Sai's Day Off

Missions came and went. Usually they came and several weeks would pass before they went. Luckily Sai always managed to get a few days of down time in-between. Mostly it was because he balanced two different roles in the ninja community. Now that Danzo had fallen from power and his plans defeated by Naruto, Sai had joined ANBU and left Root behind. But he also took a regular mission here and there. He was always at the ready to be partnered up with Sakura or Naruto and on a few occasions Hatake Kakashi. Two years had done wonders with him and his rocky relationship with team 7. Eventually he learned to leave the books behind and learn from the people he fought alongside. He would never fill the void that Sasuke left but he found a home among them still.

But today was his day off. No mission had his name assigned to it and his ANBU gear was finally clean of grim and grit. He pulled on his clothes. They weren't what he used to wear, these garments where much more modest. A simple black wife beater fit his upper body snugly, still allowing the outline of his form to be seen, and black pants where tucked into his boots Jounin style. Though the change in his wardrobe hadn't been his idea he didn't dislike it. It got rid of a decent amount of the lust filled gazes and it got Naruto to shut up about how gay he looked. He now knew how insulting it was when he referenced to Naruto's penis or lack thereof. Instead of it being funny as he once naively thought it was quite vulgar and uncalled for. But that didn't mean he still didn't taunt him with a few old nicknames when the occasion arose.

He wrapped up his finished painting, making sure that the plain brown packing paper wrapped neatly around the canvas. He didn't want her to peek at it. He wanted her to see it in its entirety. He put a slender sketch book in his pocket before picking up the wrapped painting and heading toward her house. He was curious as to where she would hang it. But he was sure that she would like it. At first Sakura didn't like the paintings he left for her on her door step. That was because of his naivety once again. She broke every one of his nude portraits featuring Sasuke and every combination of her male friends over his head. He had only stated that he was trying to make the house she purchased homier. He woke up from his coma a few days later. Then Kakashi suggested that he paint something that Sakura might actually like. He tried watercolors of seascapes, rococo romances, baroque gods and goddesses, paintings of food born of thick brushstrokes and bright colors yet she never hung any of them. Then one day he had ran out of things to draw and gave her an oil painting of one of the sketches he drew while in Rock country for a mission. A few days later it found a home in her bathroom on the first floor, the rocky and rainy grays, blues, and blacks complementing her dark tiled floor and ashen azure walls. From that point on he stuck to drawing in his own style, taking his sketches and turning them into paintings for her.

But that did not mean she was happy about his gifts to her. Every time they saw each other she would raise her voice and demand that he stop leaving pictures on her doorstep. After a few months of receiving painting after painting the anger had fallen out of her words but she said them none the less, a smile on her face instead of an annoyed frown. He had grown accustomed to see that smile. But he never stuck around to see how she liked them or where she put them. He never liked to see people's reactions to his work. It was a strange trait for an artist to have he knew, but with her, especially with Sakura, he felt like every reflection she had on his work was a reflection on him. That and the fact that his first two months of gifts were smashed immediately over his head led him to drop and dash. He took the three steps up on her porch and leaned the picture against the door frame. He took a minute to listen to the noises inside her house. He heard the tea kettle being to whistle and took his leave.

His first thing on his list of things to do on his day off was to turn in his mission report to the Hokage. Something he always found pleasure in. Her office was never sort of amusement or a hole in the wall. He strode up the spiral staircase, the sound of muffled anger filling the hall. He saw Shizune nervously biting on the tip of her ink pen as she watched the frightened look on the three genin's faces. He had seen these children in the training fields more than once when he nested himself high in the trees to sketch the sun setting over Konoha. These young ninja were under Shikamaru's care.

"He fell asleep again."

Shizune looked up and gave him a tired smile.

"They decided to pull some pranks on their old teachers at the academy. Kuro's eyebrows might not grow back this time."

He looked at the children, guilt clearly written on their faces. He had felt guilt one too many times before. Guilt for lying to Naruto and Sakura and Kakashi and to his Hokage, guilt that he could not say anything for fear of death from the torture seal Danzo placed him under.

"They will grow back. They always do."

The kids looked up to him, eyes now hopeful.

"Really?"

He squatted in front of them as he pulled out his sketch book and drew as he talked.

"Oh, yes. Naruto set them on fire at least six times. They grew back wild and bushy like this!"

