A/N: A SaiSaku, to break my boredom. MY BIRTHDAY GIFT TO MYSELF. YES, I AM FINALLY *insert age here*!!
Dedication: chueycookiesxiii (sp) for ranting on Sai's hotness with me like a bunch of school girls (which we probably are, who knows).
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, that would make me a middle aged Japanese man. Which I am not.
--
To this day, Sai still has deep emotional scarring from ANBU Root.
When he was 4-years old, he was recovered from a bloody mess, which was once his village on the outskirts of Fire Country. When ANBU Root members found him, they discovered his talent in the field of art. They gave him ink and a scroll everyday, and by the time he turned seven, he had several techniques to his name.
By the time he was eight he had his first kill.
It was during a special exam for 'Root Ranking'—testing to see if you can comprehend with Root's intense training and missions. There was a sort of 'preliminary round' (if you would like to use the Chuunin Exams as analogy, you may call it that), and Sai, having no name, was shun and called 'Kid' when he stepped up to his opponent, double his height, triple his weight and probably quadruple his age. His opponent was nothing—he simply brought out his katana and beheaded the man with absolute speed and agility.
Sai was never given an actually name, until he was sixteen, a fully pledged Root member, and assigned to Team Kakashi as Uchiha Sasuke's replacement. When Root members found him, he had been hit on the head, and couldn't remember even the little details such as his name or his birthday. He said he was four, but it was just a rough estimation. Height, weight and other physical factors pointed to the fact that four was probably his correct age.
Sai had no memories. Being thunked on the head at a very young age with unstable brain capacity meant that his memory disk (again, analogy—computers, this time) has been forever short-circuited. Life in the Root headquarters was systematic: wake-up, train, eat, train, eat, train, and sleep. Then it repeats again and again. It didn't matter to Danzou though. This was to his advantage.
A child with no memories, no name, no family and the uncanny ability to summon ink monsters from his scrolls gave him the opportunity to train to perfect soldier.
A child with no name or no memories—until that day happened.
--
An ANBU team was making its way through the gates of Konoha—or rather, an ANBU member was making his way through the gates of Konoha. Merely 4'6", the cloaked figure walked past the dozing Chuunin-on-duty and through the cemetery, where the nearest entrance to the ANBU Root headquarters were located.
It was already late at night. The sun was down, it was cloudy, no stars were present and many people have retired to sleep. He found it safe to remove his cloak, but retained his mask. Besides, Konoha was warm compared to the cold, dense fog of Mist.
That's when he saw her—a tiny, pink-haired figure kneeling in front of a headstone, a simple sunflower in her hand. She was dressed simply in the traditional mourning robes and sandals, her shoulder-length locks fell over her face.
He approaches her, and taps her shoulder. "You shouldn't be out so late at night." He told the girl as she wiped a stray tear with the back of her extra-long sleeve. "Why are you here alone so late? Shouldn't you be with your mother and father?"
Hesitantly, she answers. "I am with my mother and father." She pointed to the stone in front of her. Engraved in it was the declamation 'Haruno Ken and Haruka: In death shan't they part'.
The young ANBU spared a glance at the little pink-haired girl. She had ceased her crying, but her fingers continued the play with the stem of the sunflower.
"Mother and Father went for an emergency mission while I was at the Academy. They never came back." She explained, looking pitifully at the mysterious pale, blood covered shinobi in front of her.
He looked back at her, realizing she had the prettiest pools of emerald he's ever seen. They sparkled in the starless night, childish innocence held inside her. Still, that girl was an up-and-coming shinobi. She was bound to loose that simple innocence, the little she seemed to have left.
"ANBU-san,"
"Hai?"
"Why is it that whenever someone close to you dies, people go up to you and say that it is going to be okay, when in fact nothing will ever seem right anymore?"
The young ANBU gazed at the girl, wondering how to respond. "Just…live with it."
Tears started to well in the girl's eyes. She brought her tiny fists to her chest as her breathing became raspy. Her head was bowed, causing her pink hair to make a veil over her eyes. Soft sobs erupted from her as the ANBU placed a hand on her back.
