Chapter 5 - Round One Runway

The next day

"You girls ready to go yet?!" I call out from my spot by the door. I was the first - and so far, only - one to be fully prepared to head downstairs to take on the challenges ahead. Everyone else were no shows so far.

Then again, my insomnia did give me the perk of being awake when everyone else was asleep, thus allowing me to enjoy the bathroom for as long as I wanted to while everyone was still snoozing.

Not being able to sleep is a pain in the ass, but it does have its advantages.

Just as the Tsunade Mail advised us, I was dressed at my very fashionable best in my white halter top with lace detailing, dark blue skinny jeans that hugged my every curve, my black blazer, and, of course, my black suede pumps that provided me a few good inches without hurting my toes.

I opted to go simple but with a hint of detail for this first challenge, and this wasn't a choice I made lightly. Thanks to the years I've spent following this competition - not to the level that TenTen has of course - one of the many things I've learned is that simplicity always works when it comes to making a good impression.

The professionals just eat that stuff up. Since natural beauty is such an important thing in this industry, it's best to just keep things simple instead of piling on all the makeup and accessories, especially when you want to make a good first showing.

"I'm ready to go!" TenTen exclaims as she finally walks out from her room. She was dressed in a black top with sheer long sleeves, white shorts, and black wedge heels. Her hair remained in its signature two bun style. "See, I didn't take that long! I can't say the same for Temari and Hinata though."

"Keep your commentary to yourself TenTen," Temari growls as she and Hinata emerged from their room. The Fukuoka native was dressed in a simple kimono-style blue dress with silver heels while Hinata was dressed in a sleeveless lavender dress with silver Mary Jane pumps. Both were rocking their usual hairstyles. "I don't need your words bumming my mood, especially this early in the morning. I have enough things to worry about today without you adding to it."

"Girl, we all have enough things to worry about right now," TenTen says as we step into the hallway. "We're showing off our walks today! Yamato - aka, Mr. Runway himself - is always present during the semifinal runway round, and he's known for not playing games when it comes to this event."

"I can't help but agree with you on that one," I say as we moved to the elevators, where another group of semifinalists were already waiting for the next ride down. "Yamato has helped improve the walks of some of the most famous models working right now. Modeling agencies pay him a high price for his services and expertise, so he's definitely someone that knows what he's doing."

"Are you kidding me!? Yamato really makes his opinions known when he's in coach mode. He'll call you out mid-stride and let you have it . . . He's never malicious with his critiques. He'll let you know when your walk is good, and he'll especially let you know when your walk is terrible." Temari says with a small shake of her head. "He even has a certain look that appears that just signals he's seen an especially bad one . . . Ugh, it gives me shivers every time I think about it."

"Let's just hope he likes all of our walks, for all of our sakes," I mumble. "During the semifinals six years ago, he made six girls cry with his critiques. Then again, their walks were obviously bad, but still, Yamato has proven that he can be a tough judge despite his easy-going personality."

"I just hope he doesn't pull that face," Hinata mumbles as the elevator doors finally slid open, revealing the empty cart instead. "It's an expression that just deserves its own horror movie moment, and I hate that genre."

"I think it actually appeared in a horror movie once," TenTen grumbles as we entered the elevator. ". . . I could be wrong though."

We head down to the second floor and follow the signs till we reached the hotel's large conference room. The area was completely cleared of all the furniture that made the room a conference room. Instead, we were greeted with the sight of an elevated black platform that stretched from one end of the room to another, surrounded on either side by the rest of our competition.

"Yep, this is definitely the runway challenge," I say as I eye the long structure before us. "How many of us are already here?"

"Likely most of the field," Temari answers as she looks around the room, looking like she was already taking in a mental headcount. "Girls, I see Neji and the others right at the back of the room."

"Then what are we waiting for?" TenTen asks a little too eagerly as she starts walking ahead. "Let's go keep them company!"

"I never realized how chipper TenTen can be in the morning."

"I guess she's just happy to see Neji again Izuka," Temari replies as we trek over to the boys, narrowly avoiding our fellow models as they practiced their walks. "Maybe she has feelings for him, you know? Not the 'friend' kind of feelings. More like the 'more than a friend' variety. You know what I mean?"

"That could be it," I say as we reached the rest of our motley crew. While Neji, Gaara, and Kankuro greeted us with friendly hellos, Naruto settles for a big smile, which wavered as soon as his eyes landed on Hinata. I guess TenTen isn't the only one who has 'feelings' for someone else in this competition. "So boys, do you have any idea how long it'll be before the runway round begins?"

