Sai's Bio
Character you're applying for: Sai
Series the character is from: Naruto (Shippuuden - post time skip)
Character's age: 17
Character's gender: male
Character’s “Real Name”: Simon Pastello
Please give us a detailed personal history of your character: Sai's background is a bit in the gray area, so I'll include what is known. First of all, Sai's original name is unknown, or if he had one. The name Sai was given to him by his superior, an elder named Danzo, for the sake of his original mission. He was an orphan, raised within the ROOT program (a branch of ANBU, Naruto-verse's version of SWAT). He is a talented artist, and his skills were apparently noticed by another member of the organization, whom he became close friends with (to the point of calling him brother, though they weren't related.) His "brother" died of illness before Sai could complete a book of pictures he had been making for the two of them, leaving one half incomplete. He is still unsure how to express the emotional loss, as the ROOT program raises its members to be emotionless.
ROOT was actually disbanded before the start of the series, as Danzo's ideals opposed those of the Third Hokage. However, some manner of it remains, with Sai being a member. The motto of ROOT is thus: "In Root... there are no names. There are no feelings... There is no past... there is no future. There is only the mission... The will of us Roots supports this great tree called Konoha, invisible, from within the earth." Sai's original mission from ROOT, which went against the one actually assigned to the team, was to kill Uchiha Sasuke. The group might actually seek to destroy Konoha (The Hidden Leaf Village - Naruto's hometown), or at least allow Orochimaru to do so. Killing Sasuke may have been to prevent him from turning on them once they were done with Konoha. This is unsure.
Sai's lack of emotions caused him some difficulties in getting in Team Kakashi's (Naruto, Sakura, Yamato) good graces. He couldn't relate to anyone. He smiled fake smiles to try and put others at ease, but they were so obviously false that they only caused others to distrust him more. He tried to act rudely towards Naruto (insulting his manhood, thus the endless penis jokes surrounding his character) because he thought it was appropriate for him to do so in the current situation. This caused Naruto to become especially adamant that Sai wasn't a real member of their team - that this position still belonged to Sasuke. Sai insulted Sasuke for betraying the village, which made Sakura angry, and he put the success of the mission above the lives of his own team mates. So overall, he was generally not liked by the rest of the group to start.
During a fight with Orochimaru that left Sakura and Naruto wounded, some of Sai's true motives became clear, as he joined up with Orochimaru and Kabuto and returned with them to their hideout. There he is introduced to Sasuke who, when he claims they might get along better than Sasuke did with Naruto, fixes him with a stare that startles him so much he falls over, as it had drawn actual fear from him. Not long after he is left in his room by Kabuto, he is found by Team Kakashi again and they get him to spill his plans (he does it rather easily, with the reasoning that he had been caught - so much for ROOT members being good at guarding secrets). In turn, they tie him up. He tells Naruto that Sasuke is no longer interested in being close to them, but Naruto is determined to confront him anyway, and this determination strikes something in Sai. When Kabuto shows up to free him, he turns on the man and helps Yamato and the others restrain him, claiming that even he can change.
In a moment alone, Sai tells Naruto that he reminds him of his brother, and these thoughts cause him to remember how he wanted to finish his book - which he does while they're sitting there, as Sai paints amazingly fast. This causes Sai to show his first real smile since they'd met. After this, they split up to look for Sasuke. With the help of his painted tracking rodents, Sai locates him first. He tells Sasuke that he intends to bring him back to Konoha, for the sake of his bond with Naruto. These words seem to upset Sasuke, and he blows up the room as a result. This attracts the attention of the rest of the group who, having found a bingo book in Sai's possession with Sasuke in it, had determined his full intent was to kill Sasuke. The rogue ninja sets this straight right off the bat, however, telling them what Sai had told him. A fight ensues between Sasuke and the group, with Sasuke coming out on top, but Orochimaru and Kabuto stop it at the last moment. Their mission a failure on both accounts, Sai returns with the others to Konoha.
Wishing to build upon the bonds that had started to develop between him and Naruto, Sai asks Danzo to allow him to stay a member of the team and is granted this request. From that point begins Sai's real attempts to become friends with others. He spends a lot of time in the library reading books on the subject. Naruto and Sakura tell him that friends will often address each other with nicknames. As a poor example, Sakura calls Naruto an idiot, (which humorously makes sense to Sai). His first attempts aren't very successful, however, as he then calls Sakura a hag, and later almost calls Chouji fat before Naruto stops him. He finally figures that to properly handle a nickname for a woman, you must use the opposite of what you think of them. Thus he refers to Ino as "beautiful" - but properly receives another beating from Sakura for giving Ino a better nickname.
Currently, Sai hasn't done much but appear with Naruto and the others and make other attempts at bonding (such as trying to force feed Naruto when his arm was injured). The time of his blackout would occur the night after Konohamaru pulled his infamous girl on girl followed by guy on guy (for Sakura) sexy jutsu.
