title: The Extravagant Challenge Anthology

scene: 01. The Composer, pt 4.

summary: Behind every singer's successful song is a composer.

Scene 01

The Composer

Take 4!

Title: Exchanging Tomorrow | Lyrics: Uchiha Sasuke, Sakura. | Music: Uchiha Sasuke, Sakura

Sakura.

Orochimaru knows a threat when he sees one. And right now, he sees a potential threat in a name, ridiculous though it might sound. The name is harmless by itself, of coure. However, it is not lost on him that it is the person carrying it that may possibly pose a problem.

For the eighteen months he has been managing Uchiha Sasuke, never has the boy released a song composed by others. At least not until now. This change, while it brought in millions of yen to the company, must not, cannot be overlooked.

The fact that the song has been reigning over the music charts in No. 1 for ten weeks upon release is as disturbing as it is an accomplishment. Whoever this Sakura is, is dangerous. Not only because of her musical prowess but also of the apparent hold she has over his company's top money maker.

Remembering the young singer's insistence to acknowledge whoever this Sakura is as one of the composers only ignited his curiosity. Adding how the boy tried to hide her from him.

Mark his words, he will find her, who she is, and then decide what he'll do with her.

There are always cameras everywhere, paparazzi greedy for the latest gossip. And the last thing Sakura needs is unwanted publicity. But Sakura deserves to see his first concert as his number one supporter.

With the media flocking around him 24/7 Sasuke knows he can't risk exposing Sakura to the public. Changing her name isn't enough to hide her identity— maybe it is now but for how long?—and he cannot bring himself to suggest she dye her beloved hair memento of her mother a different colour for she has sacrificed enough.

However there is one way Sasuke can bring her to his world without exposing her to the rest of Japan.

Sakura isn't home when he dropped by that afternoon. Sasuke realized only belatedly that she is still at school and won't be home for a couple more hours. It is the first time he went home to an empty house, and the experience somewhat unsettles him. He has become so used to going home to her, who never fails to greet him with a lovely smile.

He wanted to wait for her but Orochimaru scheduled a press conference for him to promote his concert.

So he simply left the envelope on the coffee table.

When Sakura arrived that night, she's exhausted. The cultural festival is coming up and she's in charge of the budgeting for the Maid Cafe her whole class is going to do. Sakura doesn't mind the responsibility because it gives her something to do, something more than to wait for a boy she isn't sure when he's going home every night. But all the numbers are making her dizzy—she's never been good with maths.

Instead of heading to the kitchen as she usually does to start dinner, Sakura heads to the living room and places the plastic bag on the coffee table before heading to the kitchen to get a bowl, glass of water and chopsticks. She bought takeaway ramen on her way home, too tired to cook, and cooking for herself makes her lonely.

Something white catches her eye and sees a white envelope she is sure wasn't there when she left for school this morning sitting on the table. She takes it in her hand and inspects it. There is no note whatsoever, a bare white envelope but there's something inside.

Carefully she opens it and when she sees the contents, Sakura forgets her dinner and starts looking for her phone excitedly.

Inside the envelope is a VVIP ticket with backstage pass for Sasuke's first concert.

They don't see each other until the night of the concert. But judging from Sakura's ecstatic voice when she called him the night he dropped the ticket in their apartment, Sasuke knows she is more than pleased and happy. He told her to come two hours earlier so he can talk to her before he starts performing on-stage.

Sasuke is nervous. Tonight is his first concert, the first time he is going to perform in front of such large crowd. It is a sold out concert and so the pressure's on him. 50, 000 sold out tickets. Among those 50, 000 aren't just fans, but also critics, who'd look for the very littlest mishaps to try to ruin him. He knows this. Orochimaru knows this. His crew knows this. Everyone is just as equally nervous as him.

Then she arrives, escorted by one of the backstage crew, dressed in dark skinny jeans and simple red blouse with the black leather jacket he bought for her birthday, and his anxiety is forgotten.

"Sasuke-kun!" she beams at him brightly but she doesn't hug him like he is expecting her to, like he wants her to.

He doesn't show his disappointment and convinces himself it's for the best. If anyone sees him being touchy-feely with a girl, people might get the wrong idea. Sasuke smirks at her quick thinking.

"Sakura," he says her name not knowing it would be the worst thing he's done in his life.

Orochimaru observes the pink-haired woman who his money-raker is conversing to—so this is the person who Sasuke got the VVIP ticket for. He didn't think it'd be for a girl. He thought it'd be for a family member, like his mother for example, but not a girl.

He's never seen the boy interact with any women who tried to get his attention. This girl, whoever she is, is dangerous, he concludes to himself.

Then...

"Sakura," he hears Sasuke say and realisation dawns on him.

This girl is the Sakura. The composer.

Haruno Sakura doesn't seem intimidating but a deeper look into her would suggest otherwise. It was difficult to find more about her but with the right resources and contacts, nothing really escapes Orochimaru.

Apparently her birth name was Senju Sakura, the illegitimate granddaughter of his good friend Tsunade and unfortunately to the Senju the only offspring of her only son.

Her daughter in law is barren and cannot conceive a child. Adoption had been considered but then again, why adopt when there's already a daughter? A daughter shunned away from the family to avoid public humiliation and thrown in the care of a close family friend, the Uchiha, who runs a prestigious ryoukan in Kyoto.

They decided that on her 16th birthday the poor girl would be engaged to the Hyuuga heir. But something they didn't expect happened.

Sasuke swept her off her feet, under their noses, to Tokyo.

They had been looking for the pink-haired girl since then.

But because the girl began using her mother's name and the fact that Tokyo is no small city, add the fact that Sasuke sends the girl to a private school, they are still in pursuit. The Senju knows the girl is with Sasuke but they have no proof.

A smirk, calculatingly evil, shapes his lips.

Uchiha Sasuke has no room for distraction with the speed and the direction his career is heading. And if the nights he sneaks out of the company apartment, his habit of checking his phone whenever he can, the presence of the intriguing pink-haired lass backstage during his first solo concert are basis enough, the young girl is a huge distraction.

Mind set, he picks up the phone and dialled the numbers he hasn't dialled in a long time.

This is for your own good, Sasuke-kun.

tbc.

notes: and so the plot finally thickens! i'm sorry if this chapter seems rushed but i've never been good with transitions. i'd also like to thank all the supporters! merry christmas to you all!