For starters, Sai definitely had no clue whatsoever of what he was saying, though he was pretty sure that whatever that was about, it must be something incredibly intriguing. Ino's dilated eyes and agape expression was evidence enough for that. The moment only lasted so fast though thought that Sai felt like all it took was for him to blink one time before Ino got back to her steady, confident self. Her tense shoulder had loosened, her lips curved into a small smile, and her fisted hands were now safely on her sides.
"Sai! You startled me!"
She even got the gut to give him a reason for her momentary panic. She was Yamanaka Ino after all, a woman trained by the best interrogator in the world. Sai should have seen that coming.
"I'm sorry." He had no choice to play along. Ino smiled at him.
"So, what were you talking about?" It was as if she was challenging him, asking him to take a bait. Sai saw no reason not to take the bait, but then again, the idea of a bait was too …
Or it was probably only Ino trying to mess with his mind.
"I was asking if I could offer you any help." He said. "You know, with you and Kakashi."
The very idea of Ino and Kakashi was not something he had looked too closely until very recently. After all, the only proof of the existence of their relationship was when he coincidentally saw a flash of Ino's face in Kakashi's wallet. Sai had returned it casually to Kakashi and not mentioning it once, but he made sure to write it on his note. At that time, however, there were no other evidence of their relationship. They both operated in a very different schedule and daily socialized with different circle of people. Kakashi might just be another stalker, and Sai didn't think that it was entirely impossible for an open pervert such as the masked man to be a stalker. That was, of course, until Kakashi came home unconscious as soon as Inoichi chased after his daughter to Kumo.
Back to the present, Sai would have expected Ino's expression to change over such blunt statement, but she was keeping a poker face.
"You don't know what you're talking about, Sai." She scoffed. That was true. He didn't know what he was talking about at all. Sai weighed whether he should pretend like he knew or not and decided that Ino would easily see through his lies, especially when he didn't have a pretty strong foundation of facts beneath him.
"Enlighten me then." Ino's eyes judged him for a second before she sighed.
"Stop prying into my life, Sai. Seriously, get a life. Fall in love or something. Live your own drama." She said and started to walk away from him. Sai chased after her.
"You know my understanding of emotion was still very lacking for me to have a drama in my life." He told her as they paced around the hospital's corridors.
"Then work on it instead of playing God with my love life!" Ino yelled, frustrated. "It's creepy enough that you're stalking me. You're definitely not butting into my life."
"Why not? I can help."
"You think I can't get help if I wanted to? I can get help anytime, Sai. I have enough friends in this village who's ready to help me if I ever needed help." She stopped and glared at him.
"Unlike you." She hissed angrily.
With that, she stomped away and left him alone in the hospital lobby. Sai knew better than to follow her. It was futile and judging from how offended she was, it didn't seem like she's going to change her mind anytime soon.
"That must hurt." A deep voice broke Sai's train of thought. The painter turned around to find the least expected person behind him. Morino Ibiki gave him a crooked smile as he got up from the waiting chair. The scarred man easily towered over him as soon as he stood up. It might be intimidating to some, but Sai was trained to be through worse in Root.
"I'm afraid I don't have the right emotion for that yet." Sai smiled at him. Ibiki chuckled darkly.
"Oh, really? We both know how much you care for that word, 'comrade'." Ibiki said, the word comrade sounded like a dark secret from his mouth. Like it was something Sai should be ashamed for caring. "You definitely have the emotion for that little jab."
Sai was irritated, yes. He has friends too, though Ino's word just now made him wonder if they were ever ready when he indeed needed their help. Now it all felt like they were all merely acquaintances that wouldn't care whatever happened to him. Except Naruto maybe, but Naruto was like that to everyone and he always had his hands full trying to save people.
"I don't get where this conversation is going." He said. "I didn't know you care about my feeling that much, Ibiki-san."
"I also didn't know you care about Ino's feeling that much, young man." Ibiki retorted. For a moment, they exchanged glares.
"Ah, so you're telling me to keep my hands off of her." Sai finally said. "Fine."
Well, Sai might not be intimidated with Ibiki but he definitely didn't enjoy the conversation with him. He figured he should just agree to whatever the scarred man had to say.
"Not necessarily." Ibiki grinned. "I came here to ask your intention."
"What do you mean?" Sai realized that playing innocent was harder than it actually was. Especially if the one you're trying to trick was the head of Intelligence division.
"With Ino." Ibiki replied, surprisingly patiently. "Do you mean it? When you said you'd help her?"
"Of course." Sai said.
Ibiki's smirk afterward made Sai felt that he had made a wrong choice.
"Excellent. Then follow me."
