PHANTOM OF THE SAND

ACT 1 – SCENE 1

No one had really expected just how popular the Konoha theatre would become. There were shows almost nightly and the residents of the Hidden Leaf were more than thrilled to attend or work on some of the most classic performances of the time. Within the two years it had stood it had become a crowd magnet, and even folks from other villages traveled to Konoha to watch the shows.

Tsunade was more than happy with herself for having approved the construction plans. The existence of the theatre had certainly boosted morale through the roof, not to mention how much tourism and allies it attracted. Terms between the villages couldn't have been better at the time. She was also quite thrilled at how easily the shinobi fell into participation on many events. Even she couldn't keep herself away from taking part – she'd viewed many of the performances in the theatre and had been itching to have a hand in some of them herself. Much to everyone's surprise, however, their Hokage had taken up the secondary title of Ballet Instructor.

When Tsunade dove into the role, many folks got seriously confused or felt like laughing. The fifth Hokage was hardly what someone might think of as a delicate ballerina. This sort of belief caused Tsunade to work even harder to train the poor young ladies put in her care. Ballerinas were delicate and beautiful she enforced. But that was only on the outside! On the inside they were strong, graceful, and full of vigor – much like herself. Hardly a girl passed her auditions unless they were also genins. Ninja couldn't be clumsy and oafish so it saved her a lot of time in training them to dance properly. Properly formulated jutsus also allowed her regime of ballerinas to perform in almost flawless manners.

Also, Tsunade wouldn't have openly admitted it, but she used to take ballet classes when she was young…. When no one could see her that is….

In all reality, there was a second reason why Tsunade decided to spend extra time at the theatre. For the past year now, only the second year of the theatre's lifespan, strange things had begun to plague the building and its inhabitants. The performers were almost consistently spooked, sets kept falling after being properly fastened, and strange noises floated through the building after hours. The Hokage had figured that people were just getting startled because the building was rather large and more than likely got quite quiet and creepy when empty. Still, she decided to check it out herself. The first few weeks of her work there it seemed it was like she suspected. People seemed edgy but with no real cause.

But that soon changed.

It was the first of many disasters she had witnessed. She had been instructing her dancers on the stage during a rehearsal when, suddenly, the sand bags from the catwalk above came crashing down and nearly crushed several students. Instinctively, her instincts kicked in and she leapt for the rafters, but there was no one there. She wove in and out of the hallways above, but to no avail. If anyone had intentionally dropped the bags they weren't here anymore. She hurried back and leaned over the edge of the balcony.

Her words were halted momentarily and her face contorted in an enraged fashion. Below, Jiraiya was standing on the stage, conversing with some of her startled ballerinas. The look on his face was unmistakable. That pervert. She took little time in tossing a sand bag in his direction. The girls screamed and scattered as it belted him in the face before thudding to the floor. Jiraiya, red faced, looked up at her and rubbed his smashed nose.

"Oi, Tsunade-hime…. That wasn't very professional of you."

"Shut-up! If you weren't so busy trying to distract my students you might have tied the knots better on these sets! We have no room for your half-assed handiwork!" she shouted back at him. Jiraiya put his hands on his hips like he was feeling insulted at such an accusation.

"There's nothing half-assed about it. Everything was secure when I left it!"

"You shouldn't have left it at all! Your job is to keep things maintained, you idiot! Now get back up here and keep an eye on things before someone gets killed!" Jiraiya sighed and muttered, looking quite displeased at having to get back to his post. He didn't get as good of a view of the ladies up there…. He agreed that he would work behind the scenes at the theatre as long as he could have his own time to do his data gathering. As it was, however, Tsunade made it very hard to do the latter. She'd already caught him peeping in the dressing rooms and promptly plugged up every hole in every wall he'd ever found. She really was no fun…

Despite the fact that Jiraiya could be a little flaky when women were around to ogle, he wasn't someone to take his jobs lightly. He wanted the girls to be safe, of course, so he made sure all the sets and the sandbags and lights were properly set and operational with no danger of slipping. Tsunade berated him for his stupidity on a few more occasions when it became quite obvious not even Jiraiya could be that irresponsible. Something else was going on.

That's why the current manager of the building was leaving. He was not a shinobi. He was very skirmish and more about developing the arts than he was about defending them from strange phenomena. When he had announced his retirement, the theatre had been in danger of closing down. The performers were very dismayed, including a few of the former students at the academy. In a desperate attempt to keep things moving, they'd suggested that a new manager, or managers be found. With little time to locate any, the students had naturally turned to the teachers at the academy itself. They were highly trained Jounins. If anyone could defend the theatre it was them.

