"Art Of Determination"

CHAPTER 02

Uchiha Itachi. My brother. My so called older brother. He had a nerve to call me. He had a nerve to call me after all those years. That was one thing you could say about my brother for sure. He always had a nerve to do things.

But to call me like this. And announce that he was coming to visit me this Sunday. He didn't even bother to ask if I had time! Gods, I couldn't believe him! He completely ruined my mood! It was almost my deadline and I still haven't done my project! And all because of him!

Just what made him speak to me so suddenly anyway? It wasn't from his own free will, I was sure of it. It must be mother or father that convinced him. And seeing as I spoke with my mother from time to time, it could be only our father. Oh, and there was this small fact about relationship my brother had with our father as well: Itachi always listened to what he told him. Always.

And that made me wanna puke. Although it wasn't always like that.

The relationship between me and Itachi was a taboo for me. No one who knew I had a brother never dared to speak about him in front of me. Because that would end in not very pretty way.

When I was younger I was really close to my brother. He was the only person that noticed me in our family. No one other than him cared. No one other than him spoke to me. He was always there for me, always listened to my problems and tried to help me. He was very talented artist as well. He was marvellous at what he was doing and everyone admired that in him. Especially I. He was someone I looked up to. He was my model. He was someone I wanted to be in the future.

But everything changed around the time he was graduating from High School. He wanted to go to the Art Academy, but our father insisted that he chose Business Administration and helped him with the company. I thought he was going to refuse, since he was always so determinate and passionate about his art. But he agreed. This thing alone change my whole view at him. I was disappointed. How could he be such a hypocrite? He tossed his dreams aside just like that after sacrificing for them so much work and time.

But that wasn't all. He went to the university our father chose him and moved away from me with every day. After some time we hardly spoke or even saw each other. Whenever I tried to make some contact with him, even some small talk, he always said he didn't have time. Later he didn't even look at me.

When that happened, I felt like I became an orphan. I was always alone and didn't have any contact with my parents, but supportive presence of my brother somehow made up for that. And then he suddenly disappeared from my life. Just like that.

I felt extremely lost. Like never before. The wall that was always there to help me whenever I felt like falling vanished. And because nothing was holding me anymore I kept falling down on and on.

I really did loose myself around that time. It was High School if I remember correctly. I fell into some bad company, did drugs and was drunk almost all the time. Thanks to Naruto I managed to get a grip somehow and see what I was doing. How was I running my life. Beside him no one cared. But that didn't hurt though. The thing that hurt was my brother's cold look in his eyes when he happened to pick me up from the police station few times. Not that he wanted and was concerned. Because there was no one else to do it of course.

When I finally got my life on the right tracks, I came to certain conclusions. I had nothing, absolutely nothing valuable in it. And the only thing that gave my life any meaning, was my art. I had talent, but this wasn't all. It's funny actually how people always think that talent is all that's needed. That's bullshit. You won't have anything, unless you work. Hard. And talent have nothing to do with it.

And I worked. I concentrated my every bit of strength on work. I've made many projects, attended many courses, took part in many competitions. I stayed late at night to draw, didn't go to any parties, didn't have any friends. But that paid off. I was always the best, everyone were amazed by my work.

And I decided to bind my future with it. I decided that I was going to sacrifice absolutely everything to achieve success and fulfil my dreams. No matter the costs, I was going to do what I wanted and no one was going to tell me otherwise.

So when my father invited me to his office right before my graduation and told me what he wanted me to do, I laughed at him. Literally. How dare he tell me what to do? After all those years of ignoring me. Who was he to control my life?

I told him so and day after ending High School I moved out. No one tried to stop me. No one tried to tell me otherwise. No one. Because no one cared. I was nothing to them. Loosing me was like loosing one of their maids. Easy to replace.

Did it hurt? Of course it hurt. Because, how can a child feel when he finds out that his parents give absolutely no shit about him?

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It was Saturday morning and I had to be in a studio in one hour to give Sai my projects. The deadline was Sunday, but I had to deliver them earlier so he can look through them. Fortunately I managed to finish them. How, I had no idea. Most of the week I was just pacing around my apartment trying to figure what that loving brother of mine could want.

I didn't get any ideas on that, but I got some on the projects. Although I was sure they weren't even half that good as they could be. Whatever, this will have to be enough.

I parked in front of our studio and went in. It was already open, meaning Naruto or Sai were already there. Or rather both of them, seeing as they were almost inseparable.

