Hey, guys... Sorry about the late update... lots of homework and stuff...

Chapter Eight

Deidara told me about how they first met when she was still a boy, how he had defended her from the bullies who insisted that she was "weird" and "unnatural," and how the two had been inseparable ever since. She told me how, at first glance, she knew she was in love with him. How she followed him everywhere, and how that got her into singing. She laughed as she recounted the story of how Sasori begged on his knees for her to join his band as the backup, and later lead, vocalist, explaining how it was through the band that she met her first friends aside from the ginger.

"Akatsuki, we called ourselves." She said bitterly, as if the mere mention of the name brought a bitter taste to her lips, "You've already met most of the members. Itachi and Kisame were both bass. They switched between gigs. They both also play trombone here. Hidan was the keyboardist, Kakuzu was the drummer, Tobi and Zetsu were backup vocals as well as violins, and Sasori was lead singer and guitar. Pein and Konan managed us. They were pretty good- got us a lot of gigs."

She told me how accepted the Akatsuki made her feel. Even after she began her injections and therapy, the group stayed by her side, Sasori sticking the closest. She told me about how they even tried to raise money for her surgery by selling lemonade. I giggled as she laughed about they forgot to add sugar and ended up with sour lemon juice.

"Then, Sasori got a girlfriend." She said, all humor gone from her face. "She was this real rich chick- someone with real connections. But she was a real bitch."

She explained how the girl made Sasori quit the band and how she made him stop hanging out with them. She told me about how much it broke her heart every time she saw them kiss. How she wanted to kill the girl every time she saw her.

"He finally came back last month. We made up and everything. He told me that he was in love with me and that he wanted only to be with me. And I trusted him." Here, she started tearing up a little. "Then I found out he was still with that prissy bitch. I confronted him about it and he told me that he had to keep seeing her to please his father. I told him to make a choice; her or me. This was last week and he still hasn't broken up with her."

I stared, really not knowing what to do in a situation like hers. And I thought my love life was rough. She laughed, smiling through her tears at my reaction.

"Sorry."

I gave her a light shove, giggling a little, myself, "No, it's good to be able to get to know you."

My smile quickly faded, however, when I saw Sakura, Lee, and Hinata walking my way. The pink haired girl waved at me and I nodded coldly back, hoping she would get the hint and leave. No such luck, she made her way over to where Deidara and I were standing and greeted me with a smile, tossing a small wave a Deidara as well.

"Tenten!" She exclaimed, throwing her arms around my tense shoulders, "Where were you last night?"

I shook her off, pushing her hands as if they were poisonous objects away from me. "Nowhere. " I snapped, glaring at her. I knew it wasn't her fault that Lee liked her, but jealousy kept rearing its ugly head, and I could not help but blame her for it. I turned my glare to Lee as well, making him snap his gaze away hastily. Hinata looked politely confused.

She looked a little hurt at my snappy response, but nonetheless, continued to attempt to make a friendly conversation.

"You'll never guess what happened!" She exclaimed, her eyes sparkling, making her look even more beautiful than she already did, and making me hate her even more, "Yesterday, Sasuke told me that he thought I was pretty!"

I glanced over at Lee, who wore a sour expression on his face, and Deidara, who had a sympathetic look on hers, and immediately felt even more angry.

"Well. that's just fan-freaking-tastic for you, isn't it? You just get everything you want handed to you on a silver platter, don't you?" I snapped at her. Deidara and Hinata looked shocked while Lee looked pained.

The sparkle left Sakura's vibrant green eyes and her face fell. The expression did not last long, however, and was quickly replaced with one of anger.

"Geez, Tenten. I was trying to be nice. I thought we were friends. But if you're going to be a bitch, then I'll just leave." She snapped, turning on her heel and storming away, her hair flying behind her. Lee and Hinata scurried after her and I swore I heard her mutter, "I get enough of this at home."

"Me-Ow!" Deidara hissed into my ear, playfully batting my hair.

I shoved her, telling her to shut up, and ran to the practice rooms.

When I arrived, I pulled out my schedule and found that I had not lessons or real practice sessions for the day, aside from the daily theory class, chamber practice, and the practice with Shikamaru. I sighed and sat down at the piano, stretching out my fingers and beginning my long practice. The rest of the day passed in a blur, the practice with Shikamaru going smoothly and the theory class with Kakashi giggling at his book. On my way to dinner, I was stopped by Anko, who was, yet again, chewing on her dango.

"Tenten!" She exclaimed, her typical sadistic smile on her face, "Just the girl I needed to see!"

I looked at her, not trusting myself to talk to her without throwing an attitude. I really did not need this today.

"You have your piano lessons tomorrow, yes?" She asked.

I nodded; piano lessons were something I was really excited about. I had heard that even the great Tsunade, the founder of the School, would be teaching. I hoped she would be my instructor, seeing as she was my hero.

