Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Art of the Angel ❯ Chapter 8 ( Chapter 8 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Inyoku 
Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 04.09.2007 | Pages: 2 | Words: 5.4K | Visits: 311 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 04.09.2007 | Pages: 2 | Words: 5.4K | Visits: 311 | Status: Completed
day at the store seemed to pass by fast, but it was really busy. After all, Izumi worked most of the morning she and her niece kept the shop open that day. Hikari was in the studio with her old friend Gaara. Izumi didn’t mind, though. Hikari told her later that day when the redheaded teen left that she had not seen him in ten years. To be gone form a friend that long, you deserved a week of celebration of reuniting. Hikari did seem very jovial about finding him. It always put a smile on Izumi’s face to see Hikari so happy. She let her have that whole morning with the boy. However, if she wasn’t mistaken, Gaara came to this village a while ago. The boy’s features and attire was pretty unforgettable. He still wore that giant gourd on his back that was unusual in Izumi’s eyes, and just remembered that oh so well. But memory of the boy didn’t really matter very much. Izumi only waited until she finally saw the boy leave later that morning. She noticed Hikari walked him on the way out and was saying some things to him. The boy had this face which the emotion was difficult to say how he was feeling and nodded with what she said.
After the boy left, Hikari came rushing back to Izumi, a bright smile on her face. Izumi smiled back at Hikari’s beaming expression. “So, what did you two talk about.” Hikari walked in the cash register and pulled up a chair that was behind the counter. “Not much really, we’ll be doing more talking tomorrow.” Izumi raised her brow and looked at her niece with curiosity. “Oh really, and why is that?” Hikari smiled. “Gaara’s coming tomorrow to model for my next painting.” Izumi gazed at Hikari questionably. “You’re going to paint him?” She asked.
“Yes.”
“What made you think of doing that?” Hikari looked down at her feet nervously. “Well… I just thought that would be a good way to get to know each other. Me and him in the same room, we could talk, while I work on drawing him. I want to do something in my art studio, I’ve missed it like a friend. After that, he can stay only if he likes for the painting part.” Izumi rubbed her chin. “Well, sounds like a good plan to me for socializing. But…” Hikari looked up at her Aunt. “But what?” Izumi looked off to the studio door. “Gaara did say yes to doing this right?” Hikari nodded her head. “I’ll be starting him when he comes in the morning. He told me he’ll remember where to go from where he is.” Hikari answered. Izumi was quiet for a long time, and she looked at Hikari with question. “Why do you want to paint this boy. I mean, what gave you the interest to do him?” Hikari looked a little lost in thought after that. A small smile formed on her face as she looked at Izumi with this look of contentment. “I wanted to do his eyes. They’re so… different. They’re an unique color, not to mention the emotion that’s locked within them. I see Gaara… so…”
“Handsomely?” Izumi teased, putting her arm around Hikari’s neck, eyeing her playfully. “What? Aunt Izumi no!” Hikari said defensively, but still giggling. “C’mon Hikari, you think he’s cute, that’s why you want to paint him.” Izumi said. Hikari laughed, playfully pushing her Aunt away. Hikari’s cheeks tinted a light pink color. “Aunt Izumi, you’re embarrassing me..” she said. Izumi laughed for a couple seconds and walked to the nearest painting of a person Hikari made. It was a young woman with brown hair that went just past the ears, and her eyes were a matching brown color. The woman had a olive complexion with rose tinted lips. Izumi studied the picture. “Hikari, you’re portraits you make are absolutely stunning. You capture what these people you do are like so well… only if they were real people.” She glanced back at her niece. “You never did seem to do portraits of real people until you showed me the ones on your trip.” She said. Hikari looked down, a small, hardly noticeable smile.
“I guess… It was something I just got into. I like capturing people I met on artwork. To try and get the personality of the person seemed like a challenge for each new person.” Hikari said. She walked up to the portrait Izumi studied and ran her fingers gently on the picture. “This woman I made is lovely, I tried my best to try and visualize what I made her personality like. But… I wanted to do real people. Capture real feelings… It always seemed to be a remarkable thing to do art for. I really began to like when I fist tried it with a friend I met on my trip.” She said. Izumi watched Hikari’s fingers run on the woman’s cheek on the portrait. It almost seemed to look like she was stroking the woman in a way that would soothe her, and smiled inwardly. Artists are just like that, they see things in a different perspective as others. It seemed odd, but to artists, it was normal. Izumi loved the thoughts of artistic people. How she wished she had artistic ability like her niece. Along with those views they have… on things. What Hikari viewed always came out so beautiful in her work. It made Izumi curious what Hikari could make out of the boy Gaara.
Izumi pulled up another chair that was next to the one Hikari pulled up a moment ago and rested it across from Hikari. “Well, you’ve gotten my interest. Hikari-” Izumi’s expression turned solemn, she took a deep breath. “-You can take all the time you need to do this. I won’t let your job get in the way.” Izumi’s serious look faded with a playful wink. “Consider it a belated birthday gift.” Hikari practically exploded out of her chair and threw her arms around Izumi. “You will? Oh, thank you! Thank you Aunt Izumi!” Hikari sounded just like a young child. It made Izumi giggle and then kiss Hikari’s head softly. “You take all the time you want... All the time…”
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It seemed not too long ago he was in that art studio with a person he thought he never would see again. Strange how time flew. Gaara had entered the apartment room to see out one window that sunset was drawing near. It began to make him wonder how long he was out the whole day. Kankuro and Temari didn’t seem to be anywhere in sight yet, which was good for him. He didn’t feel much like see or talking to him. He felt oddly exhausted, and just wanted to sit back at the chair he was at this morning. He slowly walked to the chair and sat down. The leaves weren’t falling anymore, but a slight breeze still shook them ever so slightly on the tree. Gaara stare at the shaking leaves, his face almost looking like he was studying them. After a moment, he realized the scenery had a different feel than when he first saw it in the morning. It didn’t look very different at all, but it just seemed to be uninteresting now.
