The name "Sai" is used to refer to the boy for the sole purpose of not overcomplicating this story. It takes place long before he is assigned to the mission with team Kakashi in which he is given that name.
Sitting alone in the orphanage of Konoha was never a fun time for the young child. Sure, he had his enjoyable moments and all, but most of them time he grew tired of potential adopters being driven away by his glum attitude. He hated feeling rejected because he didn't sell his personality well enough, as if that was something a boy his age should even have to do.
Day after day passed by in this glum fashion, and day after day the boy had grown to hate himself for being so useless in the world of the facility. He had been living there for as long as he could remember, his parents having both been killed fighting in one of the countless wars that were always going on in the cursed shinobi world. He wondered if this era would ever pass, this era of senseless violence, one nation against another, or if it would continue to grow and be even more grotesque as technology kept adapting.
These were the thoughts that plagued the nameless child's mind as he sat alone for hours, refusing to play with the other children under any circumstances, every day.
That was the case for most years of his early life until someone as gloomy as he was entered the facility.
Danzo Shimura requested a visit with the boy he would soon adopt, having heard that he was gloomy and liked to be left alone. He knew that would be the easiest type to control, and that was exactly what the older male needed. A servant, a comforter, and somewhat of a personal slave.
After having been warned yet again of his personality by the facility's volunteers and even been told how to act and speak to the child, Danzo was finally left alone in the room to interact with the boy.
He creeped along, cane in his non-bounded arm, and finally relaxed into the comfortable chair that the younger boy had often fallen asleep cuddled into. The boy didn't want to look up at him because his heart had been crushed so many times by nice potential parents who didn't even want him after all, but he figured that if he just kept trying and didn't give up, perhaps someone would be kind enough to take pity on his cute face. Perhaps this grandpa figure would be easy to convince.
Danzo smiled gently at him, giving him the signature fake smile that the boy would soon learn to adopt, and combed some fingers through his rain-dampened brown hair.
"Hello there, sweetheart. I'm Shimura Danzo. And you are?" He asked, holding his hand out for the child.
"I'm… uh…" He hated this question that he never knew how to answer. "Well, you see, I don't really have a name."
"Everyone has a name, darling," the kind gentleman replied with a small chuckle of amusement, lowering the hand that wasn't being accepted due to intimidation and fear.
"I.. I was born on the battlefield and my mother was shot two minutes later, then my father took his own life to be shed of the responsibility of caring for me. That's what they told me. So.. i actually was never named. They hadn't even thought of it…" he admitted.
"Aww.. that's too bad, little nobody." He smiled only slightly darkly. A nameless, submissive boy. This was too perfect.
After the sweet talking and congratulations turned to paperwork and boredom, the boy was finally adopted by the older man and taken back to his home.
"I'm going to make us some special tea to celebrate," he told the child, smiling gently at him, ruffling his hair and tilting his head up. "Would you like that, sweetie?"
Sai nodded solemnly in return, giving the fake smile he'd forced himself to use.
"You don't have to smile for my sake. I know you read in those books that smiling leads you into people's hearts, but you ought to know that around me, you don't have to be fake. Just be yourself, child." He patted Sai's back as he walked with him over to the kotatsu around which they'd enjoy their tea.
As Sai brought the hot cup to his lips and nearly coughed from the temperature, having been used to the tepid water they'd given him to drink at the orphanage, it elicited a feeling of wealth and pride inside him. Here he was, sitting with what seemed to him like the richest man in Konoha, and he was drinking tea and having a man-to-man conversation.
Danzo took another sip of his tea. "Let's talk business a bit, my child." He gave Sai a split-second smile. "For the purpose I brought you here is not to act as my son, but to be used however I please like a ninja tool. I will be sending you on missions and changing your name for each one. You are to show no emotion, unless I give you a personality trait profile to follow. You will not do this, however, until you receive training. I will train you, clothe you, bathe you, and house you. But don't think you will receive any of this for free."
The boy looked up at the elder curiously.
He continued, "You will later on work for me carrying out the missions I choose to employ you on and that will be how you earn your keep. However, as of now, you will pay me with your body."
The child looked confused. "I… I don't know what you mean…" he said to him, not using an honorific or anything of the sort. He hadn't been spoken to in anything other than standard language, so he wasn't sure how to properly address this person.
Danzo only smiled softly to himself and the boy saw it, growing even more confused. "You are going to find out soon, my dearest. And one more thing I will add: I am not your parent and you will not address or think of me as such. You will call me one name: Master Danzo. Is that clear?"
