Sai discovered someone following him at a fork in the road while patrolling outside the Root base. The other person made no effort to conceal his presence, his footsteps light and almost leisurely, as though he had come specifically to find him.
By the time Sai turned around, his fingers were already on the handle of a kunai. Then he saw a face he recognized but had never dealt with before. Senju Shinichi. Directly under the Hokage, descendant of the Senju Clan; the photo in Danzo's file had been from half a year ago. The threat level in the file's notes had read, "Pending evaluation"—but Danzo had later crossed those words out himself and changed them to "A-rank, no contact."
"You're following me." Sai's voice was as flat as if he were reading a mission briefing, the smile on his face utterly unmoving. It was the standard smile drilled into him by Root training—the curve of his lips precise, his eyes hollow, like a laminated photograph. Looking at that smile, Shinichi remembered that Sai had worn the same expression when he first appeared in the manga in his previous life. Back then, he had found the character a little unsettling. Only later had he learned that this smile was Root's first lesson for Sai—keep smiling under all circumstances, and the enemy would never know what you were thinking. Sai had learned it best of all, so well that even he could no longer tell whether the smile was a disguise or instinct.
"Something like that." Shinichi walked over and sat on a stone bollard beside the fork. "But I'm not here to fight. I'm just curious—Danzo sent you to watch me, and you've been doing it for so long. Is there anything you want to ask me?"
Sai's smile did