Naruto's POV
We found a private space for all of us, a huge practice room. Kiba suggested that we should go and grab some lunch and eat in there since we might attract a lot of attention so we did and back to the practice room holding lunches!
Curry with potato, rice and meat, onigiris with salmon fillings, tempuras and fried chicken.
For drink, iced milk tea! Without boba though...
(๑•́₋•̩̥̀๑)
"Damn, that sure is a lot of food!" Suigetsu said as he took a floor cushion and sat on it on the ground with a flop.
I also took one and sat down beside Sai and Sasuke, we all grabbed our food and milk tea and the rest in the middle since we sat in a circle. I took a bite of the curry rice and beamed at the deliciousness of it.
"Pft! Naruto you're literally shining right now."
Konohamaru snickered at me as he took a sip of the iced milk tea. The others also saw my face and chuckled too. I stuck out my tongue playfully and then sipped my milk tea.
"Hmph! Focus on eating!"
As we continued eating and chatting stuff about the programme, Juugo suddenly shot up a question and glanced over to me with intense eyes.
"Naruto, may I ask you a question?"
"Yea?"
"Are you actually...somehow....related to this famous singer KitsuNe? Brothers or something....?"
I almost choked on my milk tea and spit some out.
Hah....hahaha....
All of them were also interested in this question and started discussing about KitsuNe and me.
Konohamaru snapped his fingers and joined in the conversation. "Oooooo, I almost forget about this! I was listening to KitsuNe's Ice King yesterday and thought his voice was kinda similar to Naruto's!"
Zabuza placed his fingers under his chin, thinking throughly of Konohamaru's statement.
"Hmm....I did listen to his songs before and somehow it sounded familiar..."
Lee's eyes sparkled as he stood up and declared with proud.
"Or maybe Naruto is KitsuNe himself!"
Haku stared at me, trying to take a good look at me reaction to this. The silence was killing me good. I started to cold sweat and sweat began to form in my palms.
This...is not good....
I just realised that the camera were actually rolling right now!
I have to be careful for what I say afterwards.
I took a deep breath and shook my head, glancing at each of them and opened my mouth to speak.
"That's because KitsuNe is my friend and I knew him. He's in this programme you know? And the rest.......SECRET!" I had a cheeky grin on my face when I finished my sentence.
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!!Σ(ﾟДﾟ;
"HAH!?"
Most of them were stunned except for my roommates of course. I could feel they were gonna shoot me with a bunch of questions. I brought up my hands to my mouth and chuckled at their reactions.
"You're kidding, right Naruto chan? KitsuNe, the mysterious singer and songwriter of all time!" Suigetsu stared at me unbelievably and took a bite of his shrimp tempura.
"That's right. He never comes out to the public eye and no one knew how he looked like. Maybe there's a reason for it?" Udon added.
Haku scanned me up and down, I thought he wasn't believing me this but he smiled at me and spoke.
"Proof, Naruto chan?"
Eh?
"You know who KitsuNe is right? How does he look like?"
Ah crap.
The pressure on my shoulder....is getting heavier and heavier....
QwQ
"A-Actually I'm not allowed to tell you guys about his appearance since he wanted to stay away from public for some reason until he debuted into the boy group. He will reveal himself after that." I randomly said and scratched the back of my neck nervously.
Shikamaru's POV
Whoa. The blondie must be lying again.
Look at his ears, it's already red.
I'm 100% sure he is hiding something about KitsuNe from all of us.
I stared at Naruto intensely, checking on his expressions as I bit on the onigiri. I could tell he's flustered by their questions.
But then I remembered Lee's.
'Or maybe Naruto is KitsuNe himself!'
Ah. (눈_눈)
Naruto you troublesome blonde.
Don't tell me you're actually him?
Guess I'll be the first one to find out.
70%
Third person POV
Before Naruto could answer their questions as they kept bombarding him, Kiba smacked Shikamaru on the back with his hand, not too hard but not soft either. He had a wide smirk on his face and decided to tease him.