When I reached our office, I noticed both of my friends already sitting at their places. I went straight to Sai's desk and dropped my project.

"Here." I said in tired voice. Then I sat at my place, tossed my head back and closed my eyes.

"Oh, hi Sasuke! I just noticed you… Everything alright? You don't look too good." I heard Naruto's worried voice.

"Everything's fine." I answered him simply, not wanting to describe the details. My brother was really a taboo. I didn't feel like talking about him with Naruto. Actually I didn't feel like talking with him about anything.

Looking away from Naruto and his concerned face, I turned to look at Sai, who was going through my work.

"What do you think? Will do?" Sai was silent for a minute. Then he looked at me like he was thinking about something.

"It will do." He said in his neutral voice. "I would say that if I didn't know your true abilities." Now, that's the blunt Sai I was talking about before. Naruto got interested by his words and went to him to see my projects.

"Yeah, I can see that too… I mean they are good, even very good… But they just look different… I don't know, like you weren't—" Here's where Sai cut in.

"Like you weren't concentrated at all." Tch. Of course I wasn't fucking concentrated. I was thinking why the hell my long lost brother who forgot about me years ago decided to call me. I couldn't tell them that though. I shrugged my shoulders instead.

"Maybe. I don't know. Anyway, he should be satisfied, it includes everything he wanted." Sai nodded at that but still looked at me thinking about something. Naruto looked like he was about to say something, but we heard some people entering the building.

"Oh, must be our students. I'll go open the classroom for them." With that he left.

Our Saturdays looked something like this: from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. we had first drawing group, and from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. another one. And after that it was one big headache. There were about twenty people in one group and they really could be annoying.

When most of our students were in the classroom, the three of us went inside as well. I sat together with Naruto at the desk in the front and Sai stood behind us.

"Okey guys, show us what you've done." I told them, sipping at my coffee slowly. When they started to place they home works on the desk, I raised my brow slightly.

"Wow, what happened? There's so much of it." Naruto noticed. They usually didn't do their homework in such amounts. Maybe it was the topic. Still nature.

"Yeah, real didactic success…" I answered him and class laughed a little. When everyone were done, they sat in front of us.

"Okey, let's see…" Naruto looked at the first work. "Whose?" Some guy in the back raised his hand. I didn't really remember the names of our students. I only memorized those who were talented. Which aren't many. And those who were very annoying. Which were quite a few.

"It looks ok, the proportions are well kept and perspective is quite good…" Naruto started looking at the picture.

"However." I said, taking pencil and starting to correct some lines. "This square here? It's lopsided. It's too tall about that much… And the edges are running away from each other, instead of getting together in some point in the horizon. We always tell you, draw longer lines, only then you'll see if it's properly drawn."

"Yeah." Naruto nodded. "But it's nice in general." After this one, there were few more not very interesting works.

"Oh, I like this one." Naruto said, when we came to the next drawing. It was the picture of some old, Japanese statues. It belonged to one of those few talented people we had. "It's very nicely shaded, almost perfectly. Just look at this. What's suppose to be black, is black, what's suppose to be white is white. Proportions and rest are great as well. And I like the general impression it gives. It's so monumental… Don't you think Sasuke?"

"Yeah. Although you should draw something in the background. It would look even better. And put some more intensity when you draw. Do it more freely, so it would look more… I don't know, more human. It's almost too perfect. But I guess I tell you this every time." I said and sighed, looking at the girl who drew this. She just nodded and shrugged her shoulders helplessly. Yeah, I know. That's just how she draws, her unique style. I had this problem as well.

"Okey, let's see what's next…" Naruto looked at the next work and snickered a little. "Is this BigMac from McDonald's?"

Class laughed and I looked at the hamburger wondering just what those people were able to think of. Of course it belonged to one of those students who always talked during lessons. Not that we forbid talking in the class. It's just everything has its boundaries and art needs peace. Or for other students at least.

"Man, it just made me remember how hungry I actually am… Anyway, it's good. I like the composition. Things are in the right places. Although this piece of meat here makes me wonder…" Naruto snickered lightly again.

"Yeah, to be honest it looks more like a rock than meat. It shouldn't be so angular. And this paper here? It doesn't look very real, you must work on that." I commented and corrected the drawing partly to show him what I meant.

Every beginning of the lesson looked like that. It was usually only Naruto and I that did the talking. I was always pointing out mistakes, Naruto good sides. Sai just stood near us during checking homework and observed. He took care of students that were behind however. And he was the one that made lectures about art history.

