Pick-Up Lines

Before ya read, please keep in mind that this is NOT mine.
Naruto belongs to Kishimoto, no matter how hard I try.

⚜

It was an unusually quiet day in Konoha's library. Unlike regular days, where people would bustle in and out every day, finding scrolls to study with or recipe books for the home, only five or so people came today; the rest being held back by the rain.

Of course, a little spring precipitation was nothing to one particular ninja, who managed to arrive rain or shine. Today, he sat at a table by the window, absorbed in his books while listening to the calming sound of the rain pattering against the glass.

His eyes scanned page after page; pausing only to reread something or turn to another novel for references. He would sometimes scan through a book, frown, and put it back on the shelf in disappointment, only to return with another one that caught his eye.

Of course, he wasn't looking for any particular book to read. He was engrossed in the psychology of behavior, emotions, and most importantly, friendship.
Friendship was something that he could not truly comprehend. From what he had grasped so far, it was an extremely tough and impenetrable bond, so dangerous and fragile that was not to be tampered with at any cost. It was the ultimate oxymoron where one thing contradicted the other and one wrong move would mean his demise.
It was such a frightening thing to Sai, and yet, he felt intrigued by it.

He studied book after book on the physics of friendly behavior, and yet no matter how hard he tried, everything in the books failed in real life.

His teammate Sakura had told him that the people who wrote these books probably had no friends themselves and wrote the books because they had too much time on their hands.
Of course, that didn't stop him from reading them.
Who was ugly to talk, anyway? She was the one that punched him every time he tried to be a 'good friend'! His fists clenched and his muscles tensed at the thought of the pink-haired ninja freaking out at him yet again.
Hold the phone...
He glanced over at his piles of books, suddenly aware of this unfamiliar and involuntary reaction to his teammate's inhospitable treatment. Picking up one of the open books he had left on the table, he flipped through the pages until he found what he was looking for.
"Anger." he read aloud. "Rage or passionate displeasure towards people or objects causing increased heart rate, tension of the muscles, possible hyperventilation and other related symptoms. The regular feelings one has when they are angry include the need to hit something or the person you are angry at, scream at the top of your lungs, and possibly, if you are angry enough, kick puppies."
Sai paused and reread the passage. "Kick puppies?" He closed the book and frowned. "Maybe I have the wrong emotion..."
Letting out a small sigh, the ANBU Root member stood up and walked over to his preferred shelf of books and put the unsatisfactory piece of literature away.
He would never understand what animal cruelty had to do with how he felt.

Sai let his fingers run over the many spines of the books; his eyes scanning the title of each one. His movement stopped as he spotted one title a little to the left of him labeled: 'The Psychology of the Female Mind'.
His eyes widened. This was it! This could save him from Sakura's beatings! If he was able to understand her behavior and reactions towards certain actions, he could save himself a lifetime of 'ass-whooping' as Naruto said.
His fingers clasped the spine and slowly pulled it out of the bookshelf. The thickness of the spine was at least four inches now that he saw it, and when he weighed it in his arms, he was shocked to find himself struggling to hold it up.
It was then that Sai realized that women were more complicated than he first thought.

Biting back a curse, the raven-haired teen glanced back at the large gap in the bookshelf, noting that some had toppled onto their sides from the sudden lack of support. His sharp eyes noticed a bright yellow paperback around an inch thick that had leaned towards him on the shelf, seeming to stick out and beckon him to read it. The shinobi stumbled closer, leaning forward in curiosity to catch the title on the spine.