"Oi oi Shikamaru, why are you staring so intensely at Kouhai chan hm?"
"Tsk. I have a good reason for this. This is very important."
"Oh~ 'This' means Naruto chan is important?"
The Nara's side of his forehead had a tick mark and was about to strangle Kiba's neck but he resisted the urge to. He took a deep breath and sighed out to calm himself. Lazily tilting his head to the side and gave his knuckles a good crack.
"Kiba, you sure want to go to hell H U H?" He said in a murderous voice with a weird smile.
This is when Kiba knew...
A pissed off Shikamaru is not easy to deal with.
"Heh heh... I... Gotta run!"
Kiba stood up and ran as fast as he could with Shikamaru chasing after him. All of them witnessed a rare scene, where the usual lazy Shikamaru became active all of a sudden while Kiba decided to tease the hell out of him.
They all bursted into laughter at the scene with Kiba finally got caught by Shikamaru and was headlocked. Kiba struggled to get free from his grip but realised it was useless so he had to give up.
"S-Surrender! I give up!! Jesus Shikamaru you're seriously gonna kill me?!" Kiba held his hands up and exclaimed as he turned his head to meet the Nara's eyes.
"You ask for it. Mendokuse." He replied lazily releasing him and flicked his forehead with his fingers. Kiba flinched at the impact and rubbed his forehead.
"Ow- But this doesn't mean it's over Shikamaru. You're reaaaaaaally interested in Kouhai chan, aren't you?"
Kiba wriggled his eyebrows with a huge smirk on his face while Shikamaru flinched at his words, widening his eyes at him. He then later sighed and eyed him lazily.
"What about it?"
Kiba leaned closer to his ear, placing his hand on his shoulder and whispered.
"Perhaps....you like him 'that' way, Shikamaru? If it's true, same here."
"K-Kiba you...?!"
Kiba pretended that nothing happened and wrapped his arm around his neck and literally dragged him back to the circle with a bright grin.
"Let's get back here Shikamaru! Don't make that face, yeah?"
"....troublesome."
His eyes casually wandered to the blonde who was laughing with Sasuke and Sai, their eyes met and Naruto grinned at him with a beaming smile making him stunned at the spot.
*Ding~!*
Naruto's phone had a new notification and checked it out. Sai just posted a photo which was taken by Gaara sitting opposite them. They were laughing so hard that tears came out of their eyes. It was such a rare photo that Sai had to post it out.
Naruto was surprised that Sasuke made a face like that, but then he wondered who took this photo. He chuckled and commented beneath it.
Everyone all bursted into laughter when they saw the photo of Sasuke actually laughing while some highfived Gaara for taking such a rare photo.
"Sasuke, you look so happy in this photo." Naruto joked as he poked his cheek with his index finger.
Sasuke placed his two hands and squished Naruto's cheeks between his palms, it was soft to touch and too squishy to be cheeks. He was somehow addicted to it.
"Kouhai chan. Is it really shocking to see me smile? I'm a human you know."
"Bwat chu dun shwile owfen sho...."(But you don't smile often so...) The blonde mumbled words out and pouted with a look that was too cute for Sasuke to handle.
Sai ruffled Naruto's hair between his fingers while Neji handed him his drink. Gaara laid his head on his lap and Shikamaru silently sat next to him and checked up on him. Shino held him a dango and Kiba used a tissue to wipe the corner of his mouth.
Haku on the side giggled at the sight and said, "It looks like you guys are pampering a little kid."
Zabuza grinned at him. "Small child to be exact."
Konohamaru agreed with him and placed his fingers under his chin. "To think that Naruto is the same age as me and Udon. I thought he was one year younger than me!"
"He doesn't look like his age to be honest." Udon added.
Lee fist bumped into the air and sparkled. "That's youth right there!"
Suigetsu nudged his partner Juugo with his elbow, he continued to stare at the blonde and spoke softly.
