Ka-ching! "Have a nice day."
I paid for Sai's apples, and my own. Sai smiled a closed eye smile. Fake, of course. "Thank you for paying for these. I appreciate it."
We walked down the road of the village. I looked at the time: 7:15 AM. It was still pretty early, and I had promised Deidara and Tobi that I would be back by 3:00 PM. I still had quite a bit of time to meet Sai's friends.
Sai and I stopped at what he said to be Naruto's house. He was about to open the door, when I stopped him. He looked confused. "Whatever is the matter, Taki?"
I tried to put it in the nicest way possible. "I think it would be a bit more polite to knock first, because we don't know whether he wants us in or not. I have opened the door to my uncle's room once without asking, and he got a bit mad."
Sai nodded. "You put it in a lot nicer of a way than Sakura. She would have punched me."
He knocked on the door. I wanted to add that it was impolite to talk about your friends badly behind their backs, but I figured it might be rude to correct him twice in a row.
The door opened. A tall blonde with blue eyes answered. "Oh hey, Sai. I didn't expect you to have knocked. Usually you just barge in." He shuddered. "And I just got dressed. How embarrassing that would have been!"
He looked at me. "Hey Sai, who's that?" He smiled mischievously. "Is she your-" He held up his pinkie finger. "-Girlfriend?"
In my mind I shook my head. Sai responded calmly, "No. I bumped into her at the market. We actually found that we have a lot in common, so I thought I could introduce her to my friends."
Naruto grinned. "Hi. my name is Naruto Uzumaki. Do you think we could hang out in the forest together?"
I couldn't help but smile back. Sai looked at me, then at Naruto. "Yes, but let's bring everyone as well." Naruto walked out of his room, closed the door, and turned around to look at us. "By everyone you mean Sakura, Ino, Choji, Shikamaru, Kiba, Hinata, Shino, Neji, TenTen, and Bushy Brows, right?"
Sai began to walk past him. We followed. "Uh, yeah. Bring who you like, Naruto."
We brought everyone together in the forest, next to a lake. Sai began to introduce me to each person.
First, he brought me to a girl with pink hair. She smiled. "Hello. I'm Sakura. Nice to meet you. Sai is one of my closest comrades."
I relaxed. "It's a pleasure to meet you too, Sakura. You have a pretty name; it means cherry blossom. My name is Taki."
Sakura beamed at the compliment. She turned to Sai. "Im surprised you were the one to meet this girl and make friends with her. I didn't think your book would actually help you with that."
Even though Sakura was a nice person, I understood that she could sometimes be a bit critical of others.
I spoke up. "Even though Sai has gone through Root training, I understand he has tried hard to make up for his lost emotions. He can really be a caring person sometimes, which is something I look for in a true friend."
Sai smiled and looked down. Sakura looked impressed. "Wow, you made him smile an actual smile. Maybe you could be a real good influence on him."
I laughed. As we walked to the next person, Sai looked at me. "Taki, did you really mean that? No one has ever said anything so nice about me like that."
I looked straight into his eyes. "Of course I did. I believe- that you have the potential of becoming a truly great friend to everyone you meet."
We walked to a girl with blonde hair, and bangs that covered up the right side of her face.
She jumped right into the conversation. "Hi! I'm Ino, what's your name?" She blushed when she looked at Sai.
I completely understood. She had a thing for Sai. "Nice to meet you, Ino. I'm Taki. I like the outfit you are wearing. It goes nicely with the color of your eyes." I turned to look at Sai, then back at her.
I smiled. "Don't worry. I won't take him. He's all yours. Heh, I say this confidently because I know Sai won't understand anyways."
Ino blinked a few times, and blushed. "Thanks, I appreciate the compliment, and.. The other thing." We both laughed when Sai said,
"I'm sorry. I couldn't quite understand what you said, Taki. Could you explain it to me?" We walked away to meet the next person.
I turned to Sai. "I don't think you would understand the feeling she has for you. I can help you with it later, if you want."
He nodded. Next we went to a guy holding a bag of chips.
"Hello there, my name is Choji. What's yours?" I could see that he liked to eat a lot.
I smiled. "Hello Choji. You seem to be a very kind person. My name is Taki. If you enjoy eating tasty foods, maybe I could bake you some cookies sometime if you like."
Continued in next chapter...