Seven Veils

~ O ~

Prologue

"First oboe, second oboe. Bassoon. The lovely clarinet ladies here... and the violins. Back row, you're all on second violin as usual, of course. My God, don't glower at me like that; you're the ones who barely practice." The footfalls of the orchestra director were as perfectly measured and steady as the clicks of a metronome as she walked along the length of the first row of musicians. She licked a finger every now and then as she separated the pages of music to hand out. It was a part assignment day, and it was quiet enough to hear a pin drop. Everyone was attempting to telepathically send their names into her mind and their prayers up to the heavens: so and so on first trumpet, so and so on first cello, first clarinet, first viola. Everyone wanted to be first.

"Second violin." The click of her high heels rang out into the otherwise silent room. "Second violin." Click! "Second violin." Click! It was like a game of Duck Duck Goose; nearly every member of the violin section was visibly holding their breaths in quivering anticipation.

In an orchestra, the first chair violin is especially important; they hold the role of concertmaster. The concertmaster is second only to the conductor and leads the orchestra in style and tempo. It is an honor that can be received only by the very best of the best.

In this particular orchestra – it was not a professional one but a group made up of skilled university students – there wasn't an awful lot of true competition for concertmaster. It only ever went to one of two people.

The clicking heels came to an abrupt stop. Sasuke Uchiha had been looking down towards the ground as he nonchalantly tuned his violin in his lap; he seemed to be the only violin not breaking out into a sweat at the suspense. He didn't even look up at the conductor until she licked her fingers once more, extracted six or seven sheets from the mass in her arms, and waved them rather obnoxiously in his face.

"Do you see this, Uchiha?" There was irritation in his dark eyes, in the arch of his brows as he made eye-contact with the tall, blonde woman. Of course he saw it. The whole band saw it. The tuba player way in the back was nearly falling out of his chair trying to see it.

"Read the title."

He fought the urge to roll his eyes at her. The conductor – Tsunade – was a little bit crazy when it came to messing with the heads of the orchestra members. First of all, there was the fact that she stopped in front of every musician and announced to the world what part they had been assigned, a practice akin to calling out individual test grades in front of the entire class. And then there was her habit of handing out music face down until everyone had their part, and then grandly unveiling the piece she had for them.

" 'The Dance of the Seven Veils'," Sasuke read rather woodenly, his voice betraying no excitement.

Thunk! The mass of papers hit the Uchiha's metal music stand as Tsunade let the sheets slip from her hands. Click. Click. Click. She was pacing around her podium now, commanding their attention.

She paused dramatically, held up her conductor's score. "You music history students, who knows what 'The Dance of the Seven Veils' is?"

The second viola player called out the answer.

"An opera. By Richard Strauss," the blonde girl said in a bragging tone before glancing anxiously at the bassoon player seated behind her, looking to see if he'd noticed her display of knowledge. But the boy, who sported a spiky ponytail and earrings and looked like the last person you'd expect to see in an orchestra, was propped up on his oversized instrument, napping.

"Thank you, Ino." The director continued to pace.

"Most of you know of my colleague, Jiraya, who is also in the fine arts department here at the University. He directs ballets. No," she added quickly, before the whispering among the brass players could start, "He is not gay. Though I sometimes wish he was for the sake of the ballerinas." She shook her head in disgust. "He has asked me to collaborate with him in creating a production of the opera that 'The Dance of the Seven Veils' belongs to. He has informed me that it will be very different from the original opera; more like 'inspired by' rather than 'based on'. For starters, it will have no singing – only orchestra and ballet, maybe even some acting."

Immediately the whispers started up like a swarm of mosquitoes.

"Quiet!" Tsunade shouted, her brown eyes flashing dangerously, and everyone immediately shut up. She was a known tyrant.

"The 'opera' is scheduled to go on in a month and a half, maybe two. I'm asking you all if you're up for this performance. You know I'm democratic about our orchestra." A few people coughed in the back at her delusion. Of course, no one said a word against playing the piece. No one ever did.

They had nearly all flipped over their music by now. Tsunade waited for the students to fall silent again before she concluded her dramatic introduction. Everyone was suddenly hyperaware that there were two people's parts in the violin section that had not been called out. A tension built up in the air, a thickness that could only be dispelled with two words. By now even Sasuke was looking up from his violin's tuning knobs, though he still remained untouched by the excitement boiling in everyone else's blood. It was like anticipating a fight. Who would lash out first? Who would win? The blue eyes of the boy seated beside Sasuke were burningly intense. He was the only one not looking at Tsunade; the brooding dark-haired boy with the well-tuned violin was whom he directed his glare at. The look in his eyes said he was ready to fight.

