Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Except the plot.
Warning: A lot of curses so be careful. Also, thanks for following me til this chapter. Enjoy.
Popping up in front of a male clothing shop, Sakura grapped, while blushing madly, some new underwears and pants. She was grateful that at least the jutsu hadn't expanded her size, except her lower part, or made her extraordinary height increased too much (only more than 2 inches). Shuffling to the changing room with her new clothes, that she bought just then and wanted to nothing more but released her uncomfortable sentiment, the kunoc-er, shinobi, quickly put on a new pant.
Sighing in relief that she had chosen a fit set of robe, in front of the mirror, Sakura raised her head, for the first time, had a good look at her new appearance… and reeled back in disgust.
The hell? She looked like a flaming homosexual fag!
Hurriedly ripping her forehead protector off and put it on her arm, Sakura decided that she must look horrify stepping into this shop with a make up face, girly hair style and a pant too tight for a healthy lad! No wonder the people around her had sniggered and made ugly snorts, as if there was a loon let loose on the street for their sheer entertainment.
Angry and furious beyond her belief, Sakura collected her scatter clothes in a swift move and using her jutsu to delivering herself straight to Ino's flower shop. She accepted being a boy, not being a laughing stock for Konoha! And the one who could help her was only the pig.
…Though she soon regretted her decision.
Sakura was very, no, actually, extremely disturbing by what she was seeing now. And some one, who was in daily contact with Lee and closed relationship with Naruto, admitted feeling unsettled meant a lot.
"Who are you?"
Heaving an exasperate sigh, Sakura started. "Like I said, Pig, I'm-"
"Stop. Actually, I'd like to correct myself. What are you?"
Twitching at the blunt rudeness of her years best friend, the pink head thinned her lips, repeated herself. She had said this so many times in what almost an hour that she felt like a broken radio. "I'm in for an A-ranked mission that required me being a male. Naruto and the pervert sanin ganged up to perform the bloody stupid sexy transformation stuffs on me. Pig, listen carefully to me. Even though I look like one, have voice of one and own the pheromone of a womanizer, I'm a woman. Got that?"
"Yes and no." was the answer. Ino appeared as if she just had seen a naked Shikamaru, who was dramatically declaring his passionate, undying love for her. "Yes, I understood why you're a boy but no, I refused to comprehend how such a chick with huge forehead ended up so damned hot as a bloke!"
Sakura was very annoyed by the forehead bit but decided to slide it because she had more things to worry than a little petty insult. For exampled, how Ino was circling her liked a predator would on its prey or the way that hand of her rival/friend trailed down her strong shoulder to her firm back an-
"Get your hand off my ass this instant, Yamanaka!" The pink head snapped, horrified and disgusted stretched tightly on her face.
Ino giggled. "A bloody hot bloke with a damned fine arse. I'm curious if your man hood was as nice as your body, Forehead." Backing away at the expression on Sakura's face, which practically displayed how the medic nin going to slay the blond in ten different ways, the busty girl smiled good natured. "I'm just saying that as a boy, you're not bad yourself. No need to bite my head off."
"Is the saying part including probing my butt with your hands?" Sakura sneered but calmed down enough to toss a roll to Ino and dropped herself on the chair nearby. "Anyway, Hokage sent you a mission yourself. Dunno what it is though…"
Ino read the roll while Sakura fidgeted on her seat. She had yet got use to her very manly body. It's just plainly annoying when she's constantly self conscious whenever she moved. How could she not, when there was a thing dangled between her legs? And, especially when she ought to own a vagina and had nothing there!
"…Ok. This is going to be fun." Sakura suddenly regretted ever to step in the shop by the facial on Ino's face. She was leering at the pink head as if she was a hamburger. Plus extra cheese on top.
"W-what?"
The innocent smile widened to a broad grin and Sakura wished she was fighting two murderous Akatsuki or endured the wrath of a raging Shukaku than being where she was.
Sai opened his apartment's door to find a cheerful Ino and a sulking stranger, who owned a very familiar aura. His mid-night eyes lingered on the pink haired male, suddenly remembered of a certain same color hair girl before addressing his main charge with a well- practice smile. "Good day, Gorgeous. May I help you?"
"Yes! How about going out for lunch after this?" Ino flirted instinctively, clinging shamelessly to the artist's arm and Sakura snickered at the slightly twitch on the boy's face. Sai disliked close contact because he found it's very intimidating, but Sakura was willing to bet that the ex-Root member didn't know that himself. Only those in daily contact with him (actually only her as Naruto is a lost case), could pick up his discreet change of moods. (Yes, he did have moods, as odd as it was.)
Unconsciously slipping away from the clingy girl, Sai used the stranger as a distraction. "And who's this walking fashion catastrophe with his homo squeals?"
