Chapter Six- Role Call

By the time next week Friday had rolled around, everything in Sakura's life felt perfect. She had a leading role in a play, the extremely attractive lead male performing next to her was now her boyfriend, and even if they decided to keep their relationship a secret for a little while longer, it had done nothing but progress since that day in the patio. She felt like nothing could bring her down.

Sakura stood in her dressing room with Ino circling around her, making sure her outfit was perfect. Ino tugged at a sleeve here and there, or puffed the dress up in another area, while Sakura patiently, if not a little annoyed, put up with it.

"Okay!" Ino squealed. "You're officially perfect!"

"Yeah, yeah." Sakura sighed. "You pretty much just took up most of the time I have. The play's in half an hour."

"I know, but perfection takes time! Just check yourself out!" Ino declared, turning Sakura to the full length mirror in the room.

Sakura wore a subtle red and white dress. It had long, red sleeves with white trimming which ended perfectly at her wrists. Her dress puffed out a bit in almost an eloquent way after the white sash tied around her waist. The red covering of the dress bottom went down in an upside down "V" shape, showing the white, ruffling dress design underneath. A white collar was tied around her neck with a fake red ruby on it.

She glanced over at Ino who wore a green and white dress, which was understandably not as unique looking as Sakura's seeing as in the play Ayame, Sakura's character, is royalty.

"So, are you excited, Sakura?" Ino asked.

"I guess, but I'm still a little nervous." Sakura sighed.

"Just a few butterflies, if you need to, just imagine that look on Karin's face when she has to watch you and Sasuke kiss on stage."

Sakura smiled a little at this, not because she mentally enjoyed the look that will most probably be on Karin's face, even though that was good too, but because she thought of Sasuke, who'd be by her side the whole time during the play.

"Oh!" Ino gasped. "I better get going! I promised Tenten I'd help out a little backstage."

"But you're wearing a dress."

"Hey, I don't really mind, it's not that good anyway."

Sakura laughed a little as Ino walked out. She turned to the mirror again, checking herself over once more before she headed out the door.

"Maybe I'll go see Sasuke for a moment." Sakura whispered to herself.

She walked down the little maze of hallways they call the actors backstage, looking for where Sasuke was.

"Keichi…Keichi…." Sakura mumbled looking for the door with that labeled across it.

She walked on a little more.

"Keichi…Kei—eep!"

Sakura was suddenly pulled backwards and pushed against a wall. She struggled against the grip of the person. She had been pulled into a dark, empty room, and couldn't see her attacker.

"Quiet you annoying little…" The person grumbled.

Sakura gasped, it was Karin!

Karin had her hand over Sakura's mouth, keeping her noise muffled.

"Why don't you just…?" Karin grumbled some more.

Something seemed to have struck Sakura, and she was caught paralyzed for a moment. She cringed and fell over. Karin followed after her, covering her mouth with tape and pulling out a rope. She tied her arms up.

Karin stood for a moment, inspecting her work in the dim light. She dragged Sakura off and down the hall.

"What's she going to do?" Sakura thought frantically.

She was suddenly thrown and hit a wall, she saw Karin smirk at her.

"Sasuke is going to be mine. I'll let you know how our first kiss goes, Sakura." Karin laughed and shut the door to the closet Sakura had been thrown into.

"Mmph! Mmph!" Sakura tried to call out, but the tape held her mouth shut.

She lay on her side in the dark closet, silent tears starting to fall.

"Karin! That little witch! Sasuke…I hope you can do something before things go horribly wrong."

BING! "Attention, ladies and gentlemen, ten minutes until the play will begin, please start making your way to the auditorium."

"No! This can't be happening! Someone…anyone…please come! I can't lose like this!" Sakura shouted in her mind, knowing no one was going to hear.

Meanwhile, up behind the curtain, people had gathered.

"Where is Sakura?" Ino shouted. "We can't do this without our lead girl!"

"I don't know." Sasuke answered, also wondering where his girlfriend had disappeared to.

"Sakura's gone missing?" Kakashi intervened. "Well, that's no good. We'll have to find someone to take her place, it seems."

"No!" Sasuke suddenly burst out.

Everyone looked at him.

"Give her some time; I think she's on her way." Sasuke concluded.

"Well, for now, let's just try to find a back-up. Don't want to end up with some last minute mess." Kakashi stated.

"What do you think we're in right now?" Ino grumbled. "Last I checked, though, we never found a good understudy."

"I'll do it!" Came a voice from behind.

They all turned to see Karin running up in a low-cut, entirely out of the set time period, dress.

"Oh, hell, no!" Ino blurted.

"Oh, but I know all of Ayame's lines, and if Sakura doesn't show, you'll need someone to take her place, or there's no show at all. Do you really want to anger and upset so many people?" Karin declared in a fake innocent tone.

"Well…okay. If Sakura's not here when it's time to start the show, you'll be going up. We'll give her as much time as we can." Kakashi decided, and walked off.

