Art and Artifice

Art and Artifice
chapter 11

Having made the mistake of mentioning Itachi when he was asked about his weekend, Naruto was currently suffering through Haku's 'grilling' on the subject. For the most part though, he was successfully managing to distract his friend by telling him all about Trompe L'Oeil. Haku was as excited by the idea as he had been and Naruto readily promised to take him there and introduce him to Kisame. They could both take advantage of the opportunities that the place presented to the 'budding artist'. Eventually Haku did manage to pry the info he really wanted from the blond and began cooing over the cuteness as they made their way down the hall to their classroom.

"Kyuubi chan got kissed!" he cried gleefully. "Oh it makes me want to go around telling all the girls and watch them turning green!"

"Turning green?" Naruto questioned in confusion.

"With envy of course," he nodded.

"I 'think' most of them have been kissed before," the blond countered with a wry smile.

"Yeah but not by a rich, handsome, older, sensitive artist type. I'm pretty sure that if these girls already have a thing for Sasuke, then they'd go nuts over Itachi."

"Are you sure? They seem to be gluttons for punishment." Haku put a few moments of actual thought into this but when he looked back toward Naruto to answer, the blond was gone.

"What the...?" Haku spun all the way around in search of his friend. His eyes narrowed in anger and exasperation as he saw Naruto was once again pinned to a locker by Uchiha Sasuke.

Naruto was surprised when he felt himself being jerked backward away from Haku and thrust forcefully against the lockers, but not as surprised as he was now at the sight of the Bastard's face. Unlike every other time he'd been accosted by Sasuke, this time the boy actually looked angry. Naruto wasn't given a chance to wonder about this development before Sasuke kindly let him in on exactly what was troubling him.

"I don't know what you think you're doing with my brother," he hissed, fingers squeezing both of the blond's upper arms painfully, "but you'd better stay the hell away from him! You have no business even 'speaking' to an Uchiha. My brother may have no sense of decorum, I'm sure he takes up with all kinds of freaks at that school of his, but I refuse to allow him to come back here and embarrass 'me'! By which I mean to say that 'you' are an embarrassment. I've just been amusing myself with you up until now. You do 'not' want to make me angry." He tugged the blond forward and shoved him back into the lockers for emphasis, smacking his head loudly in the process. With a nod to himself as though he were making a mental confirmation or perhaps trying to convince himself of something, the Uchiha turned sharply on his heal and marched off in the opposite direction.

"Woah...He looked pissed." observed Haku as he blinked after Sasuke's retreating figure.

"He doesn't want me hanging around Itachi," Naruto explained quietly. "He called me an embarrassment."

"Wow! You're a regular Romeo and Juliet now huh?" said Haku in an attempt to lift the mood. Naruto gave him a weak smile.

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Ino was ridiculously excited. She had just finished developing her photos this weekend and she had been 'dying' to show them off for an entire sixteen hours. At the moment she was looking for Naruto and Haku but she wasn't having much luck. Having tried the art room, the hall by their lockers and the cafeteria she had moved the search outside now. The boys were nowhere to be seen on school grounds but then she saw one of her girl friends. Ino hesitated for all of one second. Should she wait?... Aww hells no! There was no way she could contain herself.

"Ayame chan!" she called, running up to her friend. Ayame looked up from her conversation with Haruno Sakura.

"I've got my portfolio shots developed. Come here and tell me what you think before I explode!" Ayame giggled at her over-blown desperation. She shot a quick look at Sakura and gave a shrug before following Ino to one of the picnic tables where the blond girl had set down her bag and was pulling out a folder full of prints. Sakura decided to just tag along, and as she was attached to an apathetic Sasuke who had been too preoccupied to notice, he was simply dragged along with her.

Sasuke was still thinking about the hooded boy that he had threatened earlier. He couldn't understand how he and Itachi had gotten together in the first place. Where would they have met... and how? The kid never spoke a damn word as far as Sasuke knew. How did you get to know somebody who was so antisocial. Hell, the boy didn't seem to have a personality at all. Itachi 'must' have gotten him to speak somehow, but how? Even when Sasuke had seriously threatened him, the damn dobe had shown no reaction. And even if he did speak, what could there be to like about him? Sasuke knew the hooded boy was in the advanced art class though. That was probably the only reason. Just more of Itachi's damn art obsession. He wondered briefly if the boy was any good, but it didn't really matter did it. He couldn't let it get out anywhere that the school loser, whom he himself had designated as such and insulted and picked on more than anyone else, was seeing his own brother. He could never get Itachi to put a stop to it. His brother was too stubborn to do 'anything' Sasuke wanted, so the only thing to do was crack down on the dobe himself. He had definitely done the right thing. Itachi would probably forget about him soon anyway. They didn't even live in the same town. Still, he couldn't help but wonder what his brother had done to make that kid talk.

