Chapter 5
"So we are in agreement than?" Dai asked, his face a blank mask.
"Yes." Tenchu growled as he finished signing his name on a contract that they had just pulled up.
"Great. In that case, I'll see you tomorrow. Don't forget to call the others and have them here for the meeting."
Laughing quietly at the growl that followed him out the door, Dai quickly sobered. 'I hope he's there.' He thought, a small glimmer of hope flickering weakly. He knew it was stupid, whenever this happened; he was never there when he got back.
Slowly he made his way home, meandering around, looking into shop windows, saying hi to the people he knew. Finally, as it began to get dark, he approached his home. Opening the door, he knew immediately that he was alone again.
Flipping on the lights, he looked at the table and saw a single sheet of paper resting there, a small leaf laying next to the single word in Itachi's flowing handwriting. He sighed, picking up the paper and continued on to his bedroom. Opening the nightstand drawer, he placed the paper and leaf on top of a stack of other identical papers.
Gently, he closed the drawer before sinking down on to the bed and silently began to cry.
OOOOOO
Itachi quietly closed the door behind himself as he entered his own house. Looking around at the front hall, he realized just how different their homes truly were. Dai's, while much smaller and more cluttered, was obviously a home, while his was bare and lonely looking.
Hanging his cloak up and shucking off his sandals, he glided into the kitchen and pulled out a large bottle of sake. Ignoring any thoughts of getting anything to drink it from, he headed for Dai's old bedroom.
As he sat down on the rolled up futon, he expertly opened the bottle and began chugging it.
"Maybe I'll kill myself this time." He said as he looked at the large bottle.
"What a way to go, death by alcohol."
OOOOOO
Waking to the bright morning light steaming in though his open window, Dai stretched briefly before stumbling to the bathroom. He splashed some water in his face a few times before he met his eyes in the mirror.
"Well, it looks like it's just you and me now, Dai." He said softly to himself. Looking into his own sky blue eyes, he could see the pain and hopelessness that he had carried around for as long as he could remember. The pain was different now, but it was still there.
Sighing, he grabbed a hand towel and dried his face. He slowly left the bathroom, ambling back to the bedroom, where he pulled out a pair of blue jeans with the knees torn out and a simple white t-shirt, tight enough to look like it was painted on. The only jewelry he put on was a thick beaded necklace. He dragged a hand though his hair and shuffled towards the living room. He picked up the sheaf of music and placed them in them in a folder before heading for the door.
"I'll be home later. Don't wait up for me." he called back into the empty house. Hearing no reply, even though he wasn't expecting one, sent a pang though his heart. He stuffed his feet into his boots and walked out, locking the door behind him. With another heart felt sigh, he leapt to the rooftops and began to make his way to the meeting he had set up the day before.
"Hi, Dai. You're to go right up." The receptionist said with a friendly smile.
"Thanks." He said shortly and headed for the elevator.
Riding it up to the fourth floor, he got out and meandered down the hall till he got to the meeting room where he could hear raised voices coming from inside.
"….believe that you did that to him!" a female voice snapped, anger so thick it was almost unrecognizable.
"It's what I do. I don't need to explain myself to you!"
Dai didn't need to see the face to know that voice.
"No, but really, you shouldn't enjoy it so much. People might think you're a sadist." He said as he stepped into the room.
"Dai!!" Misato shrieked and hit him full force as she pounced on him.
Dai blinked and looked down at the crown of black hair and felt like a horse had kicked him in the chest. How many times had he and Itachi been cuddling on the couch and he had looked down to see long black hair spread across his chest and lap?
Gently, but firmly, he unwound her arms from his waist and pushed her back. The blue eyes, darker than his own, blinked up at him before a rosy blush spread across her cheeks. "Sorry!" she said, and went to sit at the table.
"So, are we ready to begin?" he asked as he, too, headed for the table.
"We're all here." Tenchu said. Coldly from the head of the long table.
