Her fingers pressed against the strings firmly, as though it would stop the slight tremors in her hands. Breathe in. Breathe out. The form-fitting, pastel green dress she sported felt like a second skin as she nervously moved her position. Breathe in. Her hand moved to swing up the bow to her deep red violin. Breathe out.
She began to play.
Notes played together to become a melody and she allowed her eyelids to droop as she paused. Once again she brought the bow to the instrument, her eyelids snapped open. She muted the audience like she did when she muted a string on her guitar and made it all a distance hum except for her music.
The pinkette swayed with the music and let it take her to a different world, like a lullaby.
And then the dubstep kicked in.
Precipitately she began to play at a much quicker pace. Her slender hand moving fast and precise. She danced about the stage, the blond DJ at her back with his colourful lights behind him, pulling the audience into a trance as they watched the two.
Sakura's movements were now more robotic and she allowed herself to play along with the dubstep. Quick and deadly accurate, not missing a beat and wide smile tugging at her lips. As suddenly as the dubstep appeared it stopped, halting her melody as well. The whole arena was pitch black, no florescent lights nor spotlights.
Sweat dripped down her brow as she rolled one shoulder back, ready to strike her bow down at the music's' command
1, 2, 3.
All at once the lights flashed back on. Sakura and Naruto, now more in-sync than before as well as louder, shook the arena with the unexpected duel of instruments. Adrenalin coursed through her as her pink locks whipped into her face, a dazzling smile gracing her features.
It all flew by so fast and now here she was back at her flat with a small gathering of friends.
"To Sakura and Naruto! And one of their best-selling concerts!" Cheered Ino as everyone came together to clink their glasses of Asti Spumante in celebration. The sweet tasting, Italian champagne trickled a little bit over the glasses and onto the white, fluffy carpeting, but they were too happy to care.
The living room of our one and only favourite violinist, Sakura Haruno was filled with some of her best friends; Ino Yamanaka, Hinata Hyuga, Tenten Kasaneta, Kiba Inuzuka, Rock Lee and her fantastic partner in crime; Naruto Uzumaki.
So as the night droned on, more champagne was drunk and friends started to spill out of Sakura's flat one after the other around 1am. Finally Naruto, the last one to leave, gave the pinkette a sloppy kiss on the forehead before stumbling out the door, informing her that he'd be by her apartment at noon with a friend he wanted her to meet. Readying his phone to call a cab, he gave one last farewell.
Not really taking into account what he'd said, for she was only a liiiiitle bit drunk. The pink haired violinist cleaned up the dining area and flopped onto her large, pure white queen sized bed, she was asleep before her head even hit the pillow.
xxxxx
Swaying with her music, Sakura faded into her own little world as the bow glided across the strings of her sleek, black violin. She didn't use it very often, it was precious to her seeing as her mother had given it to her on her sixteenth birthday, when all this was just a hobby. So she only ever used it when she was alone, the beautiful sound it created was calming and assuring. It was something akin to a security blanket.
In the far corner of the room, sat her old acoustic guitar. Tattered, dented and scratched, it still played like it did when she was twelve. Sakura played three instruments; the guitar, violin and cello. All three instruments at least somewhat alike. The pinkette was a violinist yes, she played the violin in concerts, and she had albums out, was known only for her violin playing skills, but that didn't mean she wasn't allowed to play her other instruments just as well.
Finally tiring after a long music session, the pink haired violinist lifted the sleek, black instrument from under her chin and lowered it as well as the bow, before slowly padding over to the wall made entirely of windows in her studio. Gazing out she realized that the sun was now high in the sky instead of just over the horizon, she'd been playing for quite a while now.
Suddenly Sakura's head whipped around as five fast, high octave chimes resounded through the flat. Brow furrowing, the pinkette headed towards the front of the flat where she peered through the peep hole on her white door. Her blond dork of a friend was waiting in front- oh shit! Naruto and his friend were supposed to come today. Well at least her place wasn't a mess.
The door opened without a squeak and the pink haired violinist smiled at her blond friend.
"Sakura!" Naruto greeted happily as he took a step inside.
''Hey, Naruto." She greeted back just a raven haired man stepped out from behind the blond.
"Oh, Sakura, this is Sasuke Uchiha, the friend I told you about before leaving last night." He introduced.
