Chapter 494: Sai
Haruno Sakura reached into the ninja's mouth and held his slippery tongue.
"Stay calm. It might hurt a little." She said.
Sakura's gaze swept lightly over the boy's handsome face. The latter opened his mouth, saliva uncontrollably dripped down slowly, but the expression on his face remained calm.
No, not calm.
Haruno Sakura narrowed her eyes slightly, feeling it was more like the dead silence of a mechanical indifferent expression.
"Stick your tongue out a bit more, Sai."
The boy sitting in front of her was the former Root ninja, Sai, who formed Team 7 with Naruto and the others in another world.
Sai obeyed and stuck his tongue out further.
The black strip-shaped curse seal on the base of the tongue was revealed.
Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal.
This was the curse seal Danzo used to control Root ninja and ensure subordinates wouldn't reveal Root secrets. Because Danzo hadn't been executed yet, this curse seal was still in effect.
Outside the strip-shaped curse seal was a circle of purple tadpole-shaped curse marks, forming a standard semicircle. That was the second seal placed by Anbu during interrogation.
Just as Orochimaru used the Five Elements Seal to cover the Eight Trigrams Seal on Naruto's abdomen back then, disturbing the function of the Nine-Tails seal formula, this Five Elements Seal performed by Anbu could cover the black curse seal, making it lose its restrictive effect on Root ninja, to facilitate their interrogation.
Of course, the mass-produced temporary seal didn't last very long, and the effect was quite rough.
When Haruno Sakura checked, the Five Elements Seal had already twisted and deformed, and the color had faded by half.
"The Five Elements Seal has failed, right?"
Sai couldn't speak, nodding with difficulty. Haruno Sakura continued: "The Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal will automatically fail after Danzo dies, so we can ignore it for now. I'll remove the Five Elements Seal first, then re-lay a more powerful Eight Trigrams Seal."
The boy remained expressionless, just blinking.
The girl's scallion-white fingers probed deep into his mouth, reaching the very bottom of the strip-shaped curse seal.
The warm and soft fingertips rubbed the protrusion of the curse seal. Although Sakura's movements were already very gentle, the entry of a foreign object still made Sai feel waves of nausea.
He tried hard to suppress the thought of suddenly erupting and breaking free from her control.
Sai was still confused about his situation until now.
As an ordinary member of Root, his life trajectory took a 180-degree turn after Danzo's downfall.
Sai once thought he would stay in the Anbu prison for a few months, then after undergoing Anbu screening, re-employed as an ordinary ninja, carrying the label of former Root ninja that could never be removed, either accomplishing nothing for a lifetime or dying unknown in a mission, in a corner.
But afterward, he seemed to receive some degree of preferential treatment and trust, underwent the second round of review in advance, and under Uchiha Sasuke's meaningful gaze, walked out of the Anbu prison into the sunlight.
"From today on, you are an ordinary Konoha ninja, Sai."
Kakashi stuffed a ninja registration card into his arms.
"Remember, you have nothing to do with Danzo anymore."
Sai looked carefully at the registration card in his hand under the sunlight.
Name: Sai. Gender: Male. Rank: Tokubetsu Jonin.
Personal Profile: Good at drawing.
On the opposite page was an ID photo stamped with a steel seal. The boy in the photo had delicate features, red lips and white teeth, indifferent eyes, showing no expression.
The back was blank with the Konoha mark printed on it.
Getting this paper meant that Tsunade and Konoha had admitted that he was no longer a former Root ninja, but an ordinary member of the tens of thousands of Konoha ninja.
The September sun was still dazzling. Sai stuffed the registration form into his ID book, put it close to his body, and narrowed his eyes.
He was just an ordinary member of Root, didn't know Danzo's secrets. Except for that secret technique which was passable, there was nothing special about him that needed attention, nor did he have any interpersonal relationships that would make others put in a good word for him.
So he wasn't worth the village's recruitment, nor was there any reason to receive preferential treatment.
So... why?
The only thing that could be related to this matter was that day when Danzo took a few of them Root members aggressively to block Haruno Sakura, and then was beaten pissing his pants by her—Sai was lucky to shout surrender in time and wasn't beaten to death on the spot.
That should have offended the big shots of the Hokage faction and been noted down in a small notebook, right?
Sai rubbed the paper full of realism in his hand, his heart full of confusion, but his calm expression remained motionless on the surface.
"Is this... over?"
Obviously not.
Although the story of the nameless Root ninja had ended.
Sai's story had just begun: a few days later, Haruno Sakura, who returned from the Land of Snow, pulled him into the mission delegation.
At first glance, that woman—or should be called a girl—said: "I smell the scent of Danzo's rotten chakra on you..."
"Cursed Tongue Eradication is effective again?"
Clearly two years younger than him, yet exceptionally domineering.
Didn't even wait for his answer before making a decision: "Open your mouth, I'll deal with it."
