I've seen it all a thousand times
Falling down I'm still alive, am I? Am I?
So hard to breathe when the water's high
No need to swim I'll learn to fly, so high, so high
You find the truth in a child's eyes
When the only limit is the sky
Living proof, I see myself in you.

- Backstreet Boys; Show Em (What You're Made Of)

LIVING PROOF

Their first sex was totally unplanned. Sai was supposed to just drop her at her house after having a day long walk around the outskirt of Konoha. He had drawn her in a scroll, with the tresses as background. It was beautiful. Sai's drawing and calligraphy had always been the best in their village. He even drew Naruto and Hinata with the calligraphy of 'love' as their wedding gift.

Ino asked him to help her hang it in her bedroom. She said she wanted to wake up to it. So Sai happily complied. It wasn't that hard either. He just needed to tiptoe a bit to reach the wall, with her beside him trying to instruct him what to do. But their close proximity, her breath fanning across his neck, and her scent-filled room smothering his senses somehow triggered something inside him.

He kissed her hard right after with urgency, alarming her of what was to come next. They never really talked about this. Sai was too oblivious, and Ino thought she wasn't ready. But as she felt his scorching desire emitting from his intense kissing, Ino knew there would be no one else for her but him.

Unlike popular belief, she was actually a virgin, and he was not. Growing up with Root had voided all of their emotions, but they were humans still. Lust was just a given—particularly among a group of guys. But they were the Root. None of the sex was attached. It was the first time for Sai to be touching a girl and not wanting it to be a one-night stand. It was the first time Sai didn't want to rush to the end.

He took his time exploring her body. Her figure was curvaceous, her blonde locks were mesmerizing in arrays, her half-lidded blue eyes flashed with needs and lust. His fingers trailed along her face, smearing his thumb across her lips as he kissed her. He touched and kissed down her neck, to her collarbones and shoulders before reaching her naked full breasts. Her nipples were aching so hard and her obvious perky pinky buds had obviously showed how much she wanted him too.

But Sai took his sweet time to his own. He flipped her on her stomach, touching and kissing and licking the back of her neck down her back till he reached her butt. Ino knew by then that there will not be an inch of her body that would be left untouched by Sai that night.

He deliberately left from her butt down her thigh, avoiding the area she was craving to be touched the most. Her folds moistened with desire, but Sai had no intention to give in yet. He kissed her down to her toes, and she curled them.

"Sai..." her breathy moan turned him on more if that was even possible. And he felt his shaft turning so hard that it might burst.

His lips curved into a somewhat innocent smile then he kissed her sole again. She curled her toes. "You're rather sensitive here aren't you?"

He kneeled, looking down to her shapely legs up to her rounded butt and he felt his mouth water. Beautiful legs. Apparently, he found a new fetish. Gently he grabbed both of her feet and pried them open—wide. Suddenly, Ino felt bare.

"Sai, what are you—" she turned her head, trying to look behind her and then her eyes widened. He was already naked with all its glory. And holy lord, he was huge. Ino remembered Sai's blunt comment about Naruto's penis—he said Naruto's was small. But now that she saw him naked and hard, Ino started to wonder perhaps Naruto wasn't the one who was small. Perhaps it was Sai who was too big.

She wasn't given the chance to think when Sai suddenly bent his head down to her crotch, settling between her legs. His fingers reached her fuzzy lips and spread her open.

"Sai—"

He licked her.

She couldn't help but moan. His tongue was soft and moist tickling her clit that sent a jolt of pleasure all over her body. He was lapping her love juice hungrily, as if he was a thirsty man in need of water to survive. Occasionally he would latch his lips around her opening and sucked her hard as if trying to draw out more fluid. But it only made her clit respond to more stimulation.

Ino gripped her quilt, biting her pillow as weird sensation started to pool low in her belly. Her muscles tightened. And then she felt his tongue darting into her. She let out a small scream, breath heaving as she felt more fluid flowing out of her. And when he pushed his fingers into her opening, she gave up trying to hold back, letting small pleasurable spasms take over her body.

That night, they made love twice.

Sai was rather possessive of her feet since then. Whenever she almost hit her foot to anyone, he was always fast to block the contact. He rather despised it whenever she used her kicks to fight too. Somehow, Ino felt amused.

Sai had troubles expressing his emotions. Yet somehow it was rather easy to read him this time.

"It is called jealousy," she explained to him when he described the feeling.

"I was jealous?" Sai frowned a bit. "Why would I feel jealous?"

"Because you are being possessive," Ino chuckled almost giddily.

"Of your feet?"

"Of me."

It took him some time to really grab the concept. He was being possessive towards Ino as if she was his property. It took every ounce of his will not to punch away those men eying her assets for way too long for his liking—yes, she's sexy but she's his. She was his and only his. He wouldn't allow other men to have her like he did.

Sai's train of thought halted at that.

She was his? Was she really? How exactly can he call her his? Just because they slept together didn't mean she belonged to him. He slept with a few girls before too but there wasn't any string attached. So how was her any different?

Sai was rather rough with desperation during their sex that night. He was muttering 'mine' all night long, not that Ino needed any reminder of that. She had given Sai all of her without reserving a thing. Never in her life she had been so in love with someone. She was all his inside out.

When he confided in Naruto, Sai brought along a few books about human feelings. Naruto simply took the books and threw them aside.