Gaara began to think of the art studio. He started to wish he stayed there a little longer by himself. It was a place where he just felt at peace with himself, which is so rare. He usually has so many things in his mind that keeps him uneasy. Work, past and present thoughts, the demon…. Things like such always would make him have something to have a sliver of anxiety in his head. That room, however, was just so silent, so simple in a complex way (if that’s even describable or possible really..), and calm, it felt so nice. The view of Hikari at the window was also quite something. Having the light surround her body gave her a bit of a heavenly look, like an angel coming down to Earth.
Gaara lowered his head, begging to smile inwardly. I remember… I thought she was an angel… he thought. Come to think of it, she still seemed like one. She seems like the same person, like he thought earlier. A nice, caring, forgiving person who had a great interest with friends. She still seemed very interested with him. But why? What did he ever do for her? What about him did she admire so much out of him? Another question still got at him. Why does she want to paint me? He just didn’t see why. “I thought you’d make a great model, that’s all.” He remembered when she answered that to his question why. He didn’t feel that she was telling him exactly why. “Since I got back here, I want to start using my wonder art studio again.” Was that just why? To just use her studio? Would she have done it for anyone else? Gaara felt like she probably would. It could have been anyone she would portrait, he just happened to be there. He left it there, he didn’t want to put much more thought into it. Hikari only chose him cause he was there. Because she wanted to do art and he just happened to be there. There couldn’t be any other reason, right?
He sighed and got up from the chair, he was starting to feel a little stiff sitting there. The sofa in the living room looked a little more comfortable. He sat back in it and looked at the television a couple feet away form him that was sitting on top of a drawer. The remote was on a small table next to the sofa, Gaara turned it on. He didn’t really pay attention what was actually on the television, though. He was just looking for something to pass time and keep his mind off things. But another thing also came to his mind. Since Hikari was actually going to paint him, would she sell it like all her other art? She didn’t seem to keep any paintings anywhere. She said herself that there wasn’t any she ever intended to keep. It seemed weird to ponder it, but he just wondered it. Will she keep it when she’s done? There was a silence in his mind, and he shook his head. Why would she keep it? My painting won’t make a difference… Gaara sighed, irritated. Why was he constantly thinking of Hikari? Why did it seem so important to think these things of a simple painting? He put his hands on his forehead.
At that moment, Gaara heard the sound of the door open slightly. He pulled his hands away from his head and shot up from the couch. “Gaara, are you here?” It was Temari’s voice. She peeked her head in the room Gaara was in. She looked at him for a moment, then smiled. “Good to see you’re here. I’ll be getting dinner ready in a moment.” Kankuro then walked in the room. “Good thing I already had some takeout while I was out earlier.” He said. Temari glared at her brother. “Very funny. My food is good.”
“It sucks. Your just not meant to cook food Temari.”
“Oh really, then let me see you cook!”
“I don’t know how to cook.”
“Then don’t complain about my cooking!” Temari won that argument, making Kankuro grunt and sit down on the couch. Temari was just a genius that way, knowing how to win some arguments. If it wasn’t her intellect that won, it was her temper. She had a temper that lit up like a spark turn’s gas on fire. It heated up, and heated up fast. She knew how to give you that voice and look that tells you “If you mess with me, I’ll do worse to you.” Gaara, though, has absolutely never been given either those looks or voice changes. It was either because she was just nice around Gaara most of the time or she had a part of her that wouldn’t dare stoop to that level with Gaara. She has done it countless times with Kankuro, to points even when some slight violence was involved. Most times, really all of them to be exact, Temari was just the victor in arguments. It was just something Gaara had witnessed over the years with his older brother and sister.
Gaara walked into the kitchen, leaving a moping Kankuro in the room watching TV. Temari was looking in some brown paper bags. “I’ll have dinner made soon.” She said, searching the bags. Gaara only nodded and was ready to leave the room until he heard the question behind him. “What did you do today?” He stopped in his tracks. “Not much.” He answered. “Can I have some details please?” Temari asked, pulling out a box of some kind of food, Gaara didn’t really pay attention to the content on the box. “I met someone I knew a while ago. That’s it.” Temari stopped what she was doing and turned her head toward him. Her eyes lit up with interest. Gaara was afraid of that. “Really? Who, who’s the person? Name? Did I know this person?” She shot all these questions at him. “She’s Hikari, I knew about ten years ago.” He answered bluntly. Temari put her hand on her chin in deep thought. “Hmm… name doesn’t really ring a bell.” Hikari and Temari must have not really interacted back then. She looked back at him. “What did you do?”
“She showed me her art store she and her Aunt runs.”
Temari eyed him with curiosity. “She’s an artist? Is she good?” “Very.” He answered. He walked toward the door out of the kitchen. “I’m going over to the store tomorrow… she wants to do a portrait of me.” Silence filled the room. Temari watched Gaara walk out the room. A smile crept on her face when he left the room. “Really…”
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Hikari got up early that day and was very quick with it. She quickly threw on a white turtleneck with a light blue skirt, along with whipping a dark blue scarf around her neck and braiding her hair in a rush. She grabbed the keys to the shop and bolted to the shop with her breakfast in her hand. She had days like this when it came to art. She couldn’t wait to do it, so she hurried like there was no tomorrow to get to the studio. After 3 occasions, her Aunt even made her a personal key to the shop and studio because she could never catch up with her speed when she was in those “artsy moods.” He missed her studio dearly, and as she ran into the room, she felt like kissing the floor of it. Sure, she was in here yesterday, but that was with Gaara, and she wasn’t alone. Now she was.. Until Gaara comes anyway, but she had this time for now. She looked all through the room, at where all the supplies were located. Many she remembered, she did have a good memory with organization. He Aunt doesn’t do very much at the studio, so she usually is the one using it.
