Characters: Sai, Anko
Summary: He learned to lie from her.
Pairings: None
Author's Note: Okay, utterly bizarre and completely nonsensical. Can you forgive me?
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
"People lie." That's the first thing out of her slightly slurred mouth, with its thick, clumsy tongue and its sake-washed walls, and even though Sai's twelve and Anko's twenty-three they are on the exact same plane of thought.
It all started off with the simplest of questions: How do I please others? Sai knows that some day, Danzo-sama will require that he go out into the wide world and stay there. He'll need a spy, someone who can blend in with ease. The perfectly little extension of himself, that's what he'll need.
But Sai can't blend in. He's barely human, with his stark contrasting colors and his flat affect; no one could ever mistake him for entirely human or even remotely normal. So he asks the first person he sees how to blend in, how to please others so he won't stand out, and he finds Anko sitting at a bar, alone and nursing her sake.
Back to the point where words blunder over her tongue Sai wonders if he should be taking notes. It doesn't take him long to decide not to. This is the legendary Mitarashi Anko; she's likely throw him out by the seat of his pants if he tried that. Sai, blessed with the most excellent of memories, takes down words in his head and never allows his coal-eyes to leave Anko's face.
"People lie—" Anko holds a hand up in the air as if to signify something, though Sai doesn't know what "—to get what they want. If you're a good enough liar the daimyos themselves will bow at your feet. It's foolproof."
Sai nods seriously, letting her speak. He's not entirely sure how this ties in to pleasing others and in the light she looks a washed-out mockery of human life, but he doesn't think of leaving.
"People like it when you lie to them—so long as they don't know you're lying," Anko adds with a hint of darkness boiling over on her lips. "They like the flattered feel. You tell a girl as ugly as sin that she's beautiful; if she can't tell you're lying, you're in her good books for life. And smile when you lie; it helps people believe it. Understand?"
"Yes, Anko-san."
Smile when you lie… Flattered feel…
What an interesting lesson. Anko slides down onto her elbows on the bar, eyes staring straight ahead in a hollow cast, and as he leaves Sai doesn't see the way her mouth starts to twitch.
It doesn't matter.
