Chapter 9: Number One Fan

Naruto wandered around in search of someone else he could use this power on. Some of his friends were off on missions and others were scattered around the village. He still wanted to use this power on Sakura but it became clear that it wouldn't be so easy. In fact, it might be impossible. His only hope was to use it indirectly on her, which meant using it on other people in order to get her to do as he wanted. He tried this with Sai but things didn't go as planned.

"Maybe I can try it again." Naruto shook his head at the thought. "No. Even I know better than to try the same thing twice. Sakura will just do the same thing she did last time."

He should probably keep his distance from Sakura for a while. He didn't want her to get suspicious.

"But that doesn't mean I can't still have some fun with Sai." Naruto hurried off to find him with a new idea in mind.

After searching the park and the shopping area, he finally found Sai walking by himself towards his home. Naruto called out to him and Sai stopped.

"Hey, Sai. Whatcha doing?"

"I was just returning home for a bit."

Naruto gave his finger a snap, only to have Sai stare at him in confusion.

"That's right," Naruto said quietly to himself. He had never given Sai a command to fall back into a trance. Which meant he would have to put him under all over again.

"Why did you snap your fingers?" Sai asked.

"Just seeing if I could. They say some people can't do it."

Sai seemed satisfied with his answer.

Naruto unzipped his jacket and pulled out the necklace.

Sai's eyes were drawn to it immediately. "Oh, that's the necklace you were showing me before, isn't it?"

"So you recognize it, huh?"

"Yes."

Naruto started to spin it in his fingers, making the jewel rotate from side to side rather than having it swing. Sai's eyes followed its every rotation. He couldn't look away from it. For some reason, he wanted to watch it spin and sparkle.

"That's a pretty jewel," Sai said softly. He sounded like he was half-asleep already.

Naruto wondered if it would be easier to put Sai into a trance a second time around.

Within no time at all, Sai started to become drowsy without Naruto having to say anything. His suspicions appeared to be correct. Sai was more easily put under a second time. Rather than stand around and wonder why this was, Naruto set to work putting Sai into another trance. He spoke to him in a soft, soothing tone, his words slow and rhythmic. Sai's eyes began to droop little by little and his head started to bob.

"Your eyes are getting heavy... You're feeling very sleepy... Very sleepy..."

Sai's eyes drooped a little more, almost closing completely. At Naruto's soothing words, Sai's eyes soon grew too heavy for him to keep open and they finally closed.

"That's it..." Naruto whispered to him. "Now... you-"

"Naruto?"

Naruto flinched and spun around, covering the jewel with his hand. "Sakura!" he yelped in surprise. "Wha- what are you doing here?"

"I was just walking by and thought I'd say hi." She gave him a suspicious look. "Why are you so jumpy? What are you doing?"

"Me? Oh! I was just... I was just, um..."

THUD.

Naruto looked back and saw Sai on the ground. He was asleep on his feet but apparently his body was too relaxed to support him and he fell over.

"Crap."

Sai lifted himself up and looked around. "What the..?"

Naruto stepped in front of Sai to block Sakura's view of him. He chuckled nervously when Sakura gave him another look.

"Hm..." She pouted in suspicion. "Well... Whatever you are doing, kindly leave me out of it."

"Sure thing. Heh heh heh..!"

Sakura didn't leave as he expected her to. "So you are up to something."

"Me? No! No way."

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing."

"Tell me."

"I wasn't..."

Sai grabbed onto Naruto's arm and pulled himself up. "Naruto..." he mumbled sleepily. "I'm tired."

Sakura looked at the heavy eyes on her teammate and her face softened. "Oh. Oh, I get it."

"Huh?" Naruto wondered what she thought. She couldn't have known that he was trying to put Sai into a trance. Surely she wasn't that smart.

Sakura grinned and said, "You were escorting Sai back to his place, weren't you?"

"Uh..."

"His place is right there and Sai said he was tired so you must have been helping him out."

"... Yeah."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "You're just embarrassed about admitting it. Typical Naruto." She suspected that Naruto didn't want her to find out that he was helping Sai because it would show a side of him he didn't want her to see. Either that or he thought helping someone like Sai was an embarrassing thing for some reason. She knew Naruto didn't want to admit such a thing, but she didn't know why he would find it so embarrassing.

She decided to leave them alone. She gave them a little wave and was off.

Naruto breathed a sigh of relief. "That was close."

Sai yawned in his ear. "I feel really sleepy and don't know why." Sai gave his cheek a little slap, trying to wake himself up.

Naruto didn't want Sai to wake up fully because it would be harder to put him in a trance. As long as he was tired, it would be easy. Naruto pulled out the necklace and spun it again, hoping Sai would see it and submit again.

Sure enough, he did and soon he grew quiet and stood perfectly still.

To make sure they weren't disturbed, Naruto guided Sai into the alley and continued from there.

Naruto kept him calm with soothing words and a comforting tone. Sai's head hung as his eyes closed, letting Naruto know he was ready for his commands.

"Sai, went I snap my fingers, you will fall back into a deep trance. When I snap my fingers again and say the word 'awake', you will wake up from your trance. Understand?"

Sai nodded.

Now he just had to test it. Naruto snapped his fingers. "Awake."

Sai opened his eyes and lifted his head. He stretched and looked around. "I feel like I fell asleep but I don't remember..." A yawn interrupted him. Sai rubbed his shoulder, feeling stiff. "Why are we in an alley?"

"I thought we could chat and not be in anyone's way over here."

"Oh." Sai looked back at him. "Chat about what?"

Naruto snapped his fingers and Sai's head fell forward, out like a light. It worked. "Ok, Sai. When you wake up from your trance, you will do anything I say. You admire me so much, you will feel very loyal to me and be willing to do whatever I tell you to do. You will be my servant."

Sai nodded.

Naruto wanted to have some real fun now. Hopefully with Sai as his servant, he could command respect from him and make sure Sai didn't annoy him with his usual idiosyncrasies. The nicknames were annoying enough.

"Awake." Naruto snapped his fingers.

Sai opened his eyes and looked up at Naruto. Nothing appeared to have changed on the surface.

"Sai, follow me to the park."

"Yes, sir," Sai responded.

Naruto grinned at being called 'sir' so respectfully. Apparently, it worked. Naruto led Sai to the park and stopped. "Sai, I'm trying to find some of our friends. Do you think you can help me?"

"Of course. What do you need?"

Naruto thought about what he wanted. He had already used this power on Neji and Shino. Who else could he use this on? "Find Kiba and bring him here to me."

"Yes, sir." Sai quickly hurried off to find Kiba.

Naruto stood at the entrance to the park and smiled. This may turn out to be more fun than he thought.

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