Hikari got out a good unused drawing pad that was inside the studio, along with some new pencils and a knife. Hikari had a strange habit of sharpening pencils with this sharp knife she had over the years. It was always kept sleek for use. It was longer and a little more difficult than just using a hand sharpener or an electric one, but she liked the little labor in sharpening. She got a wooden chair and set it about three and a half meters away from the easel she would keep her pad when sketching. She wanted to make sure light from the big window in the studio would hit Gaara just right and give off a nice, half-shaded look on his body. Hikari imagined the pose with the light hitting Gaara now. It made him look very mystifying, also it gives off a collected feel off of him. Hikari trembled with excitement. Not just because she was doing art, but that Gaara agreed to doing this. She was just overjoyed with the idea of doing such a longtime old friend. It felt great to know she could interact with him again after all this time. Every friend meant something to her, but.. Something was different with Gaara. Something about him.. Made her so happy seeing him. She wasn’t sure what it was yet, but she wanted to see him more, and this all fell in perfectly.
Izumi poked her head in the studio. Hikari turned her head toward her. “Is he here?” She asked excitedly. Izumi smiled. “Well, not yet. But Rei’s here to see you. Think you can spare a moment to greet him good morning.” she said. That was so sweet of Rei to come over and say good morning to her. “Of course I will.” Hikari answered. Izumi fully opened the door to reveal Rei with a warm greeting smile. “Morning Hikari.” he said in a caring tone. Hikari walked up and he embraced her with a friendly hug. “Good morning Rei.” Hikari greeted back to him. They broke their hug and Rei walked inside the studio. “Haven’t seen this place in a while.” He said, looking around the room. “Looks pretty similar to the last time you were in here. It’s one those only things I can remember back three years of.” Hikari laughed at his comment. Rei did admit once a while ago his memory could tend to be fuzzy and he could lose track of things easily.
“I’ll be working on a picture soon.” Hikari said, sharpening one of the pencils in her hand with the knife. “Really?” Rei said. “What do you plan to do this time?” Hikari smiled. “A portrait.” Rei walked over to Hikari and playfully put his arm around her shoulder. “Sounds like a plan to me. Hikari, can I ask you something?” “Of course Rei.” Hikari answered. “Wanna join me after your shift is over today. I’ll take you somewhere for lunch, my treat.” he offered. Hikari felt this bubbling of guilt in her gut. She bit her lower lip. “I’m sorry Rei, I cant today.” Rei frowned, his face giving a slight pout. “Why not?”
“I may be working on this picture for a good portion of the day.” Hikari explained. “Oh…” Rei said, lowering his head. It made Hikari feel bad, she put her hand on his shoulder. “Rei, we can do it another time. I promise you. Just not today, okay?” she apologized softly. Rei looked at her with those big brown eyes and sighed. “Well, okay. I think I’ve got some work to do anyways.” He said. He quickly hugged her with one arm and left the studio with his head kind of hung down. It made Hikari feel so guilty with what she was doing, but she couldn’t cancel now. Gaara was most likely to be here any second. She really wanted to start this. She shaved off more of the wood to the get to the lead with the pencil knife to wait until he came.
About ten minutes later, there was another knock at the door. It was a light knock, Hikari almost missed it. She walked up to the door and opened it. There in front of her was Gaara. She found herself looking into those aqua eyes for a couple seconds until she snapped out of it. “Good morning!” Hikari greeted with a bright smile. She let Gaara inside the room and she closed the door. Gaara stared at the chair in the room and averted his gave to the easel. “So, do I sit over there?” he asked in a emotionless voice. It struck Hikari odd how he sounded, but nodded. He walked to the chair and sat down on it, staring at the easel meters away from him. Hikari pulled up a chair for herself and got her pencil finally ready. “You can move a little and talk all you would like, jut make sure you stay seated and keep looking at me.” Hikari instructed. Gaara nodded and looked ahead like instructed to.
Hikari got a good look up and down and started with the outline. She let her hand move quickly as she every now and then glanced at him. No sounds were made for a while, and Hikari really wanted to say something to him. So she tried starting up conversation. “S-So how are you this morning?”
“I’m fine.” Gaara answered.
“That’s good.” Hikari continued sketching, she began to do the details on Gaara’s head. “Um… Are you here with anyone?” Gaara stared at her for a second. “I’m here with me brother and sister.” Hikari had a look of realization hit her. “Oh yes! I remember you have um.. Temari and.. I can’t remember the other one’s name…”
“It’s Kankuro.” Gaara finished her. “You know them, but they didn’t really remember you. Or.. Temari anyways.” Hikari smiled. “You told them about me?” she asked. Gaara nodded in reply. “Temari, I don’t really know if Kankuro knows. That was true too. Gaara had left the apartment early to get a morning walk outside before people really came around and when her needed to come to the shop. He didn’t see either of his older siblings awake. He came to the store after a half an hour or so walk. He walked inside the store and saw Hikari’s Aunt talking to this one tall boy with blonde hair. The two seemed to know each other well, cause they bother were exchanging smiles and hugs. They couldn’t have been related, because the boy’s features didn’t really match Hikari’s Aunt’s look at all. Just a family friend then. Gaara didn’t really put it into that much attention. Hikari’s Aunt took full attention when she saw him and led him to the studio door. He didn’t really need her to do that because he knew where he needed to go. To be polite though, he gave her a quick “Thank you”, and entered the room. Now here he was.
Hikari was looking at the easel with lots of concentration, but still was trying to talk to Gaara. He didn’t want to move too much to her up, but she seemed persistent to do talk, even some small talk. He realized, after looking at her hand, Hikari wasn’t sketching very fast. Her hand seemed to move much more slowly than yesterday when she sketched the puppy. “Is something wrong with your hand?” he asked. Hikari peered p from the easel. “No, it’s just fine.” she answered. “Then why are you sketching so slowly?” Hikari eyed him, confused. “I’m not moving it slow. I am doing details right now.” She looked back to the picture. “I’m on your face right now.”
