Sai tries to understand this business of love.

"'For love, we will climb mountains, cross seas, traverse desert sands, and endure untold hardships.'"

Sai flipped to the next page, the rustle of paper the only sound in the library where the only occupant was him. He placed his finger on the words and continued reading aloud. "'Without love, mountains become unclimbable, seas uncrossable, deserts unbearable, and hardships our lot in life.'"

He placed the book down and paused to think about the words he'd just read.

He frowned, his normally expressionless face a picture of confusion and distrust.

Love.

Recently, he'd been deep into his research trying to figure out this thing, this inscrutable feeling called love.

Sai gazed down at his current book. The book's author and title, Gary Chapman, The Five Love Languages stared back at him.

He tapped his fingers on the table and decided to give up for the day. He would come back tomorrow and find another source for his research. Maybe something more simple with an explanation he could better understand.

Because honestly, you can still climb mountains without love. All you need was training, a simple enough exercise in breath control. Crossing seas was easy with a sturdy boat. You just have to make sure the ballast will be strong enough to withstand those waves. Traversing desert sands? Oh, that he might ask the recently-married Temari tips on how to walk on hot sand. Either that or he could always practice at the local beach in the middle of summer.

Bearing hardships in life?

That was easy. He was a product of such a life.

Sai thought back to his indoctrination in Root, of having survived torture training, interrogation techniques, and harsh discipline from not only his trainers but from Danzo himself. His childhood as an assassin-in-training was not an easy one.

Still, this strange adjustment to peace-time, to unlearning all the lethal dogma he'd had to absorb was probably just as difficult as his training.

Recently, though, this love thing was bothering him because he just couldn't understand it.

No matter how many books he read, he still couldn't figure it out. All the information he'd read always left him even more confused.

But he was honest enough to admit that the source of all his confusion was Ino.

All the other girls in Konoha, he knew that it was better to just treat them as logs—as advised by one of the books he'd read on how to pick up women. The advice was to think of the opposite sex as inanimate objects. And the first thing Sai thought of was to imagine girls as logs: wooden things that just happened to move and talk. He trained with them. He went on missions with them. He ate with them. Sometimes, he spoke to them and they would answer him whenever he asked his questions.

Sakura was a little better than a log, though, maybe because they were both part of Dai-Nana-han. And maybe because she actually got mad and wouldn't hesitate to smack him and make him realize that their relationship was deeper and went beyond that of logs.

"Girls aren't logs!" she'd yelled, her fingers pinching the bridge of her nose while she closed her eyes. She then sighed in frustration.

Sai observed the nerves of her temple bulging and took a step back so that he would be away from her reach.

Ino had been with Sakura because they were on their way home from the hospital. She'd heard his comment about girls and logs and she'd flashed him a look he couldn't quite interpret.

Normally she smiled at him and did that little thing with her voice, when she would inject it with something warm and pleasant that made him ease the seriousness of his face. He found it easier to smile naturally at her and he didn't have to think about "creating" the proper face.

Today, though, as they watched Sakura storm off, Ino was silent.

"Logs, Sai?"

Sai was sure she would understand. Ino worked in a flower shop. She knew lots of information about plants. "Yes, Ino."

"What makes you say that?"

"It was in one of the books written by that pick-up artist giving advice on how to talk to girls."

"You can't trust those types of books!" Ino said with a shake of her head.

"I need help." Sai shrugged. "I don't know what girls are thinking most of the time."

She finally smiled. "Don't worry, everyone thinks that—even us girls. Half the time, we don't know the reason why we do things."

"Okay." He'll take her word for it. She was a girl, and that made her an expert in these matters.

"Sai, this is the kind of stuff you can't really learn from books? It's sensory and sometimes instinctive. Think about your paintings."

That caught his interest. Sai's gaze sharpened on her face. Somehow it was softer, her eyes seemed to be...glowing? "What about my paintings?"

"You didn't learn to paint from books, you kind of just did it, right? And you get a feel for it, the more you paint."

"Huh." His eyes were crinkled, puzzled. There was some truth there.

She looked at him for a moment, tilting her head to the side, which made the blond bangs of her hair fall over her eye.

He suddenly wanted to reach out and brush it behind her ear so that he could see her green eyes more clearly, but he kept himself still.

"Here," she said as she reached out a hand palm out. "Give me your hand."

He looked at her small hand suspiciously, but he brought his gaze back to her when she laughed. "Sai! I'm not going to attack you. Just take my hand."

He did as she asked and placed his over hers.

"Do I feel like a log?" she murmured.

"No."

Definitely not. He looked down and brushed his fingers hesitantly at her hand, felt again the soft flesh of her palm, the silky softness of her skin.

He looked up at her and saw that she'd been watching him this entire time.

That smile was there again, the one that made him frown in confusion because he could tell it wasn't fake—like the ones he'd practiced before. Hers was genuine, like the one that was becoming more natural to do when he just felt like it.

But Ino's smile seemed to have a message. There was something extra there. A certain light, a gentleness, a kindness that he just didn't see from other girls when they smiled at him.

He wasn't sure whether he was supposed to smile back at her.

But as she kept smiling at him, Sai suddenly felt his own lips stretching in response.

And he realized that yes, he was supposed to smile back at her because, like she said, it just felt right.