ANOTHER UPDATE! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? I CAN'T!
I'M ON FIRE YEAAAAAH! (IT'S BECAUSE GOD KEEP SENDING ME ANGELS TO REVIEW/FAVORITE/FOLLOW THE STORY! THANK YOU ALL PEOPLE!)
ANYWAY, ENJOY THE STORY!
ps : It's not beta'd yet because my lovely betareader, DoubleRainbowRainbow is currently busy. So I'm sorry for any grammatical mistake! It's going to be fixed soon!
Love!
XXXXX
Damn, he's lucky.
For one, Sai never thought that convincing Sakura into doing his bidding was going to be that easy. All he did was giving her several taunts here and there, but there she went, kissing the green beast to unconsciousness in front of everyone. Sai had been trying to put a positive spin to it, but there's no other way to put it. It's just sad and pathetic. Sai could never understand how Sakura could be so hung up over Sasuke who had shown hatred for her and did nothing to her but gave her pain and torture. It appeared to him that the medic wasn't all that different from Lee, who had struggled with a relatively same problem for years. At least in Lee's case, he was perfectly happy as he welcomed every rivals for Sakura's heart that came along his way with open arms. Sakura, on the other hand, had to be tormented by her own feelings and the possibility of a rival scared her. Anyway, all's well that ends well, at least in Sai's side. Tenten got to be heartbroken and with Darui, and that was exactly according to plan. However, that also meant that Sai had to prepare for Sakura's reward and in order to realize it, it included having a long, manipulative talk with Sasuke.
Sai never liked Sasuke. To be fair, though, no one did save for Sakura, Naruto and Kakashi. Furthermore, Sai had deduced that the only reason those three could bring themselves to like Sasuke was because they had their own oddity in themselves, mostly rooted from the events they had suffered in the past. According to his observation, Naruto's a guy who needs to get along well with everyone, whether they're well liked or not. Especially those who aren't. Sai figured that the tendency came from Naruto's own tragic past where nobody wanted to have nothing to do with him. He didn't want anyone else to feel that horrible feeling he was suffering from because of that. As for Kakashi, the silver haired man indeed always had leniency toward any Uchiha because of his past with Obito. Words on the streets even cited that Kakashi's favoritism toward Sasuke went to the point that people said that had it been Naruto who goes stray and become the international criminal, he wouldn't hesitate on killing him for the world's sake. Naruto knew of this rumour, but he decided to shrug the rumour off, stating that it's not what happened anyway. In Sakura's case, the only reason that Sakura liked Sasuke was because she's just so stupidly blind and it's been long since Sai suspected that Sakura had trouble with a term called moving on. She wasn't exactly the forgive and forget type of person. Maybe she was more the punch-and-forgive type, but she never forgets. At other cases, maybe it was a good thing, but in this particular Sasuke's case, it looked like to Sai that Sakura couldn't forget the dreamy boy in her childhood dream and that was why she kept clinging to Sasuke no matter how terrible he had treated her, both in the past and the present. It stood to Sai as a fact he could easily exploit because no matter how smart and intelligent people had claimed Sakura to be, her brain turned into a useless mass of gooey substance when it comes to Sasuke.
Sasuke, on the other hand, was a harder person to manipulate. It's hard to even talk to him without getting some negative feedbacks. However, a promise is a promise, and besides, Sai was confident that he had a pretty good reasoning to win Sasuke over to his side. Sai doubted that Sasuke would do anything for Ino - like Sakura did for him-, Sai believed that a chance to eliminate the strongest contender for Ino's heart would definitely interest him.
That man was all about eliminating and kicking people out, after all.
So Sai cleared his throat as he casually chose to sit next to Sasuke at Ichiraku Ramen. Naruto was telling them the story about his serial of weird dreams that included Tsunade becoming a pet to Gamabunta and Asuma being reborn in Ebisu. Neji was decidedly bored at the story as he picked a leather covered book from his pouch and started to write something on it. Sasuke looked at the menu before he simply interrupted Naruto while speaking out his order to Teuchi. Sai moved an inch closer to Sasuke and the man gave him an astonished/annoyed look.