Please give us a detailed description of your character's personality: Well, let's see. A lot of Sai's personality is based around the fact that he doesn't really have one. He was trained to be emotionless - apparently from a young enough age that he can't even recall how to show emotions properly. It's as though a certain instinct most humans develop has been completely removed from him. He's horribly socially inept, and is only just now trying to learn how to become friends with others. Most of his knowledge comes from books and the poor explanations of his team mates. His lack of emotions also makes it difficult to read others, as even the concept of some emotions is hard for him to understand. He may attempt to give someone he's considering becoming friends with a nickname, but he's at a loss as to how to go about picking one without insulting them.
He stills tends to give rather fake smiles when trying to be friendly, but those are being replaced more often with his awkward real smile. (It's actually very similar, as he closes his eyes for both, but his real one has genuine emotion behind it.) He's not exactly outgoing, better at being led into situations that require interaction with others than seeking it out himself.
He takes his duties seriously, and if given a task that he is willing to follow he will do his best to carry it out efficiently.
Sai is an artist, though it's hard to tell if he actually enjoys his hobby or if he just does it to pass the time, as he doesn't usually have any emotional attachment to his artwork. He's done thousands of paintings, but never named one. (The "painting" it's claimed he named Friends at one point wasn't a painting - it was the view out of his window.) After his talk with Sakura and his attempts at bonding with others, he may take to trying to come up with names for his works.
It's not stated in the series, but for the sake of roleplay I tend to lean Sai towards homosexual. His lack of interest in women, or anyone in a sexual fashion for that matter, can probably be pegged on his stunted emotions. However, he refers to Sakura and Ino both as being downright unattractive. That, his comments about Naruto's manhood, and his usual style of dress (midsection exposed, partially fingerless gloves, one sleeve longer than the other) tend to lead one to believe he might be a bit on the fruity side. Due to the fact that he's only just now figuring out how to relate to people on friendly terms, however, it's doubtful he'd even know his own sexual orientation at this point.
Please give us a detailed physical description of your character: Sai is of medium height, just a couple inches taller than Naruto. He's thin, but not scrawny - fit, but not muscular. (He has your typical ninja's body, really.) His hair is black and short, but long enough to have bangs and cover some of the back of his neck. His eyes are deep brown/black and almond-shaped, and his skin is pale in a manner that resembles your average vampire (though he isn't one).
He doesn't have many expressions. Usually he's either completely stoic looking or smiling a very fake smile, though he will occasionally express mild shock, curiosity, or pain. He has rather fine features overall - his mouth especially is rather feminine.
What point in time are you taking your character from when he/she appears at Landel's?: I'm picking him up at the current point. (Chapter 349.) I prefer him after a bit of character development, even if his character is kind of sitting on the sidelines with the rest of the Konoha crew right now. Orochimaru has just been defeated by Sasuke, but Sai wouldn't be aware of this.
What kinds of magical/special/crazy powers does your character have, if any?: Well, he has a sort of ninjutsu that lets him paint something, usually animals, then bring that drawing to life to attack his enemies. He can also create things like large birds that he can ride on, as well as very convincing ink clones of himself. He uses images of mice and snakes to track down others, and the snakes also serve as bindings.
If present, how do you plan to tweak those powers to make him/her appropriately hindered in the setting of Landel's?: His skills would be chakra oriented, leaving him with the inability to do much of anything in that regard while there.
Does your character have any other non-magical skills or abilities that we should know about?: He's pretty physically capable, with good hand-to-hand combat skills. (And has good flexibility.) He's a good taijutsu user, but no more than is really typical for a highly trained ninja. His speed would obviously have to be decreased and chakra-aided skills removed.
How about improbable appendages?: Nope!
Please give us an idea of where you'd like to take your character within the scope of the Landel's Damned RP: I'm open for just about anything - I like to take things as they go. I would like to see him try to connect with the other members of the Narutoverse, though. Especially since the only one who will remember him will be Sasuke. There are also a couple other characters from other series that it would be interesting to see him interact with - Soujirou in particular.
What kind of psychological effect do you see Landel's Institute having on your character?: He will be rather confused, for starters. He may be willing to believe what the nurses tell him, at least to an extent. Finding out Naruto and Sakura don't remember him would make him genuinely sad, as he had just become friends with them - according to his memories, anyway. He may attempt to make friends with others out of a sort of desperation that he doesn't realize. It will definitely feel like something is missing inside, which he won't be used to. Likely he'll just go with the flow until given a reason not to.
Given that this RP takes place in an unsettling and outright horrific environment, how do you justify your character as being appropriate in both body and mind for this kind of setting?: Sai is a ninja, and thus very physically capable even without any chakra abilities. Added to this is his emotional ROOT training. He doesn't frighten easily at all.