A swift punch, squared on Sai's face, was the feedback Sakura offered for his heartily compliment. "Damned you, you dick face with shit for brain!"
"Sai Kun!" Ino yelped in horror, rushing to assist the grunting in discomfort Sai, who was clutching his possible broken nose and furrowed his brows at the new stranger. He wasn't angry or in any pain as he had no sensation at all. No, actually, he was feeling something particular different from what normal people would usually do in the time.
The nagging tuck he had from the first time he laid eyes on this dude started to unfolded and vanished. He felt a whole lot lighter now. What's the name for this feeling again?
…Oh. Relief, probably.
Now that he had grasped the true identity of whom he was dealing with, Sai stated blankly at the glowered pink head, eyes glued on a certain body part of him.
"So, Ugly really had no boobs after all." If Ino hadn't shoved him to the right, his skull would have been broken by the raw round kick of Sakura, whose legs made contact with the wall nearby instead and nearly brought the whole section down.
"ASSHOLE!" The hot head shouted in blind fury, eyes blazing with deadly fury. If there was any part of Sakura surprised that the insensitive shinobi recognized her right away, it had been subsided by the urge to bash Sai's head now. How dare that bastard rubbed more salt to her wounds when she had already been stressed over it too much already!
Ino could only pray that her day would end without her getting any mental traumatized experience of blood and murdering.
…
It took quite a while for Ino to finally calm the medic with destructive strength ninja down enough to not kill her new crush. Of course, at that time, almost all the furniture in the emotionless, rude artist had been either shattered or broken to the point of unfixable.
"Look at what you've done, Forehead." Ino chided, scanning the after war scene with exasperate. "I'm so going to report this to Hokage Sama! We're here for Sai kun's assistance and instead of pleading for his help, you literally brought down his apartment!"
"Plead?" The pink head snorted, crossing her arms in an annoyed huffs. "The asshole should be grateful that I haven't broken all his ribs!"
"You're just angry because he said the truth!"
"And you're just dump to believe the bastard's lie! Do you really believe the asshole think you're pretty! The jerk's sense of beauty is just as shitty as the combination of Naruto and math calculations!"
"You're just jealous of me, Forehead." Ino sneered and Sakura nearly blew her lids again at the smugness on the blond girl's face if not for the interruption of a certain artist.
"You two can resume your cat fights later and please, tell me again why am I wasting my time with you here?" Sai interjected, nose still bleeding unstoppable but he didn't seem to concern. The artist was actually just saying that to annoy his teammate further.
Ino swooned inwardly at the coolness of the handsome artist while Sakura, predictably, growled. "You're a lucky bastard for being Danzo's subordinate. If you're not, I swear you would have been under your tomb with me dancing on it, Sai."
"Indeed that I'm very lucky." Sai agreed. "Having your over weight body above me, even after death, would be extremely uncomfortable."
"YOU-"
"Sai Kun, we're here on Tsunade Sama's order. Here is the note she sent you." Ino quickly side stepped so she would act as the human barrier between the arguing pair before her best friend/rival could enter another hysterical stage of blood-thirst.
Sai beckoned the duos to the sofa by a flick that resulting a deep growl from Sakura and a dreamy sigh from Ino. The blond busty kunochi just couldn't see why Sakura got angry at whatever the artist did, or more liked how Sakura could get annoyed at the first place anyway. Yes, Sai was a jerk (She wasn't dump!) but nearly all of Konoha kunochi didn't seem to mind that small matter, not when his face was this hot.
Hot? "Oh, my God!" The scream nearly tore her companions' ears off but Ino didn't seem to realize their glares. She had far more important matter! "The air condition! Oh God! Dad's going to kill me!"
Sakura frowned, following her best friend as the girl rushed to the door. "What's wrong?"
"I need to go! I forgot to turn off the air condition in the flower shop!" With that, the only remained left of her, in where Ino once stood, was the puff of smoke.
Again? Sakura snickered gleefully. She hoped that the flowers would wilt before Ino got there. Serve the pig right for being a nosy bitch just now. Sensing the questioning stare of the artist, the pinkette explained with a shrug. "Family business."
"So, transvestite is the new style now?"
"Shut up, jerk! It can't be help!" Then, Sakura processed to aggressively explain her scandalous situation and swearing at Jiraiya, Naruto and Tsunade with this damned Vongula family liked a maniac. Honestly, she had been holding back all her negative emotions in public, even in front of Ino, but now that she was in the safety of privacy and wouldn't offend anyone but Sai, she was free to sprout and curse a storm up to the seventh's level of heaven.
After all, she doubted that this emotionless, blank faced Sai would be offended by her foul language, seeing how he was writing rapidly all her words down, probably for future uses.
In fact, think about it again, she had helped someone with his vocabulary bank and released her stress at the same time. An arrow shots over hundreds of birds!