—Then the opening scene appeared.
Sai stopped recalling.
Focusing attention on the girl's hand, controlling the physiological reaction caused by the foreign object probing into his throat.
Haruno Sakura's movements were not slow.
First gently rubbing the old Five Elements Seal, ingeniously washing away the failed seal. Then—
Blue light of chakra suddenly rose from her fingertips, suddenly pressing on the base of Sai's tongue.
The warm, soft, and slippery finger suddenly became scorching hot like a soldering iron, fiercely scalding the defenseless soft flesh!
Sai's eyes widened instantly, almost jumping up from the chair.
But after all, he was a ninja from Root. Powerful endurance forcibly suppressed the huge pain; only to see Sai sweating profusely, his delicate face twisted hideously, veins popping out, but his body remained motionless!
Haruno Sakura's finger firmly and slowly slid across Sai's tongue. Chakra perfectly transformed into a Double Four Symbols Seal, turning into fine curse marks, nesting outside the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal.
In a short while, the new seal was finally completed.
Haruno Sakura pulled her hand out, her hand covered with transparent saliva.
Sai went limp all over, sitting in the chair, sweating like rain, soaking all his clothes, saliva uncontrollably dripping from the corner of his mouth, looking extremely wretched.
Haruno Sakura washed her hands clean, looked at Sai's appearance, and handed him a stack of tissues.
Sitting for a while, Sai recovered his strength, stood up, wiped off sweat and saliva, tidied up, and instantly restored the appearance of that clean, clear, and handsome boy.
"Thank you."
Sai said very stiffly.
Like saying thank you for the first time.
Haruno Sakura frowned slightly. Etiquette-wise, she should smile and say you're welcome at this time, but facing Sai, she had no such thought.
In that world, Sasuke saw Sai getting along well with Naruto and others, so he thought he had value worth saving, thus giving him preferential treatment for priority review and obtaining a new identity.
However, is this appropriate?
After all, the Sais of the two worlds were not the same person.
People are shaped by "experiences."
Sai, who hadn't been influenced by Naruto, was ultimately not the same person as the Sai of that world.
So... need patient training?
Haruno Sakura looked at him with exploring eyes.
Sensing the girl's gaze, Sai felt subtly uneasy.
"Is there something wrong?" He thought for a moment, put on a stiffer and falser smile, "Oh—I forgot to smile when thanking."
The emotionless squinting smile made him look very punchable.
"Has no one told you? Your smile is very fake." Haruno Sakura said coldly, "This kind of smile doesn't make your thanks seem more sincere."
Sai was silent for a moment, the expression on his face returning to emotionless indifference.
"Sorry," Sai subconsciously knelt on one knee, lowering his head, "I did this based on what the book said, that one should smile when thanking."
The experience of serving in Root made Sai develop a conditioned reflex to kneel and admit mistakes immediately once scolded by superiors.
Obviously, Haruno Sakura was the superior he identified. Judging from ninja rank, status, or strength, he could only reach this conclusion.
Haruno Sakura sighed and walked in front of Sai.
"Get up," she said lightly, "Konoha is not Root that obliterates humanity and eliminates personality. There are no rules of kneeling at every turn."
"No need to hide yourself so hypocritically. You can... treat me, treat us as companions."
Sai was slightly stunned.
Two slender, straight, and fair legs standing in front of Sai, instead of Danzo's unchanged black robe for ten thousand years, reminded him that the person in front was not the cold and ruthless Danzo.
But... um, the cold and ruthless Haruno Sakura.
At least in his memory, the only contact with Haruno Sakura left the deepest impression on him: ruthless and merciless attacks, every move fatal, powerful and cold...
That was the impression of her as an enemy.
But now he is her companion... so the attitude is different?
Sai stood up obediently.
"Thank you... for helping me seal the curse mark." He tried hard to put on a suitable smile.
This time, the smile was slightly less hollow, but still falsely ugly.
"...You're welcome, just a small effort." Haruno Sakura waved her hand and said helplessly, "Also, since you don't want to smile, don't force yourself to smile."
"A smile without real emotion... is ugly."
Sai fell silent.
"Is that so?" He pondered for a moment and asked, "The book clearly says that when encountering situations where you don't know what expression to make, just smile."
"The book you read must not have said that a hypocritical smile is often more disgusting than not smiling." Haruno Sakura said impatiently.
"If you must smile, please smile more sincerely, put your feelings into the smile."
Sai was silent for a long time.
"What's wrong?"
Sakura raised her eyebrows and asked.
"People of Root... don't have such things as feelings." Sai said slowly.
"People all have feelings..." The girl shook her head, smiled slightly, and patted his shoulder, "You've just been suppressed for too long."
Regardless of what Sai thought, Sakura pushed his shoulder: "Help me gather everyone."
"Regarding this operation, I have something to say to everyone."
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