Sai had a beautiful smile.
Naruto had only ever had the chance to see it once when Sai finished his picture book while in Orochimaru's hide out and it was the most beautiful thing Naruto had ever seen. He'd do absolutely anything to be able to keep seeing that smile on Sai's beautiful features.
When that mission was over, Naruto promised himself that he would make sure that Sai had a true smile that he could be proud of.
The first time that Naruto tried to help him out seemed to be a disaster.
After the mission that ended with that fight with Sasuke, Naruto had started seeing Sai. It wasn't much beyond sex, but Naruto knew it could be something more. That morning, Naruto found Sai doing something that he used to catch Sasuke doing all the time back when they'd been together, he was just sitting against a tree reading. Sai had practically his head in the book, his forehead wrinkled and dark eyes focusing on the pages.
Naruto was instantly filled with curiosity about what exactly Sai was so focused on. He had no idea what was in that book, but he knew that Sai had been spending a lot of time reading lately, and Naruto didn't have the slightest idea why. Naruto slowly walks over to Sai and sits down, peering over his shoulder to see what it was that was in that book that Sai was so focused on.
"What you reading?"
Sai turns to look at Naruto, and it is the most beautiful thing the jinchuriki had ever seen. Except there was one thing, Sai was sitting there with that damn fake smile on his face.
Naruto desperately wanted to be able to make that smile real.
"It's a book on happiness," Sai said simply, Naruto had no idea how someone with no emotions could even understand happiness, much less try to learn about it from a book. "I'm trying to learn how obtain a true smile."
Naruto raised an eyebrow, he didn't fully understand what exactly Sai meant or what he was talking about. "You've done it before," he said blankly, pointing at the picture book that was laying on top of his bag, "There has to be something that makes you happy."
"According to this book, loved ones are supposed to make you happy - I suppose that's because of the bond they share."
Naruto knew that the blank look he got meant that Sai had never truly felt happiness.
"Naruto, will you please pay attention?" Sakura was standing looking down at Naruto who was sitting with Sai on his lap and nipping at Sai's neck every few minutes, she'd been talking for awhile but she was positive that Naruto hadn't been listening to anything she said.
Naruto shrugged his shoulder as he wrapped his arms around Sai's middle, rolling his eyes at Sakura.
"About all I got from that was that you're just reminding us that Sasuke kicked our asses."
Initially, Naruto had been focusing on Sai to forget about Sasuke. Sasuke had dumped him, left and then more recently had fought and injured all of them. He couldn't help but feel that lately as he learned more about Sai things were in fact changing and that was exactly why he didn't want to be reminded by Sakura that they had failed to bring Sasuke back.
"Come on Sakura, would you quit worrying about Sasuke already?" Naruto said with a groan, "Seriously at this rate your going to start getting wrinkles and then you'll never get laid."
Naruto should've known right away that saying something like that to Sakura was a bad idea, especially when all she was doing was trying to get him to train. "Naruto!" Sakura yelled as she picked Naruto up by the collar, "Cha!" She yelled loudly as she threw him and Naruto landed in the water. Naruto's head popped up from the water and both Sakura and Sai could see that Naruto had a frog that had decided to make his head its new home.
They were silent for awhile until suddenly Naruto heard the sound of a laugh.
It was Sai.
Naruto had never heard Sai laugh before, and what was more was that along with the laugh a smile was on Sai's face - a smile that Naruto had only seen once before.
A true smile.
Sai stood up, a smile still on his face as he walked over to Naruto and helped him up and out of the water, the frog still refusing to leave it's new home.
"Sai…you're smiling." Naruto said with a grin, "It's a real smile."
Sai looked surprised for a moment and then looked down to see his reflection in the water. "It seems I am," he took Naruto's hand in his own, "Maybe it's because of the bonds we share."
Naruto wrapped an arm around Sai's waist and leaned forward and pressed his lips against Sai's. "You're beautiful," he said as he pulled away, "And your smile is beautiful. I'll do whatever I can to make sure it stays there."
"Just never break our bonds." Sai said, pressing his forehead against Naruto's.
"Never. That's a promise, and I never break my promises." Naruto said with a grin as suddenly the frog decided to jump onto Sai's head. There was silence for a few moments until suddenly all three of them began to laugh.