"I have an interesting deal for you." Sai started the exact same way he started with Sakura. He wasn't expecting a welcoming reply and was actually thinking that maybe Sasuke will just ignore him and his expectation actually was not really that farfetched; Sasuke only huffed as he drank his hot tea.
"I have no interest on dating Sakura in exchange of her dating Lee."
Damn, he's sharp.
Sai could feel his mouth curved into a small smile, a unique impulse of his upon nervousness. It was completely unexpected for Sasuke to be able to read what is happening at the moment. All this time, Sai always assumed that Sasuke's aloofness had meant that he doesn't care for his surroundings. Apparently, the guy was aloof because that is who he is.
"It's for Ino." Sai finally managed to say something after a short pause where he gathered pieces of his mind.
"I don't care."
"You don't care for Ino?" Sai tilted his head. He had thrown his first bait in which hopefully Sasuke would take it. Sasuke gave him an icy glare.
"I don't remember any of it being your business."
Ah, classic defense mechanism.
"Your feeling for Ino is none of my business, indeed." Sai agreed. "Though I have this plan on crushing Ino's marriage arrangement with Darui. I simply thought you want in."
Direct and crystal clear. Sai knew there was no need to play around the fire with Sasuke. He was too smart for any word games and more importantly, Sai was fully aware that he wasn't like Sakura. He wouldn't turn blind and stupid just because of a girl he likes.
Sasuke tensed.
"What about it?" His voice was strained, hinting his reluctance to admit that he was, indeed, interested with whatever Sai had to say.
"Well …"
"What are you two whispering about?" Naruto asked loudly as he leaned closer to the duo. His blue eyes squinted at the both of them with suspicion.
"Nothing." Sasuke's tone was harsh and punishing.
"We were just talking about Sakura and Lee. Though of course, Sasuke simply doesn't care." Sai lied easily. The second part of what he said was an elaboration to his lie because it was very unlikely for Sasuke to gossip about other people's dirt. That man considered that he was an entity higher than anyone else, so of course small details about other people's life doesn't interest him. However, the elaboration appeared to be a waste, because Naruto chose to focus on the first part of the lies as he nodded enthusiastically at Sai's words.
"I know! That's weird, right?"
"Totally." Neji joined the conversation. "Did you hit her head too hard or something during training, Sai?"
"No, she's fine." Sai shook his head, telling them another lie casually.
"Yes, her attitude toward Lee was still the same just this morning." Neji reminisced. Sai then thought that it's very easy for people to point fingers at him, seeing he was the last person who was alone with Sakura. Sasuke was not all that sharp, apparently. It's just a simple matter of putting two and two together. Sai gave himself a mental note that he better covered his work better next time and the flaw of this particular plan was that he was moving too fast it left evidence everywhere. In his defense though, even though someone else would probably suspect him – like Neji – Sakura and Lee was just another part of his grand scheme. No one would understand how the two of them going out together benefit him in any way. The bigger picture was only his to understand, and soon, maybe Sasuke, if his plan flowed along beautifully.
Actually, even his grand scheme was not going to benefit him in anyway. It just gave him the satisfaction of being able to pull the strings from behind the scene and that's enough for him.
Naruto gasped.
"Oh my God! I bet Lee's been spiking Sakura's drink with love potion and the effect has just kicked in!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly. Only God knows where he could get such a preposterous idea, but then again it's Naruto. That particular quality was the one that had saved the world, so Sai chose to forgo that.
