The Ultimate Konoha Idol!
By Tru and Neko
Disclaimer: We don't own Naruto. Be thankful.
**
CHAPTER 7: Nail Polish is so a Color!
"Save the effort," hissed Gaara threateningly. "You're going to get eliminated anyway."
"Quiet!" said Kurenai.
Temari was slowly waking up.
"W-who's there? And where's Shikamaru?"
"I'LL TELL YOU WHERE HE IS!!!" screeched Ino."HE'S OUT IN THE FOREST SOMEWHERE STARING AT CLOUDS!!!!"
"Right!" said Temari. "I remember now! He forfeited!"
Kankuro was also awake by now.
"Is this song about PUPPETS!?!?!????!!?!??" he asked hopefully.
"I'm Haku," announced Haku quietly, "and I will be singing 'In my Head' by Anna Nalick."
"I love her songs!" gasped Temari.
In the background, soft music started.
"Under the weight of your wings," sung Haku in a girl's voice. "You are a god and whatever I want you to be and I wonder if truly you are really as beautiful as I believe."
"I see how this relates to Haku!" snickered Naruto.
"NARUTO!" screamed Iruka. "IF YOU DON'T QUIET DOWN THIS SECOND, I'M PULLING YOU FROM THE SHOW!!!!"
"But I have to sing my song that's about being Hokage!" whined Naruto.
"The 'I Wanna Be Hokage' song?" asked Kakashi.
"Noooooooooooooooooo! I can't tell you what it is, because that would ruin the surprise!"
"And I can't tell you my youthful song, because that would ruin its youthfulness!" Guess who said that.
"In my head," continued Haku, meanwhile, "your voice, you've got all that I need and this make believe will get me through another lonely night."
In the brief interlude, he asked Sakura, "Is Naruto like this for every song?"
"So far?" replied Sakura. "Pretty much."
Lee and Naruto continued their discussion about the secretiveness of their songs as Haku continued singing.
"Under the weight of your wings should ever we meet on your side of your stereo I will pretend I know not of your thoughts, and even the way that they mirror my own-"
"There's a second reason this is Haku's song," giggled Naruto. "The word 'mirror'!"
"Yes, but not in the correct form," muttered Kakashi. He was careful not to say this too loud, as this would have resulted in another lengthy grammar discussion.
"-I'll take you away in the way that you take me and go where I go."
Ignoring Naruto and Lee, Haku finished the song with no further interruptions. In the same shy manner as his soft but clear singing, he gave a small bow and glided toward the judges' table.
"Uh, wait, that's it?" Naruto looked up from his staring contest against Lee.
"Yes! I win!" Lee exclaimed joyfully, at the same time Guy yelled, "53-52!! Take that!"
"Hn," commented Kakashi, immersed in his book. The rest of the crowd began clapping, and Lee and Guy, mistaking the applause for them, bowed.
Sakura hit Lee on the head. "You idiot! We're cheering for Haku!"
"Sakura-chan hates me…" Lee whimpered, sinking to the ground in sadness.
Guy slumped. "53-53."
Up on stage, the judges turned to Haku.
"Your singing was beautiful," Temari gushed.
"Yeah, it was actually okay, though it wasn't about puppets," said Kankuro.
"You are not a boy," Gaara stated calmly.
"GAARA!" screamed Temari.
"Yes, I am," Haku protested calmly.
"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!?" Kankuro sweatdropped, whirling back around to face Haku. He had been unconscious during the I'm-Actually-A-Boy discussion. "NO WAY! I'M SCARRED FOR LIFE NOW!"
Haku smiled mysteriously and flounced off the stage.
"O-okay," Iruka said, returning to center stage. "Our next contestant will be…" He reached into the Hokage's hat.
"Tenten."
Eagerly she skipped onstage.
"Tenten, use the power of your YOUTH to win!" screamed Guy.
"Yeah, Tenten!" yelled Lee.
"…" went Neji again.
"What will you be singing?" asked Temari.
"Is it about-"
"No. I'm sorry, but I'm not singing about puppets."
"So, it's about pink?" asked Naruto, remembering Tenten's favorite colour of clothes.
"Pink puppets?"
"I already said that IT'S NOT ABOUT PUPPETS!"
"Yeah! It's about youthfulness!" said the younger person that wore green spandex. "No, wait, that's my song."
"I have a question," Sakura said, raising her hand. She pointed to Guy and Lee. "ARE THEY RELATED!?!??!?!?!?"
"How come no one likes puppets?"
"No one's as obsessed with them as you."
"Well, some people could at least thank us for judging this show. I mean, who would they turn to if we weren't there? Someone could thank us by singing about puppets!"
Temari shook her head in fusteration. Why did she bother trying to talk sense into him?
"THIS SHOW WAS NOT INTENDED TO BE A DISCUSSION ABOUT PUPPETS!!!!!!!!!" growled Kurenai.
"Wait!" cried Tenten. "I haven't even told you what I'm singing yet!"
"Bwahahaha!" laughed Lee in a shameful inpersonation of evil laughter. "Only Guy, Neji, and myself know what Tenten is about to sing! Well, Tenten knows, too, because she's the one singing."
"No, I don't," Neji finally spoke up to no one in particular. "I purged that training session from my memory."
"If you don't let me tell you what I'm singing," threatened Tenten, "I won't sing at all!"
The crowd gasped.
"But…" cried Lee, "we need all our team to pass so we'll have more chance to win with our youth!"
Guy ran over to Lee, who was crying loudly.
"Lee," he comforted the tearful youth. That word alone made Lee much happier.
