Finishing the Portrait

A/N: Plot seedling planted by yaoi_is_my_antidrug's original artwork at y!gallery. Plot seedling over-fertilized into mindless smex by Shikyaku at AFF.


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Sai loved naked bodies.

Sometimes he drew women. He enjoyed creative-research expeditions. Jiraiya would part the bushes or clear away other obstructions while Sai made quick charcoal studies on roughly textured paper. His hand flew over the pages of his "Females" sketchbook making long sweeps, short marks, and finely detailed lines. He rubbed, blended, and re-marked the page as he created curves, shadows, and softness.

He used pencils of varying weights to draw kunoichi, needing hard lead to pin the strength of their bodies to the paper. He found the female ninjas difficult to observe for quick sketches, but he perched outside of Anko's window when he wanted to do longer studies. Surprisingly, she never noticed his presence. Coincidentally, she started going to bed naked and leaving her shades open not long after Sai arrived on the rooftop across from her building. He certainly was lucky.

Most often he chose to draw men. He was only interested in the hard-muscled ninjas. He used his favorite medium, brush and ink, for these studies.

By the time he'd been part of Konoha's mainstream life for several years, Sai had worked out a schedule. He knew which male ninja it was possible to observe, and under which circumstances observation was most likely. He had a special sketchbook for his favored males. The sketchbook's cover had the letters I.K.G.R. carefully lettered across the top.

This very same book was currently in the hands of just-back-from-a-mission Genma.

The ornate lettering on the thick, over-sized book seemed out of place on the ratty missions office table. Scrolls and small, easily transported books were common enough, but this book looked invitingly odd. Yawning, Genma idly flipped open the cover and waited for Raidou to turn in their report.

The first page was nothing but randomly inked brush strokes of varying widths and tones.

Genma stifled another yawn. He looked up as Kotetsu's loud voice carried down the hallway, with Izumo's voice murmuring in reply.

He was much too sleep deprived to deal with Kotetsu's loud, blustering conversation or Izumo's piercingly perceptive observations and concern. Spotting a slightly open door leading to an adjacent room, Genma quickly and quietly slipped out of sight. He leaned against the wall as Kotetsu, Izumo, Raidou, and the mission clerk's voices hummed in conversation. Wondering at the weight pulling down his hand, he looked down in surprise at the book he still held.

He swallowed yet-another yawn and flipped one more page.

Well, welll... He glanced up from the second page of the book, and peered around the doorway to look at Izumo. Between his uniform, chin/neck wrapping, forehead protector, and oh-so-sexy hair draping over one eye there wasn't much actual "Izumo" to see.

Genma's eyes returned back down to the page. The sketch of Izumo showed him completely, beautifully, gloriously naked.

Practically a side view, the angle was turned just enough so you could see about a quarter of his face. The background-less drawing showed him lying on his stomach, with his torso upraised, weight resting on his forearms, head bent down with his hair softly falling forwards. His backside was beautifully inked on to the paper with spare, bold strokes forming the muscles from his shoulders, through his back, over his rounded backside, and all the way down his slightly parted legs.

Genma felt a stirring in his pants that he tried to will down.

He made sure he was hidden from sight as he once again looked up at the actual, fully dressed Izumo. He was now talking with Raidou, helping to clarify something about the impossibly complicated mission report format.

Genma absently shifted the senbon in his mouth as he flipped through several more pages of variously-posed Izumos, then a short series of Kotetsu.

His favorite Kotetsu was another back view, but this time the figure on the page was standing up and still (mostly) wearing pants. Black ink splayed into pointy spikes on the top and back of his head. Fine lines showed the outline of each muscle down the back of his neck, broadening slightly across his shoulders, and thinning again down the muscles in his arms. Both arms ended with hands that were partially, sensually, tucked into teasingly just-lowered pants.

Broader strokes as well as thinning lines captured the toned muscles of his back, then the lines curved to show firm, rounded muscle above the loosely slung pants. A quick, teasing ink stroke showed an enticing glimpse of Kotetsu's crack, making Genma's own pants fit just a little bit tighter. His mind was flooded with memories of the type of Kotetsu-talk that tended to accompany such teasing moments.

