Harmony (Konoha School of Arts)

24.

The contemporary dancers were the last set of people to compete in the winter final performance art tournament so they had a lot of time to prepare. Everyone participating in the team and individual competitions worked hard to ensure that their performances were seamless and perfect. Even though Tenten was disqualified for the individual competition she was still part of the KSA dance team so she was contented. It wasn't what she wanted but she would take what she could get.

Kiba's mum and sister were breathing down on him to prioritize his health over his dance but at the same time they didn't stop him from doing what he loved. At least not totally. When they saw he was overdoing it they stopped him immediately. Even Akamaru made his opinion clear about his master pushing himself too hard.

Shino was about the only contemporary dancer that was stress free among the competitors in his class. He wasn't dancing to impress anybody, neither was he pressured by his family or the public opinion about him. He was just dancing for himself and to see how far he could go as a dancer.

Sasuke would've been better if great uncle Madara didn't show up one random morning to oppress him into going back to classical music and ballet. He wasn't bothered too much though, because he was determined to show his traditionalist uncle that he wasn't less of an Uchiha if what he wanted to do was pop dance and not perform in a grand orchestra. Winning the best performance award in this tournament will be his first step in proving his uncle wrong. He had a rival vying for that spotlight though and that was Naruto.

Naruto had a lot of stigma surrounding him about his public image as a murderer even though the press conference he had earlier alleviated some of it. It wasn't going to be easy beating all of the judgemental stares and capturing the audience with his worth but he was going to prove everyone wrong by winning the best performance award. From there he was aiming at the Fire Awards although that will come later in his life. First he had to make people see him for who he was before they saw the image that the unfortunate incident of his parents' deaths made for him.

There was also the issue of the murderer lurking around somewhere in the shadows. He hadn't received any threat messages from Nana Mizuki after the outing with his friends but that didn't mean that the threat wasn't hanging in the air waiting for an opportunity to strike him when he was least careful. Tsunade had his phone monitored and his movements tracked after that day. He couldn't even go outside the school without a chaperone (either Iruka sensei or Jiraiya). Escaping for both Yota and Hinata's recitals earned him an earful of scoldings and from then on he couldn't go outside the adults' scope.

It annoyed Naruto but he understood the need for the constant surveillance. Organizing a press conference had been him basically throwing himself into a lion's den as bait. If he wanted to lure out Mizuki and get out of it alive he had to be monitored constantly. The only reason Tsunade didn't have bodyguards following the blond everywhere was because of the attention that will garner.

Naruto told Tsunade about his meeting with Kaguya and gained some information about her in return. She was a senior in the music industry and was apparently a lot older than she looked. That wasn't the issue about her though. The issue was, according to Tsunade, she didn't like the fact that modern art started to rise and gain more recognition and importance than the classics. She disliked that almost every youngster wanted to be a pop singer or a band leader or a goth dancer. She hated that the entertainment industry was gaining fame and weaving its way into her range of social influence and reducing it.

Naruto was fine with that. Kaguya used to be so popular and influencial but now she's throwing a tantrum because nobody wanted to give mind to opera anymore. Naruto couldn't care less about whether a young looking old lady disliked the fact that art was dynamic or not but there was something that Tsunade said that really irked him. Kaguya loathed his family. From Tsunade who could've directed her talent and flexibility to something beautiful like ballet but became a borderline pole dancer (according to Kaguya) to Minato who gained recognition for his dance skills and won four Fire Awards to the people they got married to; an pornography script writer and a talented opera performer who chose to be a housewife instead of honing her skills.