Disclaimer: First Chapter
Story Start!

"I'm surprised you don't have me naked." Naruto said as he looked at the outfit that he was wearing. When the first portrait that she did of him was a nude one, he thought the rest would be similar. She had several nude paintings, though to be fair she also had several paintings of people half-dressed and fully dressed. It actually didn't seem that she had a preference when it came to the state of dress of her subjects.

So when she had him wearing his regular clothes for the first painting of the day, they were currently on the second painting, he had to admit that he had been a little surprised.

Winter just smiled as she showed a large white cloth to Naruto.

"Nudity isn't something that is inheritely indecent, but I do understand your surprise." Winter admit as she walked over to Naruto and wrapped a white cloak over his shoulders and pulled the hood up over his head. She blinked and looked at him for a moment, before she snapped herself out it. "Clothes serve a purpose, they protect us from the cold, and they serve as a way to protect out bodies from the world around us... but they also serve as a way to express ourselves. When done right, a nude painting is something to be admired, but clothed has it's own merits." Winter explained as she tied the cloak off and finished prepping him for the painting.

Naruto looked in the mirror.

He was surprised when he saw that he was wearing a cloak similar to the one his own mother wore, he doubted Winter had done that on purpose. He doubted she knew who his mother was, and if she did he doubted that she knew they were mother and son.

"I'm glad." Naruto spoke with a sigh of relief.

"I don't mean to make my models uncomfortable, and if they aren't comfortable with nudity I'm willing to let them remain clothed. It must have been embarrassing for you." Winter's voice was gentle and understanding as she got the background prepared for their painting. With the imprints in the snow from the previous day, she would have to refresh the snow so that it would look pristine again.

She had made the snow days previous using Ice Dust and her Semblence, but it would seem that she would have to make the traces of previous use vanish.

"You're not wrong, I was super embarrassed. You're the first person outside of my family to see me naked... It was scary... but as you painted me, some of the embarrassment went away. I was more afraid of getting frostbite on my butt." Naruto joked a little, a joke that Winter smiled lightly at. She did have him sitting in the snow for well over a few hours, and even with the breaks they took so that he could warm his body back up, there were no doubt some points in which he was physically uncomfortable. "... Anyway, I've already been naked once... and I came here expecting it. I'm just surprised is all. Did you ever meet a woman named Summer?" Naruto asked casually.

Winter raised an eyebrow.

Odd question.

"No, I can't say I have. I just thought a white cloak would look well with what I have planned for you. I'm happy you think that way about nudity though." Winter asked as she pointed her sword towards the tree in her yard, and snow started to fall onto the leaves, covering the top layer. The sky was naturally darker, since since it was suppose to rain. That was why Winter had her painting equipment set up underneath a large tent on her porch. That way she could paint in the rain without any of it getting ruined.

She needed the rain for the painting that she had planned.

"Why?" Naruto asked, and Winter understood the question, though she wasn't usually a fan of being questioned.

"I've never been able to paint a person unclothed in the rain. Have you ever wanted to play naked in the rain as a child?" Winter asked Naruto a rather basic question. Something that most people could say honesty that they had wanted to. She knew she herself had wished to be able to dance unclothed in the rain.

"Oh... I guess."

"Rain represents washing away the troubles people have, and in art nudity can represent freedom. Freedom and washing away what troubles us, I've never been able to capture that before. It's an interesting concept. Also, please don't be startled." Winter spoke as she raised her sword straight up and held her hand in front of it. Several light blue symbols appeared on the snow in front of her, and Naruto looked towards it with some surprise when a white and blue figure rose from it.

A white Beowolf that had blue parts, and had an unreal white glow to it. Just like the white deer in the painting of the deer faunus women. It was like Winter controlled it as it walked towards the tree, and two more appeared after it and surrounded the tree as well.

She was surprised when she saw Naruto handle it rather easily.

"That's... surprising." Naruto spoke, and that was all he made of it.

"You're not going to question it?" Winter asked casually, and she saw as Naruto raised his hand up, and the winds changed. She felt it blow past her hair, and realized that his Semblence was both creating and controlling the wind itself. It was a impressive Semblence if honed and trained correctly of course, as were any elemental based Semblences actually. The ability to manipulate an element without Dust was normally considered impossible, but since his Semblence gave him such an ability, it gave him an edge over dust users.

It both inspired her to see how honed his Semblence was, and it inspired new ideas for paintings of this wind kissed teen.