"Good. Now before we begin talking about the band, I have a few things I would like to say first." Dai said as he seated himself next to Shinji, who nodded a greeting at him.
Once everyone had sat down, he began. "My real name isn't Dai. I'm not going to tell you what it is, but I consider Dai my name. I'm a shinobi from Konoha. I am NOT a missing-nin." At this point, he glared at Tenchu and Mokoto. "I'm on an indefinite leave, granted by the Hokage."
Shinji spoke up, "Why?"
"My life there was never the greatest. I was routinely beaten and almost killed growing up. When I was almost killed two years ago, I was saved by a friend and I haven't been back since. I'm inactive, but I'm still a Konoha shinobi."
There was silence in the room as he looked each person in the eye. "All I'm trying to do is to live out one of my dreams. I had to put my other dream on hold as I couldn't deal with that place anymore."
"What was your other dream?" Seto asked, curiosity fighting with the horror in his eyes.
"You don't need to know that." Dai said flatly, hiding his pain behind a blank mask.
"A shinobi?" Misato whispered. "You're a shinobi?"
"Yes. And just so that you know, I have no family and it was the entire town that was against me. No one wanted me to live, much less become one. But I wanted to protect Konoha. I don't know why." The last was whispered bitterly to himself, though it was audible to everyone in the room.
"Now, the reason we are here is to put this band together. Mokoto is here at Tenchu's insistence, but the rest of you have a choice. If you don't want to be a part of this, now is the time to leave. If you have a problem with me being a shinobi, or me being the boss, please leave." He said coldly.
For a moment, nobody said a thing or moved. Looking around, he saw thoughtful expressions on Shinji and Seto's faces and a smirk on Mokoto's. Misato, though, had a blank face that could rival one of his own.
"Misato?" he asked gently.
"I don't know if I could do this." She said softly. "I hate shinobi."
"I know. That's why I told you what I am, so you would hear it from me before we began to record and not somewhere down the road from someone else." Dai said quietly.
"Thank you for that. I just need sometime to think about it."
"No problem. You can stay for the meeting or you can leave now. Which ever you decide is fine by me. You can't go against your nature." He said softly and she nodded.
"Thank you. I think I'll stay." She said as she laid a clenched fist on the table as she leaned back in her chair.
Nodding, he turned back to look at the rest of the table. "These are the songs I've written. They range from rock, to ballad, to alternative. Some are slow, some are fast. There is even a duet in there that I wrote while I was recovering from what had happened to me."
At this point, he smiled wryly. "I created a jutsu when I was a kid. It temporarily turns me into a girl and I've been told that 'her' voice is pretty good as well."
"Wait, you can turn yourself into a girl?" Seto asked in disbelief.
"It's basically a henge." Dai said with a snort. "I don't think it's possible to turn yourself into a real girl without a whole lot of surgery."
Shinji chuckled at the expression on the red head's face. It was a mixture of confusion and disappointment.
"And do you want to be a real girl?" he asked and Seto threw a pen at him.
"Ass."
"Can we see it?" Tenchu asked quietly, an intense look in his eyes.
With a puff of smoke, Dai was suddenly replaced with a buxom blonde with long blonde pigtails. But this was slightly different than his original jutsu. This time, 'she' was wearing the same clothes he was wearing before he transformed. The scars were also missing, displaying the whisker marks unblemished for the first time in almost two years.
"How's this?" he asked, his voice now a husky contralto.
"Wow. You're beautiful." Seto said, a blush flashing across his pale cheeks.
"Thanks, but you're not my type." 'she' said.
"Yeah, he likes girls, not guys!" Shinji said playfully.
"Not really. I'm gay." Dai said calmly. "I just like black hair and dark eyes."
They entire table looked at him in shock. Finally Misato said into the silence, "What?"
"I. Am. Gay." He said slowly, emphasizing each word as though he was talking to a group of one year olds.
"So are you a seme or an uke?" Shinji asked after a moment.
