Sai (Naruto)

Sai is a character from the Naruto anime and manga.

Sai is a Chūbu of Konohagakure's Yamanaka clan. Prior to this, he was an Anbu from Root. As per standard Root training, Sai was conditioned to remove all emotions and as such, had difficulty connecting with others. When he is added to Team Kakashi as a replacement for the rogue Sasuke Uchiha, Sai begins to learn more about people's feelings and tries to develop his personality and identity by forming genuine bonds and rediscovering the emotions he was taught to suppress.

In the Heroes Coalition fics, Sai is a member of the Heroes Coalitions and is part of the Dream Team.

Appearance
Sai has short, straight black hair, and dark eyes which contrast with his translucent-looking pale skin. He is usually seen carrying a small backpack with his brush, scrolls, and ninja ink in it. He wears a short black-and-grey jacket with red straps — as customary of all Root members, to most likely show his allegiance to the organisation. He also carries a tip-less tantō on his back. The rest of his outfit consisted of a high-collared midriff shirt, black pants, shinobi sandals and gloves with his index and thumb fingers exposed, most likely to facilitate the use of his drawing based techniques. When first seen with Team Kakashi, his jacket has a long right and short left sleeves. He had Danzō's cursed seal on the back of his tongue until Danzō's death, which caused it to disappear. Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura, and Ino Yamanaka said he physically resembled Sasuke, despite his shorter hair and paler skin-tone. When he's not on missions, Sai wears a casual outfit consisting of a long-sleeve shirt with a high collar, matching pants, and his regular shinobi sandals. This outfit was first depicted as being purple in colour and later, navy blue. He doesn't wear his forehead protector or gloves with this outfit.

In the anime, when Sai uses the Sealing Technique: Tiger Vision Staring Bullet and his negative emotions surface because of his use of "emotional energy", his eyes turn a translucent red colour and his sclerae turn black. This is apparently, as when Danzō countered the symptoms, ink splattered from Sai's body.

Two years after the Fourth Shinobi World War, Sai's hair grew longer with his bangs framing his face. His attire is similar but both sleeves of his shirt, which is now completely black, are long, and his shinobi sandals reach more above his calves. He also has a large scroll strapped horizontally to his back.

A decade after the Fourth Shinobi World War, Sai's jacket now is long enough to cover his entire upper body, with both sleeves long. He continues wearing a scroll on his back and long sandals, but his pants are slightly different.

Personality
When first introduced, Sai was distinguished by his total lack of emotion which he often masks with a false, cheerful, yet transparent façade. After much mental conditioning and training while in Root, Sai had suppressed almost all of his emotions, laying all of his loyalty to whoever commands him, and thus making it easier for him to accomplish dangerous, unpleasant, or unethical missions. Due to this training and his lack of social experience and personal initiative, Sai has great trouble in understanding how bonds between people can motivate others. He often showcases this confusion after thinking about why Naruto would go so far to save Sasuke, a traitor, even though Naruto had not been ordered to do so.

Sai's social awkwardness tends to get people angry, because he often speaks without considering his words and their effects on people. This was due to his inability to realise the difference between a rude statement and a true statement. Sai had read somewhere in a book that giving somebody a nickname would bring you closer to that person and develop your friendship, this resulted in Sai hurting Sakura Haruno's feelings, because he called her "ugly", stating the first true character trait that came to his mind. This also nearly led to enraging Chōji, while eating barbecue with Team Asuma and Team Kakashi he nearly called him "fatso" before Naruto covered his mouth before he could finish. Realising he was offending people by saying characteristics that came to his head, Sai decided to take a different approach by saying the opposite of what came into his head. In this way, at the same event Sai called Ino "gorgeous" (although he truly meant to call her "ugly"), much to Ino's surprise, Naruto's relief, and Sakura's outrage.

After spending more time with Team Kakashi, Sai comes to appreciate bonds, particularly the bond that exists between Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha, though Sai would come to have his doubts about Sasuke when he began to commit crimes on an international scale, which Naruto would suffer for. This causes him to break out of his emotionless shell and start to remember the times he had with his own "brother", Shin. In doing so, Sai was able to start giving genuine smiles. Wanting to experience personal bonds for himself, Sai sets out to make as many friends as he can. However, since he is learning most of this out of books and by trial and error, he often accidentally ends up offending people with his nicknames and conversation. He has come to develop a more genuine, pleasant and thoughtful personality, while also showing signs of more emotion, such as enthusiasm and occasionally nervousness. In the anime, it was shown from his Infinite Tsukuyomi dream that his greatest desire is to fully rediscover his emotions and connect with as many people as possible through it.

He later appeared to show genuine anger while explaining to Sakura about Naruto's feelings for her and later when she lied to Naruto about the predicament with Sasuke and trying to use a fake confession to get him to give up on Sasuke. The greatest change in his personality, however, came after he encounters his reincarnated brother. When Shin is used as a living bomb by Deidara, Sai became truly enraged for the first time and attacked Sasori and Deidara mercilessly, showing genuine rage on his face. Sai also displayed genuine sadness, shedding tears when his brother was freed from the technique and disappears.