When we were done with homework, I explained the topic.

"Okey, listen to me now for a minute! Today we will start drawing nature. Naruto will hand you xero copies with examples of the most common trees. They will help, just make sure to use them."

"Exactly. We don't give you them so you can toss them somewhere. They are helpful, really." Naruto said as he went from student to student.

" Anyway, just make sketch of some landscape. We will then show each of you how to draw certain parts. Just don't draw any fantasy like spruce on the desert or things like that. Now, get to work." I said and sat on my chair. I was exhausted both physically and mentally. Not only I couldn't sleep properly because of thoughts about my brother but I had a hard time finishing my project as well. This was hell of a week. And I didn't even want to start thinking about tomorrow. Meeting with my brother was so much beyond my imagination capability.

First lesson went by pretty quickly, with me, Naruto and Sai drawing everyone trees, leaves, grass, rocks and other elements of landscape. How extremely interesting. Anyway, when all of our students left, second group started to fill the classroom.

Of course Suigetsu was first that entered the room. He looked at me sitting at the desk, winked and went to his seat, unpacking things. When he was done, he came to my desk and sat on it.

"Hey Sasuke. Better mood today?" I just lifted my eyes from the third cup of coffee that day and glared at him. Why did he have to be so fucking persisted?

"I take it as a 'no'. Anyway, want me to come tonight or tomorrow maybe?" Tch. I looked around to see if anyone was near to hear anything. Of course no one knew about my relationship with Suigetsu. It was no one's business but mine.

"Can you keep it down? I think I told you that I don't want anyone to know." I hissed at him. "And no, I don't want you to come. When I'll feel like seeing you, I'll call you. And now go back to your seat, the class is starting." Right after I said that, Naruto and Sai came inside.

"Okey guys, let's see what you've got…" Naruto said sitting next to me and everything started once again.

Somewhere in the middle of the lessons, my phone rang. I reached to my pocket and prayed it wasn't Itachi. When I looked at the screen I frowned a little and decided to take it outside. After going out of classroom I went to the window and picked it up.

"Hello."

"Hello my dear." My mother. So I was right. Was she calling me because of that meeting with my brother? Don't tell me she's going to come too. I groaned as I thought about it.

"Everything alright? You sound really tired." She asked, concern in her voice. And I hated it.

"Yes, I'm fine." I replayed, sighing. "I'm just tired, we've got a lot of work."

"Oh, just don't work too much. It's not good for you." I rolled my eyes. So now she was worried about me. How sweet.

"Yes, I know mom. I can take care of myself just fine." My mother fell silent after that and I decided to ask her about the mysterious appearance of my brother.

"Mom, I wanted to ask you something. Do you know anything about Itachi calling me?" She didn't speak for a few seconds and I decided to give her some time to think. I wanted answers, God damn it, and I doubted I'd get anything from my brother.

"Yes, I know he called you… He, um…He did this because your father asked him, I think…" I could tell she was very uncertain while saying this. So it was just like I thought. Itachi didn't have a conscience after all. It was just because father asked him. Tch. What did I expect anyway? And why did I felt so disappointed all of sudden?

I got angry at the last thought. What was wrong with me? Did I really expected my brother to visit me because he felt guilty after all those years? I knew him better than that.

"Sasuke? Sasuke are you there—"

"I need to go, I have work to do." And with that I hanged up. I cursed under my breath as I put my forehead against the cold window. I really thought I got rid of those illusions long time ago. I had my goals and was concentrated on my future. How come I still couldn't let go of past? Why was it always there to hunt every minute of my life?

"Oh, Sasuke, here you are!" Naruto said, when he spotted me near window and jogged to me. "You disappeared for almost half an hour! Something happened?"

"No, nothing happened. Could you all please stop asking me this fucking question?!" I hissed at the blond and watched as the hurt formed in his blue eyes.

"Tch. I'm going home." I turned around and went to the office to gather my things. I didn't care that we still had lessons nor did I care that I hurt Naruto. I didn't care about anything besides getting home and being able to think peacefully. All in all, tomorrow was meeting with my brother. Just what was I suppose to tell him after all those years? Just what will he tell me?

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A/N: Ok, another chapter. Next will be about Sasuke's and Itachi's meeting of course XD And yeah, fast update… that's because I was writing instead of drawing…and landscapes are waiting… XD