“You sketched much faster on the dog yesterday, even with details.” Gaara said. “People are a little more complex to do.” Hikari argued. “I remember you doing people back when we were kids. You drew them fast too.” Gaara the sound of the pencil stopping. “I’m just being very careful.” she finally said, almost coming out a whisper. Hikari was done with most of the details of the heads. She just had to do the… tattoo on the corner of his head. Hikari paused and looked at it. She looked back to a young Gaara. He looked a lot like he does now. He was just younger then.. And didn’t have that tattoo. She read the kanji silently, her lips moving to say “love..” She knew Gaara had taken attention of her reading the tattoo from the look on his face. Curiosity was getting to her now, she had to ask.
“Gaara, I don’t remember that tattoo on your head. When did you get it.” Gaara didn’t want to bring that subject up at all. That mark was a mark of the past.. A past he’d rather not recollect. “A long time ago.” he answered, looking down. Hikari’s face softened. “Don’t look down. I-I like it, the fact it says love is really nice.” It may seem nice.. But it wasn’t for a very good reason he had it before. “It’s something I’d rather not talk about.” Gaara said, his voice growing more tense. Hikari heard the change in his voice and shook her head. “Okay, I don’t want to get to you about it.” She pressed the pencil beck to the picture at Gaara’s head to start making the tattoo, but she pressed too hard. Snap! The lead broke off. Hikari looked at the pencil and sighed. “Aw man. I’ll need to sharpen it.” Hikari didn’t get the chance to sharpen the other pencils before, so she reached for the knife and began shaving wood off the pencil fast.
Gaara stared at Hikari using the knife in the distance. “Hikari, don’t you have a sharpener?” Hikari looked at him with a smile. “I like a little labor when I sharpen. I won’t be too long.” she said. Hikari looked back at the pencil and knife. She was sharpening it faster than she usually would. But she really wanted to get back to drawing. She was enjoying all of this so much. She turned the pencil really quickly, fumbling her fingers as she did it. However was too clumsy.
“Ow!” Hikari dropped the pencil and knife an pulled her hand to her. Gaara got out of his chair. “What happened?” he asked. Hikari looked at her hand. She had cut her ring and index fingers. Pain shot through her hand while blood began seeping down. “I-It’s nothing. Just a little cut.” Hikari lied. It really hurt, she might have cut them really deeply. But she didn’t want anyone to really worry. Gaara reached out his hand. “Let me see.” he said. Hikari hesitated. “No, no. It’s okay, I’ll be fine-” Gaara took her arm anyways. She didn’t really fight back, she couldn’t. Nervousness seemed to overcome her and numb her body. Why was she so nervous?
Gaara stared at the crimson liquid slowly seep down her fingers, he looked at the blood for a while and looked back to her. “Does it hurt?” he asked. Gaara didn’t need an answer though, when he looked at her. Her face gave off the sign she had some pain. “It’s just a little cut.” she said again, but she seemed more timid now. He fingers got cut pretty bad, actually. It was at the point of looking more like a minor gash than a cut. There’s no way it couldn’t have hurt her. He may have not experienced it much, but Gaara knew physical pain when he saw it. He looked at her fingers, they seemed to tremble a bit. Was she afraid? The blood was starting to go down her fingers. At that moment. Gaara didn’t feel like he was controlling his body completely, because he gently laced her bleeding fingers on his lips. Hikari’s face completely shut down and turned red. Gaara stuck out his tongue and licked the excess blood from her fingers.
“G-G-Gaara? What a-are you d-do-oing?” she asked. “Help the bleeding stop.” Gaara answered, pulling her fingers away to talk. He pulled them back again, although a part of his mind was screaming. Stop! What in the world are you doing!! He wasn’t even sure why. He shouldn’t be doing this. It was a dangerous risk. He tasted the metallic blood on the tip of his tongue. He just wanted her hand to feel better…
I taste it.. Oh, it’s so sweet.. Gaara’s eyes widened. He pushed Hikari’s hand away from his lips. It was him. The taste of the blood awakened him. No, don’t pull it away! Give me more! Shukaku pleaded in Gaara’s mind. Gaara felt his arms go numb as he grabbed Hikari’s shoulders. He was being such an idiot. He knew something like this would happen. Why did he do it!! Let her go!! Gaara ordered mentally. He tried to push the demon’s voice out of his head. I never have fun anymore! Just this once! This blood tasted so good. I wanna kill her! I want more! Hikari stared at him. She didn’t look scared, but she looked worried. “Gaara, what’s wrong?” She reached up her hand. Gaara’s eyes widened and he smacked her hand back down. “No!” he growled. He couldn’t move his hands, they only grasped harder on Hikari’s shoulders. His gourd started to shake behind, it he tried to hold it back.
Hikari felt Gaara’s breath on her face. It seemed ragged and hot. Something was obviously wrong. Her shoulders started to hurt from how hard his grip was. It was like he didn’t want her to go anywhere. At this moment, it looked a little scary to be in her position. But Hikari wasn’t afraid. She didn’t feel scared to see him like this. She wanted to help. She reached her shaky hand up to his face again, despite the fist time where he rejected it. Her hands softly touched his head, that seemed to be shaking as well. His eyes looked right into hers. His breathing started to slow down. He loosed the grip on her shoulders until they finally let her go. He took some steps away from her. His eyes looked dilated and wide with fear. He looked at her one more time. “Forgive me.” he said in a strange raspy voice. He clutched his head in a painful way and ran for the door. Hikari raised her hand out. “Gaara, wait-” He shot right out the door, there was no way to catch up. She stood there in the studio, hearing through the door the sound of Gaara trying to get through the shop. What just happened? she questioned herself. She looked at the hand she cut and her mouth gaped open. It was all healed. Just a slight closed cut was on her fingers. She looked at the exit of the studio with disbelief.
