Art and Artifice

Art and Artifice
chapter 20

"Hey Kyuu chan, come here and help me move this thing." The blond boy plodded over to his friend and lifted the other end of the wooden divider he was trying to move. Together they carried it across the gymnasium and Naruto stood by listlessly while Haku set it up to his liking. It was Sunday afternoon and the two boys were helping to get everything set up and ready for the art show that evening. Haku's smile of satisfaction dimmed as he caught sight of his friend's face.

"Kyuubi, you've been acting totally depressed since you got here. Do you want to tell me what's wrong?" Naruto just dropped his gaze to the floor. Affecting a sunny tone, Haku attempted to cheer his friend up.

"Come on Kyuu, it's almost graduation. Tonight's the art show. Don't you want to show Itachi that last entry of yours?" Naruto looked back up at him and his eyes shone with tears. It suddenly occurred to Haku that he had probably said the wrong thing.

"I don't think he's coming," the blond choked out and with a little prompting, he slowly managed to get the whole story out to his friend. Haku pulled him into his arms and hugged him close.

"It's ok.... I'm sure everything will turn out alright," he murmured quietly. Damn Uchiha's! Maybe 'Itachi' couldn't beat up his brother, but 'he' sure as hell wouldn't mind taking on the job... and then he'd kick Itachi's ass for good measure! Unfortunately, he knew that wasn't really what Naruto needed to hear right now. So he just continued to sooth his friend to the best of his abilities.

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Itachi entered the transformed gymnasium of Shinobi High School with his parents, Sasuke trailing silently behind them. For awhile he had actually almost convinced himself that he wasn't going to come to this event. He had spent the night fuming and waiting for his little brother to show his face at home but if the younger Uchiha had come in before Itachi had finally gone to bed then he'd been very quiet and made himself scarce. Itachi had woken up feeling quite a bit calmer and couldn't help thinking that he'd been a little unfair to Naruto. Then a few minutes later he'd run into Sasuke in the kitchen and gotten his first good look at the terribly painful looking black eye his brother was sporting. A sinking feeling had developed in his gut as it became abundantly clear that he had falsely accused his poor little blond. Suddenly all he could think about was the tears in those big blue eyes right before he'd walked out. He really needed to talk to him and actually listen to what he had to say.

Naruto's phone had been turned off and he wasn't at home so he could only wait until the show tonight. With nothing much else to do all day he had continued to think about what had happened, mentally replaying and analyzing Naruto's words, and the more he'd thought about it, the more he felt like a heel. His boyfriend had been so stressed out and upset and had looked to him for comfort. He'd told him he was assaulted and sexually harassed and all Itachi could focus on was the idea that someone had touched what was 'his'. He hadn't really taken into account how Naruto himself must have felt. He should have been more angry for the pain and fear that his boyfriend had suffered than for the encroachment on his territory. Instead of offering Naruto comfort and support, he had blamed the situation on him. He'd gone and let his possessive tendencies cloud his judgment and now, after sleeping on it and calming himself, it was obvious that he was being suspicious over nothing. With a background like Naruto's, of 'course' he'd be worried about preserving his family relationships, and the blond had indeed already handled things. From the looks of Sasuke, he'd done a damn fine job of 'handling' it.

Politely ditching his family, Itachi began to wander around in search of Naruto. After a few minutes with no luck he started to spare half of his attention for the art that he was passing by. Out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of something that grabbed his whole attention. Himself. Those were 'his own' eyes he was looking at. It was a mixed media piece on a fair sized board, about four by three feet. It showed a partial of his face, focusing on the eye's. The rest of his face became more obscured, parts covered with red clouds. There was practically no outline at all. Somehow the image managed to have a great deal of spacial depth. The whole thing was done mostly in shades of red. The shadows were deep and dark and an air of mystery enveloped it all. The level of detail was incredible as well and the method alone created a very unique effect. It appeared to have been under-painted. Perhaps at one point it had shown the entire face more clearly, and upon closer inspection some of the depth was real. The surface was textured, built up so that the image actually stood out in relief. Both the obscurity and the higher detail had been achieved through an interesting use of... pastel maybe,and something else, with highlights in conte over-top of everything. It was altogether an incredible piece of work. Itachi was completely blown away. Of course he didn't need to look at the tag beside it to know who the artist was, but he automatically looked anyway and sure enough there was the name Uzumaki Naruto. Shit.. now he felt even worse.

