Author's Note: Inspiration hits in the weirdest ways sometimes, huh? This is an idea I'd been toying with for a while, more as a oneshot, though I'd never been able to come up with a full, coherent scenario. Then, last week, I visited an art museum. I heard that Pablo Picasso felt it was better to have intimate relationships with his models, and somehow this came from that. This is not...something I would have expected to do, for several reasons. Namely because 1. I'm already working on a chaptered fanfic, and I'd tried to make it a policy not to do two at once, 2. I prefer SasuSaku as a pairing. No offense is meant by that, I just like it more. With that said, I'll end this note by saying that because of the aforementioned reasons (more 1 than 2), this will most likely be updated sporadically. As in, not weekly, but just every so often. I apologize in advance for that.

Disclaimer: I own merchandise for this series, but I'm afraid that is all.

Red on green. Yellow on green. Green on more red. The carpet of the management office was an eyesore to say the least. Sai frowned as he treaded towards the front desk. The wallpaper was a stale and pale orange color, the flowery patterns on it faded. He’d been told the day before that his key wasn’t ready, and to “swing by tomorrow afternoon, around five-ish”. So here he was, standing around in a deserted lobby at five o’clock in the afternoon, forced to book another night at his motel due to the timing of this.

He ran a finger along the wood of the front desk and could only grimace. The wood was of a dreary and plain color, and the writing area of said desk was dirtied from coffee stains and scratched from people writing on it and on papers atop it. The whole area had a dull, aged look to it. At least it matches the wallpaper, Sai thought to himself before departing from the desk.

He wandered away from the main desk without giving it another thought or glance and strode towards a paled red armchair, whose most noticeable feature was the tuft of white peeking out from behind the cushion. This chair stood as the final role in the ensemble of vapid décor that was scattered around him. It served as a reminder that this apartment that he was attempting to rent was not his first choice in location. With such a boring lobby, Sai could only assume that the neighbors would be even drearier, and no doubt were the type who would send him unnecessary soup dinners and called every so often to make sure he – the pale young man down the hall – was doing okay. Really an excuse to make sure he was alive and not involved in any mischief.

The view from the armchair was a bit more interesting than the rest of the office. In front of it, (and the other two accompanying chairs) there was a large window, which expanded along a large portion of the lobby. Beyond the window some stout bushes were planted, and beyond these stood two trees of rather small stature. Looking past them, the sun was making its noticeable descent towards the horizon, the sky around it already a gentle purple shade.

The reflection in the window revealed a young man who appeared to be in his very early twenties. He had a handsome face, but looking at it, one could see a near perpetual expression of boredom on it. His dark and enigmatic eyes were framed and slightly covered by hair of an even darker ebony color, which hung neatly at the near base of his neck in the back. The man’s skin was pale, and his build was small; sturdiness questionable.

He moved, breaking the quiet spell he’d cast on the glass before him, and pulled a notebook from the bag he carried. The cover was a hard gray and the top of it looked worn from being flipped open. He did just that and, with a pencil he’d also pulled out, began bringing the tree before him to life. The outline was messy in a sketchy way, done in long lines and short curves. His wrist flicked in quick movements and with each swoop more and more of it came to life. Inside the dark and large outline, short and careful strokes formed foliage and bark. With each movement, more and more of it became clearer, and soon he moved on to the next tree, following the same pattern. Swish, trunk. Swish swish, bark. Leaves, branches, then the knots…

“Hey.”

A simple syllable broke Sai’s concentration, and he turned around to find himself in the presence of another man who appeared to be around his age. This young man had shaggy (but not particularly long) blond hair and clear cerulean eyes that showed, above all else, a love for life. His smile matched that same expression, though it also had the same sort of inner cunning to it that might be found on the face of a fox. The black-haired man turned towards him and nodded, hoping this would suffice for a response.

“What’re you doing?” Another question.

“Waiting,” Sai replied, once again with the hopes that an underachieving answer would make do.

“What for?” It didn’t.

“I’m waiting for my key,” he said, then, seeing the look of puzzlement on the other man’s face, he elaborated, “The guy told me yesterday that they didn’t have my key ready. He told me to come by today to pick it up.”

“But it’s not here?”

“He isn’t.”

“Well then,” the blond said, lifting himself from the other plain red armchair he had been leaning on, “Did you check the desk?”

