25. Colors of the Wind

    “So, what did you want to ask me, Sai?”
    “Well, Flea brain…”
    BAM!
    Tsukiyo flipped her katana around and sheathed it, staring down at the black-haired boy she just smashed in the head with its hilt. Sadly, this was becoming almost a daily occurrence in the village of Konoha. Sai, a member of the Foundation, still had a lot to learn when it comes to interacting with others.
    “You know, one of the days somebody is going to kill you.” Tsukiyo knelt down and smiled dryly at her friend. “If you’re not careful, it might be one of us. Now, what did you want to ask?”
    Sai stared back up at her with his usual blank expression. With the number of times the Wolf kunochi had bashed him, a person would think that even Sai would learn. In fact, many of the villagers wondered why the two were friends in the first place.
    Hot-tempered and impulsive, Tsukiyo was a near polar opposite of emotionless, socially-awkward Sai. But next to Sakura and Naruto, Tsukiyo was one of the people who Sai preferred to spend his free time with.
    “I was wondering about something.” Sai said simply. “You see, it was something I heard the blue-eyed cow say to the demon…”
    Tsukiyo blinked in confusion. Part of her wondered if Sai used all these nicknames around her just to get on her nerves. It took a few seconds to figure out that “blue-eyed cow” and “demon” meant her two of her siblings.
    “You know, Midori will rip you to shreds if she hears you call her that…” Tsukiyo helped Sai up. “But anyway, what was she saying to Kaoru?”
    Sai dusted himself off and ran a hand through his hair, no doubt checking for a bruise from Tsukiyo’s infamous Onikage.
    “She was talking about something that didn’t make much sense, and I thought that she had lost her mind. So I came to you, knowing that you might be able to explain.” He gave her one of his false smiles. “What does it mean to ‘paint with all the colors of the wind’?”
    Tsukiyo tilted her head in confusion. Paint with the colors of the wind? That didn’t make sense, and she could understand Sai’s confusion.
    “I don’t know. Hey, you’re the artist here, shouldn’t you know?”
    “If I did, why would I be asking you, Stupid?” Another fake smile got Tsukiyo itching to slug Sai.
    Instead, she took a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh.
    “Well, it beats me. Why don’t we go ask?”
    The two agreed to look around the village for Tsukiyo’s foster siblings. It took a bit, but with them help of Guy-sensei, they found both Midori and Kaoru over at the dojo where Midori liked to use for target practice with Tenten. In fact, Midori was throwing kunai as they walked in.
    “Hey Sister. Sai…” The ashy blonde demon sighed as she set her light green eyes on Sai. She never did like him that much…
    “Nee-chan! Sai-san!” Kaoru, the little brunette, rushed over and latched onto their legs with a beaming smile. “What are you guys doing here? Are you on a date?”
    Tsukiyo coughed embarrassedly and blushed. Kaoru was adamant in his belief that she and Sai should date, but Tsukiyo never could figure out why. Maybe Kaoru just really liked messing with her?
    “N-no! Will you stop asking stuff like that in public?!?”
    Kaoru snickered impishly, his tail waving around and his fangs glinting.
    “Aw come on, Nee-chan! Don’t be like that!” the little brunette turned to Sai. “Hey, Sai-san, come look! I almost beat Midori-nee! Come see!”
    Sai let himself be dragged over to the throwing range where the two demon siblings were stationed at. Truthfully, Sai actually like the little demon. While Kaoru was a bit of a prankster, he was a surprisingly good fighter at his young age. And he was also pretty good with a paintbrush, a trait that Sai might have had an influence on.
    “So, what brings you and the twerp here, Tsuki?” Midori sat down and picked up a water bottle.
    “Sai said he heard you and Kaoru talking about something and it didn’t make sense to him.” she explained. “So he thought I could help him, but I didn’t get it either. So we came here.”
    “Right.” Sai agreed, turning to Kaoru. “What does it mean to ‘paint with all the colors of the wind’?”
