Find your happiness:
Disclaimer: If it was mine, Itachi would be singing Rammstein songs as the opening themes.
Chapter three:
:) Thank you so much you guys for reviewing! Love all of you... 'Cept you. YEAH YOU.... Sorry, I don't function well w/ out caffeine. Reviews are like my favorite ice cream on a hot July day... or whenever I'm craving ice cream.
Always sitting here in the central market, leaning back against the fountain, soaking my feet. Care free. I see jounin and ANBU with masks covering their faces. Kids who cover the only thing that distinguishes them from one another with silly fashions, like high collars and shades. I wonder what they look like behind them.
Perhaps they do that because they don't want to be distinguished by physical assets. Perhaps they don't want people seeing what's inside of them, they think that their emotion will be shown so well if they remove the covering... remove the mask. Oh great, that English teacher from middle school is rubbing off on me. The one I always argued about symbolism with. How the hell did he know if they put animals in books to be symbolic? I mean.... Okay, getting a little off topic here. I wonder if they'd function well if they didn't have the protection of the mask covering them. If people can't see your face, then they can't tell if you're afraid. And if you aren't seen as a coward, you're acknowledged as a hero.
I'd never become a hero, because I chose the path of beauty, instead of the path of pain. It was a decision made out of cowardice, but it's the path I enjoy.
I did have dreams of being a ninja, when I was small. Even after my brother got killed. I worked so hard to avenge his death, but when the person who killed him was killed by another person (Killed is in that sentence, like, three times), life lost all meaning for me. So I found my own meaning in the beauty of everything.
Perhaps this artist is just my mask that covers half my face. Sometimes I'd like to do my part for Konoha. People thought I was a traitor when I painted a portrait of Orochimaru. It's my favorite piece of work, he's shown sitting against a wall, dragging a knife through his arm. Crying.
Masks. Everyone hides behind one, symbolic or not. Even if it is just an over coat. Like he was wearing when I saw him. Sunglasses covered his eyes, and a coat collar covered his face. As if he was ashamed to show it. He wore his genin bandanna proudly on his forehead. As if that was his greatest accomplishment, becoming a genin.
He waited for something... or someone; I couldn't tell where his eyes wandered. I wondered if he saw me. Something about him made me want to give him a hug. His head was the only thing that determined where he was looking, and I was certain he looked my way. I nodded in recognition, and was almost thrilled that he nodded back.
Perhaps one can still see what's behind a mask, and I wanted to know what was behind his. Not like that, seriously, I mean metaphorically. Sheesh! I'm not shallow.
I gestured with my head for him to come over, sit next to me. He didn't catch on. I did again, hopefully more obvious this time. He raised his eyebrows, but still didn't move. Fine... stay there all day.
I dug through my shoulder bag for some colored pencils and paper, beginning to sketch random people to work on my different poses. The man serving ramen to a hyper blond kid, my friend who worked at an art stand, of whom I occasionally sold work to, a little girl skipping happily over to her older brother. Not very detailed sketches, just thumbnails.
The kid who I had wanted to talk to walked over to the art stand, where my friend worked, and started tracing the outlines of random paintings with his finger. I recognized the painting he was looking at. Hokage the fourth, riding Kyuubi on a beautiful starry night, smiling slightly. Of course I'd recognize the painting. I painted it. His finger tips traced the smiling mouth of Hokage the fourth. I smiled, but I couldn't read his emotion.
Two kids called the boy away from my painting. My stomach grumbled, so I went home for lunch.
That evening when I went back to the fountain, the painting of Kyuubi and the fourth Hokage was gone. I presumed it had been bought. My friend called me over and gave me a small sum of money equivalent to 24 of the profit.
"Who bought it?" I asked.
"That guy who was here earlier. That little kid with the shades,"
I smiled, feeling satisfied with life. I had reached someone. And behind the mask was just a boy who was moved by something that was metaphorically beautiful. He seemed to me like he'd be a good painter. I tried to remember where he stood, waiting. I tried to remember if I had seen him before. I had, but I paid him no attention before now. I dug in my shoulder bag for a tray of water color paints, and dropped them where I remembered him waiting.
I suppose I could've found a better method of giving him the paints, since there was no real way of knowing if he had gotten them or not. Oh well, I guess I'm not always the brightest of people.
A few days from then, I was eating lunch at the Ichiruka ramen, when I saw an afro, a coat, and sunglasses, carrying a beautiful painting of a fairy surrounded by butterflies.
He left it on the fountain.
...I'm not very fond of this chapter, but Shino seems like he'd be SUCHHHHH a good drawer. And he's like, my favorite char besides Neji and Itachi and... ok, well he's tied in third with Kakashi, and Hinata.
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