Art and Artifice

Art and Artifice
chapter 5

Tick,... tick,... tick,...tick,... The sound was becoming positively maddening in the quiet classroom, to one person at least. Naruto sat fidgeting nervously in his seat, counting the seconds until three o'clock. It seemed endless and yet not nearly long enough. He didn't know which was worse. Honestly the thought of time stopping for a bit held a certain appeal, but on the other hand, the waiting was deadly.

At four minutes to three people began to pack up their things, getting ready to leave. Naruto chanced a quick glance toward Ino. The blond girl looked right back at him and gave a beaming smile. She was practically bouncing with impatience and excitement. Naruto swallowed heavily. When the bell finally rang the poor boy gave a startled jump, then calmed himself and stood slowly. The rest of the class erupted into noisy chatter and made a hasty break for the door. Naruto just stood still until Ino grabbed his arm and dragged him out, squealing about how much fun they were going to have.

Ino had a big house. Not filthy rich big, but her family was obviously fairly well to do. The decorative windows of the entrance were spotless and sparkled in the sun and the yard was perfectly groomed. An equally well groomed cat sat on the front step. Naruto was almost surprised that there wasn't the typical white picket fence. The driveway was empty and Ino confirmed that her parents weren't home yet as they walked inside.

"Hold on a sec while I go get my equipment. Do you want me to take your bag?"

"Uh yeah sure," Naruto answered absently. His attention had already wandered to the many family pictures on the wall in the hallway. Apparently they were 'all' a bunch of shutter bugs. He was surprised to find that Ino had a little brother. She had never mentioned him. If the pictures were recent, as they seemed to be, then he must be only around four or five years old.

"Alright, c'mon out back," came Ino's voice from behind. "We'll get these ones over with first."

Walking back out into the sunlight through the patio doors in the dining room, Naruto found the backyard was as nicely appointed as the front. There was a medium sized in ground pool and across the yard there was also a little man-made pond and a mini waterfall surrounded with thriving greenery. Ino headed straight for this pond.

"Nice," Naruto commented.

"Yeah, Mom's all into the landscaping. She calls this a 'serenity pool'," Ino explained as she began setting up her camera. "She made it herself and accidentally cut herself with an exacto knife when she was shaping the styrofoamy stuff. Only my mom would slit her wrist while making a 'serenity pool'." Naruto's eyes widened and he loosed an involuntary laugh. Ino just laughed along.

"I take it you enjoyed the irony of it?"

"Enough that she accused me of being insensitive," Ino admitted. Naruto gave a shake of his head. "What?" she asked innocently. "She missed the vein."

"Oh now that really did sound morbid."

"Anyway, moving right along...the series is going to be about reflections as I told you before." Naruto looked away a bit guiltily. Maybe he should been listening earlier? "For the first few, I've already set up a mirror, face up in the water. I need you to take off your shirt and pants and get on top of the mirror."

At the look the boy gave her, she assured him that she'd already tested it to make sure it would hold steady. Naruto reluctantly unzipped his hoody and glared at the resulting cat-call from Ino. She just laughed at his displeasure. Deciding to ignore her, he turned his back and lifted off his tee-shirt. Ino gasped loudly as the tattooed tails were revealed. She had heard about it from Haku but this was her first time actually seeing it. Truthfully she had almost forgotten about this aspect of his physique and was quickly working this addition into her mental images of the photo's.

"Wow Kyuubi! That's incredible! This is going to be even better than I imagined!" Ino absolutely couldn't contain herself. "You look so cool!" she squealed. Naruto stared silently at her beaming face, a little overwhelmed by her exuberant reaction. Clearing his throat and fighting down his blush, he reached to unfasten his pants and a moment later, was standing in his black boxers. Suddenly he found himself wishing he had longer boxers.

"Oh good, they're black. That will fit in well," Ino approved. Then she noticed a couple of tail tips below the hem of the boxers on the left leg and gave a low whistle. "Woooh it keeps going. I'm tempted to pull the boxers off too now. Good thing I'm a nice person huh?"

