Sai

**Sai** is an Anbu-level shinobi of Konohagakure and Ino Yamanaka's love interest. As per standard Root training, Sai was conditioned to remove all emotions and as such, has 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.

## Physical Appearance

Sai has short, black hair, and black eyes which contrast with his translucent-looking pale skin, along with a fairly tall and slim figure. 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 with the right sleeve being long and the left being short - as customary of all Root members, to most likely show his allegiance to the organization. He also carries a tip-less tantō on his back. The rest of his outfit consisted of a high-collared midriff shirt, black pants with a white belt, shinobi sandals and gloves with his index and thumb fingers exposed, most likely to facilitate the use of his drawing based techniques.

When he's not on missions, Sai wears a casual outfit consisting of a long-sleeve shirt with a high collar, matching colored pants, and his regular shinobi sandals. This outfit was first depicted as being purple in color and later, navy blue. He doesn't wear his forehead protector or gloves with this outfit.

During his vacation at Seaside Resort, Sai wore several different outfits: at the beach or pool, he only wore regular black swim-trunks; at the hotel or around the resort, he wore an all black outfit consisting of a black, midriff tank-top, a pair of black shorts, and wears his regular shinobi sandals even when not on missions.

## Personality

When first introduced in the *Naruto Shippūden* series, 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 realize 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. Realizing 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. After his first time with Team Kakashi, Sai is seen being friendly towards others, helping companions when they need it, referring to peers kindly, and having fun in social situations. 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 lacking understanding of both his Team 7 team-mates and emotions in general. 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 realized he understood it as he, Rock Lee, and various others went to assist Naruto as he fought against Obito Uchiha.

## Abilities

**Taijutsu Expert**: Despite not being his specialty, 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.

* **Enhanced Speed and Reflexes**: Sai has a high degree of speed and agility to move at **Hypersonic+** levels, fast enough to even keep up with Naruto and Sasuke. He is also very proficient in the Body Flicker Technique technique, being capable of surprising even highly-skilled shinobi with it.
* **Enhanced Durability**: Sai is quite durable enough to withstand attacks from **Wall level+** to **Small Building level**.
* **Enhanced Endurance**:

**Master Artist**: Sai's most notable talent in his skill as an artist, and he claims to have drawn thousands of pictures. Despite the great quantity and magnitude of the things he has drawn, he has never given any of his works a name, his lack of emotion making it impossible for him to form a significant enough attachment to his art to give titles.

**Expert Tactician**: Sai shows high analytical skills and keen observations during combat.

**High Chakra Power**: As a former member of Root and one of Konoha's highly-skilled Anbu, Sai has high levels of chakra energy. His chakra is white.

### Ninja Arts Prowess

**Super Beast Imitating Drawing** (*English TV*: Ninja Art: Super Beast Scroll): Sai's signature technique. To be able to execute his Super Beast Imitating Drawing, Sai carries around a specialized custom scroll to draw on, the scroll's roller has compartments for Sai's ink brush and to hold a supply of ink. A distinct advantage of this technique is that he can perform it with a single hand, leaving the other free for enemy counter-attacks. By infusing chakra into the ink before hand and drawing objects with a brush on his scroll, which he can do very quickly, Sai is able to bring his creations to life by animating the ink directly off the page. These creations grow to life-size one they have been brought to life - similar to Deidara's explosive clay constructs. Sai typically creates giant birds for long-range transport for himself or others, or lion-like monsters or giants for attacks, or objects like umbrellas for everyday use. He can create snakes and use them as strong bindings on enemies, or mice to quickly scout an area. Sai can make 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 scale drawings as shown during the battle of the two ambush squads; he created two large human beings which resembled the Benevolent Kings. These had enough physical strength to completely destroy Deidara's clay bird as well as send him along with Sasori plummeting to the ground. Sai can create explosive tags with his ink technique. He can draw long lines of tags attached to small birds, allowing him to bombard enemies from the air.

**Fūinjutsu Expert**: As noted by Kakashi, Sai is one of Danzo's prized soldiers and as such, his Root training also included learning fūinjutsu. His sealing technique allows him to trap people within his paintings by drawing a tiger on a large scroll with a giant paint brush. Since it takes time to draw the tiger, he needs allies to protect him while in battle. However, 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.

**Nature Transformation**: Sai also has proficient skill in Earth Release ninjutsu, able to use the nature transformation to conceal himself underground without disrupting the surface of the earth.

**Kenjutsu Expert**: Sai shows exceptional use of kenjutsu, since he wears a tipples tantō on his back, with which he can deliver swift slashes at the opponent.

## Equipment

**Ink Brush and Supplies**:

**Tantō**: