Chapter 13: Eye of the Beholder

There was a loud thump as a box was placed onto the counter between the worker and the shinobi. "I gotta tell you, the original owners were adamant that this thing not be put in a museum. Don't know why. They've had public viewings before. Transporting this thing'd be a pain in the ass if it weren't for you guys."

"You really need an escort for this thing?" Naruto asked. "It's a freaking box."

"It's what's inside that counts," Sai told him with his usual smile. "Haven't you heard that?"

Naruto snarled at him in response.

"It's just a painting," said the worker. "It's going to your village anyway so it makes sense for you lot to be the courier."

"I guess that's true," said Naruto.

The village was hosting an art gallery featuring pieces from various villages. Some were quite famous. Every piece would be for sale and the profits went to charity. It was a great way for artists to get their name out there, even if their pieces were donated.

Naruto didn't see the point. If the artist wanted money, why would they donate something they wouldn't be paid for? Even if it did get their name out there, what was the point? After their piece was bought, no one would bother to look them up again. Even the owner of the piece wouldn't have a reason since they already had something of theirs.

Sai seemed to understand it more than Naruto did so Naruto just went along with it.

"I don't get it," said Sakura. "If the owner didn't want it displayed, why is it going to the gallery event in the village?"

The worker shrugged. "They didn't want it in a museum. Totally different thing you're doing."

"Is he pulling your leg again?" came a voice from the back room. Out came a man who smacked the worker in the back of the head. "He's been spouting nonsense about every item we have for transport. Think he gets his kicks getting a rise out of people."

"Really?" asked Sakura.

"Told the last customer that a necklace would help them find true love. The thing looked real but it was fake, made by some craftsman. Nice-looking thing but, real jewels or not, it ain't magic."

"Believe with your heart," said the worker wistfully.

The man smacked him again. "Next time I catch you putting ideas into people's heads, I'll put you on toilet duty for a month."

With the thin box under his arm, Naruto walked back to the village with his friends. "You think that guy really was just making stuff up?"

"Seemed to me that the guy had a reputation for doing just that," said Sakura. "Guess he has to have some fun on the job. I can see it being a little dull."

The day of the gallery event was upon them in no time and every item was mounted on the wall around a pristine white room with lights that reflected off the glass encasing more three-dimensional pieces on pedestals. An assortment of finger foods had been left out on a table for guests by the door along with sparkling drinks. Those in attendance marveled the pieces on display, moving slowly from one to the other.

"I don't want to. Stop."

Shikamaru was dragged into the gallery by Ino who immediately went over to talk to Sakura. She needed an escort and forced Shikamaru to go with her.

"You didn't need me at all," he complained. "Anybody can walk right in here."

Ino scoffed haughtily. "You know nothing of high society. It wouldn't be proper for a lady to show up to one of these galleries without an escort."

"It's not like they're taking coats." Shikamaru folded his arms. "Can I leave now?"

"Since you're here, you might as well enjoy the thing."

Just to say that he did, Shikamaru began to looked at the different paintings on the wall. Most of them were of landscapes and bowls of fruit. Occasionally he came across one depicting an animal or something a bit more abstract.

He stopped in front of one at seemed out of place somehow. "You guys see this one?"

"That one?" Naruto gave a brief nod. "Yeah, I think that was the one we had to transport here."

"Does it seem… off to you?"

Naruto gave it a quick glance. "Off how?"

"I don't know. Something about it just feels… strange."

Naruto threw up his hands in a shrug. "I don't really get art."

Shikamaru moved closer to the painting of a pair of eyes poking out from a flowery parasol adorn with ribbons. He couldn't tell who this was meant to be a painting of considering only the eyes were visible. Even the hand clutching the parasol was barely in frame and gave no indication of gender.

Those eyes, though. He found himself drawn to them. As if they held clues to a puzzle he desperately had to figure out. They were so detailed and beautiful. So alluring.

The delicate brushstrokes had created such perfect detail, he could swear it was a photograph. The shape of the almond eyes was perfectly symmetrical. The black lashes fanning out over the flirtatious eyes looked so real, adding a layer of depth to the piece. The details of the eyes kept him from looking away. Layers of paint created speckles of color to the irises around the dark pupil, contributing to its authenticity. The lighter colors created the concept of light so flawlessly, Shikamaru thought he saw himself reflected in the pupils.

Was he getting closer or were the eyes getting bigger?

Sai came to stand beside Naruto. "That cornfield painting is really exceptional," he commented. "Up close, you can see every brushstroke and blot. From a distance, everything comes together so completely, you'd think it was real."

"What's the difference between that one and the other one we saw in an actual museum?" Naruto asked. "They were both of cornfields, only one was famous and this one's being sold for charity. What's the difference?"

