1zara-uchiha1 and I don't own the Naruto cast or anything else you might recognize. 1zara-uchiha1 owns Laura and I own Kahlan. Together we own the plot.
Chapter 77
Note: That Akatsuki are not that bad at giving tips and encouragement; what a shocker.
~Kahlan's POV
After dinner I pull out my cell. I had forgotten to inform my parents. So I quickly dial in the house phone and wait for it to be answered. I only wait until the second ring and my father's voice comes through.
"Hello this is the residence of Kahlan Ward, how may I be able to assist you?"
"Hey dad," I say. There's no need to tell him who I am, one of the perks to being an only child. "I have called to inform that the others and I are staying at a hotel for the night. We'll probably be back home sometime tomorrow evening."
"Ah, I understand," he replies. "I'll be sure to inform your mother. Is there anything else?"
"No that's all."
"Alright, then I hope you and your friends had fun. Your mother and I will be here when you all get back. Goodnight and have fun tomorrow."
"Same goes to you," I reply.
I hang up the phone after that not bothering with any words of 'I-love-you.' Instead I put on the headphones to Laura's mp3 player and listen to the song she chose for us. My eyes close soaking in the lyrics until the song ends. I then reply it and listen to the beat. After that I reply it another ten times to memorize the words and what part they come in at. It takes me about an hour.
"Itachi," I say as I restart the music then pause it. He looks over and I hold up the mp3 player. "Could you help me with this…please?"
He nods then walks over. I hand over the mp3 player and then play the song. He closes his eyes and I watch him until the song ends. He hands it back over once it is over and I place it back on the song and on pause.
"What is it you need help with," he asks.
"Pronouncing the words," I reply.
With a nod he says, "I can help."
"Alright thanks," I say standing up.
Thankfully the room has a small stereo. So I plug the mp3 player in, place the song on repeat and press play. I lower the volume down a bit and start to sing the song. The moment the words started and I went to sing along they stumbled out of my mouth like I'm a drunk. I stop the music making a face. Knowing the words (even if you don't know what they mean) is a lot easier than being able to pronounce them.
"I'm going to restart that," I say as I put the song back to the beginning.
"Take your time and don't rush," he replies.
I nod and start the song again. Once again the words tumble around falling clumsily out of my mouth. It frustrates me a bit, so I start it again. Itachi somehow able to memorize the song after only hearing it once helps me to pronounce the first line. I follow his instructions, close my eyes and listen very intently with my ears. I let the words rolls around my mind, and mouth them then pronounce them out loud.
"Soften the way you say the words no need to say them with such harsh force," Itachi says. "Plus saying them the way you have will not do well with the song."
With a nod I take in his advice. I repeat the first line with less force. Itachi gives a very small nod of approval. So I give a small smile and repeat the words again and again. I don't stop repeating until Itachi holds up his hand.
"We will move onto the next line," he states.
With a nod we go through the same process with the second line. It is a little easier than the first one since two of the words are repeated. When I'm able to master the line good enough we move on towards the next.
For the next two hours we go from line to line. Itachi is patient enough with me and my murdering of the words and possibly the language. He instructs me on the pronunciation, gives very helpful tips and does not once criticize my fumbling tongue. He sits by calmly while I would let my frustration take hold and yank on my hair pulling out some stands of snow hair. When that little episode passes I throw myself into learning the words and getting them correct with a fever, only to hit a wall again. But I accept the challenge not wanting to let Laura down and slowly climb my way over every wall to the very end. A lot of the credit would have to go to Itachi for actually being a good teacher.
"Okay, now trying singing the song," Itachi politely commands.
With a nod I restart the song. I start of okay, but end up stumbling across a few words in the chorus, but quickly cover that up by continuing singing the song as if nothing happen. By the end of the song I have screwed up a few of the lines, and it slightly annoys me that I got them wrong because I know them.
"Try again," Itachi says.
I try again, and continue trying for the next hour until I'm no longer stumbling over the words. It's a long process where I get frustrated easily, but continue to give it all I have. At the end of the hour Itachi holds up his hand.
"You did well," he says as I turn the music off. "It's getting late; you'll need your rest."
"Of course," I reply letting out a happy sigh.
My mouth is dry so I head over to the mini-fridge and go and pull out a bottle of water. Surprisingly, I just realized Konan and Mr. Wilson are already asleep. Seeing them sleep makes me yawn. Quickly I chug down the water and toss the bottle into the recycling bin. I climb into the bed Konan is laying in and pull the covers over me. Itachi then turns off the lights and I guess gets into bed as well.
After a few minutes I call out, "Itachi."
"Hn," is his reply.