"Juugo... Naruto chan is really cute..."
The orange haired boy also looked at the same direction as him and nodded. "He sure is...."
On the other hand, the blonde was blushing from what he just heard from Haku and the others. He puffed up his cheeks with air fuming out beneath his head.
"W-Wha! No I'm not a child anymore! I'm 16 already! And you guys, stooooooop!"
"Pft- AHAHAHAHA!"
They were trying to hold back their laughter but they failed miserably. Naruto sulked but noticed that Shikamaru kept staring at him like he wanted to ask him something.
"Shikamaru?"
"O-Oh.... Ugh sorry about that. I spaced out."
The blonde shrugged it off as they continued to chat and exchange contact information. They all followed each other on twitter and started chatting. Since the practice will start tommorow, all of them stayed behind until it was dinner time. They wanted to go up to the rooftop to have dinner and look up to watch the night sky and stars so they brought their dinner and went upstairs.
Naruto was the only one who never been to the rooftop before since he only joined the company a month ago. The rooftop had a secret garden and a mini farm where the cafeteria workers planted their own crops and used it to make food. The blonde looked around as the dim light lit up and little path with patches of grass surrounding it. It was a beautiful place to stay and watch the view.
"Uwah~ This is such a good place!"
Gaara placed his chin on his shoulder and gave a little smile. "This is the place where we usually go after we finished our workout and practice."
Haku looked up to the sky, his dark eyes had a soft glow reflecting the stars and spoke out.
"Guys, I'm actually glad that we all came together and get to know each other in this programme. No matter who gets into the boy group, no hard feelings, we will still be buddies, right?"
"Of course! You guys are the most awesome people I have ever met!" Lee replied first with sparkly eyes.
Neji gave a firm pat to his back and nodded at his words. "But we won't hold back because we are competing each other, yeah?"
Zabuza smirked. "Definitely. 10 tickets to the boy group."
They all looked at each other with determined looks, the game is on! Holding their hands out and stacked them up.
The promise they made under the night sky.
They won't forget.
Time skip...
After their dinner, they had to separate ways since they were staying in different rooms. Some waved and went back to their own rooms, leaving Naruto, Shikamaru, Sasuke, Neji and Gaara. The five of them also stretched their limbs and yawned as they walked back to their room. They spent a lot of energy today just walking around and bonding.
When they arrived and stepped inside, they took turns to take bath. Naruto was the first one to bath first today. He took his stuff he needed and headed to the bathroom. Before he closed the door, he poked out his head to stare at the guys and smiled.
"I won't take too long so....I'll go in now!"
Sasuke had a smirk on his face and laid his chin on his hand supporting it and spoke.
"Do you want us to join you? It will be much more faster this way."
The others snickered at his words and also smirked.
Poof!
Naruto literally turned red in a second and realised he was teasing him.
"T-There's not enough space in here- No that's not the point! You pervs! I'm gonna ignore you guys hmph!"
He shut the door and they could hear Naruto was mumbling words like 'Baka', 'Perverts' and 'Aho'. The four of them chuckled at his reaction and rested on the sofa watching TV.
"Hey guys. I....have some thoughts."
Shikamaru spoke softly at them as the other three turned to him. Gaara tilted his head and asked.
"Yeah? About what?"
"Naruto...he.... I think he's lying about something."
Neji took a deep breath, he turned to where Naruto was in now and said, "KitsuNe, am I right?"
Shikamaru gave a nod and continued. "I have a feeling that he was keeping something from us but then this weird thought keeps bugging me."
He went silent for awhile and turned to his friends.
"What if.....KitsuNe and Naruto are actually the same person?"
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.
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"That thought.....has never crossed my mind before..." Gaara had a blank look as he checked on his friend's face. They were also a bit blank.
Neji took out his phone and opened Spotify to play KitsuNe's Ice King softly, the rest leaned closer to listen to the song from the speakers of Neji's phone.