"Uh, yeah. I'm just going to..." he motioned helplessly toward the water. Taking the hint, Ino switched into director mode.

"Alright then, first I want you on your knees."

"Yeah I'll just bet you do!" Naruto muttered and Ino laughed in surprise but made no comment.

"Ok, hands down and look at me." Ino knelt down level with him and looked through the camera. She was pleased with the effect. He really looked like he was resting on top of the water. She shifted her angle to properly frame both Naruto and his reflection in the mirror below him. "Could you tilt your head down more and look up with just your eyes? Yes that's perfect. Now hold it. Good now lift your shoulders and bring your hands closer together. Ok spread your knees out more." Ino's shutter kept clicking as she gave out directions. "Let's try some different expressions. Could you smirk for me?"

"You want me to smirk?" Ino took a quick shot of his bewildered expression.

"Yeah. You know. Pretend your Sasuke." Naruto scowled and Ino took a picture of that too. Then he rolled his eyes before managing a pretty bang-on impression of the Uchiha. Ino giggled at the sight and the shutter clicked again.

"Hold on. Let me try something," said Ino setting the camera aside. She looked through her "bag o' stuff" and pulled out a cup. She dipped it quickly into the pond and before the boy could ask what she was doing, she poured the water over his head.

"Ino!" Naruto squeaked at the sudden cold (well, cool, but whatever). Ino ignored it and started messing with his hair. Then she splashed his chest and shoulders too causing another squeak. She sat back and resumed taking pictures. Naruto looked kind of annoyed but Ino decided she liked that look.

A few minutes later, Naruto was on his back, still on the mirror his face turned to the side to look at the camera. His profile was being reflected right next to his face. Ino took several shots, messing with his hair between some of them and having him change the positions of his arms. Then she reached into her bag once more and pulled out a bottle of bubble solution, smiling and sticking out her tongue at Naruto's curious look. She blew some bubbles at Naruto and took some more pictures. Standing up a moment later, she looked down over the boy through the camera but she didn't like the angle so she told him to wait and ran off to fetch a little wooden table from the pool area. From the top of the table, some more pictures were taken of Naruto, looking of to the side and then facing up, rainbow bubbles floated over him and the sky reflected below.

By the time he was allowed to get out of the pond, or off it rather, Naruto had relaxed and begun to think maybe this really wasn't so bad after all. He wondered why Ino was wrapping her camera up in plastic. After a brief explanation, he found himself under water in the pool trying to hold his breath without really looking like he was holding his breath as Ino had requested. At least he could see if he was doing it right. He was looking up into the mirror above him, his hands resting on it as though he was trying to push through. Ino was in the pool as well, moving around him and snapping pictures from every angle.

Just as they were climbing out of the pool, the patio door opened and a little blond boy that Naruto recognized from the pictures in the hall came running out yelling, "Ino! Hi Ino! We're home! Ino Ino Ino!" The boy stopped short when he saw Naruto. "Oh hi! I'm Kenji."

"Well it's nice to meet you Kenji," said Naruto with a friendly smile. "I'm Naruto." Kenji's gaze became somewhat suspicious.

"Are you Ino's boyfriend?" he asked. Naruto choked

"Kenji ! He's the boy I told you about. I'm taking pictures of him remember?"

"But you said his name was Kyuubi," the little boy argued.

"Oh!" Naruto chuckled "Kyuubi is my nickname. That's what my friends call me. You can call me Kyuubi if you want to."

"Ok." Suddenly Kenji noticed the markings on his body. "Wow! Is that a real tattoo?!" Before he new it Naruto had a small boy crawling all over him looking over every tail at ultra close range. Naruto laughed genially. He would never have allowed an adult to manhandle him but he really loved children. They were so... free and open. Ino was laughing along and taking pictures.