"That one is famous and the other isn't?" Sai stated, unsure of what Naruto was asking.

Naruto shook his head. "I don't get art. Come on, Shikamaru, let's go. Neither of us want to be here."

Shikamaru wasn't moving.

"Yo, Shikamaru. You hear me?"

Shikamaru moved away from the painting listlessly. "I heard you," he spoke haltingly.

"You ok?" Naruto was getting concerned.

Rubbing his eyes, Shikamaru turned his back to the painting. "Yeah, I'm fine. And you're right. I don't want to be here. I'm heading out."

"Did you want to-"

"Naruto," Sakura called. "Get over here and look at this."

Unable to ask if Shikamaru wanted to hang out with him, Naruto waved goodbye and went over to see what Sakura wanted.

Shikamaru left the building and wandered the streets of the village alone. With another hour before sunset, there were plenty of people standing around chatting. Groups of mothers stood holding shopping bags while their children played with each other, allowing them to have a conversation.

He wandered for a long time, walking more than he would normally want, until he found a shinobi walking along the same path going in the opposite direction along the riverbank. They were alone and seemed tired.

Spotting him, the shinobi stopped and greeted him, perking up a little. "Oh, hey, Shikamaru. Haven't seen you in a while. Been busy myself. You?"

Shikamaru lifted his head to look at the taller shinobi standing a few feet away.

"You seen that one guy we went on that mission with? What's-his-face?"

Shikamaru didn't respond, still staring.

"Hear about that charity art gallery thing going on tonight? Bet they started already. You been there yet? Check it out?"

Shikamaru smiled. "I have."

"Yeah?" said the shinobi, being friendly. "What'd you think?"

Shikamaru lowered his head slightly, letting his lashes fan his flirtatious stare. "Very enlightening."

Struck with sudden paralysis, the shinobi looked at the ground and saw Shikamaru's shadow connected with his. "Uh, Sh- Shikamaru? What… What are you doing?"

Lifting his hand, Shikamaru brought it to his waist and the man did the same, his hand grazing the pouch on his belt. The shinobi was left-handed so he had placed his pouch on the opposite side Shikamaru would have placed his. Mimicking the motion of opening his pouch, Shikamaru made the shinobi open his and take out a kunai.

"What's this? What are you doing?"

Shikamaru pantomimed holding a kunai in his left hand and brought it over his right arm. The shinobi did the same only with a real kunai.

"Stop it! Stop this right now! What are you doing?"

Shikamaru's smiled deepened as he pushed his hand down and heard the man in front of him scream.

"Please!" the shinobi cried, watching blood ooze down his arm from where his kunai stuck into him. "Stop it! Please!"

Shikamaru began to saw the invisible kunai deeper into his arm while the shinobi wailed and screamed and begged. He craved deep grooves into his arm, stabbing over and over until the shinobi's cries grew hoarse. He tossed away the imaginary kunai and retracted his jutsu.

The shinobi fell to his knees, holding his mangled arm while he whimpered. Shikamaru pushed the shinobi over with his foot and stood on his arm just above the elbow. Shikamaru grabbed the shinobi's arm by his wrist which had become slippery from all the blood and twisted it until the arm snapped and broke off like a turkey leg. He carried the severed arm down the road, leaving the shinobi where he lay in a puddle of his own blood.

He used the arm as a paintbrush to smear the shinobi's blood on the ground in cheerful designs. Shikamaru's elated smile was both charming and terrifying as he twirled the severed arm like a baton and tossed it aside for someone to find.

"What happened?" Kakashi demanded the second it was brought to his attention.

"That's what he said," a shinobi informed the Hokage. "He had lost a lot of blood so I don't know how much of it is true."

"But one thing's for sure," said the other. "He was attacked. His arm was cut clean off and found along the riverbank. Some poor woman found it when she was walking along with her kids. Thought it was a prop of some kind until they saw the blood and…" The shinobi covered his mouth, unwilling to go on. The very thought of it made him sick.

"Bloodstains were all over the ground. Some twisted freak actually drew flowers and butterflies in the man's… Ugh! I can't even…"

"But he said that it was Shikamaru?" Kakashi asked, beside himself. "That… That cannot be true."

"We don't believe it either, but the man insisted. The blood loss was probably… I mean, we know Shikamaru would never do this."

Kakashi stood hunched over his desk, arms supporting him like a tripod. "In any case, bring him in. We have to get to the bottom of this. It was probably someone transformed to look like him, but I still want to question him personally. Bring him here when you find him."

"Yessir."

"You got it, Lord Sixth."