“What do you mean? I told you, no one was there.” Quickly, he could feel himself growing irritated by this man. He assessed him to be an idiot, and an overly cheerful one at that. Exactly the type of neighbor he didn’t want; the blond before him was not of any visible use.

“I know that. But there’s an envelope on the far side of the desk that looks like it’s got something in it.” This caught Sai’s attention, and in an instant, he had risen from his chair and was crossing the ugly carpet towards the desk which he had so thoughtlessly neglected to look at for more than its annoying appearance.

The other man reached it first, and he could see him pull the envelope from the edge most near to the door. “I’m guessing you’re ‘Sai’?”

“Yes, that’s me,” he said shortly as he stuck out his hand for his rightful parcel. It was met not by paper but by warm skin and a handshake.

“I’m Uzumaki Naruto.” A grin accompanied this introduction but all it got in return was an annoyed stare. Sai whisked the envelope out of Naruto’s hand without a word in regard to the overture given to him.

“Thanks,” he mumbled, referring to the tip he had been given about the envelope's location. Naruto frowned and said something under his breath about someone in particular not having a sense of humor, though no names were given. The black-haired man seemed to ignore this, or perhaps he did not hear it, and instead focused his attention on the paper parcel. He ripped the top open quickly and when it was flipped over, the envelope produced a jagged brass key. A note additionally fell from it slightly, and upon reading it Sai learned that the man he’d spoken to earlier had been running late for something that he did not care about and…the rest, he found, was boring and cheerful drivel that wished him luck and that sort of thing.

“Is Sai your first name?” Naruto asked when the man in question had crumpled up the letter and shoved it in his pocket (the only useful thing he got from it was a phone number which he intended to keep should something such as this happen again).

“It’s not my real name,” he replied. “It’s just an identity I assumed for artistic reasons. It’s also the name I ask people to call me by.” Naruto nodded as a sign of comprehension, though by the way his eyebrows cocked ever so slightly, it could be taken that he did not see the point in what the other man had done.

“So, you’re an artist, then?” The blond asked, making an attempt at conversation.

“Yes.”

“What do you use? Paint, clay…”

“I draw and paint,” Sai replied. Not being adept at the art of conversation, he was inching his way towards the door, knowing that if he got far enough he’d be able to use the ever valuable excuse of having ‘things to do’, though this time there was more truth to it.

“Can I see?” At first, he was inclined to make a snippy reply, but then he saw that Naruto was pointing at the book he held in his other hand. He shrugged, not seeing any harm in it other than what may, as a result, happen to his schedule for the evening, though that was pretty much empty as is.

“Here,” he passed it towards his apparent neighbor, eyes holding the warning that should any harm come to it, Naruto’s ass was grass. One “thanks”, several flips and an enthusiastic eyebrow raise earlier, an exclamation came.

“Whoa!” Some jabbing at the page followed, though the warning from before still stood. “These are pretty nice. You a professional?”

“I’d like to be,” Sai replied. Inwardly, he cursed himself; this conversation, combined with the personality of this man, meant there would no doubt be more conversations in the future, and more needless interactions with this man.

“Is that why you moved here?” He handed back the sketchbook.

“Sort of,” the black-haired man shrugged. “My real reason is more than that.”

“What’s your real reason, then?” Naruto asked in a slightly impatient tone.

“That’s my own business,” Sai said flatly. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to unload some stuff into my apartment.”

Naruto obviously did not like this answer, for he voiced it in a “You don’t need to be so stuck up” comment and an appropriate facial expression to match. Sai obviously was apathetic to this, for he just shrugged and went on his way out the door. He made it to the sidewalk before another question was asked, “Which apartment are you moving into?”

“Seven. Why are you following me?”

“I promised a friend of mine I’d be nice to our neighbors,” Naruto cast a glance off to the side, bearing an almost sad expression before adding, “And I make it a policy of mine to keep promises.”

“You don’t need to follow me home, though. That’s going beyond ‘nice’ in my book,” Sai retorted.

“I’m not following you anymore,” the blond said, though it was obvious he’d wanted to add a rude name to the end of that – ‘ass’ had been forming on his tongue. “I live in your building.” From this came a brief grimace on Sai’s end, though it was quickly replaced by a politer frown.