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AUTHOR NOTE: Thank you all who have given reviews so far! I love you all so much for doing so much! I am very proud to say my story is in a c2s! Thank you so much for accepting my story! I may be making another story soon. It’s going to be a Neji story, that’s what I know so far. And I’m telling you for sure, I’m making me a GaaHina fic cause I think that pairing is so right. But enough of other stories. I’ll be sure update ASAP, and I know I kind of took a while making this chapter, and I’m sorry. See ya!
After the boy left, Hikari came rushing back to Izumi, a bright smile on her face. Izumi smiled back at Hikari’s beaming expression. “So, what did you two talk about.” Hikari walked in the cash register and pulled up a chair that was behind the counter. “Not much really, we’ll be doing more talking tomorrow.” Izumi raised her brow and looked at her niece with curiosity. “Oh really, and why is that?” Hikari smiled. “Gaara’s coming tomorrow to model for my next painting.” Izumi gazed at Hikari questionably. “You’re going to paint him?” She asked.
“Yes.”
“What made you think of doing that?” Hikari looked down at her feet nervously. “Well… I just thought that would be a good way to get to know each other. Me and him in the same room, we could talk, while I work on drawing him. I want to do something in my art studio, I’ve missed it like a friend. After that, he can stay only if he likes for the painting part.” Izumi rubbed her chin. “Well, sounds like a good plan to me for socializing. But…” Hikari looked up at her Aunt. “But what?” Izumi looked off to the studio door. “Gaara did say yes to doing this right?” Hikari nodded her head. “I’ll be starting him when he comes in the morning. He told me he’ll remember where to go from where he is.” Hikari answered. Izumi was quiet for a long time, and she looked at Hikari with question. “Why do you want to paint this boy. I mean, what gave you the interest to do him?” Hikari looked a little lost in thought after that. A small smile formed on her face as she looked at Izumi with this look of contentment. “I wanted to do his eyes. They’re so… different. They’re an unique color, not to mention the emotion that’s locked within them. I see Gaara… so…”
“Handsomely?” Izumi teased, putting her arm around Hikari’s neck, eyeing her playfully. “What? Aunt Izumi no!” Hikari said defensively, but still giggling. “C’mon Hikari, you think he’s cute, that’s why you want to paint him.” Izumi said. Hikari laughed, playfully pushing her Aunt away. Hikari’s cheeks tinted a light pink color. “Aunt Izumi, you’re embarrassing me..” she said. Izumi laughed for a couple seconds and walked to the nearest painting of a person Hikari made. It was a young woman with brown hair that went just past the ears, and her eyes were a matching brown color. The woman had a olive complexion with rose tinted lips. Izumi studied the picture. “Hikari, you’re portraits you make are absolutely stunning. You capture what these people you do are like so well… only if they were real people.” She glanced back at her niece. “You never did seem to do portraits of real people until you showed me the ones on your trip.” She said. Hikari looked down, a small, hardly noticeable smile.
“I guess… It was something I just got into. I like capturing people I met on artwork. To try and get the personality of the person seemed like a challenge for each new person.” Hikari said. She walked up to the portrait Izumi studied and ran her fingers gently on the picture. “This woman I made is lovely, I tried my best to try and visualize what I made her personality like. But… I wanted to do real people. Capture real feelings… It always seemed to be a remarkable thing to do art for. I really began to like when I fist tried it with a friend I met on my trip.” She said. Izumi watched Hikari’s fingers run on the woman’s cheek on the portrait. It almost seemed to look like she was stroking the woman in a way that would soothe her, and smiled inwardly. Artists are just like that, they see things in a different perspective as others. It seemed odd, but to artists, it was normal. Izumi loved the thoughts of artistic people. How she wished she had artistic ability like her niece. Along with those views they have… on things. What Hikari viewed always came out so beautiful in her work. It made Izumi curious what Hikari could make out of the boy Gaara.
Izumi pulled up another chair that was next to the one Hikari pulled up a moment ago and rested it across from Hikari. “Well, you’ve gotten my interest. Hikari-” Izumi’s expression turned solemn, she took a deep breath. “-You can take all the time you need to do this. I won’t let your job get in the way.” Izumi’s serious look faded with a playful wink. “Consider it a belated birthday gift.” Hikari practically exploded out of her chair and threw her arms around Izumi. “You will? Oh, thank you! Thank you Aunt Izumi!” Hikari sounded just like a young child. It made Izumi giggle and then kiss Hikari’s head softly. “You take all the time you want... All the time…”
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It seemed not too long ago he was in that art studio with a person he thought he never would see again. Strange how time flew. Gaara had entered the apartment room to see out one window that sunset was drawing near. It began to make him wonder how long he was out the whole day. Kankuro and Temari didn’t seem to be anywhere in sight yet, which was good for him. He didn’t feel much like see or talking to him. He felt oddly exhausted, and just wanted to sit back at the chair he was at this morning. He slowly walked to the chair and sat down. The leaves weren’t falling anymore, but a slight breeze still shook them ever so slightly on the tree. Gaara stare at the shaking leaves, his face almost looking like he was studying them. After a moment, he realized the scenery had a different feel than when he first saw it in the morning. It didn’t look very different at all, but it just seemed to be uninteresting now.
Gaara began to think of the art studio. He started to wish he stayed there a little longer by himself. It was a place where he just felt at peace with himself, which is so rare. He usually has so many things in his mind that keeps him uneasy. Work, past and present thoughts, the demon…. Things like such always would make him have something to have a sliver of anxiety in his head. That room, however, was just so silent, so simple in a complex way (if that’s even describable or possible really..), and calm, it felt so nice. The view of Hikari at the window was also quite something. Having the light surround her body gave her a bit of a heavenly look, like an angel coming down to Earth.