"Well, seeing as I am your teacher-"

"Damn."

"What was that? Maggot?" Anko held her empty dango stick dangerously.

"Sorry. It's just that Tsunade is my hero and I had hoped to get her. I mean no disrespect."

Anko nodded, lowering the pseudo weapon. "I understand. But your friend, the one with the pink hair, had her. Maybe you could sit in on one of her lessons."

My fists clenched. Sakura again. Why was it that she got everything that I wanted?

"…Or not…" Anko said, trailing off at my tense figure. "Anyways, I need you to come early. We need to discuss your chamber music. Be there twenty minutes early and I won't impale you." Here, she threw the sharp stick into the wall, frightening a poor boy who was just exiting his practice room with his viola clutched to his chest.

I nodded and continued back into my dorm, nodding at Temari, who had just walked out of the bathroom with a sickly expression on her face, and fell onto my covers, wanting nothing more than to just fall asleep and never wake back up.

oO0Oo

The next day, I went about business as usual, ignoring the silent glares from Sakura, the pitying looks from Lee, and the confused looks from Hinata and Deidara. I planned to spend the day alone, staying under a tree with my iPod and my book during the first free period.

I was interrupted from my reading by the obnoxious sound of a throat being cleared. Irritated that I had been interrupted, I looked up for the source dangerously, eves slightly covered by my bangs. Seeing the face of Neji, I groaned, even more annoyed.

"What?" I demanded.

He shrugged and sat down next to me. "Hinata texted me. She says you've stopped talking to her and her friends and that she's worried. I thought you might like some company."

Suddenly, I had a flashback to a few days ago, after Lee's rejection,

"Any idiot stupid enough to give up a feisty and good musician such as yourself has no brain."

and the fluttery feeling I got every time I saw him increased tenfold.

"Why are you suddenly so nice?" I demanded, giving him a suspicious glare.

He shrugged again, and stuck his own ear buds in as well, pulling out his own book and burying his nose in it. I looked his way for a few more minutes before shrugging and sticking my own nose back into my own book. That was how we spent the rest of our break- two nerds, two iPods, and two books, until I had to get to my dreaded lesson with Anko. Giving Neji a small wave, I walked to the lesson room and knocked on the door. Immediately, it was opened by none other than Kakashi. His face was pink and his clothing ruffled.

Kakashi, you dog.

I thought again. He hurriedly pushed past me and ran off without looking back once. Anko marched out, her pink lipstick smudged a little, and demanded to know "why the hell I was there so early?"

"You asked me to, yesterday." I replies, easily stepping into the room and to the piano. She looked confusedly lost for a moment, not too different from how Naruto looked yesterday, when I asked him to count his rests, but shook herself out of hit and reached for her dango stick. Finding it with no sweet dumplings left, her face turned to one of murderous rage.

"Kakashi!" She screamed as she chucked the stick towards the door which the silver haired teacher had just left from. After spending about five minutes calming my crazy teacher down, I finally had my first lesson underway.

"The reason I asked you to come a little early, "Anko said, cheerful at my promise to buy her more dango before chamber, "Is that Tsunade is entering a few students in a modern music competition. However, because of her laziness…and perhaps due to the fact that we got her totally shit-faced the night before it was due… she forgot to fill out the paperwork and choose the students. Now, us teachers are stuck with finding two students to compete. From what I saw in the past couple days, you don't seem hopeless and I like your spirit. You'll be put into a group of four or five and perform one song for the judges. You get to pick your own song, and on the day of the competition, be exempt from all classes. The competition date is exactly a week from now, but Tsunade and I will be tutoring you guys. You in?"

I was on the fence about the competition throughout the entire speech, but at the mention of being tutored by Tsunade, my mind was made up.

I'm in." I said, bringing a smile to Anko's face.

"Awesome. Come with me, and I'll introduce you to your group. Then, we can get started on that awful posture you have while playing, maggot. Did you know your jaw juts out? By the way, from now until the competition, you can use the theory class time to practice. We already talked it over with Kakashi and Ibiki and they gave the okay."

I silently cheered; it would be nice to actually do something productive during theory lessons.

We walked down the hallway to a room with giant wooden double doors at the end, stopping on the way to buy dango for Anko, and finally arrived at the majestic doors. She opened the door, and, of course, the first person I saw was Lee. He sat with his back towards me, laughing with Naruto, and I turned to Anko, desperation and anger in my eyes.

"Hell no." Was all I said before spinning on my heel and storming out, causing lee to turn around and Naruto to scratch his head in confusion. Anko followed me, calling out my name, a few profanities, and overusing the word maggot, but I did not stop until the doors were tightly shut and we were well out of earshot.

"There is no way in hell I'm working with Lee. Please, Anko. Please switch me."