"I know it's my part to say that it's ridiculous … but at this rate, it can't be dismissed as a possibility." Neji mused. Even Neji agreed to that kind of lunacy? Was Sakura and Lee as a couple that impossible? Sai had to admit that the concept of who-with-who-possibility was still strange to him. Hell, the concept of who's beautiful and who's not was just introduced to him not so long ago. He'd been taught how to tell a person's strength based on the various characteristics they harbor ever since he was very little by the Root. With that knowledge, Sai could tell that Sasuke is strong. Naruto is strong. Neji is strong. But for all he cared, Sasuke and Lee were just practically the same in term of appearance. Shinobi was not supposed to care for appearance. Danzo would never order him to kill someone because their 'handsomeness' threatened the village. It was always for their strength or connection and for some reasons, both Ino and Sakura found this fact about him greatly unsettling –mostly because they've been the victim of him calling them ugly – they decided to teach him a lesson. Sai had remembered clearly when Sakura and Ino ambitiously showed him a lot of photo of people, namely celebrities and models who's considered beautiful by the society all night. Back to the point, so Sai knew that Sakura and Lee was an 'unlikely' couple, but that was as far as it goes. He didn't think that it's not such an outrageous idea like the way Naruto and Neji had described it. Naruto always had flair for dramatics, but when Neji joined the club, it made Sai hesitate.
If they could think so, Tenten could think so too and he was dreading that. Even if she couldn't put it all together, the suspicion that there was something fishy going on was bad enough. It would put her on guard and Sai didn't want her to be on guard. He wanted her to be weak, to be devastated, to jump into conclusions, to make use of that man next to her.
"Shut it, people." Sasuke hissed as he received his steaming hot bowl of ramen. "I don't remember you guys become a lowlife gossiper like this."
Sai was already halfway planning to tune out the rest of the conversation as Naruto's ideas about how Sakura and Lee happened became more and more ludicrous, but Sasuke's word brought him back in to reality. It was giving Sai an idea, one that actually didn't have any correlation to his current conundrum, but one that he imagined would be fun to see its outcome. Upon Sasuke's comment, Naruto frowned and Neji was about to offer a rebuttal, but Sai bested the Hyuuga member's intention to speak as he let out a derogatory chuckle. All attentions were turned to him, and he said his piece.
"Sasuke's right. We're not Ino for God's sake!"
Now all three of them tensed.
Inside, Sai laughed so loudly and practically lit fireworks upon this moment. It's just so funny how those guys are so sensitive about Ino. That was quite refreshing, indeed. Maybe he should get checked for having so much fun by causing discomfort to people, but that was for later.
"That's mean, Sai. Ino is not a …" Naruto frowned, because well, Ino does love gossipping. Some parts of his words are right, and yes, sometimes she could be so mean in her gossip it made even the most mean spirited person in Konoha winced.
"She loves to gossip, but that doesn't justify her as a lowlife." Neji put it in a better way as he shifted uncomfortably on his stool. Sai gestured at Sasuke.
"Not according to this guy."
Naruto and Neji turned to Sasuke, who was now the new bad guy, but then Neji shrugged his shoulder.
"Sasuke is an elitist. Of course he'll think everyone is a lowlife."
"Oh yes, like you don't, Neji." Sasuke bit back.
"I don't particularly think that Ino is a lowlife." Neji glared back at him. Naruto, who sat right in the middle of them, coughed.
"Okay, okay. Some tensions here, guys. Whew." He said awkwardly, followed by just as awkward laughter. The blonde eyed Sai for help but Sai pretended he was busy with his own bowl of ramen.
"I think … I think we all think highly of Ino. She's our friend, I mean. So, well, let's eat our ramen before it goes cold." Naruto said. Neji and Sasuke complied with their blonde friend's suggestion and resumed eating their ramen, but the tension never decreased after that.
"Anyway, let's go visit Kakashi-sensei again." Naruto gave out an idea, in a vain attempt to melt the iceberg between them.
"I have something else to do." Both Sasuke and Neji said in unison. As expected, they didn't even bother to think up a better excuse. As for Sai, of course he chose to go with his brash personality side.
"I don't want to." Sai put it bluntly. Naruto pouted.
"Come on, he's our sensei and he's sick!" Naruto swung his chopstick to his sides, a gesture he made in order to encourage their friends to come with him to the hospital but all it does was getting the residual soup on his chopstick to splatter onto everyone's clothing. Neji and Sasuke both complained about the soup and the three of them ended in some meaningless argument.
