Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Smile For Me ❯ Why? ( Chapter 1 )

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The brush strokes carefully over the thin piece of paper, and Sai watches avidly as his older brother scrutinizes his work with a prudent eye. His lips remain parallel in a dissatisfied almost-frown, pressed together, and pale.

 

He is only eight years old, but Sai can already tell that his brother is talented, not just as a ninja, but as an artist. When he paints, his mind slips away from the real world.

 

Sai never speaks when his brother is painting, and that is the only reason his older brother allows him in his room during this time. He knows he shouldn't speak, but he has had a question burning in his mouth. It's been there for hours, days, weeks, but he knows better than to ask. He knows better… but…

 

“Why don't you ever paint them with smiles, Brother?” he asks timidly, his eyes wide, fearing immediate rejection. His tiny hands are in fists, and he feels himself shrinking under his brother's intense gaze.

 

“What?” his brother asks with a small frown. Sai takes this as a notion for him to continue.

 

“Their faces…” he says quietly, pointing down at his brother's unfinished painting. “They… you never give them smiles.”

 

His brother frowns somberly, looking down at his picture, then up at the other pictures on the wall, several featuring people with faces as blank as the paper they started out on.

 

“I don't paint their smiles… because…” His brother's frown deepens. “I don't think you should paint something that isn't felt. It's just like your feelings… you shouldn't fake something that you don't really feel.”

 

Sai hears these words, and takes them to the heart.

 

And that is why know, even with his face pressed against the mop of spiky blonde hair, his body aching and overheated, and the corners of his lips pulling up, he forces it down.

 

Because Sai has decided that he will never, ever smile.