He was dreaming again.  Same dream, every time.  There was a girl who seemed to be haunting his dreams; she was a mix between a girl and a Blue Lorikeet so she wasn’t anybody he’d ever seen.  Far as he knew, nobody could be a mix of an animal and a person…well, Kiba was close, and so Sai was confused.  Making himself wake up, Sai looked around, hoping to find somebody who could explain this strange appearance.

Since Sai didn’t usually remember his dreams, much less have reoccurring onces, he was disconcerted by the vividness and reality of this particular girl.  Looking around a little more closely (it was still dark so he had to seriously look to find anybody or anything), Sai saw that Sakura was up.

She was an average height and weight for a girl their age, and had pink hair.  He contrasted with her greatly since she wore a pink jumper to match her hair and he wore a black two-piece, also matching his hair, that showed his belly button.
“Hey ugly,” he started to say, before remembering she didn’t want to be called that, “I’m a little confused.  I keep having this dream, and it won’t go away.”

Sakura looked up to the sound of Sai’s voice, sighed and shook her head, then answered him, “a dream?  You don’t usually have dreams, do you?”

“No.  that’s why I’m confused.  This one is so vivid…”

“Vivid?  Could you …draw it?”

“I guess, but how would that help?”

“Usually, when something won’t get out of somebody’s head, if they put it down on paper, it gets off their mind.”

“oh, okay.  I guess it’s worth a shot.  Thanks.”

“No problem Sai,” and, with that, Sakura went back to doing what she had been doing before Sai had interrupted her.

Sai set off to try to draw this girl as Sakura had told him to.  It was a strange experience, drawing something he’d never actually seen in real life, but knew was real, but it felt good to do it.  As he drew, he thought about the bonds he was trying to make and how they weren’t working very well.  When he was finished, in another attempt to create a bond between him and his teammates, he took it to where the others were and showed it to them.

“Does this one have a name, Sai?” Sakura asked in mild disinterest, quickly becoming surprised at Sai’s immediate response.

“Mint” Sai had said it without thinking and something strange was happening on his paper, it was coming to life.

“Whoa! What’s happening? Dabbettebayo!” called one of his other teammates.  This one had spiky blonde hair and wore a bright orange jumpsuit.

“Morning sleepyhead!” called Sakura, “didn’t you say just the other day that you wanted to see what would happen if Sai named a drawing Naruto?”

The blonde boy stared at Sakura, perplexed.  Naruto had said that the other day, but he didn’t think Sai would ever go as far as to actually name a drawing so he could see what would happen.  He looked up at Sai and asked, “You named this drawing?”

“Not on purpose” Sai shrugged it off and continued to look at the metamorphosis his drawing was doing, turning from a 2-D drawing to a 3-D person.  Soon, the metamorphosis was complete and the girl who had been haunting his dreams was standing in front of them, frightened and reaching out to an unknown and unseen person.

“Onee-Sama!” she kept yelling, repeatedly.  When she finally looked up enough to realize there were people around her, she leapt at Sai and asked,
“Where’s Onee-Sama? Do you know Zakuro-chan?  And, where’s Ichigo-chan? …and Lettuce-chan? …and Pudding-chan? …and who are you?” she ended her last question with a confused and angry face.

“Who are those people Sai?” Sakura spoke up at last.  Sai only shrugged his shoulders and continued to stare at the girl.  There was silence as the girl blinked and looked around, frightened and confused at the people around her.

“Is your name Mint?” Sai finally asked

Mint’s eyes widened in shock and surprise.  “y-yea-yes.” She stammered clumsily. Straightening herself up, Mint regained her normal composure. “Why do you care?  And why am I still holding this?” she handed Sai the broom with a look of utter distaste.

It took them several hours to finally introduce everybody and explain to Mint their mission.  Mint was not happy to be on another team, but, since they couldn’t figure out a way to send her back to her world, she was compelled to come along with the only people she knew in this crazy world.