Naruto One-Shot (Yaoi)

An Artist's obsession

Naruto looked at the half-finished canvas in front of him and sighed. The light in the studio was all wrong, and he was definitely not feeling inspired. He carefully covered his paint pallet so the colors wouldn't dry, then wrapped his brushes in some plastic wrap to keep them fresh while he took a break.

He stretched his arms over his head, and tried to decide if he was hungry or not. Nothing really seemed appealing. He looked out one of the three large windows that made up the majority of the wall in his small studio apartment.

Originally, the place had been reserved just for his painting, but after he'd broken up with his girlfriend three weeks ago, he'd moved in here permanently. It didn't have much of a kitchen, just a sink, a refrigerator and a microwave. Though he wasn't much of a cook anyway, so he supposed it didn't matter. He had a futon in the corner of the main room that served as his bedroom and all his clothes were still in boxes, since the apartment didn't have any closets and the dresser had been Sakura's.

Sakura.

The break-up had definitely been mutual. He didn't hate her and she didn't hate him. But they had also never loved each other either, and after two years of dating, it had become painfully clear that they never would. He smiled slightly wistfully at the times they'd had together. He needed someone with a strong personality to deal with him, given that he was always all over the place with his life, emotions, and ambitions.

Sakura had been great in those regards, ever ready to give him a cuff to the back of his head when he was being ridiculous, but also sharing his excitement when he did something great. But at the end of it all, what they really were was just good friends. It had been painful to the both of them to admit it, but they had agreed that they wanted to find something more with someone else.

Naruto was an artist. He was inspired by beauty and passion and strong emotions. The fact that he was missing those elements in his love life had left him slowly feeling empty. Over the past year, his paintings had slowly turned darker and grayer as his inspiration had dried up… and finally they weren't even coming at all. It had been months since he'd completed anything. He shot a glare at the unfinished canvas, as though it were at fault for his lack of inspiration.

Hinata was the owner of the gallery that sold most of his art, and even she had begun to get more pointed about her enquiries on when his next series would be ready and whether the content would still draw the sales that his older works had.

Naruto wasn't quite world-famous, but he was well-known in the area and his reputation had been growing steadily. He'd moved to Tokyo from Konoha when he'd graduated high school, attending University there and majoring in the fine arts. The thriving art community had embraced him and his works, and he hadn't left after graduating. He was good enough that he could make a living off his art, something that not many artists could say. And he was appreciative of the luck that had enabled him to do so up until now. But there was no denying that he had been in a slump of late. He drew a breath, scrubbing his paint-stained fingers through his hair. There was no point in beating himself up over it. He couldn't force inspiration to return.

But he was restless. He looked out the window again, the gray of the sky reflecting his own emotional state. He needed to get out of the apartment. His friends all had 'real jobs', and since it was the middle of a workday, he'd have to entertain himself.

He grabbed his jacket and pulled it on, stuffing his phone, keys, and wallet into his pockets before heading out. He took the steps down from his sixth floor loft, in no particular hurry and with no particular destination in mind. He turned randomly down the streets, his long familiarity with the city he'd lived in for the past six years making getting lost an impossibility.