Sai is very observant, and is always focused on his missions. He pays a lot of attention to detail, allowing him to quickly notice if something is not as it appears, as shown from how he easily sees through Yamato's tricks. This awareness spans beyond the trials of duty, as Sai was later quick to understand the nature of Naruto's inner suffering without Naruto even telling him. What he failed to understand, however, was that Naruto was not trying to save Sasuke just for Sakura, something he mentions is due to his still lacklustre understanding of both his Team 7 teammates and emotions in general and he would come to regret when it lead to Sakura's suicidal attempt to stop Sasuke, feeling that as if he was a true friend, he should've found another way. Sai holds Naruto in high regard, and tries to assist Naruto whenever he's going through hardships however he can.

This bond with Naruto led Sai to start to understand camaraderie, and by the Fourth Shinobi World War, he realised he understood it as he, Rock Lee, and various others went to assist Naruto as he fought against Tobi. Growing up over the following the years, Sai came to truly understand compassion and love, forming a closer bond with Ino, showing more forwardness in such acts as asking her on a date and holding her hand affectionately. This ultimately led to them forming a family. Through all this, Sai has completely come to reject the teachings of Root, accepting that Danzō's actions, while genuine to protect the village, were misguided and only led to more suffering.

Sai is shown to care greatly for his family, as he has begun training his son in his artistic-ninjutsu, finding humour in Inojin's cruder drawing. Sai also has developed strong parenting skills, being the one who's reprimanding Naruto for not holding back enough when he tried to counter Boruto's shadow clone with his own. His compassion for his son's happiness was also shown from not wanting to hurt any of his friends, regardless of the circumstances. He also believes in a indirect teaching-method, feeling that while people need guidance, they cannot truly grow as people if they don't find the answers themselves.

Abilities
As a member of Root, Sai is a highly capable shinobi, who is trained in the organisation's kenjutsu. Being said to be strongest Root member of his generation, Danzō had enough faith in Sai's abilities to task him with single-handedly killing Sasuke.

Nature Transformation
Sai is able to use Earth Release to conceal himself underground without disrupting the surface of the earth. He can also use Fire, Water and Yang Release.

Ink Techniques
Sai is able to combine ink with the Body Flicker Technique to create a more effective cover up. However, Sai's most notable talent is his skill as an artist, able to create drawings in mere moments. He uses these artistic skills as a source for his Super Beast Imitating Drawing. Using his custom scroll (which contains a compartment for Sai's ink brush and a supply of ink), and applying chakra into the drawings, his creations come to life.

Sai typically creates giant birds to transport himself or others, lion-like monsters for attack, snakes for restraining enemies, and mice to scout an area. Sai can also create ink clones of himself for reconnaissance. For discreet communiques when he is undercover, Sai is able to turn the words he writes into small animals, allowing them to travel to their intended target unnoticed. He has also demonstrated the ability to create large humanoids that resemble the Benevolent Kings (Niō), which possess enough strength to completely destroy Deidara's clay birds. Sai can also add explosive tags to his ink drawings, as seen when he had multiple birds fly down to bombard his enemies with a chain of explosions.

Fūinjutsu
As noted by Kakashi, Sai is one of Danzō's prized soldiers and as such, his Root training also included learning fūinjutsu. By animating a large tiger from his scroll, he can use it to grab and seal the target in the painting. Due to the preparation time it would take to paint the tiger, he would need allies to protect him while in battle. In the anime, it is stated that Sai uses "emotional energy" to bolster the technique. This is a double-edged sword as Sai becomes susceptible to his negative emotions.

Physical Prowess
Despite not being his speciality, Sai has shown to be proficient in taijutsu. He was able to react and block Naruto's attempt to stab him with a kunai very easily with his tantō. He also was able to subdue Kabuto Yakushi very easily and block Sasuke Uchiha's attempt to stab Naruto, with Sasuke commenting that he blocked the attack in the most appropriate manner. During the Fourth Shinobi World War, he was able to break Shin's neck with a flying knee kick in mid-air. Even without the use of his tantō, he has shown great skill with a bladed weapon and was able to fight equally with an opponent wielding a larger weapon. A distinct advantage he has in battle is to perform techniques with a single hand, leaving the other free for enemy counter-attacks.

Trivia

 * As an Anbu member, Sai refers to Kakashi as his senpai out of respect.
 * According to the databook(s):
 * Sai's hobbies are drawing and calligraphy.
 * Sai wishes to fight Kakashi Hatake.
 * Sai's favourite word is "Comrades" (Nakama).
 * Sai's favourite food is momen tofu, while his least favourite is mitarashi dango.
 * Sai has a frank, obedient and submissive personality.
 * In the seventh character poll, Sai placed 12th place, alongside Sakura, with 2,188 votes each.
 * Between the end of the Fourth Shinobi World War and the events of The Last: Naruto the Movie, Sai changes his rank from "Anbu" to Chūbu (Literally meaning: Support Division). Currently, it is not known what exactly this change implies.
 * In the anime, a dream version of Sai was still part of Root and was one of its best members, alongside Yūgao Uzuki, Hayate Gekkō, and Anko Mitarashi. He wore a standard-issue Anbuuniform with a black hooded cloak and a mask with abstract symmetrical designs.
 * Sai is the only known male character in the series to take on his spouse's surname upon marriage.