A/N: Jeaaaalousy! Turning saints intoooo the seeaaaaa! K. Imma shut up now. Happy Valentine's day everyone (even though it's over). :D IT WAS SUCH A GREAT DAY TO BE SINGLE! (only slightly sarcastic)
IMPORTAN NOTE FOR THE CHAPPIE: I mention shoe tossing in there somewhere. It's actually a gesture not of malice. It's more of a sign of respect and adoration. Like giving props to someone who's a damn good dancer. :D Plus! If you guys wanna see how I envisioned how Naruto dances, hmmm try searching Ellen Kim on youtube (where she dances Imma Be by Black Eyed Peas. And yes. Shoes will be thrown. Hahaha!) ALSO! To briefly explain the authority ranks in Leaf Twist. So the overall leader of this group would be the Head Captain. This person would have two people under her namely the cheer captain and the street captain. Bit more detail about Twist will be given in the chapter. :D
5 MORE WEEKS OF SCHOOL! Wish me luck as I go through the last month of pure hell, everyone! :)
*DISCLAIMER APPLIES*
BEFORE THE WORST
That's The Thing About Triangles; They're Bizarre
"HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT! Fuuuuuu! I'm next! Crap! I'm gonna bomb! I JUST KNOW IT! I god damn fucking know it! Shit!" Kiba continued to prattle on excessively all the while bordering on hyperventilating. Naruto eyed the boy-slash-dog with mild amusement and disbelief. Whatever happened to 'schooling their asses'? Kiba was a mumbling wreck right now. At this rate, he actually will bomb. Heh. That's Kiba for you sometimes. All bark, no bite.
"Cripes! Calm down, Kiba! You're killing my mood." Naruto casually leaned against the wall as she surveyed her fellow auditioner.
To put some light on the situation, Naruto, Kiba, Ino and Sakura managed to get through the first round of auditions into Leaf Twist. The first audition was easy enough. One of the senior members of the troupe was the assigned choreographer and taught steps for about half an hour. The auditioners were then tasked to execute the choreography as a unit. The members of the troupe would then weed out the first set of people from the batch. The remaining individuals would then get to advance to their respective division auditions.
The Twist was actually a troupe that consisted of two divisions. There was the street division, and there was the cheer division. Street dancers didn't necessarily have to know how to do stunts although it did give you a better chance to get into the dance group. Cheer dancers, however, were required to go through a cheer audition and a street audition respectively. That was, of course, only natural. Leaf Twist was originally a cheer-dance crew. If their cheerleaders couldn't dance, then what was the point? However, to acquire more members (because face it, not all the great dancers could do stunts), the org decided to broaden their horizons and created a new division. The street division was a big success and had simple enough conditions. Street members simply had to cheer at least once for one of the school athletic teams to remain in the team. Didn't have to be any fancy shmancy cheering; just had to lead the crowds in the chants. Totally do-able.
Now, Sakura and Ino had finished their second auditions just a few minutes prior Kiba's meltdown. Currently, Naruto and Kiba were inside one of the empty classrooms close by the lunch hall, waiting to be called. Well, Naruto was waiting. Kiba was halfway to passing out. Although, in Kiba's defence, the second auds were actually quite daunting. What was the task, you may ask? Well, it involved a little cipher dancing on a little stage set-up at the centre of the mess hall ... during lunch break. Where the whole student body could see.
Yep.
Free-styling.
In front of the whole school.
"FUUUCK! Naruto, I can't do this! Tell them I got sprained like just now! I stepped on a banana peel and slipped and now I have a concussion! Just whatever bullshit you can come up with to get me out of this!" Kiba began to grab a hold of Naruto's smaller frame and proceeded to shake the life out of her. The blonde chose a break in Kiba's manhandling to smack the poor boy on his forehead. Geez. When did Kiba turn out to be such a wuss?
"Get a hold of yourself! I thought you said you were gonna wipe the floor clean! Don't be a weak sauce and just give them hell!" Kiba only appeared dazed after Naruto's attempt at encouragement. That didn't really help, did it? It only served to shut Kiba up but the poor kid still looked like a lost duck. She gazed at the slowly forming redness on Kiba' forehead and sighed. "You'll be great, dog breath. Deep breaths and just dance like there's no one watching." She gave her a friend a lopsided grin before giving the boy a light thump on his arm. Thankfully, her words reached him and Kiba was now giving his ever famous fanged grins.