Gaara lowered his head, begging to smile inwardly. I remember… I thought she was an angel… he thought. Come to think of it, she still seemed like one. She seems like the same person, like he thought earlier. A nice, caring, forgiving person who had a great interest with friends. She still seemed very interested with him. But why? What did he ever do for her? What about him did she admire so much out of him? Another question still got at him. Why does she want to paint me? He just didn’t see why. “I thought you’d make a great model, that’s all.” He remembered when she answered that to his question why. He didn’t feel that she was telling him exactly why. “Since I got back here, I want to start using my wonder art studio again.” Was that just why? To just use her studio? Would she have done it for anyone else? Gaara felt like she probably would. It could have been anyone she would portrait, he just happened to be there. He left it there, he didn’t want to put much more thought into it. Hikari only chose him cause he was there. Because she wanted to do art and he just happened to be there. There couldn’t be any other reason, right?
He sighed and got up from the chair, he was starting to feel a little stiff sitting there. The sofa in the living room looked a little more comfortable. He sat back in it and looked at the television a couple feet away form him that was sitting on top of a drawer. The remote was on a small table next to the sofa, Gaara turned it on. He didn’t really pay attention what was actually on the television, though. He was just looking for something to pass time and keep his mind off things. But another thing also came to his mind. Since Hikari was actually going to paint him, would she sell it like all her other art? She didn’t seem to keep any paintings anywhere. She said herself that there wasn’t any she ever intended to keep. It seemed weird to ponder it, but he just wondered it. Will she keep it when she’s done? There was a silence in his mind, and he shook his head. Why would she keep it? My painting won’t make a difference… Gaara sighed, irritated. Why was he constantly thinking of Hikari? Why did it seem so important to think these things of a simple painting? He put his hands on his forehead.
At that moment, Gaara heard the sound of the door open slightly. He pulled his hands away from his head and shot up from the couch. “Gaara, are you here?” It was Temari’s voice. She peeked her head in the room Gaara was in. She looked at him for a moment, then smiled. “Good to see you’re here. I’ll be getting dinner ready in a moment.” Kankuro then walked in the room. “Good thing I already had some takeout while I was out earlier.” He said. Temari glared at her brother. “Very funny. My food is good.”
“It sucks. Your just not meant to cook food Temari.”
“Oh really, then let me see you cook!”
“I don’t know how to cook.”
“Then don’t complain about my cooking!” Temari won that argument, making Kankuro grunt and sit down on the couch. Temari was just a genius that way, knowing how to win some arguments. If it wasn’t her intellect that won, it was her temper. She had a temper that lit up like a spark turn’s gas on fire. It heated up, and heated up fast. She knew how to give you that voice and look that tells you “If you mess with me, I’ll do worse to you.” Gaara, though, has absolutely never been given either those looks or voice changes. It was either because she was just nice around Gaara most of the time or she had a part of her that wouldn’t dare stoop to that level with Gaara. She has done it countless times with Kankuro, to points even when some slight violence was involved. Most times, really all of them to be exact, Temari was just the victor in arguments. It was just something Gaara had witnessed over the years with his older brother and sister.
Gaara walked into the kitchen, leaving a moping Kankuro in the room watching TV. Temari was looking in some brown paper bags. “I’ll have dinner made soon.” She said, searching the bags. Gaara only nodded and was ready to leave the room until he heard the question behind him. “What did you do today?” He stopped in his tracks. “Not much.” He answered. “Can I have some details please?” Temari asked, pulling out a box of some kind of food, Gaara didn’t really pay attention to the content on the box. “I met someone I knew a while ago. That’s it.” Temari stopped what she was doing and turned her head toward him. Her eyes lit up with interest. Gaara was afraid of that. “Really? Who, who’s the person? Name? Did I know this person?” She shot all these questions at him. “She’s Hikari, I knew about ten years ago.” He answered bluntly. Temari put her hand on her chin in deep thought. “Hmm… name doesn’t really ring a bell.” Hikari and Temari must have not really interacted back then. She looked back at him. “What did you do?”
“She showed me her art store she and her Aunt runs.”
Temari eyed him with curiosity. “She’s an artist? Is she good?” “Very.” He answered. He walked toward the door out of the kitchen. “I’m going over to the store tomorrow… she wants to do a portrait of me.” Silence filled the room. Temari watched Gaara walk out the room. A smile crept on her face when he left the room. “Really…”
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Hikari got up early that day and was very quick with it. She quickly threw on a white turtleneck with a light blue skirt, along with whipping a dark blue scarf around her neck and braiding her hair in a rush. She grabbed the keys to the shop and bolted to the shop with her breakfast in her hand. She had days like this when it came to art. She couldn’t wait to do it, so she hurried like there was no tomorrow to get to the studio. After 3 occasions, her Aunt even made her a personal key to the shop and studio because she could never catch up with her speed when she was in those “artsy moods.” He missed her studio dearly, and as she ran into the room, she felt like kissing the floor of it. Sure, she was in here yesterday, but that was with Gaara, and she wasn’t alone. Now she was.. Until Gaara comes anyway, but she had this time for now. She looked all through the room, at where all the supplies were located. Many she remembered, she did have a good memory with organization. He Aunt doesn’t do very much at the studio, so she usually is the one using it.
Hikari got out a good unused drawing pad that was inside the studio, along with some new pencils and a knife. Hikari had a strange habit of sharpening pencils with this sharp knife she had over the years. It was always kept sleek for use. It was longer and a little more difficult than just using a hand sharpener or an electric one, but she liked the little labor in sharpening. She got a wooden chair and set it about three and a half meters away from the easel she would keep her pad when sketching. She wanted to make sure light from the big window in the studio would hit Gaara just right and give off a nice, half-shaded look on his body. Hikari imagined the pose with the light hitting Gaara now. It made him look very mystifying, also it gives off a collected feel off of him. Hikari trembled with excitement. Not just because she was doing art, but that Gaara agreed to doing this. She was just overjoyed with the idea of doing such a longtime old friend. It felt great to know she could interact with him again after all this time. Every friend meant something to her, but.. Something was different with Gaara. Something about him.. Made her so happy seeing him. She wasn’t sure what it was yet, but she wanted to see him more, and this all fell in perfectly.