"Yes, Master."
"Good." He loved the way that sounded on those plump, small lips.
When they had both finished their tea and had grown plenty warm under the kotatsu, the elder took his servant's hand and lead him into a traditional-style room with a small futon that smelled of dampened wood and a hint of incense. A rational person would say it had a creepy vibe or hinted at it being dangerous. However, Danzo had worn out his sense of smell over the years from various opium sessions with rich elders, and little Sai was none the wiser.
Danzo lead the boy to the futon that was in the corner of this tatami room. "I don't have a bed for you yet. This was a spur-of-the-moment decision for me, so you'll be spending the first few nights in the same bed as me. Either that, or on the floor itself."
"I don't mind, Master Danzo." He was about to smile but remembered that his master had told him he didn't need to do so.
"Wonderful. I'm glad you're understanding and well-behaved. You and I will do well to begin coupling soon so that you can grow accustomed to… the way I do things around here."
Sai didn't know what the word "coupling" meant, but it sounded strangely cold or mechanic. It didn't sound like something two tightly-connected humans would do. Yet it had a cozy sounding vibe to it.
"Master Danzo?"
"What is it?" He asked, fearing the boy would try to decline his offer to 'couple.'
"What happened… to your arm?" He didn't know if it was considered out of line for a young boy to ask a wounded person about the circumstances upon which he acquired those wounds, but he soon figured it out as Danzo took his one good arm that was occupied with his walking stick and used it to leave a bloody welt on the boy's cheek, sending him flying across the room and landing on the opposite wall, before looking up in shock. He didn't even cry.
"N..never mind. I'm sorry. I spoke out of turn, didn't I?" He didn't behave like a normal child would. He didn't cry or ask why. He just obeyed. He was perfect and that was his nature.
"I suggest you don't ask me anything. That's nothing for you to know. At least not until you're older," the boy's master told him in a warning voice.
"I understand, Master Danzo. Please forgive me…. I.. I only want to make you happy, for you have saved me from a terrible fate."
"I'm glad you do desire to please me, but now, seeing you groveling on the floor like that, makes me only want to speed up our coupling and take you right here." Most would have thought it was sickening for a 60-something elder to speak this way, or even still feel such longing desires, but Danzo could not care less about other people or their feelings. He wanted what he wanted and he would take what he wanted. That was how he lived always.
Sai's curiosity was at its peak now, but he didn't dare speak up or try to ask what the word meant. He would wait. Perhaps that was his punishment. He didn't know what coupling was, but he assumed now that it was a special thing that would make Danzo happy. He didn't know it would be the only thing that would make himself cry.
Sai only answered, "As long as you are happy, Master, that's all I want to do. I'm truly sorry." He looked down sadly.
Danzo's hand lifted the boy's face up and examined it curiously as he slightly rubbed his cheeks, causing Sai's small face to pucker as it was like putty in the elder's hand. He soon let go of his face and released a small "hmph" of approval.
Sai continued looking up at him with big, innocent eyes. He didn't say a word.
"I like you better when you're quiet. It reminds me of what I could be stuffing your mouth with."
The innocent child now grinned. He was quite hungry, though not for the thing Danzo was mentioning. If only he knew.
"Oh, you like that?" The elder remarked, noting the younger's grin. "Tch. You're such a dirty little thing." He was getting disgustingly excited as he reached for a clump of Sai's brunette hair, letting it go slowly afterward with a low, quiet moan.
The child looked scared, and for good reason. "Wh..what are you doing.. that hurts..?"
Danzo frowned a bit. He would need to condition the boy to have no personality, no emotions. Even less than he did now. No fear would be allowed, no complaints tolerated in the slightest.
"Quiet, boy."
"Ah..s..sorry, Master Danzo."
"Come now, let's go bathe." He lifted Sai by the hand, taking him to the bathroom with him. As soon as they were in the room, he slid a hand inside Sai's kimono, making him shiver and pull away.
"Hmph. Don't you want to get cleaned, you fool?" He asked Sai impatiently.
"I.. I do. I'm sorry, master Danzo," he replied, looking down to hide his blush and slight shame.
This continued further on until all of Sai's clothing was on the floor in a pile.
"Very good. Go get in the warm water now and wait for me," Danzo ordered him as he began to undress himself.
The boy obeyed and walked into the bathtub, sitting down. Danzo approached him soon after, wearing a towel around his waist and peering down into the water, noting the distorted view it provided of his new toy's member. Danzo swiftly removed his towel and eased himself into the tub behind Sai, groaning slightly and using the sides of the wooden structure to help himself not fall down.
