A/N: A little something for our favorite blue-eyed ninja on his birthday. This marks the fifth year of these tributes for me... It's a little strange to think that. Anyway, happy birthday Naruto! C:

Naruto shifted around, the collar of his jacket drawn up against the wind, and glanced at Sai when he was comfortable. "Ready?"

Sai couldn't help the involuntary smile- soft and real- that transformed the set of his lips. It was hard not to be happy in this boy's presence, Sai was coming to find. He answered the question with a nod, even though his smile seemed to be enough reassurance in and of itself, and rearranged the sketchbook in his lap.

"I've never done anythin' like this before," came the hesitant confession, followed quickly by, "but I'll do my best!"

Sai assured him it was nothing more than sitting still for a little while, to which Naruto wrinkled his nose but nodded and Sai laughed lightly. More of a challenge than anything else, it seemed.

It had taken a few swift and breathlessly sincere words to convince Naruto to model for him. A gentle beseeching, because Sai just couldn't get this picture right without the likeness there in front of him. Naruto had hesitated to turn him away, and Sai knew that- even if he felt a little guilty knowing it, despite his ultimate goal- Naruto would never say no when he knew he was needed.

So he did his best to sit still, eyes flickering away constantly and wandering with the leaves or a rabbit or a drifting thought. Always snapping back to attention when he remembered himself but never for long.

And Sai's pencil never left the page for long; he sketched and smeared the dark medium, wishing there was a way to capture the constant motion of the boy seated in front of him- of penciling into art the way he couldn't be still, not when the sky was so clear and the day was so perfect.

Sai wiped his hand swiftly and pulled out a single piece of pastel color, rebuking himself for thinking that way- he knew better.

As he added the blue of those eyes, rich against the stark black and white, he smiled and told Naruto he was finished. Naruto's grin lit up the world better than the sun ever could and he fell back into the grass with his arms thrown up in glee.

Sai reached over to smear charcoal on his nose and knew; the real beauty of this boy was in what could never be defined on paper.

"Can I see it?" The question was one Sai had known was inevitable, but he couldn't help but smile again at the caution behind each word. Whoever said friendship was effortless was a fool, and it was heartwarming to catch Naruto in the act of minding his footing in unfamiliar territory, when usually he just ran ahead blindly.

It meant he cared enough to care, and it was the most precious gift Sai had ever been given. So he nodded, and held up the paper in invitation and Naruto beamed and rolled onto hands and knees to crawl over to his side.

Normally, Sai felt nothing when he showed others his art. It was expression, yes, but he didn't have a definite sense of community where most other artists did- he didn't fear rejection or long for understanding. But as Naruto leaned against his shoulder to peer at the sketch that suddenly seemed too heavy in Sai's hands, the dark-eyed boy realized in a sudden burst of clarity why rejection was scary.

Naruto said nothing, and after a moment the silence was punctuated by the shifting of his jacket and grass as he reached forward to touch it lightly, just to the right of his likeness' eyes. The charcoal smeared under his fingers and he jerked them back like it burnt, but the touch had been so careful- reverent almost- that Sai didn't even think to be irritated.

"Do you like it?" The question wasn't as difficult to get out as he'd imagined it would be; probably because it was Naruto. He was watching his comrade's expression, and still wasn't ready for it when those blue eyes turned on him.

"It's...amazing Sai. Like a photograph." Sai was surprised Naruto knew about those, but only for a moment- because Naruto seemed to know just a little bit about everything under the sun. "Really amazing."

Sai took those words to heart, committed them to memory. They meant so much coming from someone who made a habit of dabbling in miracles. He sprayed the paper with a solution to keep the chalk from smearing; and Naruto stiffened for a moment, as though the paper was any number of people in the world who needed his rescue, but relaxed at Sai's amused chuckle and stuck his tongue out at him.

It was cute that Naruto would think to defend Sai's own art from him. He handed the paper over. "I'm glad you think so. It's yours."

Naruto seemed to take it automatically, but his eyes were wide and he blinked up at Sai in confusion. "Wait, what? Mine?"

Sai slid his supplies into his bag, wondering if maybe the fates had put Naruto in his life at this point because of some smiling quota he hadn't been attending to without him. "I read in one of my books- " he ignored Naruto's immediate deadpan "-that when giving a gift, something created is oftentimes more thoughtful than something bought." It was somehow easy to meet the impossible blue of Naruto's eyes now. "So I drew you. Happy birthday."

And the way Naruto's face flushed was worth everything, Sai decided, and graciously allowed the blond to rush onto something else. "Okay, but- why a picture of me?"

"Because you don't see yourself as clearly as I do," he replied at once. "The book also said that gifts could be useful as well as enjoyable. If that picture is amazing, it's only because it's a picture of you."

And that, he decided, as Naruto clutched his present tightly and looked down to hide his eyes, was the beauty of absolute truth.

If that picture could remind Naruto- even only occasionally- that there was a world of people out there who saw him as someone wonderful and worthwhile, then Sai could really call himself an artist.