At the moment there was a rehearsal going on onstage for the production of Hannibal. In the center of it all, decked out in a quite intricate costume was none other than Ino. Surprisingly to a lot of people, Ino had some powerful vocal cords on her and had quickly become the closest thing to a prima donna on the stage. The girl was showered with praise by the audiences so often she let much of it go to her head with little hesitation. She was LOVED. Her quarrels with Sakura over Sasuke even faded as she received a multitude of fan mail and roses and gifts from theatregoers. Sakura was slightly amused at how quickly Ino's attentions shifted – but then again if she had suddenly become the hottest star of the stage she might have been the same.

But that wasn't the case with Sakura. Like Ino, she had expressed an interest in acting on the stage, but the truth was she didn't feel as boisterous as she might have been a few years prior. Sasuke had been gone for what seemed like ages to assassinate his brother. Naruto was almost always off training with or without Jiraiya. She clung to the theatre now as a means of social support and to take her mind off darker things, but she wasn't about to try to steal the limelight from her best friend.

Instead, she stepped back into the ranks of the dancers along with Hinata Hyuuga, whom she had quickly become friends with. Hinata was a quiet girl but she was very sweet and easy to talk to. She had become a fellow dancer along with Sakura and the pink haired kunoichi thought the art suited Hinata more than herself. Hinata had a certain soft grace about her naturally. Sakura on the other hand had felt like a clumsy oaf her first few days, but Tsunade was encouraging to her and she soon caught up. She rather liked dancing. Her mind would just fall blank when she danced allowing her to feel more at peace. The dancing also helped her strengthen her body at the same time without the rigors of constant shinobi training.

Ino had just belted out a rather shrill few verses before those around her broke out into chorus with her. The orchestra drawled out a dramatic finish and as soon as things had quieted there was the sound of two pairs of hands clapping. Looking over to the left side of the stage many faces lit up. Kakashi and Iruka stood there giving the actors and many of their students proud and polite applause.

Sakura couldn't help herself and stepped out of the line of dancers readying to take the stage to greet her two former instructors. "Kakashi-sensei! Iruka-sensei!"

"Hello, Sakura," Kakashi greeted with a tilt of his head and a hidden but obvious smile.

"I hope you're here for the reason I think you are," she goaded, clasping her hands together, bouncing on her toes in a manner that made the drapes of her slave girl costume swish.

"Yes, we are, actually," Iruka replied with a similar smile.

"Awesome!" she declared.

"Miss Haruno, if you wouldn't mind --," came Tsunade's slightly annoyed instructor voice. Sakura cringed a little and then smiled embarrassedly before trotting back into the ranks of the dancers who took the stage to practice. Tsunade moved to usher Iruka and Kakashi out of the way so her students would have proper room to perform without fail. "If you two would please move to one side….Shoo shoo."

"It seems things are going quite well lately," Kakashi mentioned as he watched the girls dance. "Sakura certainly seems happy."

"Don't get too cozy," Tsunade replied. "Things are still amiss around here."

"Are they that bad?" Iruka asked.

"I've been doing more medic-nin work here than I have been instructing. Someone is intentionally trying to injure our performers and I have no clue as to why."

"Peculiar..," Kakashi hummed to himself. There was really no reason to suspect an enemy attack – not that there ever was half the time. But if there was someone trying to instigate another war, why would they attack the people of a theatre? The dancers completed their rehearsal to Tsunade's satisfaction for the moment and milled about the stage. Ino scooted her way over to Iruka and Kakashi (or as quickly as her ample costume would allow).

"Iruka-sensei! Kakashi-san! You're here to take over management?" she asked enthusiastically.

"Temporarily. At least until we find out what's going on around here," Iruka replied, nodding to his former student. Ino clasped her hands ecstatically.

"Wonderful! You don't realize how much that means to me! I can continue my acting career! How can I ever repay you, Iruka-sensei? Oh, oh, I know! Let me sing something for you!" she decided and turned without waiting for a response. Kakashi tilted his head and looked at Iruka sideways. The other shinobi shrugged a little and just smiled crookedly. Neither of them cared much for the opera; or rather the sort of shrill opera they'd heard Ino sing. But neither of them was about to argue with the star.

Ino conversed momentarily with the instructor in the orchestra pit below and then stepped back, readying herself to give her all. The instructor began the aria in act three of their performance and the blonde kunoichi inhaled deeply before singing her lines in a full operatic voice.

