Naruto and Sakura were off on a mission with both Yamato and Kakashi, so Sai was forced to stay alone with only his sketchbook as company. The pale shinobi walked over to the training grounds to find a quiet location to draw in peace.
On the walk there, Sai accidentally ran into someone, dropping all of his art stuff. He focused on the person, relatively shocked. It was a young girl who wore a black dress with purple trim. Her eyes were completely black and her skin as pale as snow. Her curly black hair hung just below her waist.
Regardless off her deadly appearance, her facial expression was calm and welcoming. Her voice was also very soft and sweet.
"Oh my, I am so sorry! I should really watch where I am going." She held her hands up apologetically.
Sai smiled his iconic half sincere smile, "No, it is alright. It was my fault."
The girl grinned, turning around to face Kotetsu and Izumo. Sai didn't even realize that they were there, "Mind if I stay with him if I'm going to stay in the village for the next few days?"
Izumo looked a bit hesitant, but Kotetsu quickly agreed, "Of course. Lady Hokage will want to see you later today. If we need you, we'll find you."
With a nod, both Izumo and Kotetsu went on their merry way. The girl turned to face Sai, and slightly shouted, startling him.
"Now, let's get your stuff cleaned up. Again, I am so sorry. What is your name?"
Sai smiled, a little more sincere this time, "No, it is fine. And you can call me Sai."
"Well then, pleasure to meet you Sai. My name is Liana. I'm new here in the Leaf Village."
"Oh? From what village are you from?"
"The Village hidden in Hot Water." Liana lifted her hand, showing Sai her bracelet. The bracelet had the metal plate with her village's symbol on it- Three vertical wavy lines.
Sai stared at it for a little while, trying to figure out where he had seen such symbol before. He dismissed the thought for the time being, "I see. So what brings you to the Leaf village?"
"I'm exploring the world. My brother was killed not too long ago so staying at home was becoming too painful."
"I'm sorry to hear that."
Liana smiled, "Don't worry about me. The travelling has done me well. Now, were you going to go and draw somewhere?"
"Well, yes. To the training grounds."
"Awesome. Lead the way."
Sai led Liana through the village, pointing out things of interest: The Ichiraku Ramen shop, the Barbeque shop, his apartment, and the like. Eventually, they made it to the training grounds.
"Wow, your village is so fascinating, Sai. Back in my village, we are based on a religious order. Most of our laws are a collection of commandments that involve war and death. It's rather sad to be honest… nobody ever smiles unless they're beating someone else."
Sai scratched the back of his head, "I was raised in an organization called The Foundation. I was taught to essentially stop feeling. I'm only now getting used to being… 'Normal'".
Liana smiled, "That must have been some pretty serious training, then. What caused you to change?"
"My new comrade and friend. His name is Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki,"
"Well, I'd love to meet him sometime." She jumped, pointing at a location near a small stream, "Look, Sai. That looks like a wonderful place to work."
Sai and Liana sat down by the stream. Sai pulled out his sketchbook and drawing tools, immediately getting an idea in mind. He looked towards Liana nervously.
"Um… Liana. Do you mind if I… draw a portrait of you by the stream?"
Liana was genuinely pleased with the offer, "Sai, I would really like that."
The mysterious girl posed in a carefree manner by the stream. Sai allowed his drawing tools to swiftly glide across the paper. Liana was quite surprised. He was quick in art. That is, if he really was drawing her.
About fifteen minutes passed and Sai was finished. He put all of his tools down and called Liana over.
"Hopefully it is to your liking. I have never drawn someone who was a model for me."
Liana took a hold of the sketchbook and was surprised by what she saw, "Oh my gosh."
"Is something the matter?"
The drawing was strange. It was abstract, but it caught her and the stream so uniquely. It was a surreal beauty. "Sai, I really like this. You have no idea."
"Would you like to keep it?"
The girl slightly gasped, rather shocked, "Keep it? Are you sure? I mean, this should go up with all your other works."
"No, you should keep is. It is you after all."