"Oh! You guys are here!" A warm voice greeted them from behind. The four turned their head around and found Chouji smiling warmly at them with Shikamaru trailing behind the chubby Akimichi. The lazy genius growled as he took a seat next to Sai and Chouji next to him.
"I'm so glad I can avoid being a third wheel." He said as he placed his order quickly without looking at the menu as he took a seat next to Sai.
"Why do you insist to go with him in the first place then?" Naruto asked curiously as they watched Chouji and Ayame giggled at each other like the lovebird they were.
"I'm starving." Shikamaru deadpanned. "Besides, Chouji and I somehow get dragged into the Yamanaka's family drama all morning and it's seriously taking a toll on both of us."
"What drama?" This time, Sai took interest. He figured that it must be about Kakashi and even though Sai was instructed to let Ibiki handle the problem, he was pretty curious about how things had unfolded. More importantly, did Shikamaru and Chouji know about the current predicament? If so, his game plan could change entirely.
Chouji turned his head this time, his look was serious.
"Those Yamanakas are … I don't know. They always drag both of our family into their problems without actually telling us what the problem is."
Shikamaru sighed. "For all I care, it was another fight between Inoichi and Ino, which is to say is not that rare."
"So what are you doing there?" Neji folded his hand. "Watch them fight?"
"We are to prevent shall that about to happen. Do you realize how dangerous it is when two Yamanaka fight each other?" Chouji said. "The Hyuuga struck internal organs, which of course, can't be toughened. But Yamanaka's advanced techniques struck the mind. Neji could destroy my kidneys and I could always get a transplant somewhere, but can I get a mind transplant?"
"Wonder why they haven't sought to rule the world yet." Sasuke said sarcastically. Shikamaru and Chouji both gave him a look of obvious dismay.
Shikamaru frowned at him. "Does it ever occur to you that not everyone wants to rule the world?"
"When given the power to do so? No, not really."
The decreasing tension now increased again as Sasuke had successfully irritated even the person who has the least care in Konoha and the nicest, warmest person in Konoha, which makes them the two hardest people to anger. It seems like Sasuke had this special talent to find just the right button to push people to the edge. In Shikamaru and Chouji's case, it was the Yamanaka family. Naruto, as usual, of course immediately felt the need to save the day and jumped in to change the course of the conversation.
"Anyway, we were just thinking about visiting Kakashi-sensei on the hospital." Naruto said. Shikamaru and Chouji looked at each other before shaking their heads.
"You better not. Ino's there getting all territorial on him." The genius told them.
"Actually, it might be the reason of Ino and Inoichi-san's fight." Chouji chimed in.
"What is it?"
Sai took note at how Neji suddenly changed his focus to the remnants of his ramen instead of the conversation. He was uncomfortable with the topic. Did he know something? Neji was part of the team when they all escorted Ino to Kumo, after all.
"Do you know why Kakashi's sick at the first place? He was accidentally struck down by Inoichi's jutsu so now Ino is trying to help with his healing process. She's a medic nin and a mind walker, after all." Chouji said as he devoured his ramen, totally unfazed by the steaming soup that would burn normal people's mouth any day. Now that Sai really took attention, he noticed that it was his second bowl of ramen? It's practically only about ten minutes since they've been here.
"I don't think that it was the case." Sai began boldly. He made sure everybody was looking at him, before he continued. "I heard Ino's pretty close with Kakashi herself. I don't think it's an accident, I think there was some kind of love affair between the two of them, one that is big enough to make Inoichi so angry. " Sai commented. Again, this put the four men around him tensed. Oh God, he just loved people getting tense upon his comment. Though it meant that Neji's reason for tensing was unknown, then. Sai actually was still just in the dark with what happened between Kakashi and Ino before and after he met with Ibiki, and even though it didn't have anything to do with the plan, Sai was just simply being his curious self.