Shikamaru was spotted on the roof of a building. It had always been one of his favorite cloud-watching spots, but today he was using it as something else. He kept his back to the two shinobi, sitting where he was and humming to himself whimsically.

"Shikamaru Nara, we need you to some with us. By order of the Hokage."

He kept humming.

"Now, Shikamaru."

He stood up with his hands on his hips, admiring something on the rooftop. "I think it still needs something. I'm not sure what, though." Shikamaru turned to face the two men. "Did you come to help me out with that? How kind of you."

The two men baulked at the sight of him. Shikamaru was smiling happily with streaks of blood on his cheeks. By his feet was a collage of what appeared to be blood and bone arranged in an abstract work of art.

"Oh, don't worry," Shikamaru said when he saw their expressions. "They're just chicken bones. From my lunch. I'd never use human. Too hard to work with and really gross."

"And the red stuff?" asked a shinobi.

"Oh, that's human." Shikamaru's smile curved up as far as it would go. "I never said I wouldn't use that. It's such a lovely shade, don't you think? Really makes it pop."

The two men shuddered and reached for their weapons. "Shikamaru, you've clearly lost your mind."

Shikamaru cocked his head. "Nah, just enlightened. That art piece at the gallery really spoke to me." He placed a hand over his heart and closed his eyes as if basking in a fond memory. "It touched me. It truly did. Since then, I've been inspired."

"Inspired?"

"To do what?"

Shikamaru opened his eyes which had become playfully flirtatious. "To express myself."

His shadow stretched out and the two shinobi jumped away, refusing to get caught in it.

"You can run all you like, but it won't matter," Shikamaru taunted them. "Eventually you'll have to land and when you do, whoop!"

They attacked from a distance, but Shikamaru had worked with these men before and knew what they were going to do before they did it. He just had to wear them out and draw them in.

The shinobi attacked from above over and over, making sure to avoid landing near Shikamaru's shadow. They kept moving and eventually one of them managed to land a direct hit on Shikamaru and he went down. Thinking they had knocked him out, the two went closer.

"Gotcha," Shikamaru declared, snaring them with his shadow.

The two men had nowhere to go now.

Shikamaru stood and did the same thing he had done to the first shinobi, only this time he wasn't wearing his tool bag on his belt. Knowing he would be attacked, Shikamaru made sure he wasn't wearing it just so he could do this and not hurt himself in the process.

He held an imaginary kunai to his neck as the shinobi held real ones to theirs.

"Shikamaru, don't do this!"

"Snap out of it!"

Shikamaru smiled wickedly at the two shinobi. "Let's paint this village red." He pressed his imaginary kunai to his throat.

"Guys, something weird's been going on with Ino," said Sakura.

"I agree," said Sai. "She's been acting strange ever since the gallery."

"Has anyone seen Shikamaru?" asked Naruto. "Maybe they're together."

"No, something is going on and we have to do something." Sakura encouraged the group to follow her to where she had last seen Ino.

She was decorating a fence with flowers. Naruto yelped when he realized Ino was sticking them on with blood which her arms were covered in to the point where they looked like red gloves.

"Hey," she greeted cheerfully. "What do you think? So much nicer now with a splash of color, don't you think?"

"Ino, that is sick and wrong," Naruto told her, his skin crawling.

"Only a trained eye can see the beauty of real art."

Sai was appalled by Ino's words in more ways than one. "Ino, art is an expression but not at the person's physical expense. Using one's body as an artform is fine when it doesn't cause them physical harm. Look at what you're doing."

"Paint is only one criterion and so boring. You can't get this kind of color with paint. Or this kind of reaction."

"You mean disgust?" Naruto snapped. "Ino, have you lost your mind?!"

A chill ran down Sakura's spine. "Ino… where did you get your, um… materials?"

Naruto realized it, too, and knew the blood must have come from somewhere.

Ino giggled sweetly. "Shikamaru's been helping me. Seems we have the same vision in mind."

A smiling Shikamaru appeared with a severed limb and held it out for Ino to take. "This one's not as drippy, so it should add a whole new dimension to the piece." He turned to his friends with a wide smile. "Hey, guys. What do you think? Isn't it exquisite?"

"I'm gonna be sick," Naruto moaned, hunched over.

"What's going on with you two?" Sakura asked. "What have you done? Why are you doing this?"

Shikamaru grinned happily at her question. "We were both inspired by the painting at the gallery. Since then, we've been hard at work expressing ourselves."

"Like this?!"

Shikamaru gestured to Ino. "Our jutsu works well for gathering materials. I use my shadow to get what's needed and Ino uses her Mind Transfer technique to do the same."

"You can't do that."