I stare at the ceiling for a few minutes then reply with, "Thank you for the help."
"You're welcome," he replies slightly shocking me. I wasn't expecting a reply. With another yawn I pulled one of the extra pillows from beneath my head and hugged it close to me. My eyes shut as the song continue to play in my head. I fall asleep whispering the words.
I wake up early in the morning. I've never really been able to sleep in when staying in a place that isn't my own bed. With a yawn, I roll out of bed stretching. I notice the others are still sleeping so I take the time to go take a shower. While in the shower I practice the song Laura and I will be doing together in the talent show. I almost end up doing a loud squeal when I do it correctly without stumbling over the words like a fool.
I get out of the shower, dry off and place the yukata back on. Later I'll have to change back in the Cosplay and that bothers me just a little. I never really could get into clothes that were revealing…I happen to be very self-conscious when it comes to my body.
Walking out of the bathroom I see that Itachi is awake. I give a small wave and head over to the bed unsure of what to do. I'm not in the mood to watch TV and I can't go out to jog. My music stuff is at home so I can't work on any of that. I guess I can decide what song I should sing on my own.
There is so many choices to choose from, but I want one I know I can relate to. Being able to relate to it means I don't have to fake any of the emotion for it. In addition, since I'll be singing in front of a crowd I'll have to get used to singing about songs that can reflect not only who I am, but what I possibly feel and think on the inside. Maybe I could do a song to show a little of my vulnerability.
With that thought in mind I get off the bed and search for paper and pens. I quickly find some in a drawer. Taking one piece of paper and ripping it apart, I write song names and the artist of the song I then proceed to crumble the pieces of paper up. When it's done I search for a small bowl and luckily find one. Placing the crumble paper inside, I walk over to Itachi holding out the bowl.
"Pick one please," I say. He just slightly raises his brow, but places his hands inside. A few seconds later after moving his hands around he pulls out a piece of crumble paper. "Thanks," I say taking it from him.
I then dump the un-needed paper into the recycling bin and place the bowl back. After that I un-crumble the paper and see what Itachi had pulled out. I give a small smile seeing the song title since it is a song I know by heart. I then place that paper in the recycling bin as well just as Konan wakes up.
"Good morning," I say to her with a smile.
"Morning," she replies giving her normal small smile in return.
Around seven thirty I go to see if Laura is awake. I almost bump into her in the hall. She grins and gives me a hug; I return the hug and pat her on the head. We then leave to go sign up with Deidara part of our buddy system that Leader has set up. In line we sign up on the duet page and then I also sign up on the solo page. The talent show hasn't started yet and I'm already starting to get nervous.
We end up waiting for thirty minutes for them to assign the times of when each person will be going. Luckily, Laura and I will have our duet at noon. My solo will be an hour later. That gives us plenty time to practice. So we head back to the hotel rooms and eat breakfast.
After breakfast the two of us start practicing. Itachi, Konan and Deidara sit by to watch, help and give any pointers. First Laura and I decide who will sing what parts. To give us both the same amount of time and lines I said we should go back and forth with the lines but sing the chorus together. With that agreed upon we started practicing.
The first time we sing the song, we're just singing to make sure we know it and are doing the right lines. Actually we do that for the first ten times. Konan suggested that if we needed help for who should do what line, we would look at the other after finishing our line then look back to the crowd. It made sense really adding to the fact that we're doing a duet. The next ten times we practice doing what Konan suggested and found that it was a lot of help.
After that though, I was the one to start getting a bit critical. Laura's pitch for the song was fine. Mine would sometimes end up out of range and that got on my nerve. What really bothered me was when it got to the chorus, our pitch may have been fine but we weren't singing in harmony. So, I ended up stopping the song and spend ten to fifteen minutes to figure out how the two of us will be able to sing in harmony. It ended up that Laura's voice was only good for a certain range and if she tried to go above or below that range she ended up hurting her throat. So, I had to fix my vocal range for us to be able to sing in harmony.
The next thing to bother me is the emotion for the song. Laura was able to get it, most likely because she actually knows the song. I on the other hand have never been one to like to sing songs that I couldn't put emotion in. So we had to spend time on the explanation of the song. After the explanation, I had to see how I could interpret that song in any life experiences that I had. It had taken a while but I was able to do it and then we got back to practicing.
We practiced until ten thirty then stopped. If we practiced any more we would have stranded our vocals and that would have been very bad if our voices gave out while on stage. So, since we were to wait until our time, we got us some water and with everyone else went back down to the anime convention. We stayed as an entire group walking around and stopping every now and again to the part the talent show was taking place. Sometimes we stayed to watch people and sometimes we just went back to walking around, Kakuzu happily earning money from pictures.
