A person's hair can tell a lot about a person.

Sai

Sai had always wanted long hair, around his brother's length.

But, when he joined Root, a requirement was short hair. He tried to argue this requirement since any other shinobi's hair could be as crazy as they wanted, even in the ANBU, but one look from Danzo and Sai immediately shut up.

Then, when he was ordered to join Team Seven, he asked Danzo whether he could grow his hair out under the guise of 'blending in' with the others. He knew that Danzo hadn't bought that lie for a moment but he still allowed it.

When he met Team Seven, he decided that his hair would be even longer than Sakura's because he thought her length was ugly. He took great pains not to say it to her face after watching the beating Naruto got for not noticing Sakura had worn a new dress.

When he saw a picture of Sasuke, he thought he wanted that kind of hair. It was really cool looking.

However, when he saw Sakura weeping over a picture of Sasuke with Naruto grimly hugging her, he decided he rather liked his hair short.

Sakura

Sakura could classify her life into the periods she loved or hated her hair.

She had hated her hair through the younger years because of its atrocious color. Pink, really? It did nothing but call attention to her and when attention was called to her, people began to notice other things, like her wide forehead or her tremulous eyes or her mousy frame. Then they'd laugh and pick on her.

Until a blonde girl showed up one day to tell her that her hair was beautiful.

Sakura believed it so until her fight with Kin in the Forest of Death. As Kin mocked her hair in front of everyone, she felt humiliation rush into her cheeks as every word she said rang true. Yes, she spent hundred of yen on hair products and many hours styling it and combing it and working it instead of training. Yes, she was much, much weaker than Sasuke or even Naruto. Yes, she knew their paths would be long and blazing while hers, would be in the shadows behind them.

At that time, she vowed that that would never happen. She would stand by them wherever they went.

After she had cut her hair short and focused on training, there were no more compliments about her hair because it because rougher and coarser. It didn't flow anymore.

She couldn't have cared less.

Until a blonde girl came to her again and told her how beautiful her hair was.

Itachi

Itachi grew his hair long after he realized that the infant Sasuke loved to play with his bangs.

And, when Sasuke grew out of it, he still kept it long. His father would sometimes roll his eyes at the 'girliness' of it but it didn't matter. Fugaku never knew that during the Nine Tail's attack on Konaha, the only thing he had to comfort the crying Sasuke with was his hair. He never knew how fretfully Sasuke tugged his hair as Fugaku and his policemen plotted behind Konaha's back. He didn't know how Sasuke had sleepily fiddled with his hair as he carried him on his back after an exhausting training session. A physical show of his love to his brother, one of countless.

He never let it get too long though. He tried to keep it just that right length.

Kisame snickered about his 'girliness' too. But it was something he couldn't explain to the blue man or to anyone except Sasuke and he knew Sasuke wouldn't listen.

But most of all, it showed to himself that he hadn't changed.

Kakashi

Truthfully, Kakashi hadn't realized how much his hair was like his father's.

He had sought to wipe all traces of that man from his life, cursing him for making his son rebuild what his father had destroyed in one day. And when he came home to find the corpse knelt over the tatami in their garden, honestly, it had come as a shock.

A disappointment, actually, since he thought his father stronger than that. He vowed never to be like his father.

He did pretty well in that regards, if he did say so himself.

His hair though, he couldn't do anything about. It just grew that way. He had seen pictures of his grandfather when he was young and the hair was the same. He could shave it all off but something about that didn't seem right to him. Besides, like hell he'd have a bald head and go around looking like Ibiki.

When he had died and seen his father again, he had first wondered at his father's hair,. How incredibly similar they were. Then he started paying attention to what his father said.

And finally, he realized that he was his father's son, through and through.

Naruto

Naruto hadn't really given a thought about his hair.

It just grew and when it became too long, he cut it. Simple and easy unlike Sasuke's duck-butt or Sakura's shampoos and conditioner and junk.

He never really wondered where he had gotten his hair or his eyes. He was told that he was an orphan and that was what he believed.

When he first saw a picture of Minato, he wondered why the man had hair so similar to him.

When he finally learned the truth, he saw hair wasn't the only thing he inherited.

Deidara

If one were to be honest, Deidara was very forgetful.

Tragically forgetful to the point that he'd forgotten Tobi and Sasori were his partners sometimes. So when Kisame or Hidan or Kakuzu tease him about that girly lock of hair in front of his eye and how stupid it looks, he knows that it's merely his reminder system. Little colored ribbons are tied onto it to remind his of certain obligations. Black if he had to meet up with someone in the Akatsuki, red if he had to meet up with someone not in the Akatsuki, blue if he had to take over someone's job, green if he had to cart some of his sculptures over to some art expo and so on.

He couldn't just write them on his hands since he had mouths that were very sensitive on his hands. He did know for a fact that Sasori constantly had ink over his hands. Maintaining his vast amount of puppets took a lot of memory and concentration.

One thing Deidara always remembered though, was to take them out before battle.

How intimidating could he be with ribbons woven all through his hair after all?

Sasuke

Sasuke's hair was like Itachi's but different from Itachi's.

The bangs he had kept but he refused to have a ponytail. The point was to show that he was like Itachi but different from him. At least, it was to show his father who never really cared. He was pretty sure Itachi understood.

Orochimaru had liked it. That had almost prompted him to cut it all off if it weren't for the fact he needed power.

Still, it was hard staying still as Orochimaru ran thin, bony fingers over it, his breath wafting into Sasuke's face.

When Itachi died and Madara told him the truth, he thought briefly about his brother's hair. It hadn't changed at all and he wondered why.

He thought about taking on Itachi's hair style, a final memorial to the dead. Then, he decided against it. What was Itachi's was Itachi's. What is his is his.

Still, it was hard to look Naruto in the eyes as the blonde asked 'Why?' His tanned fingers threaded through the blood-soaked hair matted around Sasuke's face.

His last thought was, because I like it that way, dobe.