Ice ice ice
I'm the Ice King!
As they listened to the song, they realised that his voice was really really similar to Naruto's. The feeling just grew inside them that...
KitsuNe and Naruto are too similar...as if they're the same person at the start.
80%
"Ice King is a song mixed with two languages, Mandarin and English. Maybe we should ask Naruto if he knew who to speak Mandarin?" Neji suggested.
Just then, Naruto came out of the shower with a towel around his neck. Water droplets slowly slid down his blonde curls and dripped on the floor. He noticed that the four surrounded each other.
"What are you guys up to?"
The sudden voice startled the four and they slowly turned to meet Naruto standing behind them without knowing what was happening. He cluelessly tilted his head to the side with question marks popping above his head.
"Naruto, do you know Mandarin?"
Naruto's eyes widened a bit, he flustered and answered. "A-A bit. I learnt it from my sensei Iruka. What's the sudden question?"
Shikamaru then patted his shoulder and lazily smiled.
"Then we will depend on you, Kouhai chan- or should I say Leader chan?"
"W-Wha! Not this nickname Shikamaru!"
Neji laughed and took his stuff to the bathroom. While the rest were waiting for their turn to bath, Naruto took out his laptop and laid on the bed, connecting his AirPods to it. He wanted to spend a bit time on composing so he opened his file and continued his unfinished work.
Pressing different keys on the keyboard to play the chords and hummed the tune a bit, but then he heard Shikamaru, Sasuke, Gaara and Neji's melodies were slightly off.
It wasn't their usual tune when he first heard them. Is something bugging them?
He looked up from the screen to check up on them but saw they were actually stealing glances at him. When their eyes met, they would avert them and continued to do their own stuff. Maybe he was thinking to much so he brushed the thought away and continued working on his piece.
An hour passed and the rest finished bathing. Gaara climbed to the bed and tucked himself in. Naruto saved his progress and closed his laptop with a yawn.
"It's late now. Better sleep early for tomorrow's training. Oyasumi." Sasuke said as he switched off the light.
"Oyasumi~" Naruto replied and covered his body with his comfy blanket.
At 12 pm...
Naruto's POV
Oh no... I'm still awake... I can't sleep at all! Everyone's asleep except me!
Ssasuke, Shikamaru, Gaara and Neji were acting weird just now. The melodies coming from them were different than before, probably have thoughts of KitsuNe and me...
ARGHHHH!
All because I picked Ice King as our song!
˚‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥᷄⌓˂̣̣̥᷅ )‧º·˚
And now it seems Shikamaru already had some doubts....
Tomorrow we will start practice our singing and create our own choreography. It's in Mandarin so....it might take some time to learn this...
While I was still in deep thoughts, I could hear a familiar melody from afar, a slow yet soothing tune. I turned around to see Shikamaru was already on top of me.
"Shika-!"
His hand covered my mouth and held up his index finger to his lips.
"Shhh! Be quiet Kouhai chan. You wouldn't want to wake up the others."
I nodded and patted his hand to tell him to move away from my mouth. He released me and I whispered.
"What are you doing, Shika? You can't sleep?"
"Back at you, Naruto. You should be sleeping too."
Shikamaru sighed and placed his hands on the bed, pinning me to prevent me from escaping. His eyes stared straight to me as I heard his melody changed from slow soothing to a steady beat like the heartbeat of a person.
"Naruto, you've been actually lying to all of us about KitsuNe, right?"
I widened my eyes in shock but stayed silent. He then continued.
"I had my doubts, it was a bit hard to figure out but slowly I have been finding evidence about KitsuNe from different ways and then came to a conclusion...
You're KitsuNe, correct?"
90%
To be continued...
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Sorry reader chans, Author chan is a bit stressed lately and feeling depressed. (っ˘̩︵˘̩)っ I needed some time to figure out something but I updated Idol life before I head to bed! It's now 1 am so... :') I hope you guys enjoyed this and stay tuned!