He breathed in and out deeply through his nose, closed his eyes for a moment, then turned one more page.

OH, verrry nice... Here were Izumo and Kotetsu together.

This drawing, another side view of sorts, showed Kotetsu reclining on a hastily sketched bed. His naked upper body leaned back on to the support of his elbows and forearms. His pants were unzipped and pushed down far enough to provide plenty of access for a completely naked, kneeling on the floor, Izumo. Fine, carefully inked marks showed Izumo's outstretched, pointed tongue as it teased the tip of Kotetsu's erection.

The artist had suggested Izumo's gentleness in the soft, blurred brush strokes of hands caressingly resting on Kotetsu's clothed thighs. The artist had also caught Izumo's aggressive lust with the strokes showing him desperately hungering for what Kotetsu offered.

Genma glanced back up to make sure the men in the missions office were still deep in conversation before flipping through a whole series of erotic Izumo and Kotetsu pictures. His curiosity over where this book had come from was over shadowed by his desire to see just... a little bit... more.

One more page, he thought. I'll just look at one more page, then put the book...

Genma looked down at his own naked image on that one-more-page.

He blinked, then blinked again. He still saw himself captured by ink strokes, lying across the page on his back with his arms stretched languidly over his head. Ink-brushed Genma's eyes were closed, and his back arched just slightly in sensual invitation.

He quickly skimmed over several more Genma drawings, then hit a series of Raidou. Ohhh, verrry nice.

His hand moved on its own, sliding down the zipper of his pants and reaching in to rub absently up his now-completely-hard length, palm over the top, then rub back down. He would begrudgingly use that hand to turn the pages of the Raidou series, then let the hand return to its subconscious activity.

When he hit the Genma/Raidou together series his right hand flew to his cock and stayed there. Genma perfected the art of holding the book, then turning it down, sideways and shaking it until the page turned, all with his left hand. His face flushed slightly as he glanced up just long enough to make sure the men in the other room were still preoccupied.

The tiny portion of his mind not clouded by lust began to wonder how this book had come to be. Although these were all certainly things he and Raidou had done together, it was possible that someone had just... Well, he wasn't sure. Just imagined these poses, maybe? Made them up? There was no *way* that Konoha shinobi could be spied on, time after time, for as long as it would take to draw all of these pictures. None of the quickly stroked drawings had backgrounds, and Genma had himself practically convinced that someone in the village was blessed with a vivid imagination as well as amazing artistic talent.

Then he shook loose a drawing on thicker paper that had been preserved between two pieces of rice paper and pinned between two back pages. The rice paper floated off of the unfinished image as the portrait fluttered to the floor.

No. Fucking. Way.

No way, no way, nowaynoway..... Genma abruptly stopped his hand-activity, fumbled to re-zip his pants, and silently shut the door. He leaned against it for added assurance.

This loose picture, the only one that was subtly shaded with lighter strokes of gray and frustratingly unfinished, did have a partially filled-in background.

Genma easily recognized it as his favorite wooded training ground. He also easily recognized his forehead protector and clothes littered on the ground. There was definitely no mistaking his kneeling, naked form firmly grasping the hips of his that-day partner. His heart pounded as he looked at the other image he had no problem recognizing. Right there, right on the page of this book *clearly* belonging to someone who had been observing him for some time now, there on his hands and knees clutching the grass out the ground was Uchiha Sasuke.

Nobody knew about that. Nobody could ever know about that. Naruto had almost figured out that he wanted Sasuke, who still got some "private training" from Kakashi, who was with Iruka, who was extremely protective of his former students...

And then there was Raidou.

Genma flipped back to one of the pictures of Raidou and tried to calm down. Yes, they definitely had an arrangement that all multi-player games were to be played within each others' presence, but this Sasuke incident occurred during two weeks when they were giving each other space to figure some things out. They quickly figured out they hated having space, but the super-top-secret Uchiha In the Training Grounds incident somehow happened during that time. After all, it had been *two weeks.*

Genma glanced hopefully at the bottom and back of the page, but there was no date scrawled anywhere. His pulse picked up speed as he thought this through. Even if he could prove that he had been with Sasuke during the "space-to-figure-things-out" two weeks, there was no guarantee that Raidou wouldn't be angered. Raidou's anger over breaches in respect was definitely something to be avoided.