He held out his picture of the gangly old teacher with caterpillars for eyebrows. They giggled at the picture with guilt free faces. At least until their teacher came back out. Shikamaru looked a little frazzled but so did everyone who came out of the Hokage's office. His charges looked up to him with grim faces.

"Trash duty for two weeks."

The children looked down defeated but pulled themselves from their chairs.

"Bye Sai-san."

He waved at the kids and gave them a happy smile. Shikamaru leaned over and glanced at his sketch only to shake his head as he walked away.

"You always hit it dead on."

He shrugged his shoulders as he put his notepad away as he walked past Shizune's desk and into the Hokage's office. She stopped rubbing her head long enough to look up at him and give an annoyed grunt.

"It's too early in the morning for you."

He gave her a glaring smile.

"Wipe that horrible thing off your face."

He did what he was told, not wanting to test her mood. He left that to Naruto. The daft blonde had a knack for it. Instead he settled on a small smirk. The Hokage gave him a long winded sigh at his change in facial expression.

"It's better than that damn fake smile of yours. Now where's your mission report?"

He handed it to her and gave her a brief description. A few minutes later she started to rub her temple again. He never understood why she wouldn't ease the pain with her medical Justus but he figured she'd receive many more headaches before the day was through. Kiba's team was due back in later this evening. Not one of their missions had ended without a fight between the two boys on the team. Kiba and Akamaru each had to carry one home more than once to keep them from spilling blood. The only girl on the team just seemed to ignore them and play with her bugs. She had a level head just like her father and was the only reason Kiba didn't leave them all in a forest somewhere.

"They dropped their pay rate lower on you?"

He nodded, "they believed that they shouldn't have had to pay for my lodging since I slept in the orchard most nights."

Her red nails pressed deeper into her skin, her counter clockwise motions getting tighter together.

"Next time sleep in the damn room they give you."

He knew that she didn't have it in her to receive another of his fake smiles so instead he nodded his head.

"Of course, Hokage-sama."

He turned to leave but her voice stopped him at the door.

"So what did you paint her this time?"

He turned around and found that a real smile had tugged up the corners of his lips as he spoke to her.

"A landscape of her namesake."

The hokage gave him a wide grin before letting it immediately fall away. She waved him toward the door with one hand while she dug through papers on her desk. As he left the offices he let his feet take him where they wanted to go. Every once and a while he would stop and sketch something in his notepad to painter later. He found Kakashi high up in a tree reading his blue book of questionable nature. He sketched him for some time, the man either not noticing or not caring. Sai thought that it would make a good gift for Sakura one day soon. She had found herself under the base of that same tree so many times before looking up to find him there, Icha Icha in hand. Just as he was putting the final detail in the whirlwind of silver hair he looked up to find the Copy-nin looking at him with a creased eye, the only visible sign that he was smiling at him.

"She loved it Sai."

He smiled at him as he shut his sketchbook and put it away. It had become so easy to smile and mean it with the help of his friends, with the help of Sakura. After Sasuke's betrayal and death she had barely smiled. That's why he started to leave her the paintings. When he started to give her his own original paintings the smile she gave him when she saw him made him feel like he had done something to ease her pain. Soon he was returning her bright smiles. He still used his fake smile though not on her, never on her anymore. It was just a useful tool on missions and came especially in handy when he wanted to creep someone out or to annoy his closer friends. He suddenly found himself in the presence of one of those friends.

"Hello Naruto. Are you heading to Ichiraku's?"

The blonde's blue eyes sparkled, "Where else would I get my ramen from? Ichiraku's is the best!"

He followed the hokage wannabe down the street and into the noodle stand, the smell of food making his empty stomach roar to life. They were both getting down to the bottoms of their bowls when Naruto suddenly spoke.

"She hung it in her bedroom."

He spent six nights in the cherry blossom orchard trying to find the perfect flowers to sketch. When he got home he carefully drew the tender petals out focusing on the beauty of the delicate flowers. He left the background soft and mute and focused instead on matching the petals with the color of her hair. He hid the color of her eyes in the tiny specks of stamen. He had never spent so much time on detail before and it amazed him at what came out of his meticulous work. This painting was a representation of what he thought of when he thought about her name. And Sai was very glad that she liked it. He smiled into his last bite of noodles and broth.