Izumi poked her head in the studio. Hikari turned her head toward her. “Is he here?” She asked excitedly. Izumi smiled. “Well, not yet. But Rei’s here to see you. Think you can spare a moment to greet him good morning.” she said. That was so sweet of Rei to come over and say good morning to her. “Of course I will.” Hikari answered. Izumi fully opened the door to reveal Rei with a warm greeting smile. “Morning Hikari.” he said in a caring tone. Hikari walked up and he embraced her with a friendly hug. “Good morning Rei.” Hikari greeted back to him. They broke their hug and Rei walked inside the studio. “Haven’t seen this place in a while.” He said, looking around the room. “Looks pretty similar to the last time you were in here. It’s one those only things I can remember back three years of.” Hikari laughed at his comment. Rei did admit once a while ago his memory could tend to be fuzzy and he could lose track of things easily.
“I’ll be working on a picture soon.” Hikari said, sharpening one of the pencils in her hand with the knife. “Really?” Rei said. “What do you plan to do this time?” Hikari smiled. “A portrait.” Rei walked over to Hikari and playfully put his arm around her shoulder. “Sounds like a plan to me. Hikari, can I ask you something?” “Of course Rei.” Hikari answered. “Wanna join me after your shift is over today. I’ll take you somewhere for lunch, my treat.” he offered. Hikari felt this bubbling of guilt in her gut. She bit her lower lip. “I’m sorry Rei, I cant today.” Rei frowned, his face giving a slight pout. “Why not?”
“I may be working on this picture for a good portion of the day.” Hikari explained. “Oh…” Rei said, lowering his head. It made Hikari feel bad, she put her hand on his shoulder. “Rei, we can do it another time. I promise you. Just not today, okay?” she apologized softly. Rei looked at her with those big brown eyes and sighed. “Well, okay. I think I’ve got some work to do anyways.” He said. He quickly hugged her with one arm and left the studio with his head kind of hung down. It made Hikari feel so guilty with what she was doing, but she couldn’t cancel now. Gaara was most likely to be here any second. She really wanted to start this. She shaved off more of the wood to the get to the lead with the pencil knife to wait until he came.
About ten minutes later, there was another knock at the door. It was a light knock, Hikari almost missed it. She walked up to the door and opened it. There in front of her was Gaara. She found herself looking into those aqua eyes for a couple seconds until she snapped out of it. “Good morning!” Hikari greeted with a bright smile. She let Gaara inside the room and she closed the door. Gaara stared at the chair in the room and averted his gave to the easel. “So, do I sit over there?” he asked in a emotionless voice. It struck Hikari odd how he sounded, but nodded. He walked to the chair and sat down on it, staring at the easel meters away from him. Hikari pulled up a chair for herself and got her pencil finally ready. “You can move a little and talk all you would like, jut make sure you stay seated and keep looking at me.” Hikari instructed. Gaara nodded and looked ahead like instructed to.
Hikari got a good look up and down and started with the outline. She let her hand move quickly as she every now and then glanced at him. No sounds were made for a while, and Hikari really wanted to say something to him. So she tried starting up conversation. “S-So how are you this morning?”
“I’m fine.” Gaara answered.
“That’s good.” Hikari continued sketching, she began to do the details on Gaara’s head. “Um… Are you here with anyone?” Gaara stared at her for a second. “I’m here with me brother and sister.” Hikari had a look of realization hit her. “Oh yes! I remember you have um.. Temari and.. I can’t remember the other one’s name…”
“It’s Kankuro.” Gaara finished her. “You know them, but they didn’t really remember you. Or.. Temari anyways.” Hikari smiled. “You told them about me?” she asked. Gaara nodded in reply. “Temari, I don’t really know if Kankuro knows. That was true too. Gaara had left the apartment early to get a morning walk outside before people really came around and when her needed to come to the shop. He didn’t see either of his older siblings awake. He came to the store after a half an hour or so walk. He walked inside the store and saw Hikari’s Aunt talking to this one tall boy with blonde hair. The two seemed to know each other well, cause they bother were exchanging smiles and hugs. They couldn’t have been related, because the boy’s features didn’t really match Hikari’s Aunt’s look at all. Just a family friend then. Gaara didn’t really put it into that much attention. Hikari’s Aunt took full attention when she saw him and led him to the studio door. He didn’t really need her to do that because he knew where he needed to go. To be polite though, he gave her a quick “Thank you”, and entered the room. Now here he was.
Hikari was looking at the easel with lots of concentration, but still was trying to talk to Gaara. He didn’t want to move too much to her up, but she seemed persistent to do talk, even some small talk. He realized, after looking at her hand, Hikari wasn’t sketching very fast. Her hand seemed to move much more slowly than yesterday when she sketched the puppy. “Is something wrong with your hand?” he asked. Hikari peered p from the easel. “No, it’s just fine.” she answered. “Then why are you sketching so slowly?” Hikari eyed him, confused. “I’m not moving it slow. I am doing details right now.” She looked back to the picture. “I’m on your face right now.”
“You sketched much faster on the dog yesterday, even with details.” Gaara said. “People are a little more complex to do.” Hikari argued. “I remember you doing people back when we were kids. You drew them fast too.” Gaara the sound of the pencil stopping. “I’m just being very careful.” she finally said, almost coming out a whisper. Hikari was done with most of the details of the heads. She just had to do the… tattoo on the corner of his head. Hikari paused and looked at it. She looked back to a young Gaara. He looked a lot like he does now. He was just younger then.. And didn’t have that tattoo. She read the kanji silently, her lips moving to say “love..” She knew Gaara had taken attention of her reading the tattoo from the look on his face. Curiosity was getting to her now, she had to ask.