"Supposed to start any minute now," Kankuro answers with a smirk. "I guess it all depends on how long it'll be before Yamato and the other judges show up."

"Can everyone gather around the runway please!?"

"Not long now it seems, and speaking of the runway coach . . ." Gaara sighs as all our heads turn to the entrance to see Yamato and Kakashi stand before the exit, dressed stylishly as always.

"Gather round everybody! Gather round!" Yamato exclaims, doing all the talking as Kakashi walked up the small staircase that led to the runway platform. "Morning models, you all look well-rested. Good, because you will definitely be needing it to perform at your very best today!"

"As you can obviously see, we're doing runway today." Kakashi explains as Yamato joins him on the platform, his expression unreadable. "Right after this challenge, you will be doing a photoshoot in the other conference room down the hallway. I'll tell you the rest of the details once the challenge is over."

"Now then, you all had to walk for judges back in the preliminary rounds. All of those walks, as well as your auditions themselves, have been videotaped and reviewed by me, Kakashi, and of course, Lady Tsunade herself," Yamato adds. "Today, you are walking once again, this time for Kakashi and me. You'll be doing the usual routine, however, this challenge will be split into three rounds. One round will comprise of all the girls, the second round will be guys only. . ."

". . . And our third round will have you all paired up, one guy with one girl. For this instance, no single gender pairings are allowed. Sorry, but maybe next time," Kakashi says while wagging his finger in a no-no gesture. "Right now, we'll start with pairs. We are going to give you one minute to find yourselves a partner, and one minute only."

"Remember, your partner has to be of the opposite gender," Yamato reminds us, his grin teasing. "One minute is all you're going to get. Don't even think about asking for extra time. Ready? Go!"

"I call Neji!" TenTen calls out, quickly wrapping her arms around one of Neji's own, catching the Hyuga completely off guard, and off balance. "What?! Don't look at me like that. I said what I said, and I delivered. He's taken, so go find your own partners!"

"Huh, should have figured you were going to pull something like this," Temari grumbles, shooting TenTen a pointed look before turning to Kankuro. "Kankuro, let's be partners."

"I guess that's okay . . ." the middle sibling says as he shoots a quick look Naruto and Hinata's way. Judging from how close they were and how they were whispering to each other, I think it's safe to say that those two were going to work together on this one. "Hey Gaara! I guess that leaves you with Izuka huh?"

"Why do you say that as if there's no one else available?" Gaara couldn't help but ask as he shoots his brother a blank look.

"Because there's no one else available," Kankuro says as he gestures to the rest of the playing field. To put it bluntly, everyone else had found a partner except for Gaara and myself. . . How convenient. "Everyone else already paired up. You and Izuka are basically forced to team up now. . . Hopefully, neither of you two will suddenly fall asleep on the runway and face plant. That wouldn't be a pretty sight, now would it?"

"Very funny Kankuro," Gaara grumbles as he turns to me. "Sorry about my brother."

"Don't be. I have a brother of my own, and he can get just as annoying as yours," I tell him as I felt my brother's eyes on me. "Don't look at me like that Naruto. You know it's true, so don't try to deny it!"

"Time's up everyone!" Yamato exclaims before another word could be said. "Line up in front of the staircase please! The sooner you get yourselves in order, the sooner we can start this challenge!"

Everyone moved before Yamato could even finish his sentence. Some teams instantly - and eagerly - headed for the front of the line, confident enough to take the challenge head on. Others waited until the last stretch of the line began to form before joining, either because they wanted to make a good lasting impression with the judges, or they were just very nervous for their turn in the spotlight. When the line was finally formed, TenTen and Neji ended up toward the front, Hinata and Naruto and Gaara and I were more in the middle, and Kankuro and Temari were close to the end.

"I should've figured that TenTen would drag Neji toward the front . . ." I mumble under my breath as I look to see how far the line stretched. "I'm a little shocked Naruto didn't do the same with Hinata."

"He's probably being considerate of her feelings," comes Gaara's suggestion as we both sneak a look at the two standing a good five teams behind us. "I bet he did want to be in the front, but he must have figured that wasn't something that Hinata wanted, so staying in the middle served as a decent compromise."

"That does sound plausible, and you sound like you've seen this kind of thing before . . ."