After running out of breaths and thanked Sai for his offer of water, Sakura finally sighed. "That's how I got stuck in being a god damned bloke and you need to help me, Sai. Can you do something about my hair? And er, my overall to fit more in society and not looked like a demented gay?"
"Friends help each others when one in trouble." Sai nodded and this was one of the rare times when Sakura was actually thankful for being this guy's friend. "The book quotes that. Beside, your hideous hair is really hurting my eyes."
BANG!
Sakura totally took back what she just thought. Sai was just a jerk.
"Get on with it already!" She spat, while the other shook his head and smiled his trademark smile.
"If this is how you ask for favor, I see how accurate the Hokage was for saying you are just liked a thug—" Another smack ensured and Sai smartly kept his mouth shut because the pink head looked ready to kill him, regardless he was just giving out intelligent advises and genuine comments.
So, the pair settled in the middle of Sai's bathroom, while the artist started on his first project, which was Sakura's hair. The pink head lumped in her seat, reading idly a medical book she had lent to the dark haired boy. Though, the two of them wasn't the best of best friend, there was still a bizarre coexistence which they had muttered up after many missions together.
They didn't exactly like to be in each other's presence yet, they trust and cared for each others. Also, she believed there must also be a thin yet obvious air of rival between her and him.
Why? Because of the prize. The prize? Naruto, their teammate; the only one who reminded her of the happy past so far away and the only one who opened the bright future for him.
Ironically now that she thought about it again. She used to be one who mend their team harmony and now, Naruto, did the job for her while she and Sai became the rivals. Both of them wanted to keep the blond for themselves. Even though Naruto is an idiot and he wasn't handsome at all, he was definitely something. He had a power of believe that charmed both his teammate to him, drawn liked a thread to the point of the needle.
Love? Sakura didn't think she was in love with Naruto but she needed him in order to balance her life, between the past and the present. While Sakura might have the advantages of being his crush and long time friend, Sai won over her in the part of understanding and trust. Because they both didn't have parents, both shared a same tragic past, Naruto had a mutual feeling with the emotionless guy. Plus, because the idiot had his manly pride, most of his problems, Naruto would confess to Kakashi or Sai, instead of her, which still annoyed the hell out of her till today.
Funny as it was, between her and Sai, there was also an odd source of attraction and weird as it was, aside from Naruto, Tsunade, Sakura trusted Sai just as much Ino. And she knew, aside from the energetic blond, she was the only one the artist truly bonded with as friend.
"Ugly, you're there?" Snapping back to the reality, Sakura scowled at the nickname and looked up grumpily, only to raise an interest eyebrow at her reflection.
The result, in her own opinion, was less catastrophic than what she had imaged.
"Why did you cut the frame? I didn't ask for it." She asked, touching the short strands that covered most of her forehead and some of her eyebrows. "It made me look gloomier, you know? Beside, it will get in the way when I fight."
"Are you making comments on my art?" Sai smiled.
"Sorry. It's stupid. Forget what I've said." The answer was immediate and Sakura pouted once the inky haired boy glanced somewhere else. She didn't know any other artist, aside from Sai and Sakura was grateful for her limit circle of friend. Having another buddy with artistic blood liked Sai was very tiresome. You had to watch your mouth or you would have to watch your back at night.
"I see that Naruto's sexy no jutsu does a decent job on your appearance. You look a tad better." Sai stated, or rather a rare compliment.
"I remember the name is Sexy transformation super ultra special something..." Sakura remarked, started to form an idea why her charisma suddenly shot up significantly. Though she would have love to say her feminine had finally blossomed and her adolescence, hormone raging instability had gone for good, the truth was still there.
Naruto, when in his Sexy no jutsu mode was an unbelievable beautiful woman so this would lead to her being an astonishing gorgeous man if she was in the very same mode, only this time, she was in a higher, more powerful jutsu. Thus, resulting her looked liked a descendant of God himself.
"How do you think about getting an ear-pierce? And an eyebrow's shave? I do want to try a kind of art involving human skin." Sakura instinctively felt an alarming bell rang through her head. It's not everyday you would hear this excited voice from an empty emotional Sai. He was in one of his moods that contributed sorely to his craze for art and his perfectionist nature.
"Sai. Your smile. Just calm-" Before long, Sakura's shrieks, or now that her voice was lower, yells of terror were heard through the apartment, or even Konoha.
"Sai! I don't think this is a good-!"
CLICK!
"ARGH! My ear! No! ARGH! Don't come near me! Get that machine aw-!"
BROOM! BROOM!
"Mother fucker! It's hurt liked bitch! Stop- My shoulder! Don't you dare! Don't touch it! I'm not a victim of body vandalism !"