    The two wolf demons exchanged looks with each other, their dog ears twitching and tails waving. Kaoru seemed to be asking Midori something and the older sister nodded.
    “I didn’t know that you heard that, Sai-san. Well, a few days ago, Dad took me to the Ninja Academy, so I could see how the humans my age train and stuff. A lot of them were really bad you know, and couldn’t do the things us demons could do, like turn into wolves or anything.
    Kaoru scratched his ear sheepishly. “I guess I thought it was kinda stupid, and I thought the kids were really dumb. One of them musta heard me and we got into a fight…”
Tsukiyo sighed while Sai raised an eyebrow. Both knew that Kaoru was still trying to learn how to live around humans. He had a ways to go still, apparently.
    “Yeah, later he had a talk with Mother about it.” Midori added. “She gave him the whole lecture about how he needs to be more understanding and all, and to not fight with the humans.”
    “I should hope so!” Tsukiyo exclaimed. Since Kaoru was still young, he didn’t know how to control his instincts as well as everyone else. Against human children, it could be like sending a lamb to slaughter if you weren’t careful.
    “Yeah, well, then Midori-nee said that I should learn to paint with all the colors of the wind.” Kaoru said. “Then I could learn how to get along with humans.”
    “But what does that mean?” Sai prodded. “And how can that help you? I’m afraid I don’t understand…”
    Midori leaned back and laughed. Not just one of her normal, sarcastic chuckles, but a full on laugh. Her shoulders shook and her tail beat against the wood flooring.
    “It’s simple, Inkspot.” She snickered. “It just means that you need to learn about the people around you. If you don’t understand the fundamentals, you can’t understand anything.”
    She sobered up and stared at both Tsukiyo and Sai, her green eyes fixed intently on them.
    “It might actually help with you, Sai.” She said slowly. “You observe, but you don’t really learn anything about the other humans here. I mean, if you did, would you still be getting beaten to a pulp over all those nicknames you keep giving people?”
    “But I am doing all the things the books say.” Sai protested. “I’ve tried everything. What more can I learn?”
    Tsukiyo sighed. If it weren’t for her love of reading, she would have stolen all of those ridiculous things a long time ago.
    “Sai, you can’t learn these kinds of things from book.” She said exasperedly. “You have to learn by doing! I tell you, you won’t learn anything about true bonds from any book. You need to learn those from people…”
    She looked down and twisted her scarf around in her hands. Now she was beginning to understand though. It was like when she was little, and didn’t get along with the other demon children simply because she was a human. She knew she was different, and she had a hard time adjusting. She wouldn’t play with the others. Usually, she would just hang around all alone, because she didn’t understand. Because she was the only human among demons, she didn’t want to understand.
    It took her mother to get her to realize that she was treated different because none of the other children knew what to do with a human. And it was the same from her end. Yue suggested that she just try with one person, and go from there.
    Soon, that one person ended up being Muro, and it all took off from there. Tsukiyo found herself playing along and getting along with the best of them. She made her way to the top. She was able to make the friendships and relationships she had now because she had learned one simple thing.
    Knowing is everything. Learning about each other, setting aside differences and finding similarities, that’s how you build bonds.
    Getting to know people, she thought with a grin. That’s how Naruto does it. It can’t be to hard for Sai.
    “Come on then.” Tsukiyo shot up and smiled proudly. “Kaoru, grab your stuff. We’re going to paint with the wind.”
    Kaoru laughed as his sister swung him up onto her shoulders. Laughing, Tsukiyo grabbed Sai’s hand and pulled him up too.
    “You too, Sai.” She smiled at he stared at their clasped hands. “I’m going to teach you the fundamentals. Today, you and Kaoru are going to be my pupils on this quest for knowledge! We’re going to go sing with all the voices of the mountains!”
    “We’re going to Ichiraku’s, aren’t we?” Kaoru smirked at his sister.
    “Of course! With luck, we’ll run into Naruto and he can give us a hand.” She shot a devilish smirk at Sai. “After all, with this guy, we’ll need all the help we can get, won’t we?”