Naruto didn't even say good bye when he walked out of the house the morning of the competition.
And he didn't call Sasuke with the time of his performance. Sasuke was lucky to even have guessed the right time that the competition actually started.
So Sasuke sat in the back of the balcony and watched all the performers, some even old students of his, perform their songs.
It wasn't till Sasuke had sat through three hours of agonizingly bad performances (how the hell was I suppose to know that they did this alphabetically!) before he saw a flash of pink.
Sakura was sitting in the third row next to Kakashi, who kept looking at his watch, twitching every now and then.
Sasuke straightened in his seat as he looked down at the couple. Had they been there the whole time? Did they just arrive? Sasuke looked the phonebook of a program stupidly. He looked slouched. He eyed the lady sitting next to him who had a video camera tightly strapped to her small hand as she grinned manically. She caught his eye and laughed softly. "My boy on stage, Suzuki Mamato, he's just the greatest! He practices seven hours a day and his three other brothers and one sister are in this too! I hope one of them wins!"
The smile she gave him made the hair on his neck stick up and made his blood crawl. And an Uchiha admitting that was something. He smiled warily and stood, bowing curtly. "Congratulations on having such wonderful performers, but, I must leave now." He sometimes hated lying through his teeth, but this wasn't one of those times. Her children were awful. There was nothing Sasuke hated more than Suzuki students with the last name Suzuki. He broke eye contact, lifting the bag he brought with him and spinning on his heel, and curtly walking towards the stairs down to the main hall at a fast pace.
III
Naruto sighed. This wasn't such a good idea…I shouldn't have come…I'm going to make an ass of myself…I wish Sasuke was here. No…scratch that…he would probably say I'm going to make an ass out of myself and I'll screw up even more than I will. Naruto looked down at his music; Mozart's Concerto 23. Naruto took quick breaths, eyes watering up; the sweat from his hands had smudged his music, making the end of the page almost illegible. Naruto dropped the music and put his instrument down carefully. He ran to the backstage bathroom and wretched a stall open, and plopped down putting his head between his knees. I can't do this, I can't do this, I can't do this…
"Um…Is there an Uzumaki Naruto in here?" a high voice called into the bathroom. "Uzumaki Naruto?"
"YeAh?" he croaked. "I'm in here…" he swung open the door, face heated and hair in his face.
The small girl looked in curiously. "Are you okay Uzumaki-san? Because if you're not…"
"No! No…I'm fine…just…what is it?" he gasped, standing up with difficulty.
"You're on…in twenty-five minutes…probably twenty now…" she blushed. Naruto nodded and she hurried out, obviously afraid of the tabooed place she was half in.
Once she was gone Naruto walked over to the sink, gripping the sides until his knuckles turned white and slammed it on, take heaving breathes before splashing water onto his face. "Oh god…I can't do this, I can't do this, I can't do this…" he chanted into the sink. He didn't even look up when the bathroom door opened and someone walked in. "Deep breathes Uzumaki, deep breathes…in twenty minutes it will all be over." He splashed more water onto his face.
"It's not wise to play the violin with wet hands or face." Naruto froze when he heard the voice. It can't be… he jumped when he felt something touch his hand. "Dry off." Sasuke commanded as Naruto starred at him through the mirror above the sink. Their eyes locked and Naruto scowled.
"What are you doing here? To tell me I'm going to make an ass of myself."
"No, you've probably told yourself that enough already. You no doubt need any help from me…" Naruto's scowl didn't waver as he spun around, sizing Sasuke up.
It never failed to shock the blond how fast he was catching up to his sensei.
"I'm not going to make an ass of myself. I'm going to be the best. Because Sakura and Kakashi believe in me!"
"Bullshit." Sasuke said calmly. Throwing the small towel he offered at the boy's face. He picked up his bag and walked out of the room. Naruto scowled and stormed after him.