After three hours of torturing and one-side protestings, finally, peace inhabited again in the small apartment of Sai. Sakura sulked darkly in her emo corner after the 'art-making' of her suddenly insanely strong teammate.
And, oh god, the pain! How could that gayish, asshole Sai get such strength in such short of time? Even her monstrous, or charka enchanted power couldn't haul her ass out of his deadly, ironic grip!
Sending charka to her ear's hole to smooth down the flare of pain, the girl/boy crossly picked up a mirror to criticize her new, totally fresh out face… and mentally had a pool of blood dripped out from her nose.
HOT!
Inner was doing a double fainting and swooning while Sakura blazing a bloodshot red.
Unruly hairs, bangs handsomely framed a beautiful face with thick, long lashes, fair skin and soft, peach lips. Her eyebrows were finely shaped, high cheekbones with a straight nose and vibrant jade eyes. Her left ear was pierced with the same dark pink ruby, matching with her new bleach hair.
And don't forget an eye-drawing, unmistakable insignia of a dragon cleverly crafted tattoo, which snaked around her neck downward all the way to her right palm, fangs bared and inky, sinister eye glowed eerily under the rays of sunlight. Though with the assistant of instant healing charka, the carving process was still a hellish experience, which Sakura was sure if she was a trained, skilled medic nin, she would have passed out already from the suicidal agony.
But it's worth it! Inner exclaimed in glee, eying at the handsome, unique in a good way tattoo with fondness. Sai's always seem a tag more superior (whether he's aware of it or not) when art relating topic was concerned and Sakura could clearly understand where it came from.
"Hey, Tranny."
Reflectively catching her head band, Sakura glared at the blank face artist when he ordered her to wear it around her thigh. She hissed, a little startled when her voice came out deeper and more deadly than she liked. "Stop calling me Tranny!"
She really needed to get used to all the new charisma, new voice, weight and even way of talking (Sai recommended she sounded very disconcerting using the female pronounce instead of a male with her new appearance.)
"Fine, Ugly. What's your name? The new one, I meant." The guy asked, spacing around to clean all the mess with the help of a grudgingly pinkish silver head. "It would be bad for my art to have such distasteful name liked Sakura."
Too tired from the loss of charka and stamina, result of struggling for the past two hour, the girl/boy shook her head, having a peek at her roll. "Dunno. The mission doesn't state I need to use a fake name so-"
"Akira." Sai finalized. "Akira Sawada."
"What? But I like my 'cherry blossom in a spring field' name!" Sakura objected. She was proud of her name and even if she was a boy, such a great name her father gave her wouldn't be in waste. Beside, in using her real name, at least, she had a small reminder that she was at least a girl!
"Still, if I was going to name you, it will be Akira for when I cut your hair and did the tattoo, the only thing I try to express is this aura, liked something, um, sharp yet soft… I don't know how to express it but that name comes up in my mind when I saw you this morning." Sai admitted, looking a bit awkward that he couldn't explain what he was really thinking.
Sakura was slightly surprised at the revelation. So, her look did have its theme too. Glancing from the pile of trashes (her hair, blood, bandage…) to his dirty hand from the tattoo's ink, she remembered their first, true conversation where he said he couldn't name his painting.
Damned her soft heart… Sakura sighed, mumbling the new name as if trying to see how it would roll off her tongue. "A-ki-ra. Akira. One who has great intelligence. Hm… What's about Sawada?"
Sai said. "I just think Akira Sawada has a nice ring. Also, it's your client's last name so I thought it would be beneficial if you take it as your last name. Cousin will be your role, right? You didn't need to use it if you want, though Akira Haruno doesn't have much rhythm."
Smart ass. Inner sneered, too stubborn to agree that the artist made sense.
"Well, Akira Sawada is me from now on, then." Sakura, simply, didn't have the heart to argue and just wanted to get this over and done with. She would really needed a nap right now. She wondered if Naruto would mind if she crashed over at his place later. Compared to her apartment, his was a lot nearer.
"And I think Fag would do for your nickname." Sai smiled and another hole was added to the emotionless artist's apartment.
A/N: Too cliché name? Sorry. I never intend for Sai to be Sakura's make over styler but it just suddenly came up through the way. But if you think about it again, Ino or any other girl wouldn't be able to compare with a talented artist liked Sai, right?
The votes I've gathered:
Hibari 2
Mukuro 2
Tsuna 4
Byankuran 2
Dino 1
Notice: It is not possible to vote a character for more than once. Sorry. It's just unfair somehow. Anyway, I'm surprised that Tsuna could be so popular. I thought it would be Hibari or Mukuro who got the highest votes. (It seems Gokudera and Yamamoto don't stand a chance here).
All in all, thank you for those who have reviewed. Your words inspired me greatly. I'll continue to try my best. (Also, for those who are in exams heat and still get time to read this, goodluck with your score and thanks again.)