Masterpiece

"Excuse me! Ex-cu-se me! What do you think you're doing?! That paint is still wet and if you ruin it I'm going to make YOU redo it!"

When Sakura looked up, jolting away from the painting in surprise, she hadn't expected to see a pretty blonde, with her hair piled high in a messy bun, to come stampeding towards her. She was about the same height as Sakura, her pale cheeks flushed with anger and light blue eyes giving her a perfectly icy glare. She wore a grey apron that tied around her neck, splattered with various dried paints and other bits of materials Sakura didn't know the names to. Sakura's eyes widened, holding her hands against her chest as she fearfully regarded the artist. "O-Oh! I'm sorry I didn't know… I thought it was dry and I just—"

The woman blanched, her face reddening in offense, "No 'just'! What do you think this is? A flea market? Do I have to have a sign that says 'Don't touch!'?"

Sakura stepped to the side, moved by presence alone, and regretfully watched the woman hover protectively over her painting, inspecting the acrylic closely. She felt bad, nausea twisting her gut as she prayed she hadn't done anything damaging to the picture. What had gotten into her? She wasn't a handsy person and she knew how to stay a respectful distance from things as delicate at art (something that was drilled into her head since she was old enough to take class field trips), it was basic common sense! But there was something that had been far too enchanting about the image that she just— Sakura's thoughts broke as the woman's shoulders sagged in relief that ebbed a tiny part of her fear.

"I-I'm really sorry! I didn't ruin anything didn't I?" She asked tentatively, waiting apprehensively for an answer.

Really, Sakura hadn't meant to come down this far. She had been waiting for the receptionist to appear, after ringing the bell three times, when all the art just beyond the staircase that led to the lower floor had caught her eye. She had resisted at first, stiffly holding her purse in her hands, but the longer she waited the more her eyes wandered to the tops of the visible mysterious sculptures in the room below. Curiosity and impatience finally won her over when it was obvious the receptionist either didn't care, was on break, or simply ignoring her and Sakura found herself going down the small flight of stairs before she could stop herself.

The stairs had opened up into a wide lower deck, full of half-finished art pieces that took her breath away. Sakura was never by any means artistic. She could draw stick figures and half-assed squiggly flowers, but nothing more intricate. Her hands were made for healing, not creating.

Seeing the sculptures in the process of being crafted and the teasing glimpse of the room across the hall that held paintings in the process of drying and being made, she was awestruck. She wandered around the tables, careful to keep her hands behind her back even though she desperately wanted to touch. When the sculptures couldn't hold her attention any longer she moved across the wide expanse of the floor, her heels echoing in the emptiness, and into the next open room. It was smaller than the last, easels pushed against the grey walls and paintings, both on the ground and resting on stands, littered the room.

It had been overwhelming taking in the different pieces. Some were dark and edgier, while others boasted life-like landscapes or busts of people she wished she could get to know. Honestly, she was only here for her little sister. Unlike her, her sister had taken all of the talent neither her nor her parents actually inherently had. From a young age she had picked up markers and crayons, drawing on anything and everything she could get her little hands on. As she grew up, drawing on walls turned into large scale painted canvases, hopping from one medium to the next until she had declared openly she'd be going to a high school for performing and visual arts and nothing less. High school had turned into a firm future college decision and, well, here Sakura was, scouting on behalf of her before she graduated as a senior by the end of the summer.

It was then a painting, still on its easel, caught her eye. It was of a man. He had strong, teal eyes and blonde hair tied up into a high pony tail. He was staring directly at the viewer with nothing more than a flat expression on his face. To Sakura, his eyes looked somber, as if there were something hidden beneath all the hardness that was trying to break through, but was unable to.

That was when the voice had broken her trance (and made her dangerously close finger retract).

The woman turned to her, eyeing her critically up and down. She huffed, brushing stray wisps of hair from her face and Sakura swallowed hard, her hands feeling oddly clammy. "Well? Is there something you want?" The woman asked irritably, but seemed considerably calmer.

