[It doesn't bother Sai in the slightest, honestly. It's a little like...a breath of fresh air, in this place that's usually so empty.
The comment about people mentioning him "all the time" throws him a bit, though. Most of the few connections he'd made in this world had long since Ported out. Kitty remained, yes, and there was Minato, though they rarely spoke, so...who was talking about him all the time?]
Which people?
[It's spoken with an uncharacteristic hesitancy about him, an uncertainty that's almost...shy? He's honestly perplexed by this whole thing, and it hasn't quite struck him that it's really just Naruto being Naruto about an offhand comment Riku made.]
You realize we are both very "weird" by the standards of this world, don't you? There are many here who would be appalled by the mere fact that you have ever held a kunai, Naruto, simply because you are younger than eighteen.
[In other words, it's not as easy as all that for him. He can't just waltz into someone's life and leave them forever changed like you can, bro.
And Sai is doubly disadvantaged here, in the end. He was already behind in terms of social interaction back in their own world, and here, he's lacking even in the shared context they all used to have. Konoha, the shinobi system, the desire to protect the village, chakra... they have none of that, here.
Which...sort of ties into Naruto's other question, honestly. There's a loneliness he's experienced here that Sai would not have a name for if he looked for one. He's adrift in a world in which none of them belong, but he even less than most. They cannot understand him, and he barely understands anything about them on a good day.
So there's been a definite lack in his life. A dark, gaping maw of absence where light once was. Light and life and energy that tied him to something and gave him somewhere to go.
Before Naruto, he hadn't truly existed. Not for a very long time. And then he did, and he'd had to exist without him. Was that what "missing" someone felt like? His lips upturn in a ghost of a smile. Then:]
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The comment about people mentioning him "all the time" throws him a bit, though. Most of the few connections he'd made in this world had long since Ported out. Kitty remained, yes, and there was Minato, though they rarely spoke, so...who was talking about him all the time?]
Which people?
[It's spoken with an uncharacteristic hesitancy about him, an uncertainty that's almost...shy? He's honestly perplexed by this whole thing, and it hasn't quite struck him that it's really just Naruto being Naruto about an offhand comment Riku made.]
You realize we are both very "weird" by the standards of this world, don't you? There are many here who would be appalled by the mere fact that you have ever held a kunai, Naruto, simply because you are younger than eighteen.
[In other words, it's not as easy as all that for him. He can't just waltz into someone's life and leave them forever changed like you can, bro.
And Sai is doubly disadvantaged here, in the end. He was already behind in terms of social interaction back in their own world, and here, he's lacking even in the shared context they all used to have. Konoha, the shinobi system, the desire to protect the village, chakra... they have none of that, here.
Which...sort of ties into Naruto's other question, honestly. There's a loneliness he's experienced here that Sai would not have a name for if he looked for one. He's adrift in a world in which none of them belong, but he even less than most. They cannot understand him, and he barely understands anything about them on a good day.
So there's been a definite lack in his life. A dark, gaping maw of absence where light once was. Light and life and energy that tied him to something and gave him somewhere to go.
Before Naruto, he hadn't truly existed. Not for a very long time. And then he did, and he'd had to exist without him. Was that what "missing" someone felt like? His lips upturn in a ghost of a smile. Then:]
...Hm. I suppose I did.