XXX
It had been a long time since the last time Sai stepped foot into Root headquarter and stepping his foot on the dark corridor in Torture and Interrogation division reminded him of the infamous organization's headquarter. Lights automatically went on and off as they passed through the frosty corridor. There was only silence between him and Ibiki and to be really honest, he found that greatly unsettling. However, something told him that this was not the right time to strike up a conversation. Ibiki would open one when he found the time. They finally arrived at their destination, which is Ibiki's office. The scarred man let him in and told him to sit in the guest chair. Sai relented and sat himself on the chair.
"Why are you so curious with Ino?"
Ibiki's question broke the icy silence. Sai took a deep breath.
"I'm intrigued with her charm." He said. "It's fascinating seeing so many men fall in love with her."
"Yet you don't." Ibiki mused.
"Yet I don't." Sai agreed.
"I accept the reason." Ibiki told Sai as the intelligence division head sat himself on his chair. "Though it still doesn't answer why you want to help her."
"It's not …" Sai gave it a thought for a second. He wasn't sure it will sound right, but he figured that Ibiki wouldn't care of how things sound. He's a man who'd definitely read between the lines even though Sai could come up with something that sounds right.
"I guess I like playing God." He admitted. "The satisfaction of knowing that I'm the one who's orchestrating things that happen on her life."
A wicked smile spread across Ibiki's lips. "Good. I, for one, am fond of playing that game myself."
His word hung on the air and Sai wasn't sure of what to respond.
"I would like to offer you another chance of playing God with Ino's love life."
"She blatantly refused me this morning."
"You're playing God, not playing best friend, for God sake." Ibiki snorted. "God never show himself to His subject. He helped from above … or wherever God is."
"I've been watching you, Sai. You've been playing it right, all these times. That dinner party with the bachelors, laxatives in Gai's food, you've done it all without Ino knowing."
Sai would like to ask how Ibiki knew all these things but he figured that it would be a rhetorical question. There's no how Ibiki knew something. He just knew.
Knowing things was practically his job description, after all.
"Okay. So what do you want me to do?" Sai asked.
"I want you to cancel the marriage arrangement." Ibiki's order was clear and for a moment, Sai was about to obey him. He managed to hold back, though.
"Hm, wait. Does God take orders from someone else? I guess not."
Ibiki eyed him warily.
"Your playing God had been harmless before, Sai. But from now on, every step you take while you're playing God with her love life could cause huge things to happen. And should something bad happened to her because of it, I swear with my life and my pride, I would seek you and crush you myself."
Okay, now Sai was intimidated.
"So a bigger stake." He tried his best to look calm and apathetic.
"Or, you could make yourself have the same vision as me." Ibiki said. "Help me help you help her."
Sai folded his hand. "Why don't you do it yourself?"
"I'd do it myself, but my distaste toward the arrangement couldn't be so obvious. Tsunade watched me closely. She'd know if I made too many suspicious moves on sabotaging the arrangement and I'm not planning to be on her bad side."
"I see." Sai nodded. "You need a third party."
"Are you in this?" Ibiki ignored his statement.
"Of course, that sounds fun."
"Good. But remember, you have to do it cleanly. Pristine, even. We don't want any hostility between Konoha and Kumo to rekindle just because of a failed love story."
"I understand."
"The Raikage liked Ino very much. He won't want to lose her over trivial reasons and knowing the temper of the guy, it's an established condition that he won't be happy shall the arrangement ends, your job is to direct that anger toward something else other than Konoha."
"You're talking about making Darui the target here." Sai said and Ibiki nodded satisfactorily.
"Set him up. Get him to be the cause of the cancellation of the arrangement. Make it his fault. That way, Konoha will be the graceful, forgiving village. We support the arrangement, but there's nothing else we can do but to terminate it."
"It will ruin Darui's career." Sai said. "A-sama won't take his fault lightly."
"And?" Ibiki lifted his shoulder. "Casualties always exist."
For a moment, he reminded Sai of Danzo, and at that feeling, terrible fear crept into his heart. Sai didn't want to repeat what happened, years ago. Sai liked the way he is now, not the emotionless machine who was designed to obey every mission given to him.
Ibiki saw through that.
"I care for Ino." He declared. "I care for her the way I care for my own kin, and I want the best for her. Darui was not it, I know, you know. The way I see it, there's no other way to terminate the arrangement without causing a war but putting Darui as the bad guy."
Sai looked at him blankly. Logically, it made sense what Ibiki just said. But Sai couldn't help to shake away the feeling that he was lied to, tricked to, into doing Ibiki's bid. It seemed wrong, framing innocent guy simply for the happiness of another. Who are they to say that Ino's happiness was more important?