"Not really. I'm just very observant, that's all," he responds as some 90's techno beat began to pulsate from the room's speakers. "I tend to notice a lot of things, some more than others . . ."

"I see," I say, just as the first pair made their way down the runway. The two of them were obviously not in sync, with the boy walking a good three paces ahead of his partner. "So, notice anything else interesting so far?"

"A few things, here and there," he tells me with the smallest of shrugs, his voice sounding so smooth and clear despite the loud music. "I don't mean to sound so forward, but I must admit. You are someone that has peaked my interest."

"Oh really?" I ask, hoping that the burn in my cheeks is from the lighting and not from an emerging blush. "And may I ask why? Is there something on my face that I'm not aware about?"

"Something like that," Gaara tells me as the line shuffles forward. "It's just, well, your eyes, well, the rings around them, to be specific. I knew there was something different about them when I first saw you outside the airport. Honestly, I thought you were wearing too much makeup at first, but now, seeing you up close, I now know that I was totally wrong on that assumption. . . You're an insomniac, just like me."

"The only other one in this competition it seems," I sigh. "I haven't seen any others like the two of us, but I have seen a couple of strange characters here and there . . ."

"Like the girl with pink hair?" Gaara asks as he points to said girl just a few pairs ahead of us. "Sakura's her name, right?"

"Yep, and FYI, don't ask about her hair. She's a bit sensitive about it," I warn as we watched Sakura speak with her partner. She didn't look too pleased with him: a bushy-browed guy with a severe bowl cut and dressed head-to-toe in green sportswear. "A few on my floor barely got any sleep last night because Sakura argued with this other girl who said her hair color was fake. They were this close to trading blows!"

"I see . . . Tell me, did this girl happen to be a blonde with hair styled into a really long ponytail?" Gaara suddenly asks as another pair of models strut their stuff on the runway. They narrowly missed bumping into each other a couple of times while they walked.

"Yep; why do you ask?"

"Well, I know exactly who you're talking about. The girl's name is Ino, and the only reason I know this is because she was berating me with it while she was on the boys' floor yesterday."

"Oh, so she was flirting with you?" I ask as I spot Ino and her partner - a feral looking guy with spiky brown hair - stepping onto the runway. She didn't look like much, but there was an air around her that screamed 'I'm so gonna win this!'. "Did you even bother giving her the time of day?"

"Not in the slightest. It took her a good forty-five minutes to realize her flirting wasn't going to work on me," Gaara sighs. "Then she moved onto other prey . . . Those poor souls."

"You sounded a little frustrated when you were describing your "encounter" with Ino just now," I quickly point out as Ino and the feral guy walked the runway. If I had to describe their performance in a simple phrase, I would call it "Beauty and the Beast", emphasis on Beast. The guy wasn't really walking down the runway. He was prowling, like a wild dog trying to intimidate someone on his territory. "I figured you were used to this kind of thing, considering the cult following you have back in your hometown."

"How do you know about that!?" he suddenly asks, shock breaking through his impassive facade as his eyes widened in surprise.

"TenTen told me. Apparently, she has a vast knowledge of things that have gained the media's attention," I tell him, not ashamed with my assessment. "So, how long have you had insomnia?"

"For as long as I can remember . . . You?"

"Ever since I was a little kid, which sounds a bit unhealthy when you think about it."

"And yet, here you are now, acting perfectly normal," Gaara simply replies as he gestures around us. "Well, as perfectly normal as a modeling competition can get."

"Good point," I say as we continue to inch closer to the front. "So, I think it's pretty obvious that Yamato and Kakashi are looking to see how well we work together on the runway."

"I think you're right. There will be runways out there that have models walk two at a time, sometimes three," the redhead points out as we watch Neji and TenTen take their turn. To be honest, they were working pretty well together, matching each other step-for-step. "I think if we do our strongest walks, stay in sync, and feed off each other's energy, we should be fine."

"I just hope that Yamato notices our energy, at least. I seriously don't want to hear him say we were sleepy on the runway or something like that," I say with a shake of my head. "That so wouldn't make for a good first impression."

"You're not wrong on that one," Gaara says in complete agreement with me. As soon as I turned my head, I couldn't help but note the tiny bit of anxiety that was showing in his jade eyes. "But I still think that we'll do okay. Well, at least I hope so . . ."

"Yeah . . ." I say as we continue to near the front, my sheepishness trying to take over as I try to give a reassuring smile. "I hope so too."

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