Exhibition

Still dedicated to the lovely Darkalbino! :D She liked this chapter, so I hope you do too! And thanks to Master of the Rebels for beta’ing this for me. And naturally, Naruto does not belong to me. He belongs to Kishimoto-sama…or Sasuke.


Exhibition

Chapter 2: A New Muse

As Gaara took Naruto through the rest of the exhibit, Naruto kept glancing around to see if he could find the guy that he had hugged and slapped. He wanted to apologize.

"This is Uchiha Itachi's latest work," Gaara said, pulling Naruto from his thoughts. The painting in question was mostly shapes and circles to Naruto at first glance. Naruto looked at the painting, and tilted his head right and then left to see if either of those angles gave him a better perspective on what the painting was.

"It's on sideways," Naruto said, looking at all the shapes and circles that actually seemed to form a picture at that angle. When he tilted his head to the left, it looked like a bowl of ramen to him. And Naruto knew ramen.

"This is abstract art. It goes any way the artist feels his emotions have come out," Gaara explained calmly, aware that his friend was not used to such a style.

"No, it's on sideways," Naruto said matter-of-factly.

A deep voice chuckled behind him.

"I asked them to change it before the art show, but they had placed the hook in the framing at the wrong spot. It would have taken too much time to change it before the show started, and everyone reassured me that no one would be able to tell that it was on the wrong way. Ironically enough, you are the first to notice," a man said, coming up to look at Naruto.

Naruto almost thought it was the same man that he had hugged and slapped on the butt, but realized that this man was slightly taller, and his hair was pulled back into a pony-tail. He also thought this man's hair didn't look quite as dark as the other male he'd met earlier.

"Uchiha Itachi," the man introduced himself casually, though he didn't offer his hand in greeting.

"Uzumaki Naruto," Naruto said, grinning rather sheepishly. "And this is my buddy Gaa-ra-" Naruto said as he turned to introduce his friend, only to see that Gaara had moved on to another painting, oblivious that Naruto was no longer at his side.

"Is any of your work in the show?" Itachi asked.

"My work? What? Oh, no. I don't have anything in the show," Naruto said.

"An art critic then? Is that how you were able to tell my work was upside down? Or was it the brush strokes actually hinting at strong movement downward rather than the brusque side to side movement? Or the way that the light hits the painting better when you tilted your head, having the shadows throw around more breathtaking colors?" Itachi asked.

"Uh…" Was he just supposed to say that he thought that it just looked like a bowl of ramen to him when he tilted his head to the side? "I thought it looked like a bowl of ramen with my head tilted," Naruto muttered out.

Itachi looked at him before giving another deep, amused chuckle.

"Excellent eyes. It was, in fact, based off of that. I am not sure if you are aware of the adult Icha Icha book series, but the author of the books will shortly be re-releasing a book not related to the series. Apparently it was the first book that he wrote, but it wasn’t very popular. Hardly any copies sold. From what I've heard, though, it was actually the best book he has ever written. No known copies are out at the moment, but ‘The Legend of the Gutsy Ninja’ pre-order already has had a higher pre-sell-out rate than his Icha Icha series."

Naruto chuckled to himself. Apparently this guy was a big fan of his godfather, Jiraiya. He also idly wondered if it were worth pointing out that the artist was lucky that it was just a bowl of ramen else Itachi would have needed to get copyright licensing if he planned to put it on sale. Lots of people seemed to forget that little detail.

"Not only that, but he’s planning on writing a sequel soon. The background story on his biography website says he’s actually been revamping the original for years, but waited some time to circulate it again. The information I found from online stated that he named the main character in the new series after eating a bowl of ramen. For her birthday, of all things, my mother requested that I paint a bowl of ramen for her. She's an extremely big fan of the author, and his online bio details that the bowl of ramen symbolized an important family connection for him," Itachi explained.

Naruto, for his part, scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

"Well that's really funny," Naruto said, "I'm not an artist or art critic. I'm a book publicist for that old perv your mom likes. He's my godfather. And yeah, he did get the name from ramen. That's where I get mine from too 'cuz my dad read that book and named me after the main character. My mom liked the idea 'cuz she's a big fan of instant ramen, like me. It's kind of an ongoing joke that I'm better than instant ramen since you don't usually get the naruto parts in the instant kind. My mom and I love ramen. I think if my dad weren’t around, she’d have fed it to me all three meals for my entire childhood."

"Interesting. Then it must be fate for you to see it and meet me," Itachi said.

"Fate? You don't happen to know Hyuuga Neji do you?" Naruto wondered.

"I have not."

"Er, right. Anyway. I like the painting," Naruto said.

"As your godfather's book publicist, do you think he would like to use my artwork for his book?" Itachi asked, almost happily. Naruto eyed the man up, and wondered if the emo types ever got truly happy. He also wondered if he said no if the man would go cut himself. He really hoped that was just stereotypical nonsense.

After all, whenever Gaara got into a really emo mood, he went and played in an effing sandbox of all things. Artists were just weird. The only ones who could be weirder were writers.

"Uh, well, while we don't have the cover art ready yet, I think he was thinking more along the lines of having a person on the cover, not a bowl of ramen," Naruto said. Itachi chuckled darkly again.