"I don't want to condemn Ino into an unhappy life while I can do something about it." Ibiki added.
It dawned on Sai about who they are. They are God, in this scenario. The one who pulled the strings , the one who decided on people's fate. And at times, God had to be cold. God had to be cruel.
"I understand, Ibiki-san. I'll find a way."
"You have a week from now." Ibiki told him firmly. "After a week, they went back to Kumo, and I'm afraid there's nothing we both can do once they're there."
"I'm pretty sure I can do something about it. I'm confident I can hatch an excellent plan long before then."
Today. Sai gave himself a deadline.
"What about Kakashi?" Sai asked Ibiki who gave him a smile that he certainly could categorize as mellow.
"Ah, that." Ibiki said. "It's my part to play. Do your part and everything should flow brilliantly."
Sai wanted to ask more but Ibiki's look told him to do otherwise.
"Fine, then. I'll do my part." He then stood up and offered his hand to Ibiki. The scarred man immediately shook it.
"Remember, Sai. Pristine. If you're caught, I won't be there to save your ass."
He gave Ibiki a plastic smile. "That's exactly where the fun is."
XXX
As it turned out, concocting a devious plan to frame an innocent man without causing suspicion was not an easy thing to do. Sai was not new to scheme and manipulation, but the job still proved to be a difficult one. Darui was an impossible man to hate. He always acknowledges his fault, always apologizes for other people's fault, is not the least bit stubborn, and generally a very pleasant person to be with. Sai somehow knew that Ino wouldn't be very happy with a future with him. That girl thrived on drama and Darui wasn't the kind of guy who's involved in one.
"Where have you been?" Sakura's notable frustration was clear as he approached team 7 and Lee's team at the training ground. "We followed team 8 all the way to the Nara forest to get you just to be told that you ditched them as soon as they left the hospital."
"I'm sorry." Sai said, not even bothering to sound like he meant it.
"They announced that Kakashi was not ready to be released, is he seem unwell to you? You visit him this morning." Naruto asked curiously.
"He looks as healthy as a person can be." He deadpanned. Sai doubted that anyone would know that Ino was particularly the cause of Kakashi's sickness and he decided to keep it that way. He liked having secrets.
"Maybe he's too excited to get back to training!" Lee said enthusiastically, positive as ever. "By the way, Sai-kun, today we will be joined by Darui-san to even the group."
A moment goes.
For a second, Sai couldn't believe his luck. A chance to examine his prey up close without having to orchestrate the whole thing himself. It almost felt like the real God up there was really on his back. He intended to hide a smile formed on his mouth but he decided that a smile wouldn't be so wrong either.
"What a pleasure."
"He hadn't showed up though because Lee told him the wrong time." Tenten sighed and glanced at Lee with an annoyed look.
"I've given you a nice guy apology, Tenten." He smiled widely at her and put out his thumbs. Tenten huffed but she blushed and looked away. Sai watched the dynamic between them closely. Tenten liked Lee, which was pretty obvious.
Hmm.
He felt like he was close to an inspiration here, but he couldn't quite grasp it yet.
"Let's just start first." Neji said. "Light training and warm ups."
"That's a good idea." Naruto chimed. "Sasuke? What do you think about a light spar?"
Anybody knows a spar between Naruto and Sasuke would never go light.
"Bring it on, dobe." Sasuke grinned as sparks lit on his left hand.
"Wait, wait, wait." Sakura interrupted. "We're not starting without everybody's presence, all right?" She looked at Tenten for help and the Chinese girl immediately caught on the hint.
"Yeah. I've worked with Darui-san before. He didn't like being not up to speed. I'm sure he won't be happy if we started without him." Tenten said.
Something clicked within Sai. Yes. That was it. Tenten had worked with Darui before during the last world war. Out of all the girl in Konoha, she was the one of the few girls beside Ino who had worked closely with him. A relationship, albeit very brief and formal, existed between them. There was hope there.
Tenten could be that girl. The one Darui chose over Ino.
A surge of self-satisfaction emerged in his heart, but Sai then remembered that it was merely an idea. To make them into reality was the real challenge. The relationship between them must be very formal, after all.
"Tch. I'm not here to stand around to wait for some guy. I have other things to do." Sasuke said moodily.
"Really? And what is it, Sasuke?" Neji's harsh remark surprised Sai and everybody else. For starters, Sai was pretty sure that Neji was the one who insinuated the idea of starting the training without Darui. Secondly, the remark was simply mean. He was reminding Sasuke the person he was now, a suspended shinobi. A guy with no job and virtually nothing to do. It was a very delicate subject no one ever bring up, mostly because, well, it's Sasuke.
