Naruto X Sai

Chapter One

Naruto

"Where is he!?" I growl with my arms crossed as I lean against a wall.

Sakura turns to face me. Her eye twitches with annoyance and she raises her balled fist, shaking it at me. "You ask that one more time and I'm going to knock you into next week!"

"Sheesh. What's got you all upset, Sakura?"

"I'm warning you, Naruto." Sakura says menacingly as she takes a step towards me. I place my hands up to show that I surrender. "Just keep pushing my buttons. You'll end up in the hospital."

"Is that any way to talk to a friend?"

Sakura and I both gasp and look up, finding Kakashi sensei sitting lazily in a tree with one leg dangling as he reads more of Master Jiraiya's work. "What took you so long this time?" I bellow, barely able to keep myself under control.

"Oh you know, I wa-"

"Yeah yeah. Some uninteresting and totally untrue story. Can we just get on with our next mission?" Sakura interrupts.

Kakashi looks hurt but closes his book and jumps to the ground; landing lightly without even making a sound. "Aren't you forgetting something?" Kakashi looks back and forth between Sakura and myself waiting for one of us to respond. We look at each other with puzzled expressions and shrug. He smacks his hand against the side of his face and mutters a silent prayer under his breath. "Anyone that should be here but isn't?"

"Oh! Sai!" Sakura shouts with a smug look on her face as if she just answered an incredibly difficult math question correctly.

Kakashi slow claps with a look on his face as if he lost hope in the two of us. "Congratulations." He says sarcastically, earning him an annoyed look from Sakura.

"Actually, I'm right here."

All of us turn to find Sai ducked behind a brick wall. "Oh, didn't see you there, Buddy!" I exclaim as I rub the back of my head. "What are you doing back there anyways?"

Sai stands, wearing that fake smile he always has on. "I wished to observe how the three of you interacted with each other so that I could learn and improve my own interactions with others." Sai states plainly without any emotion.

"Did you learn anything?" Sakura asks.

Sai nods his head, a smile still on his face. "I learned from your conversation that my presence is overlooked."

Sakura turns red and waves her hands frantically. "Sai, we didn't mean to forget about you!"

"I understand. I need to make myself more... powerful."

"Well if class is over, I have a mission from the Hokage." Kakashi says, ending our conversation. "We're to head to a small village to the North of here and help build a wall to keep the local wildlife from damaging their crops and killing their livestock. It's a few days travel so you'll need to pack your bags with enough stuff for a few days. Meet at the gate in an hour." I hold back the urge to complain about such a boring mission. Instead, I nod in agreement and take off running, going over the list in my head of what I should bring.