Kakashi and Iruka smiled and nodded with the song politely as the girl continued to project. She was soon abruptly cut off as a scream came from behind her. The dancers scattered like startled birds as one of the sets came crashing down onto the stage, nearly taking Ino down to the floor with it. Her skirts got caught and she stumbled, but managed to stay on her feet.

"It's the ghost," Hinata whispered, turning to Sakura, her delicate fingers to her lips. A few of the other girls echoed her quiet concern. Many of the other actors rushed to assist Ino, who was growing quite frustrated at having been interrupted – numerous times now. Tsunade looked upwards towards where Jiraiya was at his post above. He shook his head and lifted his hands in confusion – silently denying any accusation she may have had. Tsunade knew it hadn't been Jiraiya. In fact she had seen him scramble up there just AFTER the set had fallen, probably in hopes of catching the elusive troublemaker. But as usual, there was no such luck. Her brow furrowed in annoyance.

"Oh, that's just IT!" Ino declared, finally upright and proper. "I can't take this anymore! Every time, every TIME! I can put up with a lot, you know! But these attacks are FAR too numerous! If it wasn't a Chuunin I would have been dead by now!" she clenched her fists as her inner prima donna exploded out. "I'm NOT performing tomorrow night!" Immediately many of her fellow performers became agitated and anxious looking. Ino was the star. She was well known and most often she was the one the audiences came for.

Kakashi glanced about, wondering why everyone was getting so upset, his face as mild as it ever was. "What's everyone so riled about? Just have her understudy play the role."

"There isn't one," Tsunade replied blandly. "She refuses to have one."

"That's a little ridiculous…. What if she gets sick?" Iruka replied. Tsunade simply tossed him a glance that said 'Don't even go there.'

Then someone who no one ever expected to speak up (ever), did.

"Sakura could sing it," Hinata said, raising her voice above the hub-bub as much as she could without being uncharacteristic of herself. Everyone fell silent and Sakura reddened quite thoroughly.

"Hinata, no!" she whispered loudly, shaking her head. Hinata turned and looked at her, speaking in hushed tones again.

"But Sakura-chan… You've been practicing a lot… And you've gotten so good – I've heard you.. You should try," she said, giving a soft, encouraging smile. Sakura was going to protest again, her legs already going wobbly at the idea of being thrust out on stage in not only a leading role, but THE leading role.

"Sakura," Kakashi stopped her and regarded her thoughtfully. "Can you?" Sakura looked at her former teacher and bit her lip. The entire company was in a bit of a spot. If Ino didn't sing everyone was going to be thoroughly let down and disappointed because the entire performance would be cancelled. All their work would be for nothing. She really hated to be put in such a spot.

She still felt shy about her abilities. She'd taken up singing as a sort of second hobby to her dancing, and had never thought anything would come of it. She would have given up on it altogether ….if it hadn't been for him.

"I….," she huffed in resignation and stepped forward. "I can give it a try, I guess." Hinata smiled behind her as she proceeded forward. Both Iruka and Kakashi seemed quite interested to see how the girl would do, both hoping her voice would be at least a little more bearable.

"Go ahead, Sakura," Iruka encouraged in the soft tone he had when he was trying to be fatherly.

Sakura took a deep breath and tried to slow her heart and still her trembling limbs. The instructor below looked to her and gave her the intro to the same song Ino was singing. Everyone was waiting silently with baited breath for her to begin. Her first few words came out shakily. Tsunade watched her apprentice thoughtfully and stepped forward into her peripheral view.

"Go on, Sakura. Project…. More support," she said in the manner she would if she was instructing Sakura the dancer. At the end of the next phrase Sakura took a deep breath and decided there was nothing to lose and projected the best she could, singing the words fully and beautifully.

"When you find
That once again
You long to take your heart back
And be free -
If you ever find a moment
Spare a thought for me"

She let herself go – singing as she would only sing when she was in her room. Everything else faded and she closed her eyes to focus her voice. All those around her were awed – it was never something they expected from Sakura Haruno. Kakashi, Iruka, and Hinata all looked rather pleased. Tsunade smirked as if she knew Sakura could do it all along. Even up above Jiraiya was trying to get a glimpse of who was singing. Sounding like that, she must be amazingly hot, he figured.

Little did anybody, much less Sakura know, that another figure was surveying this new discovery. At the back of the theatre, at the door just beyond the last row of seats watching the rehearsals stood a long missing figure.

And for the first time in awhile, hearing Sakura sing, Sasuke cracked a genuine smile.

END SCENE 1