"You have to understand. Tenten's young. Mistakes and youth go hand in hand. Also, you need to learn that sometimes a mission will rest firmly on your shoulders and no one else's. Just as if Neji, Tenten and I were captured on a mission and you had to rescue us-"
Lee was happy at the thought of rescuing his rival, not vice versa.
"-if Neji and Tenten are eliminated this round, you have to go on and avenge them with the power of youthfulness!"
Neji was staring at this moment of sentimentality in shocked silence.
After Lee stopped crying, Tenten spoke up.
"Now can – sorry, may I say just what song I'm singing?"
The crowd nodded in agreement.
"Okay, before that long, unexpected delay in the form of a discussion about puppets that turned into a Lee/Guy moment, I started to indroduce my song. Now I can finally finish. I'm singing 'Behind These Hazel Eyes' by Kelly Clarkson."
Temari roared in approval. Kankuro nodded. Gaara was himself.
"Gaara couldn't sing that song, because his eyes are green," said Kankuro.
"Excuse me," hissed Gaara, "but you're my brother, and you don't know my eyes are blue."
"A very teal blue?" pleaded Kankuro hopefully.
"No, it's a pale blue. By the way, my hair is red," continued Gaara.
"Well, my puppet has brown hair!" said Kankuro proudly.
"Puppets, puppets, puppets," muttered Gaara.
"After another random delay about eye and hair colours, CAN I SING NOW?!??!?" demanded Tenten.
No one interrupted her this time.
"Seems like just yesterday," Tenten began, "you were a part of me. I used to stand so tall; I used to be so strong. Your arms around me tight; everything, it felt so right, unbreakable, like nothin' could go wrong. Now I can't breathe. No, I can't sleep. I'm barely hanging on…"
She raised her voice, "Here I am, once again, I'm torn into pieces. Can't deny it, can't pretend, just thought you were the one. Broken up, deep inside, but you won't get to see the tears I cry behind these hazel eyes."
Naruto gasped. "Hey, Tenten HAS hazel eyes!"
"You JUST noticed?" growled Kiba from two seats down.
"I'm surprised he knows what 'hazel' means," muttered Sasuke.
"Yeah, I did," Naruto defended, "What, who looks closely at people's eyes?!"
"I know everyone's eye color," Sakura said smartly, glancing at Sasuke with a blush. "I mean, Naruto has blue eyes. I have sea-green eyes. Sasuke…" Her blush deepened. "…has onyx eyes."
"So? Those are your teammates," Kiba spat. "Do you know anyone else?"
"Then what color are your teamates' eyes?" challenged Sakura.
"Hinata, pale purple. Me, black. Akamaru has black eyes."
"Akamaru is your teammate?"
Kiba and Akamaru growled at Sakura, who hastily put up her hands in defense. "Okay, okay! Sorry! But what about Shino?"
Kiba sweatdropped. "Uh…no one's sure what color his eyes are because he never takes his glasses off."
"Fine!" Sakura snapped.
"Oh! What about Team Ten?" Naruto butted in.
"Ino-"
"Blue-"
"Shikamaru-"
"Black-"
"Choji-"
"Also black," Sakura and Kiba finished together.
"Can you two be quiet?!" fumed Lee. "I'm trying to listen to Tenten!"
Sakura and Kiba exchanged fierce glances. "NO!"
"Team Guy," suggested Kiba. "Tenten-"
"Hazel," answered Sakura.
"Lee, black. And Neji…"
"The color of my nail polish," Sakura said calmly.
Kiba's eye twitched. "What?"
"The purple that was supposed to be purple but actually turned out to be really pale, so it reminded me of Neji's eyes," Sakura explained, utterly confusing Naruto and Kiba. Akamaru, of course, understood perfectly.
"Arf!"
"Hey, don't side with her!" growled Kiba. "Nail polish is not a color! You lose!"
"It is so a color!" yelled Sakura.
"SHUT UP!" screeched Lee.
"Fine," snarled Kiba. "One last challenge…" He glanced around the clearing.
"Haku!" Naruto said happily.
"Hakuhasbrowneyes," Sakura said speedily as Haku came to say hi to Naruto.
"Hey, that's not fair!" complained Kiba. "I didn't even know who he was!"
"You have a very cute dog," commented Haku.
"Arf!"
"Here I am, once again, I'm torn into pieces. Can't deny it, can't pretend, just thought you were the one. Broken up, deep inside, but you won't get to see the tears I cry behind these hazel eyes," Tenten finished to a round of wild applause. Kiba and Sakura looked up in surprise.
Tenten walked over to the judges' table.
"Wow, you have such a nice voice," commented Temari.
Kankuro yawned. "Yeah, it was okay."
Both Tenten and Temari glared daggers at him.
Gaara was staring off into space.
"What are their eye colors?" demanded Kiba.
"Enough with the eye color thing!" said Lee. "Who cares about eye color, anyway?"
"Gaara's eye color is obvious because he said it-"
"ENOUGH!" yelled Lee.
"Okay," announced Iruka. "The next contestant is-"
Naruto, sensing a moment of opportunity, created several doppel-gangers. Approximately ten doppel-gangers pounced on Iruka in a gigantic bear hug. The other one stole Iruka's hat.
Now what was the real Naruto doing all this time?
He was suffering the consequences of drinking expired milk (a.k.a. he was in the restroom).
**
Please review!
Haku - 'In My Head' by Anna Nalick
Tenten - 'Behind These Hazel Eyes' by Kelly Clarkson
Yeah, Neko actually owns that nailpolish mentioned above :P It's so pretty though...