Sakura and Tenten covered it up with an awkward laugh and some gibberish about the weather and the warming climate but the damage had been done. Sasuke eyed Neji hatefully and even Sai didn't want to be in Neji's place right now. On the other hands, Neji seemed perfectly fine with the glare and stared at Sasuke back comfortably, as if challenging him to give him some answers.
"It's none of your business, Hyuuga." Sasuke muttered icily. Sai had lived long enough in Konoha to know that an appearance of last name in words could never mean well.
"Huh? I thought I'm early." Darui's voice was definitely a salvation to the increasingly tense situation. Naruto didn't even bother to hide his sigh of relief.
"You are, Darui-san! Lee made a mistake of not telling you the correct time and we didn't want to disturb your schedule for the day." Sakura greeted him almost too cheerfully.
"You guys waited for me? I'm terribly sorry."
"It's okay! It's okay! We all don't mind." Naruto said in a high pitched voice as he closed in on Darui and patted him on the shoulder. Only then he realized that his relationship with Darui was not that close to pat him on the shoulder and the pat only turned awkward. Graceful as ever, Darui gave Naruto a reassuring smile.
"Had I known, I could escape the breakfast even faster." He mentioned.
"I heard you have a breakfast with Inoichi-san, today. How'd it go?" Sakura asked him. At the mention of Ino's father, every eyes turned to the Kumogakure ninja with interest. Sai chuckled inwardly. Of course everybody would want to know how Darui went along with Inoichi. It could very well determine how the marriage turned out after all.
"Inoichi and his wife was a very peaceful and welcoming host. Well, at least until Ino stormed into the house out of nowhere and started to yell at his father while crying."
"What's the matter?" Tenten queried.
"I don't know, seriously. They spoke in code." Darui said. "Ino's mother immediately suggested me of leaving the house and invited me for dinner to make up for it though … so …"
"I'm sure it's just another episode of Ino's drama." Neji said. Sai noted that Sakura and Tenten shared a look.
"It'd be better if I knew her better." Darui sighed. "She wouldn't always have her parents to yell and cried at in the future."
"Are we done with the gossip?" Sasuke grunted. "Let's train something other than our mouth. Neji, I'll take you on."
Neji agreed silently to the Uchiha survivor challenge as they both walked together deeper into the forest, tension ran high between the two of them.
"Lee! Let's go! Let's see who's stronger now!" Naruto turned to Lee.
"Oh! I have to tell you I have grown considerably stronger than before, Naruto-kun!" Lee replied enthusiastically. They exchanged a never ending taunts before finally Naruto made the first strike whereas Lee screamed "Hahaha! Nice surprise attack, Naruto-kun!"
"Ino could be a little bit difficult to live with, indeed, Darui-san." Sakura told him sympathetically. Darui nodded.
"I figure that part out a long time ago." He smiled. "Well, it's good she's not dull."
"Ino's anything but." Tenten chuckled.
"Well, it's good you don't run back to Mabui-san, isn't it, Darui-san?"
Everybody shot Sai a look.
"Ah, yes. I'm afraid I and Mabui was long since over." Darui said. "Did Ino tell you about my history?"
Sai let out a chuckle as he could feel Sakura and Tenten watched him warily.
"No. It's simply words on the street."
Ibiki's words on his office, to be exact.
"Gossip." Darui smiled. "I'm sorry if my history makes you people uncomfortable. Rest assured, it's over with me and Mabui. We're only friends now."
"None of us ever doubt that." Tenten glared at Sai.
"It's my obligation to tell you what's on the street."
"Well, thank you, Sai-san. I will find a way to clarify all this, for sure." Darui said.
"Let's get on with the training then, shall we?" Tenten said cheerfully. Sai turned to Sakura.
"Sakura-chan, let me spar with you." Sai said. "I've been wondering about how my art would spare against your … rough power."
Sakura looked a little bit surprised over his proposal. "Oh, yes. Sure, Sai. Shall we start?"
That would leave Tenten and Darui together. It's time for a bonding between them. Sai was pretty sure that Ino would be a topic between the two of them, but Sai decided to let them bond over her. At least, that way, Darui would think Tenten as his confidante in this village, and he thinks that was a pretty good progress.
He was lost deep in his thought when Sakura surprised him with a punch. A punch that surely could end his life hadn't he dodged the force with his kunai. The unfortunate weapon flew to the sky, but not without hurting Sakura's fist first. As expected, sharp objects won against blunt ones. To Sai's annoyance though, the bleeding almost instantly stopped and healed. It seemed like he had forgotten the crucial fact that Sakura was a medic. An exemplary one, at that.