"Inuzuka Kiba, you're up." The dark pink haired girl, Hokumon Tayuya, whom Naruto recalled as one of the three girls that she found to admire during the General Assembly, opened the door and called. She looked snootily at the last two auditioners and scoffed before going back outside. Tch. What a bitch. Shame that she was the Street Captain. Naruto was not looking forward to being her subordinate at all.
"Che. 'Bout time. I'm totally ready to blow their minds off." Kiba smirked and walked towards the door with a renewed sense of confidence.
"Hey, break a leg, dog boy." Naruto called out to the exiting boy.
"Yeah, yeah. Later, blondie." The brunet paused just as he was about to open the door. "Thanks for knocking some sense into me, Naruto." The boy then left Naruto's company after the expression of gratitude.
"Heh. Don't mention it, Kiba." Naruto whispered into the empty classroom. Now, all she had to do was wait.
llllllllllllllllllll
"Nailed it! Did you two see that? I was awesome!" Kiba, having just finished his auditions (and had received a series of hollers), proudly approached Sakura and Ino. Not that the two girls weren't happy for their fanged brunet friend but as of the moment they were too preoccupied with glaring at a certain female that was practically throwing herself at one Uchiha Sasuke.
"Hey? What is up with you two?" In his perplexity, Kiba scratched the side of his head.
"They're happy for y-you, Kiba. Attention is ju-just a bit elsewhere at the moment." Hinata smiled causing the boy to blush ever so slightly. Everyone then began to shower Kiba with compliments. Judging from the general reaction of the group, it would seem Kiba had a sure spot on the dance troupe already (biased opinion or not).
Seconds later, Naruto entered the hall with an air of confidence about her. From the looks of it, she's definitely got this. There was, however, a slight hampering on her A-game when she caught sight of Sasuke being hounded by a particular girl she recognized as one of the audtionioners. The red-head was clutching at his arm like her life depended on it. She had her face nearly buried at his neck. If it weren't for Sasuke's valiant act of looking unimpressed with the girl, Naruto would have seriously pummelled that chick by now. Freakin' hussy was laying her dirty paws on Naruto's ma—Errr. Best friend.
Whew.
Good mental save.
Somehow, just as she was about to get on the make-shift stage, Naruto managed to catch Sasuke's eye. He was quite a distance away but she saw it. Sasuke just totally gave her a smile. Well... it was actually just a twitch of his lips and it kind of looked more of a smirk than a smile; but whataver! Naruto was calling it a smile. In response to Sasuke's gesture of encouragement, she shot him a thumbs up.
The red-head bespectacled chick apparently saw that slight upturn of Sasuke's lips and followed his line of vision. The blond pest on stage huh? Red met blue and, immediately, a clear antagonizing aura formed.
"Uzumaki Naruto, you may begin." The senior, Kazahana Koyuki, Head Captain of Twist and Naruto's idol, announced.
Once the randomly chosen song was played, Naruto began to dance. Unlike all the other girls who auditioned, Naruto's style was far more on the 'masculine' side, shall we say. Her movements were precise, crisp and sharp whereas most females tended to move delicately and fluidly. Naruto was executing her hits so perfectly like it was no one's business. She came in strong and demanded attention. She moved confidently and expertly. Dance like no one's watching was her motto and she was certainly doing just that. It was as if she had her own world.
The last time Sasuke saw Naruto dance was ages ago (when all she could do was make a crappy imitation of the Chicken Dance). To say that he was surprised with what he was seeing was truly the understatement of the century. He was floored! When the hell had Naruto gotten so good? The crowd was outright hollering for the blonde by this point. Some were throwing their shoes just until the side of the miniature stage to show their admiration.
"She's pretty amazing, Koyuki." One of the panellists, Yoton Kurotsuchi, said as she swept her bangs aside to fix her bob-style hair. The other judges concurred. Koyuki simply had to agree with her subordinates. Besides, Kurotsuchi was Cheer Captain. It wasn't like she didn't know what she was talking about.
"Alright. You can stop now. The panel and I have already made up our minds. Good work, Uzumaki." Koyuki, looking thoroughly impressed, halted Naruto's cipher. It was quite obvious, wasn't it? Naruto already had a reserved spot in the troupe. She heaved a huge sigh and grinned. "Thanks for letting me audition." The blonde did a couple of theatrical bows at her cheering audience. As we all know, this particular knucklehead simply LOVED attention.
Just as she was about to leave the stage, however, the red-head made a snide remark loud enough for everyone to hear. "Was that it? Is that all you can do?" She stood up from her place and walked a few paces towards the stage before pausing.
Silence.
The cheering abruptly stopped and suddenly a suffocating tension made itself known.