“Gaara, I don’t remember that tattoo on your head. When did you get it.” Gaara didn’t want to bring that subject up at all. That mark was a mark of the past.. A past he’d rather not recollect. “A long time ago.” he answered, looking down. Hikari’s face softened. “Don’t look down. I-I like it, the fact it says love is really nice.” It may seem nice.. But it wasn’t for a very good reason he had it before. “It’s something I’d rather not talk about.” Gaara said, his voice growing more tense. Hikari heard the change in his voice and shook her head. “Okay, I don’t want to get to you about it.” She pressed the pencil beck to the picture at Gaara’s head to start making the tattoo, but she pressed too hard. Snap! The lead broke off. Hikari looked at the pencil and sighed. “Aw man. I’ll need to sharpen it.” Hikari didn’t get the chance to sharpen the other pencils before, so she reached for the knife and began shaving wood off the pencil fast.
Gaara stared at Hikari using the knife in the distance. “Hikari, don’t you have a sharpener?” Hikari looked at him with a smile. “I like a little labor when I sharpen. I won’t be too long.” she said. Hikari looked back at the pencil and knife. She was sharpening it faster than she usually would. But she really wanted to get back to drawing. She was enjoying all of this so much. She turned the pencil really quickly, fumbling her fingers as she did it. However was too clumsy.
“Ow!” Hikari dropped the pencil and knife an pulled her hand to her. Gaara got out of his chair. “What happened?” he asked. Hikari looked at her hand. She had cut her ring and index fingers. Pain shot through her hand while blood began seeping down. “I-It’s nothing. Just a little cut.” Hikari lied. It really hurt, she might have cut them really deeply. But she didn’t want anyone to really worry. Gaara reached out his hand. “Let me see.” he said. Hikari hesitated. “No, no. It’s okay, I’ll be fine-” Gaara took her arm anyways. She didn’t really fight back, she couldn’t. Nervousness seemed to overcome her and numb her body. Why was she so nervous?
Gaara stared at the crimson liquid slowly seep down her fingers, he looked at the blood for a while and looked back to her. “Does it hurt?” he asked. Gaara didn’t need an answer though, when he looked at her. Her face gave off the sign she had some pain. “It’s just a little cut.” she said again, but she seemed more timid now. He fingers got cut pretty bad, actually. It was at the point of looking more like a minor gash than a cut. There’s no way it couldn’t have hurt her. He may have not experienced it much, but Gaara knew physical pain when he saw it. He looked at her fingers, they seemed to tremble a bit. Was she afraid? The blood was starting to go down her fingers. At that moment. Gaara didn’t feel like he was controlling his body completely, because he gently laced her bleeding fingers on his lips. Hikari’s face completely shut down and turned red. Gaara stuck out his tongue and licked the excess blood from her fingers.
“G-G-Gaara? What a-are you d-do-oing?” she asked. “Help the bleeding stop.” Gaara answered, pulling her fingers away to talk. He pulled them back again, although a part of his mind was screaming. Stop! What in the world are you doing!! He wasn’t even sure why. He shouldn’t be doing this. It was a dangerous risk. He tasted the metallic blood on the tip of his tongue. He just wanted her hand to feel better…
I taste it.. Oh, it’s so sweet.. Gaara’s eyes widened. He pushed Hikari’s hand away from his lips. It was him. The taste of the blood awakened him. No, don’t pull it away! Give me more! Shukaku pleaded in Gaara’s mind. Gaara felt his arms go numb as he grabbed Hikari’s shoulders. He was being such an idiot. He knew something like this would happen. Why did he do it!! Let her go!! Gaara ordered mentally. He tried to push the demon’s voice out of his head. I never have fun anymore! Just this once! This blood tasted so good. I wanna kill her! I want more! Hikari stared at him. She didn’t look scared, but she looked worried. “Gaara, what’s wrong?” She reached up her hand. Gaara’s eyes widened and he smacked her hand back down. “No!” he growled. He couldn’t move his hands, they only grasped harder on Hikari’s shoulders. His gourd started to shake behind, it he tried to hold it back.
Hikari felt Gaara’s breath on her face. It seemed ragged and hot. Something was obviously wrong. Her shoulders started to hurt from how hard his grip was. It was like he didn’t want her to go anywhere. At this moment, it looked a little scary to be in her position. But Hikari wasn’t afraid. She didn’t feel scared to see him like this. She wanted to help. She reached her shaky hand up to his face again, despite the fist time where he rejected it. Her hands softly touched his head, that seemed to be shaking as well. His eyes looked right into hers. His breathing started to slow down. He loosed the grip on her shoulders until they finally let her go. He took some steps away from her. His eyes looked dilated and wide with fear. He looked at her one more time. “Forgive me.” he said in a strange raspy voice. He clutched his head in a painful way and ran for the door. Hikari raised her hand out. “Gaara, wait-” He shot right out the door, there was no way to catch up. She stood there in the studio, hearing through the door the sound of Gaara trying to get through the shop. What just happened? she questioned herself. She looked at the hand she cut and her mouth gaped open. It was all healed. Just a slight closed cut was on her fingers. She looked at the exit of the studio with disbelief.
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AUTHOR NOTE: Thank you all who have given reviews so far! I love you all so much for doing so much! I am very proud to say my story is in a c2s! Thank you so much for accepting my story! I may be making another story soon. It’s going to be a Neji story, that’s what I know so far. And I’m telling you for sure, I’m making me a GaaHina fic cause I think that pairing is so right. But enough of other stories. I’ll be sure update ASAP, and I know I kind of took a while making this chapter, and I’m sorry. See ya!