"Stop." He demanded. "You are wasting body fluids."
"I'm not sad ANBU-san." She said in between giggles. "You're the first person to answer that."
He inwardly questioned her antics. 'Strange girl…' he thought.
"Why don't I take you home?" The ANBU suggested. When she nodded, he stood up and offered his gloved hand to her. She took it accordingly, and she led him to her small, three-story home.
"Arigatou…" She whispered, trailing. "Anou, ANBU-san, what's your name? You need a name for me to address you properly."
"I don't have one."
"Well, can I give you one?" She asked naively.
His black eyes widened under the porcelain mask. She was too innocent for her own good. Still, he decided to play her game. "Sure, Cherry."
The girl bowed her head once more, trying to hide the blush. "You'll be…Shinyuu." She stated. "For friend. 'Cuz you're my first." She added bashfully. "Arigatou, Shinyuu-kun." She said, before bowing behind her door and closing it as she disappeared.
The ANBU was so mesmerized by the strange little cherry-blossom. It was strange that he smiled at her antics. It was strange that he offered to escort her home.
It was strange that an hour later, he crept into her room through a large tree, jumped in, lay a specially designed chocker in her hand and kissed the top of her head whilst she was asleep.
--
"Why do you care so much for the Uchiha traitor anyways?" Sai asked his newly dubbed pink-haired teammate as they walked away from another failed mission to bring him back. Naruto was unconscious in Kakashi's arms right in front of them, so he couldn't butt in and give his own answer. "He's a heartless bastard."
He wanted to hear her reasons.
Sure, when they first became teammates, he already knew who she was—the pink hair and the silver and black chocker with silver print he drew himself was a dead giveaways. The orphan from all those years ago grew up to be a very beautiful woman, a strong and talented kunoichi and a gifted medic. He couldn't help but awe, though he kept his shock to himself. To this day, she still doesn't know.
As if he's going to let her figure out he was Shinyuu from her childhood mourning period.
"Why?" She echoed his question as they followed Team Kakashi's other members and Team Kurenai (minus Kurenai…). "Because my whole childhood, I thought Uchiha Sasuke could have a heart. Even a stone-cold ANBU had one, but in the end, he proved me wrong." The cherry blossom stroked the material tied around her neck.
Sai's eyes widened. He was the reason she fell for the Uchiha.
"I hate being wrong." To add emphasis, she punched a hole into the bark of the tree she stopped on. He was a few meters behind her, watching the whole thing. From the crack in between her arm and her tilted head, he could see droplets escape her emerald green eyes.
He jumped on the branch ahead of the one she stood on. "You're wasting you're body fluids." He deadpanned, and raced ahead of her.
She jumped up to catch up with him. "Baka."
"Hag." He retorts.
--
Uchiha Sasuke, after almost ten years of defying the village by joining forces with Orochimaru, has finally returned. He came back willingly, and basically just walked through the East Gates like a normal citizen. When he did, he was met with Naruto, a jounin and the Hokage candidate; Kakashi, a jounin as well, and Sakura, who has recently been promoted to ANBU captain. In tow were the rest of the Rookie Nine, Team Gai, and his replacement, Sai.
The first thing the Uchiha survivor does when he entered the village was set sights on his pink-haired teammate, AKA his number one Uchiha bride candidate. Before she could connect her (heavily armed—she just came back from a mission) fist to his jaw, he swept her into his arms and (forcefully) planted a kiss on her lips.
The other girls of Konoha's (newly reformed) Twelve awed, clutching on the their respective boyfriends. Naruto managed to pull himself away from his Hyuuga fiancée's grasp and pat Sasuke on the back, mumbling a 'welcome back Teme' as he did so. Sakura pulled back from Sasuke, utterly shocked.
Amidst all this, no one noticed a black clad artist escape the group.
No one, except Sakura.
"No Uchiha!" She screamed before bolting from his grasp. She ran past her childhood friends after her honorary teammate. Frantically searching for hours ended her in front of the shinobi KIA memorial stone. Face up and sprawled eagle position; she watched the clouds roll by. In her head, she finally realized why the genius Nara loved this activity.