An explanation dragged from the artist brought out the fact that he’d parked in front of his building and also that he had all of his belongings with him in said car; the motel room he’d paid for was empty and the motel owner’s pocket was a bit richer because of it.

“It looks like you’ll need some help with those,” Naruto pointed out. “So I’ll make you a deal.”

“A deal?” Sai asked. “What sort of deal could you possibly make about this?”

“Simple. I help you bring these in,” he lifted a box to emphasize. “And you tell me your ‘real reason’ for moving here.”

“That’s a stupid idea,” he pointed out as he took a box from his car. “You can’t be so curious that you would actually gain anything from my telling you, and you’d be wasting your own time by moving my stuff in.”

“Stop being so…” Naruto trailed off, sighed, and tried to make a point, “I don’t like people keeping secrets from me. It annoys the hell out of me.” His eyes, for a moment, lost their usual glow, and instead gained a quality of bitterness and unresolved emotion. Sai sensed, from this one look, that it would be better to give in now than to go on being stubborn.

“Fine, fine.” He stood for a moment, showered by a slightly smug grin from Naruto, and apparently thought better of carrying something, for he replaced the box in his trunk and instead started to head inside the building before them. His blond companion followed him, large box still in hand.

The hallway of the apartment building was well-sized, and it looked as though each story only had one apartment on each side, with there being two stories and four apartments in total in each one.

“What’s with the numbering?” Sai asked. Their floor contained numbers six and seven, with eight and nine presumably on the floor above them.

“Number one is a townhouse,” Naruto said, shifting the package in his hand a bit. Sai nodded and unlocked the door. Inside, a kitchen sat directly in front of them, with a large living room expanding out from its right, and the other rooms in turn from the living room’s right. Sai allowed himself a small, satisfied smile, the word “perfect” silently gracing his lips for a moment. A grunt and Naruto had set the box down in the middle of the room.

They spent the next twenty or so minutes bringing his various packed belongings, and soon they were nearing the end of the piles stacked in his car. A final trip was being made to get the last few odds and ends, when Naruto stopped his new neighbor.

“Before we finish,” he began, looking him in the eye. “I want you to hold up your end of the bargain, ‘kay?” Sai moved from his start at picking up some of the things he had in his trunk and stood up, looking off into the distance.

“It’s not going to have been worth your help,” he said as a warning. He was given a look, though, that told him to continue regardless. “I’m here simply because things got too boring.”

“Boring?”

“The people, the models, the whole life I had…was dull,” Sai stated. “I came here looking for something more interesting. A better inspiration, if you will.”

“What kinda inspiration?” Naruto asked. “Like a person?”

“I don’t know,” he said, shrugging. “I suppose I’ll know it when I see it.” Naruto smiled, and Sai took this to mean the blond approved of his choice of outlook, though it personally dissatisfied him.

“Naruto!” A voice cut through the air – feminine but steady and clear. Soon following this voice came its owner. The woman was about the same age as the two men she was heading towards, with softly shaded pink hair and a gentle yet set face. Her eyes were a brilliant emerald color, reflecting in them the personality of someone who would stick to what they did and hold firmly to their beliefs. Naruto turned, a grin taking over his face. She voiced a question, “Who’s this?”

“Sakura-chan, this is…” He trailed off upon seeing his friend’s expression. Sai had turned to look at the person who had approached him, but as he had, her face had fallen. Her eyes were scanning his face and her mouth had dropped from a smile into a confused semi-frown. The thin eyebrows that perched under a slightly elongated forehead were furrowed, and it looked as though she was being faced with memories that were beyond him.

“I’m Sai,” he said, trying to break the tension. A strange flicker of a feeling ran through him, and all at once he had realized that he’d seen it. He’d seen his inspiration, even if he knew nothing about her or the effect she was having on him.

-V-V-V-

"Inspiration comes in many forms. Often it's most powerful when it catches you by surprise." - Unknown

A/N: More on Sakura's shock will come next chapter, rest assured. There is a good reason for it, but I felt and was told that this would be a better place to cut off from. Additionally, I feel the need to justify my portrayal of Naruto's personality. He's older in this, therefore he's more mature, and not as energetic. He also didn't have the same childhood as his regular self, so...yeah.

Reviews are lovely things to have, and any criticism would be appreciated.