Naruto started to walk across the snow on the ground, surrounded by the Beowolfs moments later as he stood in front of the tree and placed his hand on it. Winter snapped out of it and went to stand inside of her tent, which was positioned so that she would have a view of Naruto's face as he ignored the creatures around him, but they payed such close attention to him.

"They're made of ice right?" Naruto asked, since they seemed like they were just made of ice and snow, controlled by her aura.

Winter smiled.

His guess was astute, and even as her hand moved to paint him, she had a time limit this time before the rain started and she got to work on her next painting. She was happy to explain the mechnanics behind her Semblence though. His guess, according to what he had seen of her abilities thus far, was educated. Indeed, they looked like constructs of ice and snow, with her light blue aura controlling them.

"My Semblence is hereditary. Glyph, when combined with Dust it changes it's nature. It has a unique ability though. I've found a lot of Semblences have a secondary feature related to the first ability... but it is far more difficult to achieve. For Glyph, it's secondary state is the ability to summon pale imitations of defeated enemies." Winter explained freely. The technique wasn't a family secret, she was willing to use it in public if she needed to. Freedom and trust were two of the principles that were needed on the battlefield. You needed knowledge of her allies so you could properly work together with them. "I'm lucky, most don't ever learn of their Semblence's Secondary Stage... but since mine is hereditary, it's documented. All I needed to do was master it." Winter was happy that she didn't have to go through the entire process of self-discovery needed to learn how to use it.

Naruto hummed in thought as he thought about his own Semblence, but knew that his father and uncle wouldn't be willing to give him information about it. They would be angry if they learned he was going to use it to try and apply for Beacon when he was 17.

"What does this painting mean?" Naruto asked Winter while barely moving his lips.

Her turn to hum.

"Purity, white is often portrayed as a color of purity and good, while black is often considered a color that consumes. Similar to how a women should only wear a white dress at her wedding if she is a virgin, her purity intact... though some wear white anyway." Winter spoke of some lesser known facts to the male gender. She saw the curious look on Naruto's face as a blush appeared across his cheeks.

Her eyes widened.

That blush was perfect for this painting, it went well with the concept of innocence that she was trying to capture. A blush was always something that implied a certain shyness and immaturity in certain matters. It went so well with the image of purity that she wanted with this painting.

'She seems so relaxed talking about this.' Naruto thought as he glanced at her quickly.

"You know, I think you might be my muse." Winter spoke as she looked at Naruto. She had almost never had the urge to paint the same person twice. Almost all of her paintings were of different people. Even of herself, she had only painted herself twice, once when she wanted to paint herself in the mirror, and once when she was learning how to paint self-portraits. She wasn't inspired by herself, and most of the time the insperation she gained from a single person only lasted that one painting.

With Naruto, every time she saw him she was inspired to paint, to create art from his form. This was the third painting she had done for him now, and she didn't feel any less urge to paint him as when she first laid eyes on him.

"Muse?" Naruto asked.

He didn't know what that meant.

He never went to school, he was home-schooled by his father... though to be fair his sisters were home-schooled as well for most subjects. There was a lot of words that they didn't have knowledge of, that their father hadn't deemed important to teach them.

"I've almost never painted the same person twice... and usually I'm less inspired when I paint them a second time. I've painted you three times now, and I'm just as inspired... I'm more inspired by you now than when I first laid eyes on you." Winter spoke as she practically memorized every aspect of his body. She memorized every shade and tint of every color that could be found on him. Every color, every curve, and every imperfection and perfection were added to the banks of her memory. "I might actually keep my paintings of you out of my charity event." Winter spoke half-seriously.

Naruto blinked, almost turning his head.

"Charity?" Naruto knew what the word meant, but he didn't know what Winter was talking about.

"I'm going to be holding an art charity, and selling my art. I'm going to use the funds to send people without the ability to afford it, to help them pay for Signal's training costs. The more warriors the Kingdoms have, the better." Winter spoke up of her idea.

Beacon was Vale-funded and free to attend, because of the huge amount of funding it recieved. Signal, the training prep-school for Beacon, was not government funded and was located on the island of Patch. It cost money to attend that school, and those who finished Signal were more often than not promised to succeed in getting into Beacon.