With no more words, Liana wrapped her arms around Sai and gave him a very tight hug. Sai looked around rather nervously. He never really knew how to react to such emotions. That was still a work in progress.
After cleaning up, Sai and Liana headed back to the village. They talked about tons of things. Liana about her recent travels to the Rain and Sand villages. Sai about his missions with Team Kakashi and how his view on life has changed. They were intrigued by each other's stories.
"Sai, I could really go for some ramen. Haven't eaten some in years. Mind if we stop there for lunch? My treat."
"Um, sure. Thank you."
The two stopped by the Ichiraku Ramen shop. To Sai's surprise, they ran into a familiar face.
"Hey Sai! Sakura and I just came back from the mission. What's up?" It was the one and only, Naruto Uzumaki.
"Yeah, Sai. How are you? We missed you on our mission." Sakura was with Naruto. Looks like Yamato or Kakashi didn't join them.
"I'm fine. Just stopping by for some lunch." He scratched the back of his head nervously.
Liana glanced at Naruto and Sakura, wearing a shy smile.
Naruto finally caught sight of her, jumping up, scared by her, "Um, who are you!?"
Sakura punched Naruto, knocking out of the ramen shop, "NARUTO! Where are your manners!?" She quickly turned toward Liana with a forgiving smile, "I'm sorry about him. He can be an idiot sometimes. My name is Sakura."
Naruto walked back in, rubbing his head in pain. He was mumbling, angry at Sakura, "and my name's Naruto."
Liana looked around nervously, "I'm Liana. I'm visiting the village for a few days. Sai was just showing me around."
The four sat down and started conversing. Liana kept to herself most of the time, but Sakura would constantly drag her back into the conversation. Naruto and Liana paid for their respective meals and went about their way.
"See you later Sai. And it was nice meeting you Liana. I'm going to make sure this knucklehead gets home." Sakura waved her goodbyes and went her way with Naruto.
"It was nice meeting you too, Sakura and Naruto." Liana looked towards Sai, "So, I suppose it's getting late. Time to go home."
Sai agreed to take Liana home first, fully aware that she really wasn't 100% sure on where she was going to begin with. They walked slowly, reminiscing about other things. At points, they'd just stay silent while taking in the cool air of the night.
Sai would occasionally glance over to just gaze at Liana. The way the light of the moon made her pale skin glow. Or the way her eyes would magnificently portray an expression of wonder, even though it seemed like there was nothing there. That one detail sparked a questioned in Sai's brain.
"If you don't mind my asking, why are your eyes like that?"
Liana laughed, "Finally, someone who gathered the nerve to ask that." She stopped to look at Sai, "This is my kekkei genkai."
"Oh, I see. What is it's… name?"
She shrugged, "I really have no idea. I, myself, am trying to come up with my own name for it. Nobody has ever seen it before. It's unique. In fact, I don't even know the extent of my own power. I have no idea how to learn something nobody has ever dealt with."
"What does it do?"
"Well, so far, the only thing I know it does is something I call the 50:50 Chakra Pull. Basically, I can suck out a very small portion of your chakra, and from it, learn whatever jutsu you know. No matter what the chakra nature."
"That is… amazing."
"It is interesting. Very strong too. The only drawback I have noticed from it is that I can only carry the chakra of 5 different people. If I absorb chakra from a 6th person, then one of the prior five is lost from my body at random."
"I've never heard of such thing. That must be a real advantage during battle."
"Yeah, that's the worst part. I have all this power and I don't like to fight. The methods on which I was raised aren't ones I want to keep, but am unfortunately clinging to for the time being." Liana frowned lightly. It was barely noticeable, but by the tone in her voice, very obvious.
Sai was about to say something in order to cheer her up a bit, but was at a loss for words. Looking up, he realized that they were at her place, "Oh look. We're here."
Liana shrugged off all of her negative thoughts, "Look at that. Want to come up to hang up the drawing with me? It's still in your sketchbook."
"Alright."
Liana led Sai up to her temporary apartment. The two, however, gathered a strange atmosphere between each other. Neither could really understand what sort of atmosphere this was. Tense? Angry? Scared? It was odd.