Reality pulled her back to her current situation.
Ironically, the clouds closed together in a gray fog and it started to rain.
Spellbound, Sakura didn't make a move to get up. 'Let me die here.' She thought to herself. She felt her eyes drift close as black came into her view.
Bleak oblivion did NOT have a pale face, as far as she knew.
"You're going to get sick like that, Hag." A voice spoke to her as he carried a black umbrella.
She mumbled incoherently as she felt her body being lifted off the ground.
"Shin…yuu…"
A day later, she found herself in her apartment, tangled in the crimson of her comforter.
--
That day, she couldn't make it out of her apartment. Her savior, who she still could not remember (she was delirious at that time), had mentioned something about getting sick. 'How ironic,' she thought. 'A medic getting sick.'
She laughed to herself as a doorbell echoed through her small, one bedroom apartment. She trudged through the mess of papers in her dining/living room/kitchen area. She hasn't found any time to clean it up, for she's splitting her time between hospital duties, ANBU missions and assisting Tsunade. Although Naruto as her Hokage apprentice has taken the latter, she still had a lot on her mind.
"What?!" She cried in annoyance as she threw the door open, only to find her guy best friend with bowls of Ichiraku's Ramen Take-out in one hand and a box of tissues in the other.
"Tsunade-baa-chan told me you got sick." He stated with a shrug as he studied his surrogate sister. Her eyes were red and puffy. Her pink locks fell from a loose ponytail from the back of her head. She was dressed in nothing but the loose grey T-shirt with the Fire country symbol in red he gave her and a pair of black booty shorts. "Ramen always makes me feel better."
She stepped back to let him in her messy abode as brushed off a few piles of paper from the counter. He set the Styrofoam bowls on the kitchen counter and opened it, letting steam billow from the soup.
"Well, since you're here, I guess that nearly completes all my teammates checking up on me." Sakura noted as she simply stared at the blonde's treat, queasy at its sight. "Kakashi, Yamato and even Uchiha stopped by."
"That's how much we all love you Sakura-chan." He gave his fox-boy grin and good guy pose, making her giggle. "Hasn't Sai stopped by?"
"Oh, he's off to a solo…mission…" Realization dawned on her. That solo mission was a 3-month long S-rank reconnaissance in Sound: 50-50 chance of surviving.
She bolted out the door, only to stop to slip on her boots and a black jacket with the Haruno symbol on it. She ran through the apartment building's halls and through the marketplace, ending up by the Southern Gates.
"Sai!"
She caught the ANBU Artist as he was picking up his pack and heading for the gate. He turned to see his female teammate pale as he usually is, with bloodshot eyes and panting heavily. "Hag,"
She reclaims her usually regal-ness and inches towards Sai. "Gomen…" She suddenly dips her body in half in a respectful bow. "Don't go through with this mission. Please."
Sai scoffed at his friend's action. "Shouldn't you be with the Uchiha?"
She shook her head, giggling at that. Then she hugged him around the torso, smiling into his uniform. "He's not my Shinyuu."
The raven-haired artist pushed her back by the shoulders, looking somewhat bewildered. "N-Nani?"
Sakura pulled her zipper half open and slipped it off her left shoulder. She pulled the sleeve of her tee up to reveal a ribbon-turn-choker-turned-armband with silver detailing. She hasn't worn it on her neck since she passed the ANBU exam, and it was somehow always hidden under her long gloves or her off-day red Haruno shirt and black skirt.
"I'm not as dense as Naruto, y'know. I know this style anywhere. Plus, you still have the same haircut." She explained, then came in to hug him once more. "Don't go through with the mission. Please."
"Why not?"
"I don't want to lose my first friend."
--
A/N: I know SaiSaku isn't exactly my thing. But after watching Shipuuden Movie II, I finally realized SAI IS FUCKIN' AWESOME. If you retort, my mood shan't be broken. Have you read Manga Chap 449? IT MADE ME SO HAPPY AND GIGGLY INSIDE. :"
again, dedicated to chueycookiesxiii, for ranting with me on HOW EFFIN AWESOME Sai is. :))