"I'm not just going to sit in silence if you're going to ignore me when you're lost in your thought, Sai." Sakura said. Sai let out a small smile.
"Ah, that was unintentional, Sakura-chan. I promise I will give you my all from now on." Sai smiled as he reached for his paint brush. Sakura didn't give him time to even pull out his scroll when she aimed another punch at him. Sai smoothly jumped away from it and saw several trees were falling down.
"Patience, Sakura-chan." Sai smiled and summoned an endless stream of inked rats. Sakura let out a growl of disgust as she punched through it.
"Anyway, you shouldn't have brought out Mabui to Darui like that." Sakura told him as she ran toward him, his inked rats were treated like exactly nothing against her. Sai then summoned a bird to lift him up.
"Why?" He asked from above. Sakura jumped and tried to smash the bird but he easily maneuvered around it.
"Because it's nasty business." Sakura hissed. "Mabui and I have the chance to work together before. A guy was giving me a love letter and when I refuse it, Mabui made a comment upon it."
Sai could barely keep concentration as Sakura shot upon him rocks after rock to bring him down from the air.
"She said that it's good that I refuse him if I didn't love him at all. She said she once made a guy her rebound and she could never get over the guilt."
"And that guy is Darui." Sai concluded, somehow managed to finish his new creature: a dragon. As it soared to the sky, Sai patted himself on the back. A good work of art, indeed. It lunged toward Sakura quickly.
"Yes." Sakura breathed, evading the dragon's lunge, figuring the dragon was too lithe to receive her punch just like that. "She said that the guy was okay with that, for he was such a nice person he got on with her simply because he knew she was terribly heartbroken. It just made her felt guiltier though when it's all over."
Sai stopped abruptly at her remark. At the loss of his control, his arts burst, drenching Sakura in black ink.
"Sai!" She scolded him as Sakura spitted out black ink from her mouth. Sai landed on the ground.
"As I thought, you look nicer with dark hair, Sakura-chan." Sai smiled. Sakura scowled.
"I'm not letting you get away with this!" She ran toward him once again, but this time, Sai didn't flee above. They soon engaged in a hand to hand combat and while Sai knew he was certainly going to lose, he'd like to see how far he could go. In the midst of the battle, Sai let his mind wander toward his current highlight of problem. Darui turned out to be such a nice person he didn't mind being a rebound to a girl. Sai was pretty sure he could exploit that fact. All he had to do was prepping a suitable damsel in distress to be saved by a knight on a white horse. The knight being Darui, in that case.
Tenten, Sai thought. Not exactly the ideal kind of damsel in distress, but she was the one with the highest chance of ending up with Darui. They were bonding over Ino at the moment, and Sai could only imagine that Tenten might already be the closest person to Darui in Konoha right now, right after Ino. So now, it's only the matter of making her a damsel in distress. He only had a week though. He better did something about delaying Ino's departure.
Sai racked his brain. He was sure he could say the right thing to convince Darui to prolong his stay. What he wasn't sure about was how he could prep Tenten and Darui to be a thing. He should make them spend as much time together as possible, make a common cause for them to be together. He was good at that, making people 'accidentally' meet each other. Sai figured that he didn't need love, he simply needed a fling. Enough to cancel the arrangement, but even that was a hard thing to do. That was why the damsel in distress part had to be executed flawlessly. Even then, Tenten was not exactly the kind of girl that would need saving. She was a tough girl who could stand up on her own and licked her own wounds. However, if he managed to hit the right button, he might be able to break her enough, to make her desperate, and thus attracting Darui to save her. What kind of button he didn't know.
Or …
The previous events played again in his mind, and soon many of older events.
Lee.
Lee was Tenten's Achilles heel. Sai smiled upon this finding. He then made several connections here and there, and just like that, a plan was concocted.
Sai caught Sakura's fist, absorbing the power of her punch, and immediately regretted it. Pain soared through his body right to his head. He could feel himself having a nose bleed and his left hand were already numb with pain.
"What are you doing catching my fist! You're supposed to avoid it!" Sakura shouted at him as she immediately checked his hand, instantly changed herself to a medic nin mode.
"Sorry. I wanted a time out and couldn't find a better way to express it." He told her.
"You could have said 'time out' instead of breaking every bones in your hand." Sakura scowled.
"Well, you wouldn't hear it. You look pretty maniacal from my point of view at that moment."
"Shut it, Sai. Why are you requesting a time out anyway?" Sakura asked, wiping the blood from his face and felt his head. Sai figured that she was checking for another wound the punch might have caused.
"I have a proposition to make you, Sakura-chan."
Oh, Ibiki was going to be so proud of him now.