"Sasuke Uchiha," the conductor's voice rang out.

The blond boy leaned forward in his seat, clutching his violin to his orange t-shirt clad chest with straining, white knuckles. The dark haired boy glanced at him and resisted the urge to smirk.

"Second. Chair."

The Uchiha suddenly didn't feel like smirking at all.

"Who here, my lovelies, has ever heard of Salome?"

No one raised a hand.

The asker of the question, a tall man in green with gray hair pulled back into a messy ponytail, clucked his tongue in disappointment.

"Ladies, ladies... and Neji," he corrected himself, as one of the few boys in the room glared at his word choice, "How sad. Allow me to enlighten you. I have a powerpoint presentation. Sit, sit."

He began to click through the slides that appeared though the projector conveniently mounted to the ceiling of the dance room; several people cringed at the graphic artwork that accompanied the text. Most of it was of old paintings of naked or seminaked women, several of them holding bloody severed heads of all things.

"Salome (pronounced Sal-oh-may) was the daughter of Herodias, a Jewish princess. In the Bible, the story goes that Salome's mother was married to King Herod, and on his birthday, the girl's mother had her perform a dance. To thank her for the dance, the king tells his step-daughter he will promise to fulfull a wish of hers. Herodias anticipated this, and commands her daughter to ask the king for John the Baptist's head on a platter. Having sworn to Salome that he would carry out her wish, the king has no choice but to behead John. And that's pretty much it. In the Bible, it's mainly a big deal because John the Baptist was an important figure in Christianity or whatever." Several people blanched at his casual attitude towards the violent death of a religious figure.

"So, anyway, as the years went by, the Christians began to make different interpretations of the story, until they reached the general consensus that Salome's dance was an attempt some harlot and her mother to seduce the king into giving them what they wanted, and her name became synonymous with a femme fatal. Oscar Wilde's more modern-day play version of the story definitely favors this dangerous seductress view. And Richard Strauss's version is (in)famous for the 'Dance of the Seven Veils'," the dance director, Jiraya, grinned, "I personally thought it was pretty obvious what the Bible meant there by 'a dance that pleases the king'." His students groaned.

"Anyway, I'm telling you about Salome, because Salome will be our spring production!" he cheered.

"But sir, isn't Salome an opera? None of us are singers..." a girl seated beside the still-glaring Neji spoke up, her pink eyebrows pushing together in concern. It certainly wouldn't be the first time their teacher had made them take a walk outside their comfort zone.

"You were holding out on me, Sakura! You knew who Salome was and didn't say anything!" The pink-haired girl rolled her eyes at his laughing grin. "Yes, it is an opera, and the orchestra will be playing for us, but I won't make you sing. Our production is going to be based on Salome, not the actual piece."

"Joy, something else he can be peverted about," the brunette with the buns on Neji's other side groaned.

"Whatever. As long as he doesn't have you playing Salome," Neji scowled. The brown-eyed girl laughed at his touchy attitude.

The torture wasn't over quite yet, however. "I'm glad you already know all about lovely Salome, Sakura! Because guess who I was planning on casting as her?" Jiraya dug a hand into his hand into his pocket and and threw what he had retrieved at the pinkette's face. It was a silky scarf that she caught between her fingers, the fabric of it shiny and so thin that it was transparent. Uh oh.

"Dance of the Seven Veils, ladies and gents! Can't wait!"

Sakura wasn't exactly sharing the sentiment.

Wow. It totally took way less time than I thought it would for me to go crazy using nothing but Canon and start writing an AU. *sulks in her lameness* Oh, and I promised myself I would never validate the use of the word "pinkette". Grr...

... well, anywho...

Salome is a real opera, and all the background information here is actually true. I myself played "The Dance of the Seven Veils" as first clarinet while I was in high school. It's a beautiful piece, and of course listening to it should inspire you all regarding this fanfic, since the whole thing is based on the song :)

So what do you think so far? I myself am excited about this story; first time I'll be writing something so... well, yeah, that dialogue with Jiraya there kind of said it all...

Please let me know how I'm doing! If you're reading this, you must have taken the time to read the story, and I thank you for that. If you spend just a tiny bit more time to leave me some feedback in a review, I will love you forever! Thanks, everyone!

- An Engineer