"Kakashi-sensei? Ino? Pfft." Naruto let a forced laugh after he regained his composition. Neji didn't comment even though his face was conflicted. Sai decided to throw a bait at him.
"Ask Neji. He was part of the team."
Everbody turned to Neji for confirmation but Neji only gave Sai an irritated look. "It was what it was. You are reaching here, Sai."
"Stop getting all conspiratorial." Shikamaru sighed as he slurped his ramen. "By the way, Kakashi's sickness means a bigger workload for all of us."
Naruto gave Shikamaru a wide-eyed look. "What do you mean?"
"Kakashi's groomed to be the Seventh Hokage, and while Tsunade was still acting as the Hokage right now, she has announced that she'll retire within a week. She already planned this weeklong package spa with the ex Mizukage, Mei Terumi since three months ago and refused to cancel. That means if Kakashi is not healed within a week, the workload of the Hokage will be distributed evenly toward all shinobi and the Council will be the acting Hokage. Trust me, we don't want the Council as the acting Hokage. They're troublesome enough being the advisor. Good God, why explaining this is so exhausting…" Shikamaru growled.
"That's just so … selfish." Neji frowned.
"Give her a break. She's literally broken into pieces during the world war and still agree to continue her position as Hokage for months just so that Kakashi can get ready and sort any unfinished business." Shikamaru defended Tsunade.
"I can be acting Hokage." Naruto grinned.
"Ha. Just finish your Jounin exam first." Shikamaru rolled his eyes at him. Naruto grunted. It was one of thing Naruto could never understand, he was like … the greatest hero of the war, and yet when he came back to Konoha he's only raised to chuunin position as an 'honorary reward' and now, he still has to gain his jounin rank through exams. Exams! Naruto wasn't even sure he could pass the first test.
"Speaking of Kakashi, though. What's his syndrome, anyway?" Neji asked.
"I don't know. He's been unconscious the whole time and Ino didn't let anyone in." Shikamaru scratched his head.
"Even fellow medics?"
"They have concluded that it's only his mind exclusively, so it was only her and one other Yamanaka."
"And a Morino Ibiki." Chouji reminded Shikamaru. "God knows what that man doing in there."
Shikamaru then looked at Sai.
"Now that I think about it, he told me he has a message for you, Sai. He told you to mind your own business. Whatever is that supposed to mean?"
Sai was contemplating the idea of turning the table over and spurring them on by telling people that it was, of course, regarding Kakashi and Ino being together and stuff. However, in the end, it was Morino Ibiki he was going against, and he knew that his best chance is by obeying him. So Sai only shrugged his shoulder, as he said,
"Message received."
XXX
How? How the hell did Ibiki know that Sai will prod his nose where he didn't belong? Did he have Sai followed or something?
At the thought, Sai turned around and checked his surroundings. There's nothing suspicious. Besides, he would have known had someone followed him, Root training took that kind of matter seriously. Sai was tired with planning and scheming all day so when he opened his door and he found Ibiki sitting on his sofa as the scarred man was amidst reading one of his notes, Sai impulsively threw him shurikens in which the head of T&I easily caught with his free hand. Sai mentally scolded himself for not noticing presence in his apartment before he got in. It wouldn't always be Ibiki who snuck into his room, other times, it could be someone with bad intentions and he wouldn't be ready for that. Though in this case, Sai wasn't even sure that Ibiki didn't have bad intentions himself.
"You should have checked your apartment for other people's presence before entering." Ibiki said what Sai thought to himself out loud as he stood up and returned Sai his shuriken.
"How?" Sai asked.
"Simple lock picking." Ibiki showed him a small wire. "It's not like your apartment is protected with traps and stuffs."
"You know that's not what I'm talking about."
"You're nosy by nature." Ibiki replied easily, knowing that it was about his message to Shikamaru earlier. Sai knew that it was actually more than that, but he chose to keep silent. "I have heard how things are going, anyway."
Have heard? How could he had heard things? Sai's plan was exclusively his so how could …
"Don't mull over how I know things too much, young man. I've been in this business for decades." Ibiki waved his hand in dismissal, once again correctly reading his mind.