Sakura smiled at the man and offered her hand up to shake his.
"Pleased to meet you, bone head here has been talking about you non-stop for a week." She said as her shook her hand with a strong grip. Hey, good handshakes where always a great start.
"Same goes for me, this dobe hasn't stop talking about his 'awesome, beautiful, talented, violinist best friend'." Sasuke smirked as he took his hand back and stuffed it in his front pocket.
Sakura's cheeks where tinged a light pink as she sent Naruto a look.
"We're heading down town to go for lunch, sushi sound good to you?" The blond asked.
"Yeah, sure sushi sounds good, let me just change, make yourself at home." The pinkette sighed as she led the duo into her home "Not that you don't do that already." She muttered that last part to herself, but of course Naruto this heard and stuck his tongue out childishly at her when she turned her back. Raising a brow at this, Sasuke said nothing.
Okay, she was going to be honest, Sasuke was one hunk of meat. He dressed nice, he look positively hansom and he had a classy air to him that just brought it all together, it also helped that he smell like expensive cologne but she had a feeling he wasn't wearing cologne. She had noted when she shook his hand that a black and blue part of a tattoo covered his wrist, it seemed to look like it twisted up his arm and the thought of the large tattoo on him may or may not have led to Sakura trying to imagine him without any cloths on and-whoa… The tips of her ears where already a light red as she starred into the full body mirror in her bedroom.
Rummaging through her draws as she attempted to push the thoughts of a man whom she'd just met unclothed, out of her head. The pinkette found a simple sheer yellow blouse and a pair of white-washed skinny jeans before sliding her small green emerald studs into her ears as per-usual. Letting her hair down from the two black chopsticks previously holding it up, the violinist dubbed herself acceptable.
"Stunning as usual Cherry Queen." Naruto complimented with a cheeky grin as Sakura locked her door.
"Oh, would you stop calling me that dammit, nobody except you calls me that," She berated before smacking him playfully upside the head, having to go on her tiptoes just to reach seeing as she was wearing a pair of black flats instead of heels. "but thanks for the compliment anyway." She finished.
Outside, Sakura and her idiot blond of a best friend started down the side walk to walk to the sushi place not far from her place. Sasuke on the other hand went directly for his car.
"Are we not driving there?" He asked with a raise of his eyebrows.
"Of course not it's just four blocks down and the weather's wonderful today." She responded with ease. It was a beautiful day and two partners in music usually walked anyway, why pollute the world more on such a nice day?
The obsidian eyed man look almost perplexed but you could barely tell with his stoic facade, Sakura just picked up on things fast unlike the blond next to her. Walking towards them Sasuke came up next to Naruto as they began to walk.
"No offense but I just thought you'd be like most well-known women I've met, who would much rather take a car than walk anywhere." He explained as he put his hand in his pockets and relaxed into the walk.
"Well it seems Naruto hasn't told you everything about me, has he?" She questioned with a smile that could almost qualify as a smirk.
"I wanted to surprise him." Naruto stated with a smile as he reached up to put his hands behind his head.
Sasuke stopped in his tracks but the duo kept walking, he blinked before shaking his head from side to side.
"Surprise, eh?"
xxxxx
"So, Sasuke. What do you do?" Sakura asked as she popped one of her smaller sized sushi in her mouth.
"I'm a doctor at Konoha, Leaf hospital." He answered with a raise of his chopsticks pointing out the window to her right.
"Really? What section?" She asked curiously.
He arched a single dark brow.
"Not to be nosy or anything." She clarified. "It's just that I may or may not be a med school dropout…" His eyes widened in surprise.
"Yeah I get that a lot." She paused to take a drink of water. Staying silent the obsidian eyed man encouraged her to continue.
"My mother was- still is, a very famous doctor. You probably know her, Doctor Tsunade Senju. She's brilliant, truly. Me being her adopted daughter of course there was a lot of… pressure and eyes on me to excel as she did as a doctor or medic."
She paused to let it soak in, eyeing him for any discomfort on the topic, or possible pity. She in all honesty hated to be pitied for her situation. Orphaned, both parents dying when she was only four. She didn't remember anything about them except for the fact that her mother had long pink tresses, and beautiful emerald green eyes. The splitting image of herself only… Warmer and motherly, something unexplainable that almost made her want to have kids so that she could be spoken of the same way.