"You bastard! You can't just waltz up and tell me I can't play with wet hands and tell me that I'm going to make an ass of myself and just walk away!"
"You really don't want to make the instrument soggy, it ruins the coating…"
"You bastard!" Naruto grabbed Sasuke by the arm and spun him around. He pulled his hand back, releasing all his anger and nerves out on the man in front of him when Sasuke caught his fist.
"You really shouldn't get angry at me and punch me. Especially before you perform because if you do, you're going to do worse than you really would."
"I think that I will do much better after getting rid of you." Naruto snarled.
Sasuke smiled, letting go on Naruto's fist. "No, you would feel bad and suck even more." Naruto's face became redder. Sasuke sighed. "Listen, I didn't come back here to get you all riled up…I came back here to show you something…" Sasuke dropped his back and circled Naruto. "But first we need to find your instrument…" Naruto didn't take his eyes off his teacher as the older man pushed him slightly. "Lead the way Naruto."
As Naruto led, the small girl from early passed him. "Ten minutes Uzumaki-san." He nodded as he stalked towards his instrument.
He stopped next to the place he stuck his instrument and spun to look at his teacher who was already walking up to the instrument. He softly plucked the strings. Sasuke looked up from the instrument to him, "You tune this?" Naruto could only nod. "It was a bad job. You need to make sure that you're emotions aren't getting in the way. And these tapes-" he pulled at the finger tapes along the neck. "You don't need them they look…"
"Unprofessional?" Naruto snapped.
Sasuke looked at him with confusion. "No, stupid. You don't need them, so why have them there?"
Naruto tilted his head a little bit as he watched Sasuke go back to his work. "And this music…" he put the instrument down, and picked up the music. "You don't need this. You practice it enough to not need to look at it…I should throw it away. But…it's not my choice…it will look…cooler if you don't have it though. It makes you look like you know what you're doing…" Naruto had a strange feeling building up in his stomach. Not the normal feeling or nervousness but…a wondrous type.
"Sasuke…"
Sasuke put the music down and turned back to Naruto, "Turn around." He commanded. Naruto was sketchy, but did as he was told. He wondered what Sasuke was going to do before he felt warm hands on his shoulders.
Naruto groaned, "Sasuke-sensei…" he relaxed into his teacher as his teacher pumped his muscles, loosing the straining tendons.
"You can't go on stage all tight. Mozart was a very 'loose' composer and the concerto is one that you can't play properly while tight…" Naruto felt himself simply ooze to the ground as Sasuke moved up his neck. "You have such a lovely neck Naruto, you need a new shoulder rest, and the sponge won't do after today. I'm going to get you one much better and easier to work with." Naruto felt Sasuke's ministrations soften slightly as they caressed his neck and nape.
When Sasuke moved to his scalp, lightly scraping his nails across the roots, Naruto moaned his name.
"Uzu-" the small girl rounded the corner and saw the scene. Her face turned as bright red as it did in the bathroom.
"Yes?" Sasuke stared at the girl with disinterest.
"Uzumaki-san is next. He needs to report to stage now!" the girl ran off and away from the scene.
"You hear that Naruto-kun?" Sasuke whispered into Naruto's ear, yanking his hair hard, pulling him up to standing straight, he moaned loudly. "You're up next." He slapped the blond lightly in the face. Naruto snapped out of his trance and looked at Sasuke in bewilderment before turning blood red.
"Sasuke wha-"
"Good luck Naruto." Sasuke said, giving the boy a hug. "You'll do fine. You don't need luck you…yeah…" Sasuke picked up Naruto's instrument and music and handed to him as he escorted the player where he needed to go. "I'm proud of you Naruto and if you don't understand it now, you will in about, five minutes why I've been such a 'bastard' the last however long it's been…" Naruto looked at him weird before he walked out on stage. "Good luck Naruto. If you win, I'll show you want I came here to show you…"
Naruto nodded, as the director pushed him onto stage and into his destiny.