"What do you think?" Sai asked wearily.
"Tenten is a very loyal person and she's one of Ino's closest best friend other than the pink haired lady. You have to push much harder than that if you wanted her to betray Ino."
"What I did is not hard enough?" Sai asked skeptically.
"If she was as smart as I thought, she'll only get suspicious."
"She looked devastated enough." Sai said stubbornly. He had thought that his plan had flowed along beautifully so when Ibiki started to rain on his parade, he couldn't help but to get defensive.
"Of course she did." Ibiki said. "It's a normal, impulsive reaction. But she'll actually calm down and then she'll realize that … Ah."
"What?" Sai narrowed his eyes.
"That Uchiha is coming here. He's interested and it won't be that hard persuading him into your side. You should focus your work on Tenten as soon as you convince Sasuke."
"I will."
"Good." Ibiki was about to raise his hand to let him disappear into a cloud of smoke when he stopped and narrowed his eyes at Sai.
"Also, don't try to meddle with the whole Kakashi thing. I have said I'm handling him, and that's all."
He disappeared for real this time. Sai tried to calm himself from the tornado he'd just been through when Sasuke opened his door.
"You didn't lock your door." He made a rhetorical comment.
Sai sat at his sofa. "What bring you here, Sasuke-kun?"
Sasuke furrowed his eyebrows. "It's about our interrupted conversation. I would like to hear more."
"It is what it is." Sai smiled.
"You want to put the blame on Tenten, don't you?"
Sai wasn't going to be surprised twice. Sasuke was definitely a sharp man to see what he came up with only several hints. As expected from the guy who killed Danzo.
"True."
Sasuke folded his hand. "What I don't understand is where you are in this whole scheme. How is the cancellation of the arrangement benefit you in anyway?"
"Ah." Sai thought of the lies he could tell Sasuke, but figured out that telling him the truth would do no harm either. "It will do me no benefit at all."
"And?"
"I love pulling the strings, Sasuke-kun."
Sasuke gave contemplation to his answer before he nodded. "As expected from a twisted person like you."
"Thank you."
"Give me details." Sasuke sat himself on the recliner in front of him as he crossed his legs.
"Date Sakura for ten days when she broke up with Lee. By that time, the arrangement will already be cancelled, and after that Ino's on the market again." Sai said it simply. Sasuke smirked. "What about Darui?"
"I'll figure out a way to get Tenten relapse on him."
"I'm in."
Sai grinned. "Good."
XXX
The signature antiseptic smell was unmistakable of a hospital. It had been quite a long time since he's been here, last time being when he was treated for war wounds. His hand trailed on the cold, metal railing as he walked through the quiet corridor. It was almost midnight already and barely anyone was there.
But he knew she would be there.
He opened the glass door and ignored the huge sign that basically told him to go away and proceeded to the particular room he was heading to. The corridor there was eerily quiet but Sasuke was no coward. He finally reached the room to find out that his surmisal was right. She was there, standing on Kakashi's bedside table with closed eyes. He knew she wasn't asleep and she was just trying one of the mind techniques to heal the silver haired man.
Why she was so persistent, he didn't know.
As soon as he opened the room's door, her eyes snapped open and she was about to yell at him for trespassing without permission, but her eyes visibly softened upon seeing him. She always softened for him.
"What are you doing here?" Her tone was more astonished than angry. Ino let go of Kakashi's hand – an affectionate gesture he didn't miss- and tread her way toward him.
He opened his arms wide. "I have something to tell you."
"I don't think it's the right …"
"It's important." He persisted. Ino stopped and before surrendering to him.
"What is it?"
"Sai and Ibiki is scheming to sabotage your marriage arrangement with Darui." She gasped in horror and thousands of emotion flashed by her face that very second. Betrayal, disappointment, anger, sadness, and much more.
Inward, Uchiha Sasuke smirked.
XXX
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It's probably going to be the last chapter that focuses on Sai, but meh, I never know. ;)
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