Sakura smiled wearily, "I was… waiting for the receptionist at the front desk, but she was just taking so long and the sculptures caught me eye so I just— then I was here and you came out of no where and I just…" She stopped herself, realizing she was babbling and her blush darkened. "I just… wanted to pick something up," she said defeatedly.

The woman smiled, amused, and Sakura's embarrassment deepened. "She tends to disappear from time to time. What are you here to pick up?"

At least she was nice. Sakura breathed a small sigh of relief, her composure returning, "I wanted to pick up a brochure for my sister. She's been looking around for art schools and I saw this while I was out so I thought, maybe this could potentially be a choice for her."

Interest flickered on the woman's face at the mention of another possible attendee. "Yeah? What kind of artist is she?" She asked curiously. She left the room without being asked, making her way through the lower floor as she kept her oddly intense gaze on Sakura.

Sakura followed gratefully, catching up in a few strides, "Traditional painter, I think?" The woman rose an eyebrow and Sakura shook her head exasperatedly. "I'm seriously the wrong person to talk to if you want to talk about art, that's definitely her forte. I hardly even know most of the proper terminology, but she does like what you were doing in there. Mostly painting on canvases, but I don't know what she uses medium wise — if that's what you call it."

The woman nodded in understanding, "Fair enough, I was just curious. Hopefully she'll come here in the end, its a really nice school. This is my second year attending and I've never had any major problems. Oh, I'm Ino by the way."

"Really? That's neat. What major are you going for?" She asked curiously, her hand leaving the railing as they stepped off the staircase and back into the modest upper level. Sakura turned to Ino, surprised when her pale hand jutted out towards her. She glanced at her,mind short circuiting. It was a moment too long before she clasped Ino's hand, shaking too firmly. "Sakura. Its nice to meet you, Ino."

Ino winced, her strained voice reflecting her pain. "Its… nice to meet you too, Sakura."

Sakura withdrew her hand back quickly, rubbing her palm with her left thumb nervously. "Sorry! I don't… I don't know what's come over me today." Her blush reached her ears, dusting it a light pink and she averted her eyes to the brochure rack that she hadn't noticed before. Goddammit. She cursed herself mentally, almost missing the light, cheerful laugh from Ino. Slowly, she looked at her.

"Its totally fine, I'm not hurt, but geez you are pretty strong." Ino grinned, shaking her hand out to ebb the dull pain. "To answer your question, though, I'm working on getting my Bachelors of Fine Art. I mean, obviously."

"I know, I know, I guess I over do it with the weights at the gym sometime." Sakura smiled sheepishly. She looked at Ino in amazement. "Wow, good luck!"

"Thank you, I'll need it."

They smiled at each other, neither sure of what to say next.

An old chair squeaking under weight made Sakura turn her head. A woman, no older than either of them, had finally taken a seat in the ghastly blue chair behind the desk. She was chewing a stick of gum, her fiery orange hair tucked behind her ears and pulled into a high pony tail. She glanced boredly from Sakura to Ino, sighing heavily as if their presence made an exhausting impact on her life. "What can I do for you?" She asked monotonously.

Without another word Ino briskly walked over to the counter, smiling easily and holding out her hand demandingly. "Can I have the information brochure for the school? My friend over there wants one for her sister."

The receptionist popped her gum obnoxiously, glancing at Sakura before she pulled out a metal drawer, rummaging through it momentarily. She finally handed the brochure over to Ino, the drawer slamming shut.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Sakura stood back, thankful she didn't have to deal with the receptionist. She felt too off today. What had gotten into her all of a sudden? Sakura's social skills weren't totally horrible; she had a decent amount of friends, was very good at public speaking and had been difficult to defeat in debate class back in high school. But with Ino she was horrifically awkward. It was as if she had jumped back in time and taken her awkward traits from middle school back to the present. "Oh, so I'm a friend now?" She asked teasingly, taking the glossy brochure gratefully. "Seriously, thank you."

"You won't be if you're going to be cheeky with me, Sakura," Ino retorted back coolly, the smile never leaving her face. "You're welcome. Edna can sometimes hard to deal with, but this is the brochure that actually got me into the school, so hopefully this will be of use to you."

"I'm sure it will be! It looks amazing. I'll probably sneak a look at it on the way home."