Anyway off topic the pinkette continued with her small life story.
"I didn't exactly excel as everybody had hoped and that's when I broke down. I'm surprised you never heard about it. The media was all over it when I failed after my break down, needless to say; my mother was furious. Not with me, but with the reporters and the media."
Naruto sent her a look that told her she didn't have to continue if she was uncomfortable. She sent him a look back in which he obviously knew she was over it, and didn't care.
"For a while no one heard from me, it was then that I was trying to overcome this stupid little bump in my life and hey, look at me now, I met Naruto at that time too." She smiled warmly as he eyes glazed over in remembrance of when she first met Naruto.
xxxxx
"One café latte with pumpkin spice please." The vibrant blond haired boy ordered. Waiting for his order to be made he glanced behind him at the small brown tables.
The café was small and not very well known, but the things they did with pumpkins and coffee where out of this world.
There was only four other people at the café; a group of three friends, and one pink haired woman in the corner of the shop, where the two windows of the place met. Eyeing the girl he couldn't help but allow his face scrunch up with sadness. She looked troubled and lonely, her mug almost empty too.
That simply would not do.
Getting the barista's attention, he waved down the brunette with twin buns.
"Excuse me, I know this might sound a little odd but, what did that girl with pink hair in the corner order?" He questioned politely.
The barista looked to the corner to see her friend Sakura with a troubled look on her face as she scrolled through her phone.
"Her? Oh, just her usual; a macchiato." Pausing to look back at her pinkette friend, her eyes softened. "Would you like me to add that to your order?" She asked.
Naruto nodded his head yes and the girl smiled. Jutting out her hand to shake his.
"I'm Tenten, the girl is Sakura. Anyone who wants to buy my friend a coffee is a friend to me." She stated with a rather wide smile that showed off a set of pearly whites.
"I'm Naruto." He shook her hand. "This feels like a business deal doesn't it?" He joked.
Tenten gave a small chuckle.
"Naruto… wait aren't you that dj-"
"TENTEN GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE A TON OF GIRLS JUST FLOODED THE SHOP." A bleach blonde screeched from the other counter.
"Got to go, I'm guessing those are your fangirls," She turned to receive two coffees in her hands. "aaaaand here's your coffees." She said before setting them down and taking the money he'd laid on the counter top. Without as much as a goodbye she was off taking orders.
The blond walked over to where the girl was sitting and set the coffees down on her table, effectively startling her from her texting. Pulling up a chair Naruto shrugged off his black pea coat to reveal an orange V-neck sweater.
Sakura's obvious confusion made Naruto flash her a blinding smile to try and put her at ease.
"Sorry if I scared you, you just look like you're having a bad time on such a nice day. So; " The blond dj pushed the macchiato towards her. "I thought you might need a refill."
Sakura's face lit up with surprise and happiness, the smallest of smiles tugging at her lips.
"Um, thank you?" She spoke for the first time and Naruto swore she had the voice of an angel.
"No problem. I'm Naruto." He greeted her and shook her hand, she had a firm grip, and good handshakes meant good people in Naruto's book.
"Sakura." She gave him her name.
"Yeah, your friend Tenten told me." He said as he extended a thumb towards the brunette frantically writing names on cups in Sharpie.
"Dammit, Tenten." She muttered, and before he could respond two men and a women ran up to her and began to fire questions at her. Holding pens and notepads, one of them even took a picture. Where did they even come from?
"Ms. Haruno, is it true that you failed because the pressure put on you during your exams?"
"Ms. Haruno, Are ever going to try again or have you given up on your career as a medic?"
"Ms. Haruno, Are you aware that your mother is under intense pressure because of your disappearance by the media?"
Sakura's face looked down right dreadful as she struggled to come up with any answers. Suddenly the bright sunny day turned dark as rainclouds rolled in and rain began to fall. Naruto, always one to act fast and do before questioning anything, tugged the pinkette out of her seat and took his coffee as did she.
"W-what are you doing?" She asked panicked as his pulled her along through the slowly growing crowd of fangirls and reporters.
"Getting you out of here." Was his brief answer.