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Sasuke really didn't want to be here. He was walking about, bored as hell but holding his head high and projecting an air of complete confidence as though practically 'daring' anyone to comment on his black eye. He took note of a small crowd of mostly girls that were hovering around one particular area, babbling and giggling excitedly and with a mild curiosity, he wandered over to investigate. As it turned out they were looking at some very familiar pictures. The ones that had first triggered his interest in Kyuubi. He couldn't help staring at them all over again. Idly he tried to think of the photographer's name but found that he couldn't remember so he glanced over to the information tag. Yamanaka Ino, yes, that was the girl and below that was the name of the model.... Uzumaki Naruto?!

Sasuke did a double take, leaning his face in close but the letters remained the same no matter how long he stared. The babbling around him started to make sense of itself and he picked up on little snippets of broken phrases here and there.

"...the guy in the hood..."

"Oh my god isn't he that..."

"...ieve it! That's what he looks like..."

Sasuke's head began to buzz. This wasn't right. This couldn't be right. There must have been some mistake. That was 'Kyuubi'. Kyuubi wasn't Naruto! Naruto wasn't Kyuubi! Naruto couldn't be Kyuubi because Naruto wasn't anyone. Naruto wasn't a person at all! He was just a faceless, voiceless entity! Sasuke could remember, right from day one. He had spoken to the hooded form in the back corner of the classroom and gotten no response. That vague head shape had stayed bowed even when he'd begun to tease, to taunt and then to throw insults. He had used him as a platform to step up on, to help cement his reputation right away and there had never been the slightest problem. It was so easy that it had become a habit. It had just been too easy to forget that there was anything 'under' that hood. He had never had to feel any kind of remorse for taking out his frustrations on Naruto because he wasn't a real person. He was just there. He never fought back. He never even spoke, and nobody fought for him. Nobody gave a damn because there was nothing 'there' to care about. Naruto didn't even have a face. Naruto couldn't have a smile like that! It just 'couldn't' be! There was no way that the one he'd been pushing and tripping and shoving into lockers was....

Sasuke's mind paused in it's jumbled rambling as he suddenly remembered how Kyuubi had disliked him intensely and immediately as though he'd already had some kind of grudge against him. He remembered how truly frightened he'd looked when Sasuke had shoved him against the wall, and then there were his words. He had said that he didn't like Sasuke because he knew him. That he knew just how horrible he could be. Had he really been doing all those nasty things to 'Kyuubi'? Was Kyuubi really Naruto? He mentally winced at the recent memory of a small figure, curled on the floor, wet and shivering and gasping for air. 'That' had tugged at something inside of him even when it was just the hooded freak, but he 'might' have done just that to Kyuubi. The thought made him seriously nauseous. He had to find out if it was true. He had to know! Right now!

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Itachi was still having no luck finding Naruto but he did catch sight of his little brother. Sasuke seemed to be studying something very closely, which was odd as he usually pretended disinterest in this entire show every year, on principle. From here Itachi could just make out the dark ring around Sasuke's eye and he couldn't help a small smirk that crossed his face. He wondered absently what his brother looked so tense about as he cast another look around for Naruto. His eyes were drawn back to Sasuke though when the younger Uchiha spun around quite suddenly, his face even paler than usual and began to cast his gaze about the room as though he was looking for someone. The boy looked almost panicked for some reason.

Itachi frowned, perplexed, as watched him dart off quickly, still turning about and craning his neck to look through the crowd. What could have thrown Sasuke into such an agitated state? His curiosity had been thoroughly stirred now and he headed toward the exhibit that Sasuke had shown such intense interest in.

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Naruto was terribly discouraged. He felt even worse now than he had earlier. He had been looking all over the place for a glimpse of Itachi since the event began and it was beginning to look as though he really wasn't going to show up after all. Perhaps it was about time to give up now. There was no point in continuing to torment himself. He tried to remember that Itachi had been a complete jerk and recapture some of his anger to push away the hurt but it wasn't doing any good. Now he just felt even more upset. He had been hoping that Itachi at least wanted to try to talk things out but then, why 'would' he if he really did believe that Naruto was capable of two timing him and his own brother? With a painful sigh he began to make his way to the nearest door, deciding to just go home right now and avoid that awful feeling he knew he would experience if he kept waiting around until he found himself standing alone in a huge empty room.

As he reached the door and pulled it open, Sasuke's attentive gaze just caught the movement and honed in on the old familiar hoody. Quickly he began to weave and dodge and outright shove through the crowd to door where he had just seen that hood disappear. He had to catch up to him before he left the building.




A/N; Oh my! Was that a cliffy? XD I'm glad nobody tried to kill me over Naru and Itachi's fight, but then, if I was killed, you'd never find out what happens! lol Tune in tomorrow same bat-time, same bat-channel and all that.