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There were a lot of kids competing for the prize here, and Sakura knew for a fact that the judges actually didn’t care what kind of music she or anyone else played, so long as they played well. Sakura knew she played well, and the cello in her hands was a damn fine instrument, so she really wasn’t all that nervous on that front.
No, the front that scared her was the punk rock group that was up right after her, because if she wasn’t mistaken, that was Sasuke’s older brother, and that meant that the platinum blonde asshole was that one Hidan jerk that Sasuke had told her slaughtered goats naked or something.
Sakura had been trying to ignore the entire group of them, because as many nice punks as she’d met, there were always a handful that were more than willing to slit her throat and toss her body in a ditch, and she had the nasty feeling that these guys might be it.
“Hey, bubblegum.” An arm was slung over her shoulder, and she stiffened up. “Watcha doin’ here all alone, hm?”
“…Winning.” Sakura ground out, lifting one hand to delicately shove asshole number two off of her.
She turned to look, and noted long blonde hair and way too much eyeliner.
This must be Deidara.
“Ah, so much anger for such a pretty girl.” Deidara pretended to be shocked, but all the expression did was piss Sakura off. So she did exactly what she’d learned in school: acted almost nauseatingly sweet.
“Listen, we’re both trying to win here, right? And if you keep talking, we’ll get disqualified for messing with someone else’s turn,” she gestured on-stage, where some redhead with a flute was killing it, “So how about you just leave me alone?”
Or I’ll break your nose, she added silently.
“Hm… how about no?”
Sakura’s fury flared, and she turned to look at the rest of the band behind her. Itachi was distracted, and she wasn’t in any position to shout at him, but she did catch the eye of a stoned-looking redhead and some guy with way too many piercings.
Piercings-guy saw her predicament, poked blue-hair-lady, who grabbed stoned-redhead. They proceeded to sweep up behind Deidara (who was still talking, funnily enough; did he ever stop?), clap their hands over his mouth, and drag him off as Piercings-guy (Pein, Sasuke’s stories brang to mind) approached her with a blank face.
“My apologies for Deidara. He isn’t very good at playing nice with others.”
Clearly, Sakura thought, but she just offered the man a sunny smile. “That’s okay. He’ll be singing a different tune when I kick your asses anyway.”
And with that, the judges called her name, so Piercings-guy didn’t have time to reply, so she totally got to have her cool exit.
Now she just had to put her money where her mouth was.
Simple enough.