𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚋𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚔𝚎𝚎 • 𝚜𝚊𝚜𝚞𝚔𝚎 𝚞𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚑𝚊 𝚡 𝙾𝙲

19 - Painting

November, 1992 - Japan

There was no denying the chill in the air anymore, but that didn't stop Haruka from working on her mural day in and day out. She had about five months left to work on it, and it was coming along nicely.

Since the start of the second term, she had started offering the invitation to help paint to the art club. Three or four times a month during their lunch break, whoever could come or whoever was interested would accompany Haruka to paint. Most times, there would be around five people, and Haruka loved it every time.

On a Friday afternoon, Haruka was up on her ladder painting away. When she looked down, she spotted Sakura, Sasuke, Naruto, Kiba, Hinata, Ino, and Shikamaru across the street. They were walking aimlessly, and Haruka remembered that they had made plans to go the arcade. They had invited her as well, but Haruka had already decided she needed to work on the mural.

"Hey, guys!" She yelled and waved to them from the top of her ladder, about four times her height. When a couple of them noticed her, she asked, "Aren't you going to the arcade?"

"It's closed!" Naruto yelled in reply as he lead everyone over to her. "Wow, Haruka, it's coming together!"

"Thanks!" She beamed down at him. Quickly she climbed down the ladder and took off her backpack. "Since you can't go to the arcade, why don't you stay and paint?"

Nobody was fooled by her act. Even though she had disguised it by asking them, they all pretty much knew they wouldn't be given a choice.

"What, on the mural?" Ino asked as she watched Haruka pull out tons of brushes and paints from her bag.

"Where else?" Haruka asked brightly as she gave brushes to Ino and Sakura.

"Hold on, I'm going to ruin it. I can't paint at all." Sakura said, but Haruka was too busy handing out brushes to everyone else.

"Me neither." Kiba admitted. "You're the only one that can, Haruka."

Haruka stopped her frenzy of getting all of the supplies ready to look at them all in confusion. "Don't you all have hands? It's not that hard."

"It's gonna come out horrible." Shikamaru said bluntly. "Are you just trying to make us do the work?"

"No!" She fixed him with a cold glare. "I don't want this mural to just be about me. Everyone has to look at it, so I want everyone to be able to make it their own."

"All of Konoha's gonna have to look at this. I don't see how letting a couple of your friends paint is gonna change things much."

"Shikamaru, what the hell is up your ass?" Haruka asked, irritated.

"Want me to hit him?" Ino asked casually.

"Next time," She waved her off. "Now everybody get started already!"

Haruka watched contentedly as her friends got to work. She held the ladder for anyone that wanted to use it, and gave everyone advice as to what direction they should take their paintings in. And of course, she took some pictures as everyone painted.

It all started with Naruto, like always. He painted over something that Sasuke had painted, totally ruining it, which ultimately resulted in them flicking and throwing paint at each other. Sakura, who had been painting some flowers nearby, was caught in the line of fire along with her painting. Everyone watched as the three got into an all out war.

"You ruined my flowers!" Sakura hissed as she swatted at Naruto with her paintbrush, splattering pink paint all over him. Naruto was too busy laughing to defend himself from her or Sasuke, who was calmly dousing him in blue paint as well.