"Sounds good."

They stood in awkward silence, staring at each other like both wanted to say more, but wasn't sure what. Words tugged at Sakura's mind and she mulled them over. She didn't want to leave yet. If she did, she felt like she'd go home and regret it for the rest of her life. Which was entirely silly. She'd met a lot of people in her twenty-two years of life and never did she ever feel a huge desire to keep a conversation going, she'd be missing nothing if she said good-bye to Ino right now and just walked away (like she should've four minutes ago), but Ino's looking at her with her curious and expectant blue eyes and words are coming out of Sakura's mouth faster than she can stop them. "That was a beautiful painting you were doing down there. The details are astounding, I've never seen anything like it before. How long did it take you to make?"

Ino paused shortly, a smile spreading on her face and she seemed relieved by Sakura's question. The receptionist's snickered, breaking the moment. "Thank you," Ino said, ignoring the woman behind them, "Its nice to know other people like my art. Its taken me thirty-four hours so far to—"

"Thirty-four hours?!"

Ino furrowed her eyebrows, taken aback by the reaction. "Yeah… its not that big of a deal. That's kinda normal, actually."

Even so, Sakura couldn't wrap her head around it. She couldn't remotely understand how something so utterly professional could be done in so little time. It would probably take her more than a decade to even attempt to pull off what Ino had. "Wow," she breathed dreamily, imagining what it would be like to be able to create something like that.

"You really don't get out a lot do you?" There was laughter in Ino's voice and Sakura's eyes focused on her once more.

"What? No of course I do!" She retorted against Ino's playfully skeptical expression.

"Uh-huh."

"I'm just not around art enough to know any of this!"

"Even though your sister is an artist?"

Sakura pursed her lips, finding no retorts to defend herself with. She rolled her eyes at the amusement on Ino's face, knowing there was nothing she could say to quell the teasing that the blonde was definitely holding back on. The chattering of the receptionist caught her attention and she flipped the brochure around, glancing at the customer service number on the back. "Hm.." She glanced over Ino's shoulder at Edna, doubt settling in her stomach. "Is… the customer service phone number reliable if my sister has any questions?"

Ino glanced behind her as if she could sense her thoughts, mulling it over in her head. "Well I came down here and talked to the students mostly before talking to an advisor, but you have to make an appointment to get with someone. Here, why don't I give you my number so that your sister can just call me if she has questions? I know this place inside out and I'll take care of her if she's genuinely interested."

"Oh, uh, that would be great! But only if you're comfortable with that… I mean, you don't really know me!" Unfortunately, the tiny voice in Sakura's head chimed bitterly. Sakura ignored it, forcing herself to keep a straight face.

Ino paused, considering her words as she looked her up and down. "I honestly doubt you're a serial killer in two inch heels. Which, nice outfit, by the way." She said approvingly, pulling her cellphone from her pocket. It was a colorful blue iPhone 5C and Sakura could see bits of paint splashed on the corners, an accidental aesthetic.

Ino shoved her phone at her, the New Contact screen pulled up, "Put your number in and give me your phone."

Sakura pulled out her modest Android, getting it to the proper screen before handing it off to Ino. The exchange was quick and before she knew Sakura was staring at her phone with its brand new contact. Ino Yamanaka. Pretty.

"Give me a text or call whenever you can. You can also pass that number off your sister and I'll send you a photo so she doesn't think you're sending her off to some serial murderer." She smiled, mostly at her own joke.

"Sounds great. Thank you so much again, Ino."

"You're very welcome."

With kind smiles, and Sakura's heart beating excitedly in her chest, they said their good-byes and Sakura watched Ino disappear back into the depths of the lower floor.

A/N: Hello friends! This has been sitting in my folder forever and I figured I should just post this already. The second half I'm not happy with at all, but the more I try to fix it up, the more frustrated I get with it so I'm liKE I'M GONNA POST IT! So here it is. Depending on the response, I might write more chapters (this was supposed to be a one shot, but I'm a little invested it it now), but we'll see!

Also I really love the idea of having Sakura have a sister so that was incredibly self indulgent on my part.

I hope you enjoy.

FI