yanked his hand away from Zaku's loosened grip. "Which scene did you want to rehearse anyways?" Zaku's dark eye glinted.

"The final scene." "W-What, but that one has-" "The kiss." Naruto blushed as he felt rather than saw Zaku's eyes travel over his small body.

"You look really pretty in that Naruto, prettier than a lot of girls I know." "Th-Thank you." Naruto shifted uncomfortably, his eyes glued to the ground. 'Why do I feel so nervous, I should insult him or something, yeah, insult.' "Hey Za-" The other boy's face seemed unnaturally close to his. 'When did he get so close?' "Yes Naruto?" "What are you doing?" Was it just his imagination or was Zaku getting closer? "You'll see."

Rough lips pressed against his and Naruto's eyes widened. 'Why is he kissing me? I thought he didn't like me?' Zaku pressed his toungae against the seem of Naruto's lips and Naruto unfroze, stepping back and slapping the other boy across the face.

"What the hell are you doing? Stay away from me!" Naruto rushed into the drama room and changed, making sure to tell Iruka-sensei that he had something to do before he snuck out into the hallway. 'Zaku's gone, good, why the hell did he have to do that. He took away my first kiss. Bastard.' Naruto blushed and began running. 'I can't believe he kissed me! If he likes me like that, why is he so mean?'

The weekend was filled studying for exams and doing ISU's and the weekdays were filled with school and then rehearsals. He would often find Zaku trying to catch his eye and mouthing 'can we talk' to him, but Naruto would turn his head and refuse to answer. He was stubborn, and he liked it like that... But… Even so, it was kind of hard to stay mad at Zaku just for kissing him…

Their practices were going perfectly, even Naruto had to admit that Zaku was a good actor, but even though they would work and re-work all the scenes, there was always one that they seemed to skip. The absolutely last scene, it wasn't much, just a few sentences for each of them and then a little kiss, but when the end of Thursday's practice rolled around Iruka was practically having a heart attack, and who was left to calm him down, Naruto.

"It's okay Iruka-sensei, we'll just improvise it! It'll be fine." Naruto said in his most calming tone of voice but Iruka was still practically weeping at his desk.

"No, improvisation won't work! That scene is meant to tie the whole play together, they know who each other are, but they no longer care what they first thought about them because they know they love each other, and then the kiss! It can't be a mere pressing together of lips! I has to provide emotional impact so that the audience goes 'wow, they love each other, this is a great play'! And to top things off that blonde wig we got for you always falls an-" "Iruka-sensei, calm down. I can make sure the wig stay on my head by fastening it there with some bobby pins and don't worry about the final scene; me and Zaku are your best drama students ever right? We can do it!" Naruto said it with complete confidence, but inwardly he was screaming.

The next day, the last day of school, at least a fourth of the student population had come out to see the performance and so far it was going smoothly, Naruto didn't trip on his dress while dancing, no one screwed up their lines, no one seemed to noting that Scarlet was actually Naruto, it was all good, until all at once they were at the final scene.

'Man, I feel really nervous about this, we definitely should have practiced in class.'

"Scarlet, you got my letter." Naruto moved towards Zaku. "Yes, but, I don't know what to do anymore, I, I always thought that you were-" "It doesn't matter anymore, what we thought of each other before we knew that you were Scarlet and I was Vincent." Zaku pulled Naruto to his chest and hugged him, and Naruto sank into the embrace. 'This is kind of nice.'

"But Vincent, if I had known it was you at first, I would have never fallen for your charms." "It's the same with me I'm afraid, but we can't take back our words now. I still love you Scarlet." Zaku took a step back to look Naruto straight in the eyes. "Do you love me too?" Naruto stepped forward, wrapped his arms around Zaku's neck and whispered. "Yes." And then they brought their lips together for a sweet kiss.

And then the lights went out and the crowd, which seemed to be made of mostly female students, began cheering.

The cast came back on stage and bowed twice, the cheering escalated, but now there was an occasional yell of. "KISS! KISS!" And soon all the girls were screaming it.

Zaku looked at Naruto with questioning eyes, he really didn't want to be slapped again, but Naruto nodded his consent and with a grin Zaku grabbed hold of Naruto and dipped him low to the ground, giving him a slow, meaningful kiss.

"I seem to have swept you off your feet, pretty lady."

Naruto didn't deny it.