Super Beast Imitating Drawing

By infusing his chakra into the ink beforehand, Sai can draw objects with a brush on his scroll (something he can do very quickly); the moment the brush is removed, the drawings become animated and leap off the page. These creations grow to life-size once they have been brought to life. There are few techniques in existence that have so many different uses such as this. During the many special missions given out by Root, there are many situations where one must take spontaneous or independent action. This technique, which allows one to adapt to the circumstances of any confrontation, is a lifeline. 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.

Since they are made of ink, a single blow is usually enough to dispel them. The one exception to this are snakes, which are used as living ropes to apprehend a target; they have been shown to be abnormally difficult to tear.

List of Drawings

 * Mice
 * Useful for tracking or searching, and often created in large number.


 * Lions
 * Usually created in small groups to attack foes directly.


 * Birds
 * Often used for transport as well as aerial scouting. Smaller birds can also be used to carry exploding tags. In video games, they can attack opponents without exploding tags.


 * Leeches
 * Used as a low damage projectile-like attack.
 * Giant Leeches
 * Able to be painted and summoned one at a time, this is just a larger and heavier leech.


 * Bats
 * These drawing can morph into a makeshift umbrella, or attach themselves to the enemy's face and blind them.


 * Fish
 * Useful in delivering messages in water.


 * Snakes
 * May be used to constrict and bind opponents or attack in a stealthy fashion for assassinations.


 * The or
 * Two powerful beings, and, are used to physically attack the enemy with their great strength.


 * Exploding Tags
 * It also seems that Sai can create exploding tags with his ink technique as seen when he launched an aerial attack on Zabuza and the rest of the revived shinobi.

Influences
This technique is in reference to the Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga (lit. Animal-person Charicatures), or Chōjū-giga for short, a set of four picture scrolls belonging to the Kōzan-ji Temple in Kyoto, Japan and sometimes credited as the first manga. The scrolls depict various anthropomorphic animals dancing and playing about in a lively ceremony, which seems to be the basis for Sai being able to animate his own drawings for various purposes.