"Yeah it's real alright," the nine tailed boy confirmed when the kid had settled down a bit. "I make tattoos for other people all the time. That's my job."

"Woah! That's a cool job!" The kid was sitting on his lap now his eyes wide and nose almost touching Naruto's. Naruto grinned and Kenji grinned back. Ino snapped a picture and then stopped and blinked at them. What an amazing shot! Both were blond and blue eyed, the older one more vibrantly so and darker skinned, but both were gleaming in the sunlight, their faces tilted at just the same angle and their expressions so perfectly happy and playful. Ino couldn't wait to see how the picture came out.

"Well Kyuu, I guess it's time to break for dinner. That's all for the sunlight shots for now anyway."

"For now?"

"I may have an inspiration later," Ino shrugged.

After a quick meal, filled with endless chatter from Kenji, Naruto was dragged down to the basement, where one corner of the room had been artfully drape in black fabric. There were spotlights in different sizes and intensities and various shades off to the side ready for use. Ino had her model strip down to his underwear once again. In the meantime she busied herself with hanging up something like a huge mobile of glass and chrome balls in a few different sizes, hanging at all different heights from fishing line. She had Naruto stand in the middle and wait while she set up the lighting to her satisfaction. Naruto was run through what seemed to him like about a million poses.

"Ok that's great. Now turn around and look back over your shoulder....Good, one more second. Can you maybe raise an eyebrow at me? Heheh I love that."

"Of course you do baby. I'm so smooth!" Naruto joked. The shutter kept going as they laughed.

"Sure thing Tiger. Now I want you to lift up your arm..No the left, and reach up like you're trying to catch that glass one right above you. Yeah that's right, look up at it. Great, hold that." She shifted her own position a few times, then got him to hold one volleyball sized chrome ball between his hands and stare into it.

"Is this a lawn ornament?"

"Yup."

"Huh, nice idea."

"Thanks... Could you move back out here for a sec?" The 'mobile' was taken down and the ball he'd been holding before was cut off. She handed it to him and made him sit on the fabric lined floor with his knees up and gaze into the ball again. "Alright, just curl up a bit more." The bubble solution was brought out again and a moment later he was surrounded by bubbles, which Ino decided required another change to the lighting for more dramatic shadows. Afterwards she walked up and took the ball from him. A large mirror was strategically placed behind him to make it look as though he were sitting back to back with his twin. A little while later he was kneeling with his back to the camera, facing himself in the mirror. One hand held a small, low wattage light, that Ino said would not be seen in the photo. She just needed a light source there. The fingers of the other hand were tracing the line of his jaw in the mirror.

"This is pretty narcissistic you know."

"Shh, you're supposed to be looking intense...Actually narcissistic is good. Go with that." Naruto tried to look smitten with his reflection but he kept cracking up. After few more senarios they finally wrapped things up. It was getting late but Ino's father had offered to drive Naruto home. He helped Ino clean up a little first

"You know as embarrassed as I was at first, feeling like some kind of stupid underwear model..."

"Hey!"

"..I have to admit I can see the artistic merit in all this. I'm sure your portfolio will be very impressive."

"I think so too, but I'm going to be biting my nails until I have them all developed and I know they came out alright."

"Don't worry Ino. They'll turn out just fine," Naruto reassured with a smile.

"Yeah you're probably right. Actually that went really well. I'm thinking I might enter some of these photo's in the annual school Art Show."

".......Say what?"



A/N; So there you go. I chose Ino's theme based mostly on what could be described pretty easily. I hope it was effective. And no, I'm afraid Ino couldn't have switched her focus to the tattoo. To her this isn't just for fun. She'd come up with something cohesive to put in her portfolio. Straying from her plan on a whim would have been impractical.

While I hadn't specifically ruled it out, there was really no indication that Kiba was nearby at the end of chap.4. It wasn't the time for him to find out. Fear not! That scene will have it's moment in the spotlight at a time when it could be brought to it's full potential. 'Til tomorrow then, luv you all!