Naruto, immediately on the defensive, puffer her chest out and stood to her full height. No one. No one dissed her when she was giving her hundred percent on her dancing. Not now, not ever. "Excuse me?"
"You heard me. You dance like a dude. What's so impressive about a chick dancing like a fucking guy. If you ask me, it's really nothing special." Sasuke, feeling a bit protective, stood up and almost knocked the lights out of the girl when someone halted him from doing so. It was the girl with dark pink tresses and hazelnut eyes whom Sasuke recognized as one of the troupe members. "Easy, pretty boy. Don't interrupt a good cat fight."
Naruto narrowed her eyes at the troublemaker. "And who are you? Heh. You know what? Don't answer that. You're hardly worth my time and I don't have to prove anything to you." The pig-tailed blonde turned away to dismiss the verbal attacks when...
"Are you just going to take that?"
The voice caught her attention. That was Koyuki's voice, wasn't it? She turned back around and saw that, true enough, Koyuki had just addressed her with a question.
"Huh?"
"I asked you if you were just going to take that. Need I remind you that you, Uzumaki, will be joining the Leaf Cheer Dance Team. And being part of this team means being subjected to those who will be showering hate on our school. If you can't you can't even defend yourself from your own hater then what makes you think you can defend Konoha?" Crap. Naruto was in deep shit now. Never mind that she was a fantastic dancer. If she didn't prove the troublemaking hussy wrong, she could kiss her spot in Twist goodbye.
"Naruto, don't! Beating that slut up isn't worth it!" Sakura shouted across the hall.
"Ha! Knew it. Just another nobody like all the other auditioners. I guess I'm the only one that was worth anything in this year's try outs." That was the last straw. That bitch could scream insults at Naruto all day. But no one insulted Naruto's friends and got away with it.
The fourteen year old blond smirked. "Who said anything about beating her up, Sakura." She then pointedly looked at the person manning the sound system. "You. Play a song. I'll show her a thing or two." Giving a quick nod, the person pressed a few buttons on his panel and played the first song on his audio player. As luck would have it, the song had a bit of a seductive beat to it. The crowd resumed their cheering as Naruto did a complete one-eighty in terms of movement. She was fluid, she was swaying, she was...
My God.
She was...
"So freakin' hot." Sasuke heard the comment from the male junior by his side. The Uchiha could do nothing but glare at the buffoon beside him. "I would so totally tap that!" A few of the junior's friends high five-ed.
They said what?!
Sasuke quickly grabbed at the student's collar. "Shut the hell up, you mother—"
"Whoa! Whoa! Chill, dude! She ain't your girl, is she?" It was a legitimate question on the junior's part. The student would gladly apologize if the chick on stage already had a boyfriend; especially if the boyfriend was this particular evil-looking dude. Unfortunately for Sasuke, he was just the best friend. In defeat, Sasuke growled and let go. "She's my friend so don't talk about her that way." For added threat, Sasuke gave them the mastered Uchiha death glare.
"Geez, sorry, kid." The group then opted to back away. That was one group down. Sasuke had the rest of the wolf-whistling male student body to deal with next. He sighed and fixed his gaze on Naruto once again. Christ. Naruto was... She was... A particular hip sway caught Sasuke's attention. Urgh! Why the hell hadn't she stopped yet?!
Another smooth wave of her torso had the male population cheering in deafening tones. That was it! He'd had it! Sasuke started to make his way to the stage. Thankfully enough, just as he was a couple of metres away from his best friend, she signalled for the music to be cut. Cue in another round of cheering and shoe tossing.
Naruto smirked at the red-headed lass knowing that the latter was completely beaten. Score one for Uzumaki Naruto!
Koyuki haughtily smiled at the display of rivalry. This was interesting. Very, very interesting. "You may leave the stage now, Uzumaki." The head of the org then turned towards the humiliated freshman. "I know you can't beat that, Karin, so I suggest you sit back down and stay quiet." The girl, Karin, let an ugly snarl form on her face before grumpily leaving the mess hall.
Naruto left the stage but not before waving at her adoring fans. Finally! She was finally being accepted! She was being acknowledged! The girl spotted her best friend and swiftly approached the boy. "So I did great huh? Did you see how many people were screaming! It was unbelievable! I was – Sasuke?" The boy suddenly turned and left while she was still talking to him.
"Sasuke! Yo!" Although she wanted to chase after him, the masses of people crowded her. They were obstructing her path to Sasuke and it was sort of grating on her nerves.