Bursting out the doors with what seemed like every person in Konoha on their heels, Naruto realized he'd left his favourite coat in the café. Rain that was first only a mist was now pelting down on the duo like bullets from above. Those sucky weather reporters said it would be nice all day!
Turning to the left twice than the right once, Sakura realized in a haze that he was trying to lose them. Small shouts of 'Naruto, baby don't run from us!', 'Is that your girlfriend?' and 'Ms. Haruno!' could be heard less and less from behind them.
"I know someplace we can go." Sakura yelled over the rain and the harsh fall of their shoes hitting the pavement.
The boy allowed Sakura to pull him along instead of the other way around, and soon they'd come to a stop in front of a small old green building. Running inside the two where left panting from their intense sprint.
"Where are we?" Naruto asked as he tried to wring out the water from his sweater and pushed up the sleeves to his elbows.
Sakura shrugged off her light brown trench coat to reveal a white, three quarter sleeve, see-through button up blouse with a white tank top underneath. The blouse was tucked into her pastel green skirt which went down to right above her knees. A slim black belt wrapped around the top of the skirt and she wore a pair of black flats.
Stepping out of the now drenched shoes, the pinkette looked up at him. "This is the gym that I go to with my friend that you met, Tenten. One of our friends owns the place so we get to come here whenever we want." Glancing around the wide room, she continued. "I don't think anybody's here today, Lee forgot to lock up." She sighed. "Again."
"Maybe it'll start to clear up soon." The blond suggested as he gestured out the window. A large crash resounded outside followed suit by several more, a cracking sound echoed and lightning flashed.
"Or not." He finished lamely with a slightly pained expression. Suddenly a sound that was definitely not the storm came from Naruto's stomach.
Sakura giggled lightly as she took out her iPhone. "I'll order pizza."
"Will they even come in this weather?"
"Don't worry I know the guy that delivers."
"Do you know everybody here?"
"Basically."
Naruto chuckled at the memory. "That was some good pizza."
"Poor Kiba though I forgot he was scared of lightning." Sakura responded, then grimaced. "Those flats got ruined."
"Sakura, those flats where ugly as hell."
"Well soooooorry, Mr. I-know-everything-about-fashion-because-I'm-gay."
"I'm the king of fashion, have you seen how I make orange work with everything. And I'm not gay I'm a very open-minded pansexual."
The blond to a long slurp of blue-raspberry bubble tea. "And besides, we had a great time so you can't say shit."
Sakura stuck her tongue out at him childishly.
Sasuke watched the interaction, peeved by how openly they talked about such things. Quite the dissimilarity from his family and friends. They seemed really close, but he guessed that's what it was like when you worked with the same person almost every day.
"Anyway, Sasuke you didn't answer my original question. What section do you work in?" The pinkette musician asked once again.
"Surgery, brain and neurology." He answered easily before picking up an onigri he ordered specially with his sushi.
"Oh god jumping back into that practically gives me a headache." She sighed as her hands came up to ease her temples. Suddenly with a jolt Sakura remembered Naruto's other reason for coming to get her flat and going for lunch with Sasuke. "Can I see the tickets!?" She asked excitedly.
"Tickets for what?" Sasuke questioned skeptically as he watched Naruto retrieve them from his bag.
"Oh yeah, teme sorry I didn't tell you but we're going to a Motorhead concert because they're on tour right now and you're coming." The blond said all in one breathe before giving Uchiha a shit-eating grin.
"No."
"Oh come on, Sasuke! It'll be fun."
"No"
"Don't tell me you don't like Motorhead."
"…"
"SASUKE."
"I'd just rather not go. Too much yelling and screaming, aren't those things for sixteen-year olds anyway?"
"What sixteen-year olds even know about Motorhead? Sasuke your argument is invalid and you're going." Naruto put up his final argument with a tone that gave no room for arguing
Sakura watched the small argument between the two and found it hilarious how Naruto seems to get everything he wants, without throwing a tantrum like he used to, might she add.
"Gimme." The pinkette demanded before Naruto put one ticket in her hand and threw the other at his now scowling friends face.
"Aren't we a little old to be doing this?" The upset obsidian eyed man asked, clearly annoyed.
Naruto and Sakura stole a glance at each other before laughing.