He moved to the middle of the room, frantically leafing through the sketchbook pages. He searched every page for the name of the person who had observed all of this...activity. After examining the entire book he only knew one thing for sure. That picture had to go. Very reluctantly, he used both hands to grab hold of the upper, middle portion of the page, twisted slightly, and...

"Genma?"

"AAAiii!"

Raidou stood in the doorway, still holding the doorknob of the dusty room. Genma quickly crammed the portrait back into the sketchbook, holding the cover tightly closed.

"Since when do you stand in empty offices, screaming like a skin-kneed girl when someone opens the door?"

Genma silently rearranged his face into a tough-ass look of senbon chewing masculinity. He did *nothing* like a girl.

"Why are you hiding Sai's sketchbook behind your back?"

"Sai's sketchbook?" Genma stepped over the discarded rice paper and nudged past Raidou into the now-empty missions office. He clutched the sketchbook tight with both hands. "How do you know this is Sai's?"

"He walks around with that thing all the time. It's got a pretty distinctive cover. Hard to forget. Let's have a look in it..." Radou reached for the book as the two men walked through the office and headed into the hallway.

"NO!" Genma yelled, snatching the book away. "I mean, I started looking through it before I knew what it was, and it has... well, there's private drawings in here of... Izumo and Kotetsu. I really think we should respect their privacy."

Raidou looked at Genma curiously. "Genma, you've fucked Izumo and Kotetsu, with me in the room, more times that we could possibly count. Why so shy all of the sudden? Are they with farm animals? Wearing Tsunade and Jiraiya's clothes? What? And how 'private' can these poses be if Sai was in the room with them? Man, that Kotetsu has serious voyeur issues..."

Genma chewed his senbon and tried to remain calm. How exactly *did* Sai manage to draw all of those pictures? Maybe sex outside with random, hot, ex-missing nin in the middle of the afternoon wasn't such a good idea.

He just never could shake the image of Sasuke at the end of the chuunin exam out of his mind. Genma remembered Sasuke's anger when he realized his public quest for dominance over Gaara was over. Those eyes simmered in barely-contained rage when Genma casually issued an order to make himself useful. Then the boy with those angry eyes submitted his raging will to Genma's and did what he was told.

And then... that boy grew up.

Genma returned from his thoughts to find Raidou at a complete stop, levelly staring at him, completely expressionless.

Unnerved, Genma tried to keep his voice natural. "The right thing to do is to just return it. I'll walk it over to..."

"You're not walking anything, anywhere. We've been gone for over two weeks and we have a big night planned tonight. We both need to rest. Sai can't be far. He'd never just leave that book behind. Just go put it back on the table."

Genma was spared thinking up an excuse when Sai himself walked out of the stairwell into the hallway.

Sai spied the book in Genma's hand, paused, then asked, "Did you have a chance to admire my art?"

Raidou pried the book out of Genma's hands and handed it to Sai, saying, "Genma did, but he was hell bent on not letting me see any 'private moments'"

At this, Sai closed his eyes and smiled his Sai smile. "Yes, some moments are best kept private. That's why I destroy my portraits as soon as they are finished. The problem is, I have to finish them before I can destroy them or else they exist in my mind unfinished, forever." He opened his eyes and looked at Genma.

Raidou shifted his weight and glanced at his watch. "Yeah, well, glad we could return it. See you later."

Sai coolly stared at Genma for several moments. Just when the silence was becoming unbearably awkward he said, "I plan to finish the portrait preserved in this book this afternoon, at three o'clock, to make sure the light is perfect. I'm certain both subjects of the portrait will agree. I must finish it, and then destroy it."

Raidou couldn't stifle a loud yawn as he answered, "Yeah, um...Sounds like a plan, Sai. Be careful where you leave that thing." He nodded goodbye and headed towards the stairs.

Sai stared at Genma until Genma's eyes met his in silent agreement. At three o'clock, that afternoon, they would finish the portrait.