"Guys, appreciate the love and all but if you could all just let me pass, that would be awesome." Her words weren't heeded and before long, her visual of onyx duckbutt hair had gone.
llllllllllllllllllll
The Uchiha walked to the latter end of first year wing to get some peace and quiet. Noise had never really been his favourite thing. He slumped against one of the lockers and groaned. Sure, it was normal for him to be a little disappointed at Naruto's audacious display; but getting this worked up over the cheers was not.
"Hey sweetheart! Give me your number!"
"Yeah! I wanna see those hips shake!"
"Whooo!"
Cheers of that manner kept echoing inside Sasuke's head. The boy released a growl as a new wave of anger washes over him. How dare those dogs address Naruto in such a manner! He ought to strangle every single one of them! And here he was again getting uncannily worked up over this.
"There you are! I've been looking everywhere for you!" Sasuke should have known Naruto would have gone looking for him. As if she would ever let him walking out on her slide.
"Don't talk to me, dumbass." Sasuke, being Sasuke, decided to be mean and vague. It was the perfect asshole combination to grind on Naruto's gears.
"What the hell! Don't I get a congratulations for doing awesome? Don't be such a God damn prick, Uchiha."Naruto crossed her arms over her chest and looked frowningly at the teenage boy in front of her.
"Tch. Sure. Good job at getting your dignity undermined, Naruto. I was so proud." Sasuke heatedly glared at her which surprised the blonde. She couldn't understand why Sasuke was antagonizing her in such a way.
"What is wrong with you? Did you see how many people were cheering for me? They were acknowledging me, Sasuke! How was that undermining my dignity?"Naruto punched the wall adjacent to her in her rage."I'm getting real tired of your shit, Uchiha!"
"Acknowledging?! You call that acknowledgement?! Did you even listen to half of the things those douches were saying?" Sasuke used a tone of authority and, at the same time, straightened himself to full height. "Oh, babe! I like the way you move, Get on the floor, Hey Sexy! They were disgusting, Naruto! How can you ever even consider that to be acknowledgement?!" With each of Sasuke's nasal imitation of the crowd, Naruto increasingly flinched.
"They seemed readier to have a go at you than anything, moron." Surprisingly to him, Sasuke had said this with more bitterness in his tone than how a best friend should. The words hit home and soon Naruto had wrapped around herself in a protective manner. She couldn't believe she had been proud of that... What the fuck was wrong with her. It was right for Sasuke to hate her. She'd made herself look like a slut just to prove a point. Where were her morals?
"Sorry, Sasuke." Naruto lowly said because of humiliation. She even refused to show her face to Sasuke.
The raven sighed. He guessed that it didn't really occur to Naruto that she was getting the bad kind of attention. She'd never actually had that degree of attention directed towards her. And she looked fairly apologetic enough. Besides, like he could ever resist this blockhead.
"It's alright. Stop sulking. It makes you ugly."He ruffled the top of Naruto's yellow tresses. It was unbelievable how her hair was so soft despite its course appearance. "Just... promise me you won't dance like that again."
Naruto nodded to Sasuke's request. She was perfectly fine with the conditions. Seductive wasn't her style anyways.
"Good you agreed. I don't think I could beat up the entire male student population."
The admission piqued Naruto's interest which resulted to a Cheshire cat grin. She shifted from remorseful and pitiful to jesting and probing. "Oi, Sasuke. You wouldn't happen to be jealous now, would you?" She wiggled her eyebrows to tease her best friend. Sasuke, to Naruto's great pleasure, blushed. He quickly recovered however and pushed Naruto's teasing face away. The Uchiha then walked back from whence he came.
"Whatever. Just don't do it again." And like a light switch, Sasuke was back to his closed off self.
Naruto gazed longingly at Sasuke's retreating figure. Christ... There was only so much a person could hide when they were so obviously in love; especially after Sasuke's show of protectiveness. She couldn't keep it in anymore.
"Sasuke! Hold up! I need to tell you something." She chased after him. Luckily for her, he'd stopped and turned around. Suddenly, Naruto couldn't breathe. Her palms were sweating. The world around her seemed to have disappeared as she was focused solely on the person she had loved ever since that day in kindergarten.
Her very first friend.
Her best friend.
"Sasuke. I have something very important to tell you."
Naruto loved Sasuke very much.
"Yeah?"
Hopefully, he felt the same way she did.
"Listen. You're my very best friend so... so it's completely natural that you're special to me. I mean you're very special to me. Yeah. Soo..." It was obvious that she was trying to stall as she continued to squeeze out whatever courage she could to confess her affections.
