Art and Artifice

Art and Artifice
chapter 3

Naruto and the rest of the artists at Shuriken Studio's were taking a short but welcome break. It was Saturday afternoon and the weekends, of course, were always the busiest time for the popular tattooists. They mainly had a walk in, first-come-first-serve sort of system so they took breaks whenever they could, never knowing when they'd have the next chance. At the moment Izumo was shamelessly poking fun at one of his previous clients.

"A 'meat cleaver'! I mean seriously, this big, burly Hell's Angel wanna be actually wants a bloody meat cleaver on his forearm!" Everyone was chuckling at the almost constipated look on his face. "No matter what I suggested to make it look maybe a little less painfully stupid he wasn't budging one damn inch."

"Well at least the guy knew what he wanted." Genma offered. Izumo and Kotetsu shared a look and scoffed in perfect sync.

"Yeah right. I'd say it's probably more like what he hopes his biker buddies would find impressive. You'd think people would hit a certain age and grow a brain. This stuff is permanent people!" Izumo was about to really take off into a full rant so Naruto stepped in.

"I agree. You should only get something that honestly speaks to you. That's exactly why I waited so long."

"Heheh, if a bloody meat cleaver 'speaks' to this guy then I don't think I want to get to know him better. You know what I'm sayin'?" said Kotetsu with a mock frightened look.

"In anycase," Izumo continued, "the thing looked so bad when it was finished, I didn't want to even admit that it was my work. Needless to say, I certainly wasn't going to take any pictures of that one."

"Oh the Horrible Cliche!!" Kotetsu wailed and the group shared a good laugh. When they had quieted once more Naruto remembered something.

"Speaking of pictures, there's this girl I know from my art class who's into photography. She wants to be a professional one day so she's getting together a portfolio and she asked 'me' to be the model for the series she's doing."

"Alright! You're gonna be a model!" hooted Kotetsu.

"You 'are' going to do it right?" asked Izumo

"Of course he is!" Kotetsu retorted. "When a pretty girl wants to take your picture you don't say no. Wait.. She is a hotty right? Aaah, she is isn't she?" He gave Naruto a wink and a little nudge with his elbow.

"It's not like that. Not with Ino."

"Sure it's not." Izumo had joined in the teasing. "Girl meets boy. Girl asks to take boy's picture. Girl gets boy off alone somewhere for a little one-on-one photo session, probably involving a wardrobe change here and there or perhaps no wardrobe at all. What could 'possibly' happen there?"

"Oooooh!! Kyuubi, you sly fox! Are gonna be posing 'au naturel'?!" A blush began to creep over Naruto's face while Kotetsu leered.

"...Well..not completely," he mumbled.

"What was that?!" crowed his perverted colleague. Kotetsu's grin threatened to split his face in two. Naruto refused to meet his eyes, directing his own reddened face off to the far wall.

"She promised I wouldn't have to actually get naked..." The fully embarrassed little blond trailed off, his face growing even hotter as both Kotetsu and Izumo cracked up into wild fits of laughter. Thankfully Genma's calm voice broke through the din providing a most welcome distraction.

"So I take it then that you have actually agreed to do it?"

"Yeah, she really needed my help and after all the agonizing I did over my own portfolio I know how important this is to her. I just can't leave her hanging."

"You're a good person Kyuu and it probably won't be so bad. Just relax, don't worry about it too much and you might have some fun." With that, Genma moved on to take care of the client who had just come in for a piercing.

"Yeah. You'll have lot's of 'fun'," Kotetsu managed around his sniggering.

"Seriously though," said Izumo getting a hold of himself now, "he's right. You should just go ahead and do it. It's not that big of a deal."

"Yeah, you'll do just fine." Kotetsu agreed with a friendly slap to the blond's back. The jingle of the door sounded and Naruto felt himself shoved towards it. "Get that will you Kyuu."

"Yeah, sure." Naruto looked up and barely managed to conceal his surprise at the familiar face at the door. It was Inuzuka Kiba, one of the Uchiha's friends. Naruto swiftly reminded himself that Kiba wouldn't recognize him. He smiled politely and greeted the other boy like he would any client.

"Hey man, welcome to Shuriken. I'm Kyuubi. What can we do for you?"

"There's this tattoo I want to get.. You're pretty young aren't you?" The other boy was looking him over with an almost suspicious expression. Naruto was kind of used to this comment though and he simply leaned on his elbows over the counter and grinned in amusement.

"Don't worry. It doesn't seem to affect my skill level," He assured. "If you'd like though, you can look over some of my past work." Without bothering to wait for an answer he pulled his binder out from under the counter and plopped it down in front of Kiba. The brunet blinked and looked down at the name 'Kyuubi' printed on the cover, then with a shrug, proceeded to open the binder and look through. Within moments he was exclaiming his admiration.

"Aw this one's awesome! You're really good dude!" Naruto smiled at the open honesty of his voice and expression and thought he might not be a bad guy.