"What are we? Forty? Hell even at forty I'd go, we're only twenty-two, Sasuke. Lighten up." Naruto exclaimed loudly informing everyone in the restaurant as well.
The three finished up their food before heading back out. The sky was still bright but Sakura could feel the slight chill on her arms from the breeze as goose-bumps raised half way up her uncovered limbs. Naruto parted with Sasuke when they got to his car and the pink haired violinist went inside her apartment. They were meeting up again outside her flat later that day, Sasuke's car was the fastest so taking his was best choice if they wanted to get there on time and Naruto was in the car.
Sakura put her hair into a fishtail braid and applied light makeup after finishing the small dinner she'd made herself. She was clad in her black Motorhead shirt that looked like they had the sleeves cut off and a black bandeau underneath. It was starting to get colder than usual that night so she donned a pair of ripped up jeans instead of shorts, she tucked one side of the shirt into her jeans.
Soon she heard her phone chime with a text from Naruto saying that they were downstairs already.
Taking two steps at a time the pinkette made it down in her turquoise platforms that matched her nails. Yes the heels were very inconvenient considering they'd be walking around quite a bit, but damn they looked good.
Oh yeah and they added four inches to her height…
The violinist jumped into the back seat like a child hyped up on sugar waiting to get its toys on Christmas.
She was excited, okay?
"Lookin' good, Sak. You sure you wanna walk around in those heels though? My feet hurt just looking at them." Naruto greeted as he looked down at her shoes.
"You try being 5' 2, everybody else is a giant compared to me." She responded before giving him a pointed look as if to say he should know that by now.
"Point taken."
"Let's go then! Oh yeah, how rude of me geez, hi Sasuke."
Sasuke looked back from the driver's seat and quirked a brow at her, "Forgot me already?"
Sakura nearly blushed but composed herself before giving a witty reply. "Pffft, how could anybody forget you, Sasuke?" She quipped sarcastically. "Anyway, I really hope they do Ace of Spades, or their Enter Sandman cover! Wait is that even legal Mettalica owns that song?" She ranted on about the different songs and which she hoped they'd play.
After twenty minutes of just listening to the other two bickering about songs, Sasuke started to contribute to their arguments.
"Rock Out is better than The Game and that's final." The Uchiha stated.
"Impossible!" Sakura yelled before laughing, this guy was pretty good when you got him to loosen up.
"Ace of Spades beats all." Naruto muttered from behind as he pouted, leaning back from his hunched position towards the front of the car when arguing with Sasuke. Sakura stayed in the position as she continued to argue with him. (A/N: I'm sorry people who haven't heard of Motorhead before. Look em' up they're awesome! Although maybe not everyone's cup of tea..)
In the end they resulted in playing Sakura's playlist of Motorhead from her phone to debate which song was better. Turns out Sasuke's car had really good speakers, good thing his car had a plug for the phone.
"Ace of spades! Ace of spades!" Naruto and Sakura sang as Sasuke nodded his head along to the music.
"Guitar solo! Duh-nuh duh-nuh it's all about the game and how you play it! It's all about control and if you can take it!" They sang to the song The game after Ace of Spades and by then Sasuke was chorusing with them.
They'd listened to at least four songs before Sakura paused the phone. "Okay maybe we should leave some for the concert." She laughed.
Relaxing the pinkette looked out the window only to see a large stadium with nothing else surrounding it and lights brilliant in the distance. She let out a squeal before informing the others that they were almost there, of course they already knew but she felt the need to verbalize it. The majority of her family may be doctors and the like but they sure as hell knew their music. She practically grew up on Motorhead, AC DC, Ozzy Osbourne, KISS and Guns & Roses. She hadn't been to one of their concerts since god knows when and she had every right to be as happy as a naïve little kid on their birthday.
By now I'm sure you've guessed that Sakura is equivalent to a child when extremely excited and happy.
Many people take her being a violinist and smoosh it together with her only liking classical music or maybe even the dubstep that incorporates into her songs. Honestly she liked anything but country. She'd never really gotten into the country type music and she didn't really plan on it at the moment. This was her week off and was going to a Motorhead concert for it! Talk about making use of your time off.
Looking at Naruto who seemed to be exuding just as much happiness as she, the pinkette knew this would be a pretty memorable night. She glanced at Sasuke.
Yes, a memorable one indeed…