"Okay?" Sasuke put his weight on one leg while he failed to realize the reason for Naruto's distress.
"Sasukeee!" She whined in exasperation. Sasuke was smart! Why couldn't he figure this one out himself to save her from this petrifying situation?! Argh! Fuck it! "You're never smart when I need you to be! Can't you see I want to be more than -"
"Sasuke! Naruto!"
The sound of a third party halted Naruto's admission. A split-second later, she felt her stomach drop as she recognized the voice of the person that had called them. The blonde then felt the person approach. "You two went missing. What's up? Are you two fighting again?"
Sakura...
That's right.
"We sorted it out. This dumbass here just needed a little sense knocked into her." Sasuke shrugged. Naruto, however, remained silent. Instead of answering either of her two closest friends, she took this opportunity to stare at the pinkette by her side. As expected, Sakura gazed right at Sasuke as she unconsciously twirled the ends of her mid-length hair. Her bright emerald eyes twinkled as she looked on admirably at the young Uchiha. Come to think of it... Sakura had always looked at Sasuke that way even way back then. She would always have that gleam in her eyes whenever Sasuke was around. The way all the other girls looked at Sasuke was nothing compared to how Sakura looked at the boy.
"Narutoooo?"
Sakura loved Sasuke too.
"Naruto!"
Oh God. This was complicated.
"HEY!"
Suddenly. Naruto felt something thump the side of her head.
"Ow! What the hell? Stop rattling my brain like that, Sakura." She rubbed at the spot Sakura had just hit. As much as Sakura would like to deny it, she clearly had some violent tendencies.
"You were spacing out! Plus, I don't think there's much brain in there, Naruto. It sounded like you just have air in that pretty blond head of yours." Sakura winked at her in a teasing manner which had Naruto rolling her eyes.
"Anyway, Sasuke and I are going to class now." As the older girl said this, she discreetly looped her arm around Sasuke's. Naruto zeroed in on the gesture. Strange... why was her chest tightening up?
"We'll see you later?" Sakura chirped and then waited for Naruto's response.
"...Yeah." The blonde kept all her attention on her two friends' contact. They kind of looked good together, didn't they?
The young Uchiha noticed the lack of the usual enthusiasm. He then slightly grimaced. Something was wrong. "Naruto?" His voice alone was enough to snap Naruto out of her trance. "He-heeeey! Yeah! I'll see you two later!" The girl grinned in a horrifyingly phony manner. Yeah, something was definitely wrong. Naruto could fool Sakura, but not Sasuke.
Never Sasuke.
Sakura prettily smiled right on back at Naruto because that was what Sakura was. She was pretty. She was smart. She was ... everything Naruto wasn't. "Okay! See you later the—"
"You were supposed to tell me something, right?" Sasuke cut in.
Heh. There was Sasuke's sharp qualities. Naruto was afraid it had gone away somehow.
"It's nothing, Sasuke." She waved her hand as a signal to drop the subject. Knowing Sasuke, he would pry Naruto for answers; so to avoid that, Naruto pushed the two towards the general direction of the classrooms. "Go! I'm gonna be late for class too!"
"But Naruto?" Sakura, with her curiosity tickled, meddled.
"Oh wow. Look at the time. A minute before the bell rings." The tactic worked. In the long years Naruto had known Sakura, the girl never ever liked being tardy especially for a class. At the mention that they had a minute to get to their classroom, well, suffice to say Naruto needn't push the two away.
"Let's go, Sasuke!" And at that, Sakura pulled Sasuke elsewhere. The sound of their feet slowly faded as they gained more distance. Soon, the visuals of one raven-haired teen and one pinkette were gone.
Now that Naruto was left by herself, she was free to let her inner turmoil flow out. Sure she would be late for her class, but she couldn't care any less. What was a few minutes anyway? She looked to the floor in a downtrodden manner. She'd almost confessed to Sasuke back there... How uncool was that?! How dare she forget that one of her two best friends held the same feelings for the boy? Sakura had loved Sasuke in that way long before Naruto did so wasn't it against some girl code or something?
But even as these thoughts filled her psyche, the more selfish part of her brain scolded her. She had been Sasuke's best friend first. They'd been friends for far longer. Surely, that counted for something!
Naruto winced from the personal chaos raging within her. In her frustration, she kicked the nearest locker. She then leaned on the surface and covered her face as she slid down to the floor.
"What the fuck do I do now..."
And as she expected, her question was left unanswered and wafted through the halls akin to a lone spectre.