"You will never know." Dai said, not even batting an eye at the question.
"Anyway, so let's hear this voice." Tenchu said after clearing his throat uncomfortably.
Sighing, 'she' stood up and took a cd out of 'her' pocket. "Here, I had a friend help me put this together. We can change it somewhat, but this is what the song should sound like."
Tenchu took the cd and popped it into a cd player in the corner of the room. As the music started, Dai took a deep breath and made a discrete cross sign with his fingers, a shadow clone appearing unnoticed in the shadows of the back of the room.
'How can you see into my eyes
like open doors
Leading you down into my core
Where I've become so numb
As 'she' began singing, the others' eyes widened in shock at the smooth voice that poured out.
Without a soul
My spirit sleeping somewhere cold
Until you find it there and lead
It back home
Suddenly the clone began singing, leading 'her' through the chorus. The people at the table snapped their heads around as his deeper voice proceeded him out of the shadows as he began to walk around the table to join his creator.
(Wake me up)
Wake me up inside
(I can't wake up)
Wake me up inside
(Save me)
Call my name
and save me from the dark
(Wake me up)
Bid my blood to run
(I can't wake up)
Before I come undone
(Save me)
Save me from the nothing I've become
The clone became quiet as 'she' began the next verse, standing behind 'her' and looking at the group in front of them.
Now that I know
what I'm without
You can't just leave me
Breathe into me and make me real
Bring me to lifeare the life among the dead...
(Wake me up)
Wake me up inside
(I can't wake up)
Wake me up inside
(Save me)
Call my name
and save me from the dark
(Wake me up)
Bid my blood to run
(I can't wake up)
Before I come undone
(Save me)
Save me from the nothing I've become
Bring me to life
(I've been living a lie
There's nothing inside)
Bring me to life
Frozen inside
without your touch
Without your love, darling
Only you
As 'she' fell silent after the long note, he took up singing again with him as the main singer and 'her' as the backup.
(All this time
I can't believe I couldn't see
Kept in the dark
but you were there in front of me)
I've been sleeping
a thousand years it seems
Got to open my eyes to everything
(Without a thought, without a voice, without a soul)
Don't let me die here
(There must be something more)
Bring me to life
(Wake me up)
Wake me up inside
(I can't wake up)
Wake me up inside
(Save me)
Call my name and save me from the dark
(Wake me up)
Bid my blood to run
(I can't wake up)
Before I come undone
(Save me)
Save me from the nothing I've become
Bring me to life
(I've been living a lie
There's nothing inside)
Bring me to life
'She' held the last word out, drawing it out for a long moment before falling silent.
"Wow." Tenchu whispered, shock written across his face.
"Thank you." Dai said as he dispelled the henge and the shadow clone. Sitting down, he stretched his legs out under the table and waited for someone else to speak.
"I loved that song." Seto said, a huge grin spreading across his face.
"Yeah, and I think I know how to improve the music it's self." Shinji said, almost vibrating in his seat with excitement.
"If you added some piano in the beginning, I think it would enhance it more. Slower there and then starting to pick it up during the first verse until it's full blast by the time the chorus kicks in." Misato said, her icy mask cracking as she began to think how the song would sound better with a few differences.
"So I take it, it meets your approval?" Dai asked drily as Shinji and Misato began tossing ideas back and forth.
"That must be on the album." Tenchu said and you could practically see the dollar signs in his eyes.
"Calm down. I don't see why we should get so excited about this song. Someone else probably wrote it." Mokoto said snottily.
"Just because you probably can't write music worth a shit, doesn't mean that you should blast someone that obviously can." Shinji snapped, a frown gathering on his face.
"Enough." Dai said flatly. "Mokoto, I have to except you here, but if you don't want to work with us, you might as well leave."
"You can't tell me what to do!" Mokoto snapped angrily.