"Thank you," he answered. "So you were saying you had an idea of what you wanted?"

"Oh yeah! I want a dog." Kiba dug into his pocket and pulled out a photograph, looking at the image fondly before handing it to the blond behind the counter. "My family owns a kennel and my parents are breeders I plan to take over one day. I guess you could say I'm a bit dog obsessed but I come by it honestly right?" Naruto found the boy's jovial attitude infectious and grinned back at him before looking down at the picture. It was an image of a large and very handsome dog. "That's Akamaru. He's the first dog that was all my own responsibility and he's my best friend."

"So you've decided to immortalize him then?" Kiba nodded enthusiastically and Naruto's smile broadened as he took another look at the picture. Akamaru was mostly brown and white and maybe a little rough around the edges. He seemed like the perfect companion for the wild looking brunet. It made Naruto think of something he'd heard about close pets looking like their owners. He chuckled a little to himself at the thought that the animal probably acted a lot like Kiba too.

"I want it to be realistic and I want him to look...uh..well not like rabid scary but sort of intimidating you know."

Naruto told Kiba that if he wanted to get right down to it he could just do a quick sketch or two to confirm the dog's pose and expression and then freehand the image onto Kiba in pen before starting. Kiba agreed and soon enough Kiba was looking at the pen drawing on his chest in the mirror to see if he liked the size and placement.

"Ok. Yeah, I think that's gonna look really good. So are we gonna start now?" Kiba was practically hopping up and down and Naruto was enjoying his excitement.

"If you want to," he laughed. He sat Kiba back down and got ready to start. "You don't seem the least bit nervous. No one would know you were a first timer."

"I'm too pumped to be nervous! I've been wanting to get this for a while."

"I can tell," Naruto replied as he set out the ink he'd be needing. "I like doing this kind of tattoo. This image is obviously important to you and I can be sure that you'll never end up regretting it. It annoys me when someone gets something as personal as a tattoo for the sole purpose of impressing someone else."

"Not a crowd pleaser?"

"Never deliberately anyway." And with that Naruto began his work. They continued to chat amiably over the buzz of the gun, covering a surprising variety of subjects. At one point Kiba mentioned his friend Sasuke and Naruto bit back a comment, remembering that as far as Kiba knew "Kyuubi" had never met his friend. However, when Kiba spoke about Sasuke's horrid behavior yesterday, Naruto couldn't help stating his moral opinion.

"I may not know much about this guy but I think that it's wrong for him to take out his problems on you or anybody else."

"Well everyone gets into a bad mood now and then. You know how it is," Kiba defended.

"There is never a good excuse to hurt or belittle other people." Naruto's tone was adamant. "You never know just what kind of damage you may be doing and either way, absolutely everyone deserves a certain amount of respect. If your friend is acting like a jerk then maybe you should stand up to him. If you can't talk to him seriously about it then maybe he's not a very good friend." Kiba looked like he wanted to sigh but with the blond still working on his chest he was trying to keep still.

"You're probably right. It's just that Sasuke's rich and good looking so he's popular and nobody wants to step on his toes." Naruto grinned wryly at this admission.

"Bah! Popularity is overrated. In a few years your high school 'rep.' will be nothing more than a memory anyway!" Kiba smiled back at the blond before falling into a ponderous silence. Naruto just kept working quietly for the next few minutes, allowing him to think in peace. A part of him was always secretly amazed at the number of people who needed to have such a seemingly logical conclusion pointed out to them. But no matter, the fact that he was thinking it over at all was enough.

Kiba looked up when the buzzing noise suddenly stopped all together and the excitement from before, visibly took him over once again.

"Is it done?!" Naruto smiled brightly and nodded and Kiba jumped up and practically skipped to the big mirror.

"Oh wow dude that's awesome! It really looks just like him."

"I'm glad you like it," Naruto replied happily.

"I love it! Seriously thank you so much! You know, it didn't even really hurt. That was pretty surprising. I kept waiting for more pain."

"That's because I was trained by the best. Raidou's kick ass good." Kiba smiled to himself. This guy wouldn't even just take the credit. He had to focus the attention on someone else. Naruto quickly rang him up and took the cash.

"Thanks again Kyuubi. You did a great job and it was cool talking to you too."

"Aaaw I like you too Kiba!" Naruto cooed humorously. "You're a good guy. Come on back anytime alright."

"Cool, see ya." And with that, the newly tattooed Kiba disappeared out the door. Raidou passed right by him on the way in.

"Hey Raidou," the blond greeted. "Did you get all your errands done?"

"Yes. There was a hell of a line up at the bank though. How's everything been here. You doing ok?"

"Another satisfied customer!"

A/N; Wow my ego is lapping you guys right up(inner dagget-You're damn right I'm smooth!)
Anyway I noticed a lot of comments about Sasuke. Yeah I know he's a real prick but I'll be rounding out his character. Er..I'm working on it. The thing is..he's just funnier that way! You gotta admit, it made for a hell of an entrance.