"Sai, it's nothing complicated. You're in love," Naruto scrunched his face in annoyance as he stated the obvious.

"With you?" Sai blinked.

Naruto grunted with heavy frustration. "With Ino! Why the hell would you be in love with me?"

"But I'm your friend. I should love you," he looked up blankly at Naruto.

"No!" Naruto pulled his hair before slamming his fist on the table. "You're romantically in love with her. Like how Hinata is to me. It's like you always want to be with her."

"I always want to be with you too."

Naruto squinted. "You want to be with her, and kiss her, and have sex with her."

"We already did."

"I don't need to know that."

Sai read books about love later. Sakura was rather distracted too. She said Sasuke hadn't come back for so long and she missed him.

"He'll be back. He's away in a clearly different reason this time," Sai had tried to console her. After all, he read in a book once that friends supposed to help each other and he couldn't find other ways to help her.

"I know but I still miss him. I love him so damn much that it hurts," Sakura heaved a deep sigh.

Love. He was starting to get a grip of it. It was probably the ultimate emotional attachment to someone you severely like. Someone who would complete your life, even if she won't always be by your side—like Sasuke and Sakura. Someone whom you wish would trust and support you for life, even when the whole world turned their backs on you—like Naruto and Hinata.

That person to him was Ino.

He loved her before he even knew it, not knowing how or when. She was just his other half, the one who completed his life. She was the one he ever thought about during his mission, the one he wanted to come back to. She was the one he first sought after once he crossed the back gate of Konoha after finishing weeks-long Anbu mission. He wanted to live another day to see her.

Sai proposed to Ino not too long after. And Sakura left the village after Sai and Ino's wedding.

Love, Sai figured, was a very complicated feeling. There were many types of it, and Sai noticed there weren't enough books to read to completely understand it. He decided to give a scroll to Sakura, with a drawing of a bird inside it.

"Use it if you needed assistance of a bird. It'll come to life when you open the scroll," he told his friend.

Sakura took the scroll and gave it a long stare. "I'm sorry. It's your wedding, I was supposed to be the one who give you gifts."

Sai chuckled lightly. "You already gave me the gift of life. You gave me a new beginning."

And Sakura left.

She left to fight for this thing called love.

When Ino got pregnant, Sai had given attention to his wife's growing belly. It was amazing how their love making would produce such thing inside her. A baby will come out soon from her. And that baby was his. It has a weird ring to it.

"What if the baby hates me?"

Ino was reading a book on the couch at that time. She was almost ending her third trimester, and it was becoming a bit harder for her to move. Her huge belly looked like it was going to burst in Sai's eyes, but she still looked dazzling. In fact, she probably looked even more beautiful.

Meeting her husband's eyes, Ino put aside her book. "Don't be ridiculous. Why would the baby hate you?"

"Because I'm always the type of person who ends up being hated."

Ino frowned at his words. "Always? Did I hate you?"

"Perhaps?"

"Sai," she sighed. "I would never marry you if I hate you. Shikamaru and Chouji will never let you marry me if they hate you. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke would never acknowledge you if they hate you either. We love you. Your past wasn't the best, but neither was mine. The baby will love you, just like we all do."

The baby had blonde hair, and deep blue eyes. His skin was as pale as Sai's. But he was beautiful. Sai couldn't help but to stare at the baby for so long.

His baby was an art.

Sai had no idea he could make such an awesome being that worth more than any arts he could encounter around the world. He swore by that time that he would protect his child even if it meant his own life.

They named him Inojin. And Sai found another reason to come home to. Inojin's smile was genuine and contagious. His laughter was the best melody in Sai's ears.

"Hello, Inojin. Nice to meet you. I'm sorry, I don't know what my real name is," he grinned at his clueless baby. "But I decided to keep my code name Sai because this is the name that started everything to me," he paused. "The name that brought me to Naruto, and the name that brought me to you. Also, the name that I finally able to keep your Uncle Shin in my memory forever."

Uncle Shin. It has a nice ring to it.

Sai spoilt his son rotten. The kid was seven and he was skipping training with his friends because he knew Sai would excuse him. There were times when Ino felt so frustrated that Sai didn't even scold Inojin even once, but then again, Ino was almost like a monster mommy herself. Sai was Inojin's comfort.

What if the baby hates you? Ino grumbled inwardly. It turns out the baby might hate me instead.

"You love him too delicately," Ino complained, arms folded on her chest in intimidation as she squinted her eyes towards her husband.

"Because he is my identity," Sai gave her a soft smile, hands raised in apprehensive manner hoping his wife would cool down.

"Identity?"

"Everything about me was fake. My name was fake, my childhood memory was distorted. It was as if my existence was a lie. I was a nobody until he was born," Sai's expression turned sullen. "He is my first identity. For the first time in my life, something about me is real. He's my living proof, I see myself in him. Saying I am Inojin's father is far more real than saying I am Sai."

Inojin was like an enigma to him, born with the feeling called love. It was ironic how the emotion he was trained to discard while he was in Root was exactly the thing that had given him utter happiness.

Ino felt her heart break a little. She kissed him deeply, and he pulled her into a tight embrace. When she pulled away, he buried his face in her neck, inhaling the lavender scent of her.

"Ino, thank you," his whisper was soft but genuine.

"For what?"

"For giving Inojin to me. For giving me the identity I never had."

"I love you."

"I love you too," his voice woven with sincerity. "So damn much."

The End