"Actually, she can. It's quite easy. She just has to release her jutsu before… Well, you know."

"No, I mean you can't-"

"Why at the gallery?" Sai interrupted. "What painting?"

Shikamaru spread his arms wide as if making a declaration of love. "The one that's bored into our hearts and minds. We can't get enough; we're obsessed."

"I'm so glad Shikamaru shares my feelings on the subject," said Ino with a giggle. "So nice to have someone like-minded, right? And with the two of us working together, we can bathe this whole village in beauty."

Sai frowned, thinking. "That painting…? The one Shikamaru saw before he left the other night?" Sai placed his hands over the top and bottom of his face so only his eyes were showing. "That one?"

They both nodded. "That's the one."

Sai looked frantically at Naruto and Sakura. "Who bought that painting? We have to get it back immediately."

"What? Why?"

"Because the painting did this to them." Sai looked scared and worried, more than they had ever seen him. "I've heard about a painting like this. You know how some works of art evoke certain emotions in people and inspires them? Well, this painting inspires them to take on the painter's mindset. Or the character in the painting."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" asked Naruto.

"It means that if the painter intended to have his character have a certain mindset or personality, those touched by the painting will adopt those tendencies. In other words, if they find violence to be an artform, so will Ino and Shikamaru. Along with anyone else who was moved by the painting."

"You're saying a painting brainwashed Ino and Shikamaru?" Naruto said in disbelief.

"They think like the character now. Taking on the artist's intentions," Sai explained. "If the artist wanted his character to induce this kind of reaction in people, they certainly succeeded."

"Wait, wait," said Naruto. "You're saying that if the artist wanted his character to be a lunatic then people who are moved by the painting will also become a lunatic, thinking like that character and taking on their beliefs? That alone is insane."

"Look at them," said Sai. "Hard to argue with this. The character was probably painted with that intention in mind. The character was created to think and behave like this but they're a painting and can't move or do anything. So they inspire those who look upon them to carry out their will. Art can be a powerful thing. It can make people think and feel so much that could this really not be plausible?"

"I saw that painting, too," said Naruto. "Why wasn't I effected? I'm not going around hurting people."

"You also said you didn't get art," Sai told him. "You weren't moved by it."

"And what about you and Sakura?"

"Everyone interprets things differently. Maybe we didn't see it the same way they did and weren't moved by it. Why do some people declare this one thing art and others not? What's the difference between good art and bad art? Interpretation? Mood? Opinion? I don't think there's any one answer we can give and certainly not a definitive one."

"If they look at this painting again, will they change back?" asked Sakura, hoping this was reversible.

"I don't know. Destroying it might also make this permanent." Sai looked from one to the other. "But we have to find that painting before anyone else gets inspired to act crazy."

"What about them?" Sakura asked. "Can't we do something?"

Sai shook his head. "Leave them. If we try to get close, we'll just end up on their next canvas."

The three of them tracked down the buyer with the sales receipt and found the painting hanging up on the person's wall. The person who bought it wasn't behaving like Ino or Shikamaru so it appeared that they hadn't been affected. They brought the painting to Kakashi and explained the situation.

Once he understood that it wasn't their fault, Kakashi set to work to figure out how to reverse the effects. He figured the painting was imbued with genjutsu and worked from there. After a lot of work, Kakashi figured out a way to stop Shikamaru and Ino and get them back to normal.

He created a new painting, changing the eyes of this one ever so slightly with his own skills and positive thinking. He presented it to Ino and Shikamaru and, once they looked at the modified painting, were returned to normal. Shocked and horrified by what they had done, they both insisted they be locked away, guilt-ridden.

"That was crazy, wasn't it, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked after the whole ordeal was over. "I feel bad that they got arrested. They do know it wasn't their fault, right?"

"They can't help how they feel, Naruto. Let it go."

Naruto sat on the couch in the Hokage's office, overwhelmed by recent events. "Still. It's weird, though. I tried to go visit them but no one would let me in. Why would they do that?"

"They were probably cleaning up their cells."

"Why? They just got there."

Kakashi moved behind the couch and placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Yeah. And they left a huge mess. On the walls and on the floor. Red really wasn't their color."

Naruto felt his blood go cold. Though Kakashi's hand wasn't holding him very tight, he couldn't move. "K- Kakashi-sensei?"

"Funny thing," Kakashi remarked casually. "When I was changing that painting, I got a pretty good look at those eyes. And I gotta say, they really spoke to me."

"Kakashi-sensei?"

"The new eyes I gave it… Just didn't work for me. It felt… Uninspired." Kakashi gave Naruto a chilling smile, his eyes taking on a flirtatious gleam. "I've always preferred the original."