"That's really cool of you!" Naruto was amazed by the generousity that she was displaying. Her skills with the brush were good enough that she could just sell her art and live in comfort, but she was using her skills to help other people. Instead of serving herself and her own needs, she served the needs of the many and helped others before herself. "Is there anything I can do to help?" Naruto asked her, and she smiled.

Her answer was simple.

"Just being my muse is enough... I've already rented the space for the art gallery. I'm having somebody retrieve the paintings from my other homes. I'm going to be selling all... almost all of my paintings." Winter spoke with a twitch of her face. There were some paintings that she couldn't part with easily. The paintings in her living room, her other homes didn't have any paintings worthy of going in the living room.

Those paintings meant something to her personally, they had value to her as invaluable objects. She would display them at the gallery, but she would not be selling them, and she would make a point of showing they weren't for sale.

"You must have a lot of paintings." Naruto whistled, impressed with that little fact.

"Now that I've found my muse, all of those paintings are just using up space." Winter spoke up her other feelings on the matter. Space that could be used for her new works of art she was going to be making were being taken up by her older pieces of art. "I'm sorry, that must have sounded... unusual." Winter understood where she might come off as obsessive and creepy.

She was pretty much admitting to wanting to make enough pictures of him to fill up all of the spaces of art that she was getting rid of.

There was silence as she painted him... the silence lasted about a full hour, before she finished with her painting. Naruto's face was a little red from standing in the cold for awhile, but overall he seemed to be fine. She dispelled her summons, and with a wave of her hand she called Naruto over to look what she had created. When he walked over to her, and stood behind her, his eyes widened when he saw what she created using him.

Naruto smiled at her.

"Don't be sorry." Naruto pointed out to her, and she blinked.

Huh?

"I'm sorry?" Winter apologized, unsure of what he was getting at. Then it clicked with her when she remembered the hour previously when she apologized for sounding creepy.

"You really love art, and painting me inspires you... I love your art, it's really beautiful. I'm really happy that I can help you make stuff like this. You have a really pretty smile when you're painting. Thank you for painting me." Naruto told her innocently. Winter's eyes widened as she touched her cheeks, and she could feel them moving in the way of a smile. Her finger traces her lips, before she schooled her features, controlling them as she placed only a small smile on her face.

What smile had she been showing him when she had been painting him. Did she had a strange smile, obviously not if he thought it was pretty, on her face that wasn't like her usual smile?

"No."

"What?" Naruto asked, and Winter showed him a different smile than any of the ones that she had unknowingly shown him.

"Thank you. Painting you has inspired me to help others more. Painting you fills me with feelings and emotions that I've never been able to convey when painting others. The small sum of money I've been offering... it seems insignifigant now." Winter spoke to him. She felt guilty about the small, to her, sum of money that she had been paying him before now. 1,000 lien was a lot to some people, not to her, but what was a 1,000 lien when what he was giving her was far more profound?

Naruto laughed a little.

"Oh, I'm not going to be excepting your money anymore." Naruto said, and her heart sank when she assumed that meant he wasn't going to be her model anymore. "Now that I know you're painting for charity... I would feel dirty taking your money. I want to help you make this charity a success, so if I'm your muse... paint me. Lets work together to help others." Naruto offered her his hand in friendship.

Winter was visibly stunned, before she smiled and stood up, grabbing his hand and shaking it. The fact he was now going to be helping her just out of the goodness of his heart, and not for money, was a beautiful sentiment.

It inspired her.

"There isn't anything I could do for you in return?" Winter asked, and Naruto rubbed the back of his head with a blush on his cheeks. He could tell that she wasn't going to take no for an answer here.

Teenage boys and their hormones, she could guess what he wanted.

"... I'm studying Dust actually... I'm trying to discover a new way to use Dust, but I'm not really that smart. I'm mostly self-taught... but I think having somebody teach me would really help." Naruto admitted his own failings. He had been finding a way to mix Dust and use it in a good way with his Semblence, but he had been failing so far. He didn't have anyone willing to teach him, so it was hard for him to learn it all on his own.

Winter was a little shocked.

She had thought he was going to ask for a more sensual favor, being a teenage boy and all. She was surprised that he wanted to expand his knowledge. She schooled her features and placed both arms behind her back.

"Very well, I will tutor you in Dust usage. Just because I've been laid back with you while painting, don't expect the same thing of my tutoring. I will be strict with you." Winter spoke with her tone militant and stern.

He wanted a teacher?

She would give him a teacher.

Chapter End!
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