"Actually, I can. The contract says that I have to let you be in this group, but what I say goes. If I tell you to go onstage dressed like a girl, you go on stage dressed like a girl." Dai said flatly, and Mokoto turned to Tenchu, anger dancing in his eyes. As he opened his mouth to say something, Tenchu spoke, leaving him with his mouth hanging open in shock.
"He's right. If he says jump, you ask how high." Tenchu said sourly.
"WHAT?!"
"After what the two of you put me through, are you really surprised?" Dai asked coldly.
"We only…"
"All you had to do was ask. A missing-nin wouldn't have told you he was a shinobi. All you would have had to do was check out my story. My hokage knew I was here doing this, but you jumped the gun thinking that I was an enemy."
There was silence in the room for a few moments before Shinji spoke up. "So how was prison? Did you drop the soap in the shower?"
The pure absurdness of the question made Dai bark out a laugh.
"No, I didn't drop the soap, and once I recovered from my breakdown at being in suppressors again, it was fine. Even the guards were really nice."
"Well, damn. There goes my idea that jail is terrible. Maybe I should get sent there. At least then I wouldn't have to pay rent and they do all the cooking."
Laughing, Dai shook his head. "You are one crazy mother-fucker."
"Thanks."
"No problem."
That sent most of the people in the room into hysterics. After everyone had calmed down and resumed their seats, Dai spoke up.
"I have a folder of songs that I've written. Some are inspired by my time in jail, some are older. I'm also working on another. That one's not in here yet, but when I finish it, I'll bring it in."
"How many songs are finished?" Seto asked.
"Twelve, but I'm not sure I like one of them."
"Why?" Misato asked, curious.
"Well, it has a completely different feel to it than my others. The style is kind of spianish? Spanish? I'm not sure how to pronounce the word. A traveler stopped by one day when I was singing and he said he would love to do a song with me. This is what we came up with. We already recorded it, but he wanted me to put it out instead of him doing it. He said no one would have heard of him here. I think he was from outside of the hidden lands."
"Really? What's his name?" Tenchu asked.
"Santana? I think its Carlos Santana." Dai said slowly.
"SANTANA?! He's the best guitarist ever! I mean, I've heard of him and he's only been to the continent maybe twice!" Tenchu exclaimed as he leaned forward in his chair.
"Really? He's a really nice guy, but I thought he was pulling my leg." Dai said with a thoughtful frown.
"Is there anyway you can get in touch with him?"
"No, he just said he would see me when I became big." Dai said with a shrug. Ignoring the crushed expression on the producer's face, he turned to the others.
"So, would you bring in this song so that we could hear it? Then we could decide whether or not to put it in the album." Shinji said with a gleam in his eyes. With a swish of his long hair, he bounded out of his chair and scooped up the file on the table. Flipping though, he paused at one, "This one sounds good. Coming Undone? Interesting name." he muttered more to himself than to Dai.
"Yeah, that one's going to be a hit. It already has fans." Dai said dryly.
"Oh?" Seto asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah. My old team heard it when I was running through it in jail and they were floored by it. The pink bitch actually asked me out because of it. She's such a fangirl. But then she took it back when she realized it was me and not someone else." Dai said, his lips twisted in disgust.
"She did that?" Shinji asked, confused that a girl would react that way.
"Yup."
"Wow, what a bitch."
"You have no idea."
A/N
Ok, here it is. Chapter 5. I worked on it until almost 3:30 in the morning, just to get it out before I head to the next part of my journey. I'll be home by Tuesday, but this was sitting partially finished on my fiancée's laptop and I wanted to finish it before I left in the morning. We're supposed to leave at 8 and I haven't even packed yet. This is going to be interesting. Well, enjoy!!
Ja ne, Shinigami-chan
A/N 8/5/08
Well, here is is, the corrected verison. i'm at work right now and i decided to reread it before i start on the next chapter. Good thing i did! Missing letters, wrong words, things that didn't really make sense, and i used spell check on it too! This is still basicly the same, just fixed a little. The new chapter shpuld be out by Saturday.
shinigami-chan