After getting situated, Liana let Sai hang up the drawing on the wall while she made some tea. When Sai finished, he walked over to the table, sitting down silently.
He was hesitant to speak, "A-are you okay?"
Liana gazed over to him, a rather sad expression dressing her face, "I'm alright. Just, my brother came into mind and thinking of him is always so bitter. People say he's dead, but I know he isn't because of the way of our people, so it's painful to know that he is somewhere, suffering. I mean, sure, he wasn't the nicest of people, but he's my brother. My family. I still care about him."
"What was his name?"
Liana hesitated. She knew that her brother had a very bad reputation in the five great nations. "I… um… His name is Hidan."
Sai looked at her as if he recognized the name, but at the moment, it wasn't ringing a bell, "I see. Well, if he is alive, like you believe he is, why aren't you looking for him?"
"I did for a while, but it was painful to think that maybe he wasn't as invincible as I thought he was. Though I still have hope that he is okay."
"Oh, okay. Well… what about revenge?"
She frowned, looking down at her cup of tea, "I don't know yet. I mean, like I said, he wasn't the nicest person, so he may have deserved it. But I don't know who did it, so it's better for things to stay that way."
Sai and Liana drank their tea and changed the conversation several times to get off of the topic of Liana's brother. Though the mood didn't lighten up completely, they did manage to have a few laughs. Especially when Sai recounted stories about his crazy instances with Naruto.
A small silence soon filled the room, so Liana decided to break it with a question in the back of her mind, "So Sai, from what I've gathered, you have an issue with your emotions, correct. Or rather, you were probably taught to not have emotions."
"Uh, yes. That is correct."
"So, apart from all of that… have you ever…" She paused for a second, trying to put together her words, "Have you ever been with anybody? Like… romantically?"
Sai was taken by surprise with her question. He didn't know how to reply.
"I'm sorry for asking. I didn't mean to-"
"No. No. It's okay. I just never really thought about that."
"If you don't want to answer, it's okay. I was just curious, you know?"
"Well, no. I have never been with anyone else like that. I guess I wouldn't know where to start a… relationship."
"Good point. Again, forgive my asking. I didn't mean to intrude."
"It's fine." He glanced over to the clock on the wall, "Oh, it's getting late and I have training in the morning. I think I should get going."
Liana nodded, "Yeah. I should be heading to bed as well."
Sai gathered his stuff and went for the door. Liana followed him politely. Once Sai had his shoes on, he turned around to say his last goodbye. At that moment though, he dropped the case with his art stuff and froze.
Liana was kissing him.
As kunoichi pulled away, Sai stared at her in confusion. He didn't know how to react, or what to say. In fact, it almost seemed that his body was responding on its own, causing him to blush. Liana looked down at the ground, forcing together some words.
"Oh my god, Sai. I am so sorry. I just… I don't know what came over me. I…"
Sai put his hand on her shoulder, smiling his strange smile, "It's okay Liana. I may not understand much about human emotion but…" He waited until the girl looked at him, "the fact that you aren't hesitant gives me hope and I very much hope that we can look into this."
Liana grinned, pulling Sai into a hug, "Sai, thank you. I hope we can get to know each other better. You don't know… you don't know how much it means to me to hear those words. I have never met anyone who was willing or who could even bear getting to know the real me."
The pale ninja pulled away gently, "Well, maybe in the midst of getting to know you, I'll begin to understand a bit more about myself."
Both of them hugged quickly one last time and said their goodbyes. Liana bit her lip and felt a sort of relief in her heart from the strange and sudden change of pace she felt that life was taking. She ran to her room, barely able to fall asleep.
Sai, on the other hand, decided to take a walk around town. In the middle of his odd trance, he found himself listening in on a private conversation. He recognized only Shikamaru's voice. It was serious and intense.
"We have evidence that the Akatsuki Member who killed Asuma-sensei is still alive and on the way here. We need a plan and quickly."
Sai's eyes widened as he recalled the events of the time before and after the death of Asuma. He thought to himself…
'Oh my god. Liana's brother…'