Sai

is a fictional character in the anime and manga series Naruto.

Background
One of many nameless orphans recruited into Konoha's secret branch of the ANBU, Root, Sai was raised and conditioned to have no personality or personal connections. The name "Sai" is given to him for the purposes of joining Team 7. His actual name is currently unknown, possibly even to himself. Sai was recruited as the newest member of Team 7 by Danzo, the commander of Root, to join Naruto Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno as a replacement for Sasuke Uchiha after his defection.

During his time among Root, Sai met an older member of the same organization who took a liking to Sai's drawing ability, and Sai came to think of him as a older brother and looked up to him. Eventually, his brother died of illness, and Sai's Root training suppressed most of the memories he had for his "brother". Before the death of his brother, he was making a book that would show the feelings they shared for each other and all the opponents they faced. Their pictures would start at opposite ends of the book and in the middle both him and his brother would be holding hands, but his brother died before he could give it to him.

Personality
When first introduced Sai was distinguished by total lack of emotion which he often masked behind a false cheerful if rather blunt facade. Through numerous mental conditioning by Root he'd had almost all his emotions suppressed, making it easier for him to accomplish dangerous, unpleasant, or unethical missions; with his only loyalty being to whoever commanded him. He particularly had trouble understanding how personal bonds can drive others and had no initiative of his own, show by his confusion over why Naruto would go so far to save Sasuke even though he had not been ordered to do so.

Sai is a talented artist, but his lack of feelings prevented him from ever titling his work. His lack of social skills and obviously false outer mask frequently caused conflict between Sai and Team 7, as he makes the mistake of insulting the other members in an attempt to seem sociable. He tries to seem more compassionate by smiling, though his teammates come to dislike it due to his obvious insincerity.

After spending more time with his team, Sai comes to appreciate bonds, particularly the bond that exists between Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha. Sai began to break out of his emotionless shell and started to remember the ties he had had with his own "brother". 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 as he can. However, since he is learning most of this out of books and by trial and error, he once again often accidentally ends up offending people. In doing so he has come to develop his own more pleasant and thoughtful personality, showing signs of enthusiasm, even nervousness, being friendly towards others, helping them when they need it, referring to them kindly, and having fun in social situations.

Abilities
Sai is a talented artist, and claims to have drawn thousands of pictures. Despite the magnitude of things he has drawn, he has never given one of his works a name, his lack of emotion making it impossible for him to form a significant attachment to his work to give it a title. Sai's drawing ability is also the source of his jutsu, known as. By drawing objects with a brush on his scroll he is able to bring his creations to life by animating the ink directly off the page. This increases their size and allows them to move and attack opponents at a distance. Of his seen creations he uses giant birds for long range transport, lion-like monsters for attack, small rats for scouting and numerous small serpents to capture a target. Likewise, by creating an Ink Clone (墨分身, Sumi Bunshin) of himself, he can perform a reconnaissance of an area without actually endangering himself. Sai can also transform words he writes on his scroll into small animals that seek out their target and revert back to words upon arrival, giving Sai a way to communicate easily over long distances.