Ino, meanwhile, had spread out her photos on the table for Ayame to look them over. As Ayame exclaimed over them, Sakura leaned over to take a look herself. She kind of forgot to let go of Sasuke though and she almost jerked him out of balance. Snapped rudely from his thoughts, Sasuke tugged his arm back and straightened, leveling a glare at the back of her pink head. Sakura, however, was too engrossed in the photos by now to notice his ire.

"Oh my God! These are phenomenal! They're so professional looking Ino!" Ayame gushed.

"You think so?" Ino said happily. No blushing here. There wasn't a bashful bone in her body.

"Where did you find this model?" asked Sakura. "He's absolutely gorgeous. Those eyes and the marks on his face, and God that tattoo, it's so cool! He looks so exotic!" Sasuke huffed and gave up his glare, seeing that she wasn't paying attention. He moved in to see what had her so riveted that she would ignore 'him'.

"This guy 'must' be hot," he thought to himself. He caught sight of the photos and his eyes widened. Quickly he reached out and picked one up to examine it more closely. Hot didn't begin to describe the model. He was completely captivating. The shot Sasuke was looking at was an eight by ten that showed a blond boy with stunningly blue eyes that just seemed to jump right off the page and grab hold of the viewer. They put the blue of the reflected sky around him to shame. His face was perfect in an unconventional way. Three parallel scars on either cheek gave him a slightly animalistic look that only made him more eye-catching. His slim, toned body, framed from the waist up, appeared to be lying face down on the surface of some body of water, the profile of his face reflected in sharp clarity below. The smooth, golden-tanned skin of his back that could be seen was adorned with what looked like red tails. They curved and curled sinuously over his shoulder and around his side, one gliding up a slender neck. A few stray drops of water scattered over his shoulders gleamed in the sunlight. something about his position came off as vulnerable in a way and his expression was a touch...nervous maybe? He even seemed to be blushing ever so slightly. Sasuke looked over a few other pictures, keeping an ear out now for the conversation.

"That's Kyuubi chan. He's a friend of mine," Ino was saying. "He really is fabulous isn't he? I knew he'd be perfect for this." Kiba who had just been coming over to see what Sasuke and Sakura were up to, perked up at the name Kyuubi. Snatching one of the photos from Sasuke's hand and looking it over he grinned widely.

"Hah! It 'is' him!"

"You know this guy Kiba?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah it's Kyuubi. He's the guy from Shuriken Studios who did my tattoo for me. He's wicked cool."

"Wow, 'he' did that. It was a really great job. You know ever since you got yours, I've been thinking about getting my own tattoo. I think I should go to this guy for it. What do you think?"

"I think you should totally do it!! We could go after school tomorrow if you want. I'll take you in, be your moral support. Although if Kyuubi does it, it probably won't be too bad. Even 'you' could handle it." Sakura slapped him halfheartedly on the arm.

"If this guy is doing it to me, I can handle it just fine." Kiba let out a loud laugh.

"Hey now! Cool your jets girline. He seems really down to earth actually. I don't know how well he'd respond to your womanly wiles. You'd probably have to work harder for this one."

"Who said anything about working?" the pink haired girl asked innocently. "Can't a girl drool over fantasies of a hot guy drawing on her body without enduring your evil insinuations?"

"Yeah right," said Kiba with a smirk, as the other two girls giggled away. "So it's settled then. We'll go tomorrow. Do you have any idea of what you want?"

"Well, something sort of feminine for sure. I was thinking of maybe a dragonfly and some lucky bamboo, but maybe I could get something sexier. Ooh now I'm getting all excited about it! I don't know how I'll live through my classes knowing I'm going to get a tattoo tomorrow."

"I believe, I will go with you," Sasuke suddenly cut in.

"Eh? Really Sasuke kun? You want to see me get tattooed?" Sakura asked happily. The Uchiha nodded.

"Hn. It might be interesting." He smirked inwardly. He was definitely going to meet this boy in person and the blond wasn't going to be paying any attention to Sakura's feminine wiles.

Ino gathered up her multitude of photos and put the folder back in the bag. With a farewell to her friend she began to make her way back inside.

"Oops," she thought to herself. "I wonder if Kyuu chan will be ok with this. I suppose I'll have to warn him now that he'll be having company tomorrow. Oh well. This 'could' be pretty funny."



A/N; Whew, man! Writing this fast can really take it out of you. There's only a certain amount of time in a day that I can spend in front of this computer you know? I think I can keep it up for now though. At some point I may have to downgrade to updating once every two days, which I think is still a pretty good job. Wait while I take a moment to pat myself on the back for my work ethic... Ok I'm done. As it stands I will still see you tomorrow. TTFN!