Fifteen minutes before noon I was a taut ball of nerves. I kept biting on my lower lip, my brows would narrow in worry thinking of ways this could go wrong, and I even tugged at my hair and wrap it around my fingers. This will actually be my first time on stage singing in front of a lot of people.
"Relax," Itachi says coming out of nowhere. "Getting yourself worked up will cause you to make mistakes."
"Easier said than done," I say sighing as I once again tug at a strand of hair then wrap it around my index finger.
"Close your eyes, take deep calming breaths and count to ten," Sasori says also coming from nowhere.
"We'll do great Kahlan no need to be nervous," Laura says with a grin and gives a reassuring hug.
"I hope so," I reply returning the hug.
"It's about time you two go," Leader says.
"Break a fucking leg," Hidan says with a grin.
"You'll do great, yeah."
"Tobi will cheer very loudly for you."
"Your mother and I will record the whole thing," Mr. Wilson says.
"Good luck shrimp," John says as he ruffles Laura's hair. She glares and swats his hand away. I chuckle relieving some of my nerves.
"Good luck to the both of you," Konan says with her usuall smile.
"Thanks," Laura says with a grin.
"Let's go," I say grabbing Laura's hand and pulling her over to where we need to go.
We go and verify who we are and what song we'll be doing. When noon rolls around they announce who we are and the song we'll be singing. Laura gives a grin and squeezes my hand as we walk on stage. The both of us wave to the crowd and walk over to the microphones. I take deep calmly breaths quickly running the song through my head so no to look at the screen for the words. I place my hands on the microphone just as the music starts playing.
"Habata itara modoranai to itte .Mezashita no wa aoi aoi ano sora," the two of us sing together then let the music play.
When it gets to the next line I glance over to Laura, she smiles and sings, ""Kanashimi" wa mada oboerarezu."
She glances at me and I sing, ""Setsunasa" wa ima tsukami hajimeta."
This goes back and forth until we reach the chorus. Once at the chorus we look at each other and sing together. The crowd would cheer while we sing up until the very end of the song. Once it was over the two of us bowed and then walked off stage.
"That was epic," Laura says with a grin and glomps me in a hug.
Chuckling I reply, "Yeah we did awesome." Now having experience what it's like being on stage first hand I think doing my solo will be just fine.
We go to catch up with everyone. Some of them praised us like Mr. and Mrs. Wilson along with Konan, Deidara, Tobi and Kisame. Some said nothing at all like Kakuzu, Itachi, Zetsu and Leader. And the rest said they would congratulate us if we win. That earned them glares. We then all go to get lunch to wait for my solo. The wait was surprisingly quick.
"You'll do great I know it," Laura says giving me a hug before letting me go. I go through the same process as I did when Laura and I first went up.
"Here is our next contestant," says the guy running the show.
Taking a deep breath I walk on stage. The man wishes me luck then walks off. I get to the microphone wishing I had a guitar so I could do something with my hands.
"I'm Kahlan Ward and I'll be singing let me be myself by three doors down." I nod my head in the direction to the people behind the curtains. For a moment I close my eyes as the music starts playing. Just as it is time to say the words I open my eyes, and stare out at the crowd.
"I guess I just got lost, being someone else. I tried to kill the pain, nothing ever helped," I sing putting everything I have into the song along with the emotion.
Pointing to myself I continue, "I left myself behind." I point behind me to help not only do something with my hands but to convey the emotion; "Somewhere along the way; hoping to come back around, to find myself someday."
I let the music flow into me as I pour it out in a torrent of emotions.
"Lately I'm so tired of waiting for you, to say that it's okay.
But tell me please, would you one time; just let me be myself, so I can shine with my own light?
Let me be myself.
Would you let me be myself?
I'll never find my heart, behind someone else.
I'll never see the light of day living in this cell.
It's time to make my way, into the world I knew, and then take back all of these times that I gave into you.
Lately I'm so tired of waiting for you, to say that it's okay.
But tell me please, would you one time; let me be myself, so I can shine with my own light?
And let me be myself, for a while, if you don't mind.
Let me be myself, so I can shine with my own light.
Let me be myself.
That's all I've ever wanted from this world, is to let me be me."
Softening my voice, I slightly look down then look up from behind my bangs as I continue.
"Please, would you one time, let me be myself, so I can shine with my own light?
Let me be myself.
Please, would you one time, let me be myself, so I can shine with my own light?
Let me be myself, for a while, if you don't mind.
Let me be myself so I can shine, with my own light.
Let me by myself, would you one time…oooh.
Let me be myself. And let me be me." Finishing, I bow, thank everyone then get off stage. That was a lot of fun.
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