"Good boy… you didn't look frightened when you saw it," he addressed Sai, chuckling slightly to himself. "You flatter me because of that."
Sai giggled and looked down into the water at his pale, small legs. "That's because I'm not afraid of it…" he said, referring to his master's old-looking part.
"I can sense that. That makes you different than most other boys your age, at least from my experiences. I think we'll get along just fine," Danzo told him, smiling gently in satisfaction at the child's reaction, or rather his lack thereof.
Danzo did something he hadn't done to other boys he'd taken in for a trial run. He wrapped his arms around Sai's upper body and pulled him close to him. His heart beat against the boy's back due to the heat he felt from within.
"Are you nervous, little one?" The elder asked in a seemingly caring voice, expecting somewhat of a reply.
"Why would I be nervous?" Sai answered in response. "I have nothing to worry about. Beside you is the safest place for me, master."
Danzo felt his heart actually warm up at the feeling of this. What a sweet boy. A sweet and innocent, perfectly corruptible child.
"Indeed it is. Would you let me wash you then?" He inquired, lowering his hands to rest on the boy's small, flat tummy. He'd definitely want him to show it off, for it to be a symbol of Danzo's ownership of him, and for that reason he'd be sure to include its visibility in the outfit he was planning for the boy.
"Of course. You can do anything you want, sir. I trust you… and I love you." Sai turned his face around and gave him a genuine smile.
The elder blushed a little at this intense amount of affectionate words he received all at once. "Well, aren't you quite the little sweetie… very well, hold still." Danzo took his bath sponge and lathered it in soap, beginning to scrub it gently on Sai's small frame. "How does that feel, sweetheart?"
Sai giggled softly. "It's wonderful, master." He hadn't ever been given a bath, he'd always just been told to take one, not really having been sure what to do properly, so he never smelled as fresh as he would with Danzo washing him thoroughly. His master continued these ministrations for a short time afterwards until Sai's whole body, more or less, was cleaned.
"Feel better? I bet it's more relaxing to be here like this than to be in that stinky orphanage all the time, hmm?"
"It is. I love it here, sir." He would have no problem serving Danzo on missions or even offering up his body, whatever that meant, if it meant he'd always be cared for so sweetly by Danzo.
"Very well. Then, can I ask you to return the favor? It's getting harder and harder to reach all parts of my body at this age. Perhaps you'll understand what I mean someday…"
Sai looked at him curiously. "You want me to wash you?" The conscious inside of him was weary. After all, it was fine for a caregiver to wash a child, but for a child to wash a caregiver? It just seemed a bit odd to him.
Then again, the two of them were sitting in the same bath water and Danzo didn't seem irked by it, so Sai figured it was just fine to do whatever he said. No harm would actually come to him, he just wanted Danzo to feel happy. That would become the boy's main goal in life.
"I.. I mean I guess I could…" the child replied when he saw the elder's concerned expression. "I hope I do it right, though, that's all…" he said, expressing his concern.
"I know you will. You're just going to do the exact same things I did to you. Seem simple enough?" He asked with a small glint in his elderly eyes. Sai sure was an obedient boy. Easy to control, and obedient.
"O..ok… that seems easy…" the boy stuttered slightly as he was nervous about messing up or somehow hurting the older gentleman. "I… I promise I won't mess up. And if I do… y..you can do whatever you want to me," he said, meaning he was ok with being reprimanded or punished. He still did not have the social refinement to understand the nuances of those words.
Danzo smirked in awe of the boy and his submissive nature. "I'll do that anyway. Just wash me, boy."
Sai nodded and set to work scrubbing away at his older partner's body. This was not something the orphanage had had in mind when they'd allowed Danzo to adopt the child.
After their bath had concluded, Danzo wrapped Sai in a cozy towel and had him sit by the small flame that burned in the hearth as he washed the boy's clothes for him. He didn't plan to keep Sai in the orphanage's default boring yukata for very long. He wanted to show off his boy, and therefore would buy him a beautiful custom made outfit that showed off his body without looking too questionable, and still being able to be worn while fighting on missions.
Danzo returned while the yukata was soaking in the bathtub and smiled softly at Sai. "Beautiful boy… how are you feeling?"
Sai yawned softly and cuddled the towel that was wrapped around his small body. "N..ngh… I am fine…" he said to him.
"You sound sleepy. How about I let you borrow a robe of mine and then get you to bed?" He asked. "I'll finish up the wash and then join you."
Sai let out a soft sound of approval and then looked back into the mesmerizing flames.