"I didn't mean this particular painting obviously, but if you're interested in having a person on the cover, might I suggest my brother, Sasuke? He's the one in the family who paints people. He's a very good portrait artist. It would help the publicity of the book to have the Uchiha name linked with the cover art – not to mention my mother would be absolutely thrilled. It would be beneficial all around," Itachi said persuasively.

"Uh, well," Naruto said, scratching his head. They actually had the same cover-artist that did the Icha Icha series lined up to do the artwork. The only reason he hadn't been commissioned yet was because Naruto had actually been trying to convince Jiraiya to use one of his artist friends to do the work instead.

He wasn't sure how his friends would take to the idea of one of these Uchiha brothers doing it.

"Speaking of my younger brother, here he comes," Itachi said nodding his head to the right.

Turning his head, Naruto felt a slight blush rise up onto his face as he realized the younger brother was none other than the man whose ass he'd slapped.


- - - - - - - - - - - -


Sasuke had been looking for his brother to ask about the blond man he'd seen, when not only did he spot his brother, but the young man who had so enthusiastically greeted him earlier.

Itachi caught his eye and motioned him over.

"Sasuke, I would like to introduce you to my friend, Uzumaki Naruto," Itachi introduced.

"Yes, we met briefly before. He was looking at my 'Silent Killers of the Soul' painting, and seemed to have a good grasp on the meaning behind it," Sasuke said, nodding his head, impressed.

"That was a great painting! And your brother was right: you do paint people very well," Naruto said, nodding his head. Sasuke's mood soared. So Itachi had been telling his friend that he painted people well? High praise from his brother indeed considering Itachi usually nitpicked at him for not expanding his "artistic horizons" by dabbling in more modern art styles.

"Naruto is the only one so far to notice the ramen painting was on sideways," Itachi explained.

"That's the ramen painting you did for mom’s birthday? Will she be able to tell it's ramen?" Sasuke asked, feeling it was a horrible representation to give as a gift.

"I thought you'd say that. As it so happens, Naruto's godfather is the author of the new book coming out. Not only that, Naruto was named after the main character when it was first written. And of course, as Jiraiya's book publicist, his opinion about the painting holds extremely high regard, and Naruto likes it," Itachi said with a flourish. Sasuke inwardly glowered. It wasn't like Itachi to gloat about how much better he was at doing something than Sasuke – like giving a better painting for their mother. He hadn't even started on an idea for his mom yet.

Usually Itachi was the type of brother who did his best to control everything Sasuke did. Gloating usually wasn’t one of them unless he planned to rile Sasuke up into some sort of challenge.

"Well," Naruto started, but Itachi interrupted him again.

"You wouldn't mind giving a quote about your ideas on the painting, would you Naruto? It would be good publicity for your godfather. You are, after all his publicist," Itachi said.

"That makes sense," Naruto agreed slowly.

"And like I was saying earlier, Sasuke here would be the perfect cover art candidate for the book. In fact, he could even use you as a model for the main character," Itachi quipped.

"What?" Naruto asked incredulous, "M-me?"

Finally, Sasuke realized what Itachi was doing. Normally he wasn't one to jump on opportunities that his brother was so obviously trying to give him. His brother had been trying for some time to get him to use his artistic abilities to paint less "morbid" portraits, as he had called them. As Sasuke eyed up the blond male, he noted that he was extremely attractive, very well built, would definitely not be a candidate for “darker” painting themes -

And had a nice firm smacking hand.

Not to mention if he did the cover art, he would need an exclusive copy to a pre-printed edition of the book, which he could then pass off to his mother to read.

That would be an excellent present.

"You'd be perfect. Haven't you ever done modeling before?" Sasuke wondered as he gave Naruto an artist's once over.

"Uh, well-"

"You have many artist friends. Haven't they painted you?" Itachi inquired.

"And wouldn't your godfather want you to be on the cover since you were named after the main character?" Sasuke added.

"He named me, and I guess that sort of makes me his legacy, but-"

"That settles it then. Sasuke will read the book," Itachi had apparently had the same thought about getting their hands on a copy of that book, "and use you as inspiration to paint the main character."

At first, Sasuke thought that Naruto would be pulled into the fluster of his and Itachi's not so gentle attempts at persuasion.

"I'll clear it with my godfather and contact you with his wishes," Naruto said, his voice changing, becoming more businesslike. Sasuke was rather impressed.

"Here's our information," Itachi said as he handed Naruto one of his exclusive business cards before Itachi was all but ushering Sasuke to a private area to talk.

"Why didn't you offer to let him use your ramen bowl painting?" Sasuke couldn't resist asking with a smirk.

"That's for mother anyway. This chance is for you," Itachi said, with a strange look in his eyes.

"It is a good opportunity," Sasuke admitted.

"I don't mean about the cover art. I saw that lovely little greeting between the two of you when he looked at your painting. I’m sure he likes you, or at least finds you attractive. He seems like a much nicer guy than your usual one night stands. He even likes your art. If you decide to come out of the closet to mother and father, mother will back you all the way if you get her an in with that author. And if you come out of the closet first, then it won’t be so horrible when I do. Aren't I such a clever genius?" Itachi practically cackled before wandering off.

Slightly baffled and a bit infuriated that his brother was trying to set him up, and take hold on his life like the control freak he was, Sasuke actually considered Itachi's words.

There was one thing that Sasuke wouldn't hesitate to admit: his brother was clever at times.


Hope you enjoyed the chapter. ~ Jelp