A/N: So last chapter was pretty short and not super indicative of what this story's about, so here's another chunk.

Here's where I really start ignoring the semantics of the anime/manga. Like, do they have electric instruments and amps and shit in Konoha? No, certainly not. Do they even have electricity? Surprisingly yes – thanks, filler arc I just watched, for that information! But none of this concerns me. Are there enough people in the "band" to actually play the songs I'm prescribing them? No, probably not.

Deal with your cognitive dissonance at your own accord. ^-^

Also, FYI, I couldn't resist incorporating some random cultural stuff into this, as my Japan nerdiness nears its height…as I'm in Japan.

Konbini are just convenience stores. The drinking/smoking age in Japan is 20, so I'm just applying that information to Konoha.

I think that's it.

XXX Morbid Original

Outside the convenience store, Sakura took a drag of her cigarette and coughed. She'd inhaled too deeply again. Ouch. She didn't know what had compelled her to buy the pack – normally, infrequently, she would just bum from her friends, who were more habituated partiers – but something told her she was gonna need them tonight. With the hidden villages in a rare state of peace, the Konoha shinobi found themselves in an unfamiliar situation: leisure. They still trained furiously, and occasional missions required their usual focus and skill; but outside these minimal exceptions, they had an almost unforeseen amount of free time. Time to pick up hobbies like playing music, apparently, and, as teens are wont to do, party.

Rock Bar was one of a few sleazier bars that wasn't terribly observant of the legal drinking age. If a band was playing or there was an open mic, the bartenders didn't really care if you were under twenty as long as your event was bringing business. Plus, Sakura was pretty sure some relative of some friend worked or used to work there. Or something.

Not being much of a drinker herself, she had only visited Rock Bar on a few occasions, always to pick up Ino at the tail end of a wild night. It wasn't really her scene. But tonight, she found herself at the Konbini up the street from the bar, waiting till it was half past ten and she could appropriately enter, fashionably late. Something was drawing her there, just as something had compelled her to pick up cigarettes; a strange, mutely elated energy.

Maybe this was the universe telling her to chill out. Get out of her head, like Ino said. Kick back, have fun, catch up with her cohorts. Some of the guys frequented Rock Bar quite regularly, and if their friends were performing, almost everyone was sure to be there.

Almost everyone…

She shook her head roughly, as if physically expelling the thought from her brain. No. Not tonight. She would not think about Sasuke. This was definitely the world telling her to let go, at least for a few hours.

At 10:29 she put out her cigarette and headed to the bar, a hole in the wall alongside some similar establishments. Excuses on the tip of her tongue (flimsy ones like, "Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't realize Rock Bar was a bar...") lest her age be scrutinized, she went inside, but no one so much as glanced in her direction. In fact, there were shockingly few people there, for a Thursday. She had imagined it would be crawling, albeit with her underage peers. She felt a pang of disappointment. Had she come too fashionably late? Or had she actually misheard Ino's invitation due to her incessant distraction?

Finally, a bartender noticed her presence and came to her aid.

"Band's downstairs." He nodded toward a door at the back of the dimly lit room.

"Thanks," she replied. Her heart returned to its excited pace. Standing outside herself, she wasn't sure why she was suddenly so delighted. The band could quite possibly suck, and it wasn't like she hadn't been to a party before. There was nothing explicitly special about this night. Yet as she descended the basement stairs, she had to stop herself from taking them two at a time. Whatever its cause, her eager anticipation was making her happier than she'd felt in a long time. She resolved to stop questioning it. She would just have fun.

The basement room was much larger than the first floor, even darker, and had an even longer bar. As originally expected, there was a moderate crowd, and among it some familiar faces. But no music was playing. She cast her eyes toward the stage where only a drum set stood under the orange lights. Maybe she had missed them. Oh well, she told herself. She was there, and she was going to have fun. That was predetermined. Nothing she could do about that.

She went up to the bar and ordered a whiskey sour, simply because it was the first thing that came to mind. She hadn't drunk enough to know what kind of alcohol she preferred, really. But she received the drink without hassle and had just taken a seat at the bar when she heard a high-pitched squeal in the form of her name.

"There you are, hooker!" Ino said, a bit too loudly. Accompanied by Choji and Tenten, she appeared at her side. "What the hell took you? I've been here forever."

Smirking, Sakura said, "I can see that. You told me to be late, so…"

"Yeah, I forgot fashionably early is the new thing. Although the band doesn't seem to know that." She rolled her eyes exaggeratedly.

"Have they not started?" Sakura asked, pulse escalating anew.

"No. Naruto forgot some cord thing or something."

"Believe it or not," Tenten chimed in, grinning.

"It should be any minute now," Choji said. Then, raising his glass, "Kanpai!"

They clanked their glasses together and took a deep swig. Ino made a repulsed sound and pushed her empty glass across the bar.

"Disgusting. Another," she told the bartender, who quickly obliged.

Although not used to the taste of liquor herself, Sakura resisted the reflexive grimace, in a strange way savoring the acrid sweetness that coated her tongue and throat. She felt warm, down to her bones. So this is what 'letting go' tastes like…

At that moment applause rang out from across the room, gathering volume and zeal as everyone turned toward the stage. Sakura's head jerked in that direction so fast her hair fell over her eyes, and through the pink strands she could see three familiar forms crossing under the lights. Shaking her locks back into place, she saw Naruto, Shikamaru, and Kiba take their prearranged positions. With his back turned, Naruto exchanged a few indistinct utterances with Shikamaru, fumbling with his guitar strap, adjusting something on the amp and overall taking his time despite their egregiously delayed start. Sakura heard his telltale laugh and realized that the room had fallen mostly silent, excepting a few anticipatory whispers from the back of the crowd. Who would've thought they were such masters of suspense? she thought vaguely, her sarcasm running on autopilot and this time at her own expense, for she found herself as rapt and attentive as anyone else. For all she knew, she didn't even blink in the few seconds that felt like hours in which they just stood there, biding their time, as she grew inexplicably desperate for them to start.

With a nod to Kiba, who had taken his seat at the drum set, Naruto turned to the crowd, and Sakura's breath caught in her throat –

They were off.