"Oh, Sasuke! I can't wait to get on stage with you!" Karin purred, moving closer to him.

Sasuke took a couple steps back, and Ino looked at Karin suspiciously before running off.

"I know she's up to something!" Ino thought. "Sakura's here somewhere!"

Back down in the closet, Sakura was still on her side. She had stopped crying, but she was still extremely upset, and ready to wring Karin's neck once she was out of there.

For now, however, her chances of getting out seemed really slim.

"Sakuraaaaa!" She suddenly heard a voice call.

"INO!" She thought excitedly.

She could hear Ino's footsteps, and knew she had very little time at the moment. Twisting in her dress a bit, she aimed herself, and then kicked out with her foot, smacking into the door with a loud, resounding, thud!

She heard Ino jump not too far away.

"Sakura?" She called. "Is that you!"

Sakura kicked the door once again, and then heard the doorknob turn and click open.

A wave of light washed into the small closet, and Ino stood at the door.

"Sakura!" She gasped, seeing her friend's current state.

Ino went down and unceremoniously ripped the tape from Sakura's mouth, to which Sakura gave her a quick hit once Ino untied her hands.

"Karin?" Ino asked.

"Gee, how'd you know?" Sakura asked sarcastically.

"Because right now she's out behind the curtain hitting on Sasuke, and if you're not out on the stage in the next two minutes, she's Ayame!"

Sakura heard no more of what Ino said after that. She dashed down the hall as fast as a pair of delicate shoes and a dress would let her.

Out behind the curtain on stage, Karin was still trying to get to Sasuke's side, who tried with all his might to stay at least five feet away. There came one moment, though, where he paused as the announcer declared that the play would be starting in a moment. Karin grabbed his arm.

"Well, looks like you and I get to express our feelings on stage very soon." Karin flirted.

Whack!

Karin flew forward, toppling to the front of the curtain a few feet away. Sakura stood, foot still raised, obviously seething.

"You stay away from him, you slut." Sakura growled.

"Sakura!" Sasuke declared happily.

"Oh, Sakura's here." Kakashi stated, suddenly appearing. "Well, Karin, looks like we won't need you to fill in. Bye now, everyone get ready."

Kakashi walked off.

Sakura gave Karin one last glare before she turned to Sasuke.

"How'd you do it?" Sasuke asked.

"Oh, we'll discuss that later." Sakura answered. "For now, let's just give Karin something to really be jealous about."

Sasuke smirked. "Pink evil, it's cute."

Sakura blushed, gripped his hand for a moment, and then walked off as the play began so Sasuke could act.

'"'"'"'"

Later on, after the play, Sasuke and Sakura walked off the stage together and met up with Ino.

"Awe!" Ino squealed. "That was adorable!"

Sakura blushed and Sasuke looked off somewhere else.

"Oh, and that kiss looked so natural, almost like you've practiced it a lot." Ino snickered.

Both Sasuke and Sakura turned red, Sakura stared daggers at her friend, and Sasuke muttered something they couldn't hear.

"Oh, I'm just pulling your leg. I know you only practiced it once." Ino winked and walked off.

"You didn't tell her about us?" Sasuke asked, looking at Sakura.

"Oh, I was just waiting for the right moment; I'll tell her that we've been dating for a week later." Sakura chuckled.

Sasuke laughed a bit. "So, where to now that our play's over and done with?"

"I don't know." Sakura replied.

They were silent for a moment.

"Oh, Sasuke." Sakura called.

"Hn?" He grunted, turning to look at her.

"I never got to ask you, why did you join Drama Club in the first place?"

"Oh…uh…it was a dare from Naruto." Sasuke replied, turning red.

Sakura caught this in an instant, and grabbed his arm.

"Really?" She pressed, getting a little closer to him.

"Well…um…" Sasuke stammered, starting to blush.

Sakura tugged on his arm, trying to lead him.

"You and me." She declared. "Your dressing room."

Sasuke smirked, understanding her gesture, and finally let her lead him off down the hall.

THE END

Woo-hoo! We're done! (Does a happy dance in the computer chair.) I am proud to say that it's been fun working on this. Now it's time to say…that I really don't know what I'm doing next. Something in me wants to do a NaruHina, but then, today, I got a strange, sudden urge to write a songfic. (I don't know why, though, seeing as I typically don't like reading songfic stories, because I typically skip the words to the song and read the story. Which, to my misfortune, typically isn't a very good story.) So maybe that's it, I want to write a songfic that people will actually like. Either that or it's because I've been listening to my new CD for the past few hours over and over and I'm even listening as I type this. (Yes, I am a part of the three percent of the population that still listens to things using CD players. I don't have any of the electronic, compatible stuff.) Anyway, if anyone wants to give their view on which I should do, either tell me in a review or pm (private message) me if you don't want anyone else to see it. Okay, bye!