Sai found it most ironic that she - a former art student - managed to land herself a spot in the single most artistic body in all the elemental nations.

She also found it a strange turn that she was put into such a position that required the lack of emotion, considering it was her job to put the latter onto a canvas. Not to mention that as a human being, it was only natural she feel inclined to well...feel.

Everyone in ROOT - as per the conditioning - were indifferent to human affection and the interactions she experienced were little to none outside of her sparring partners and Danzo. But regardless of her drab existence, Sai considered herself lucky to still have art in her life.

In the middle of dragging her pencil down the blank page of her sketch book that her grandfather allowed her to have, Sai was glad she could keep this small luxury. Even if she had to use her skills for more practical things before anything else.

Ever since Danzo had discovered her miasma of drawings she kept in her scrolls, he had been training Sai in perfecting her recollective skills.

He had taken one considering look at her art before he seemingly came to a decision. One she could tell would equally to keep her content and provide his soldier with a new skill set.

"It seems you've taken after your mother in more ways than one." He had said and despite her lessons, Sai could feel surprise jump onto her face at the mention and knew there'd be remedial training for that slip up. "We'll see if you are also able to be taught in the same way Kiryu was."

It hadn't been much information but it was enough to know that her mother had some skill with a paintbrush. Sai liked to think that maybe Danzo was letting her draw because of some attachment to her deceased daughter but eh, the man was an enigma.

So that had been that and here Sai was attempting to sketch a perfect profile of a random villager her grandfather assigned to her. She had only gotten the main features down and was trying to drag the woman's visage back into the center of her mind so she could finish the rest.

Granted Sai would think she'd focus better if she weren't meeting the Hokage for the first time. She was a very stressed child when she thought about it and she was handling it as well as she possibly could.

"Hiruzen," Her grandfather introduced primly, one hand sweeping back to gesture at her form. "this is my granddaughter, Shimura Sai."

Slipping her drawing utensils back into her satchel, Sai gave a formal bow and smile.

"Hokage-sama." She said in her perfectly neutral - and respectful - voice, taking note of the facial expression the old man was broadcasting. He seemed awfully surprised but she was sure her grandfather must have mentioned her.

"So," The peaceful - perhaps too peaceful - old man drawled from behind his folded hands. "this is Kiryu's daughter eh?"

Ah, so she reminded him of her mother. Sai flashed him a placid, warm toned smile and was rewarded with the slight furrow of his brow.

"Yes, I can see where she inherited that from." The Hokage muttered after taking in the smile that was apparently signature to the woman who birthed her, but Sai thought it was rather creditable to anyone in ROOT who wasn't good enough at faking it yet.

Leaning forward the Hokage smiled at her and Sai resisted the urge to shift away from how sincere it was but the faint underlying suspicion kept her in place. Ah, so despite being a child, she was a child of Danzo's and maybe that suspicion wasn't for her, but it was nice to know he was still wary. Or rather, it was nice to know where she stood on his scale of trustworthiness.

Or maybe she was reading this all wrong and the look in his eyes was something else entirely, but she was still a novice when it came to things of this variety so she couldn't take much of the blame.

So Sai smiled back, using the easy childish grin from when she wasn't who she was now and bowed once again.

"It was very nice to meet you Sai-san." Sarutobi said and she nodded in agreement. It was an interesting thing to meet the God of Shinobi.

"Likewise Hokage-sama."

And thus Sai was dismissed after some banal chatter between the two older men feeling as if that encounter had been lacking but happy to be out from under the oppressive atmosphere. Being immersed in her grandfather's aura on a daily basis was enough for her.

Danzo had stayed behind to have a meeting and Sai was more or less given the green light to get to know as much of the village as she could in person.

Well, given the green light to wander around with an "ANBU" guard at her tail.

She already knew all the landscape from the layouts her grandfather made her memorize but it wasn't the same as seeing them life size.

Ignoring her...guard Sai knew this was the beginning of her becoming more entangled with the public face of the village. Danzo wouldn't have introduced her to the Hokage if he didn't want her to interact with people, she could have followed behind the canon!Sai and not have came into the picture until Shippuden.

Not to mention her grandfather had already told her the parameters of letting her become inclusive within the Leaf. Soon she'd be at the Academy and from there she would keep her eyes on possible ROOT candidates, the Uchiha, and Jinchuuriki.

It was strange, Sai decided, to think of Naruto - the little blond boy from the anime she had watched - as simply the host to the demon fox but that's really all he was to her and nothing more. Now, she didn't think the word Jinchuuriki with disdain or hatred because it was just a simple fact. Like saying she was Danzo's granddaughter or that the Fire Country housed Konoha within its borders.

It was nothing personal but then again, nothing in ROOT done by the agents ever really was.

Taking out her sketchbook she resumed her profile of the woman and even was trying her hand at weaving through the crowds using only her senses to feel where everything was. No one - her grandfather - could blame her for not using her time wisely.

Carefully filling in the woman's hair and shoulder lines Sai thought she was doing a pretty good job navigating the sea of people and was feeling pretty content with her progress.

That was until she rammed drawing pad first into the person in front of her.

Staring downward at the now marred sketch of the woman - it was unusable with that heavy pencil line cutting through her features - she could feel the disdain manifesting clear as day on her face despite her conditioning and that made her even more irritated.

Glaring upwards with a miniscule frown on her round face she met the black eyes of someone she knew well from the files inside of ROOT.

Uchiha Itachi was just as intimidating as she thought he would be and it was making her uncomfortable.

Sai dropped her expression and forced a fluid smile onto her face to hide the uneasiness. She didn't want to tangle with anything having to do with him just yet.

"Ah, sorry for running into you I wasn't paying much attention to where I was walking." She said apologetically, waiting for him to reply so that she could make her escape but he seemed content to just stare at her...hair?

Resisting the urge to reach up to smooth down her wily hair - it had grown out again and whenever it grew out it curled - Sai cocked her head to the side.

"Uchiha-san?"

Knowing she had snapped him out whatever stupor he had been in but he didn't show it Itachi glanced down, opened his mouth and-

The small body ramming into his legs cut him off.

Internally cursing the circumstances Sai knew better than to walk away. She needed her relations with this clan to be pristine if she wanted to be able to keep an eye on it. ROOT didn't take kindly to failure and Sai found neither did she.

"I found you Itachi-nii!" A tiny male voice chirped and Sai blinked when she caught sight of the youngest Uchiha heir's adoring face. He was her physical age which was odd enough to realize when she could clearly see the differences in how they acted.

It made her feel awkward to see such blatant immaturity.

And honestly, meeting two Uchiha was enough for Sai, her mission to watch them hadn't even started yet so she didn't have a reason to associate with them at the moment. But nevertheless another one of them came out of the wood works in the form of one Uchiha Shisui.

Her first thought - surprisingly - was that she wasn't the only one whose hair suffered the curse of the curl.

Her second - unsurprisingly - was that she was going to get real tired, real quick of everyone pointing out how much she looked like an Uchiha.

She just knew it, especially if the slack jawed way the newest clan addition was staring at her was any indication. Not to mention she could clearly hear the spare Uchiha heir "whisper" ask his brother if she was of any relation to them.

Deciding it was in her best interest at this point to take the initiative and try to establish a pre-existing connection that she would take full advantage of later, Sai inclined her head and introduced herself.

"I'm sorry Uchiha-san but I am no one of such importance to you, I am Shimura Sai." She smiled sweetly. "How do you do?"


Edit: 7/20/16