Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters. This fanfiction was made out for pure enjoyment. No money was made off of this story. Naruto and its characters are owned by Masashi Kishimoto.
Summary: Uchiha brothers are miraculously back in Konoha. Home sweet home? Not quite. Obstacles are ahead of them. With a council member determined to wipe out the Uchiha clan, it seems impossible for them to have a normal life again. With the help of two ANBU members, they just might make it possible.
Chapter 1
"Starting Over"
It has been exactly three months since Itachi and Sasuke Uchiha entered through Konoha's gates. During the fight between the two brothers that happened about a year ago, the truth of the Uchiha clan was revealed. The real reason why Itachi had to massacre their family.
Fugaku was planning to overrun the council and the Hokage in order for the Uchihas to be the most powerful clan in the village. Power can turn a man crazy, and Fugaku was crazy for it. The Hokage at the time ordered Itachi to massacre his family, which tore him inside. He begged the council to have him spare at least his brother. They obliged, knowing two Uchihas in the world would not be as bad as Fugaku. To keep Sasuke alive, Itachi has to have insurance that his little brother wasn't going to be suicidal. In order for that to happen, he goaded Sasuke with the thought of revenge. Sasuke gave into Itachi's mind game, and revenge took over Sasuke's grief. The rest of the story is history.
ANBU members brought back Sasuke and Itachi after they destroyed the Akatsuki. With Tsunade's lecture and approval, they were welcomed back into the village. However, of course, they were watched at all times secretly. The brothers expected that already though.
Back to present times, the two brothers were now back in the Uchiha complex. Both had scars from the places, and sleeping there would be like reopening the wounds. They learned to deal with it though, and now the place just makes them feel numb. Within the three months of being back in their home village, both have made progress with mending what the left behind. Naruto welcomed Sasuke with open arms, happy to have his best friend back. Kakashi never verbally welcomed the two brothers, but his actions said so. Friendships were mended, and Sasuke had his older brother in his life again. Itachi worked as an accountant for one of the companies in Konoha in order to make meets end, and prove to Tsunade that they were worthy to be citizens of Konoha again.
"Oi teme! Wake up!" Sasuke's obsidian eyes snapped open when he heard the obnoxious blonde holler at him from his bedroom door. He groggily sat up and peered at the knuckle-headed ninja across the room from him.
"Hn," was all the young Uchiha said as he got up from his navy blue bed. He threw his white shirt on and a pair a pants as well. Like all of his fangirls imagined, the heart throb slept in his boxers.
"Teme hurry! We're going to be late for practice! Sakura-chan is going to bitch at me again!" the blonde whined as the older Uchiha leaned against the door frame in his work clothes. Ignoring Naruto, Sasuke looked at his door and at his brother.
"And we all know how much he wants to see that medic-nin," Itachi chuckled as his brother glared at him. Sasuke's relationship with Sakura was awfully awkward. They only spoke to one another when it was absolutely needed. It was only absolutely needed when he needed medical attention or they discussed about his summonings with the council and/or Tsunade. He had to admit, Sakura changed dramatically throughout the four years. She was no longer the weakling he knew when they were thirteen. Sakura was a strong independent woman who never ceased to amaze him nowadays. He would never admit it though.
"Ohh teme. I knew you were going to go after Sakura-chan when I started going out with Hinata. I get it, I get it. Afraid of going after women I'm after, I see," Naruto said in a matter of fact tone while giving an eyebrow wiggle. This just annoyed Sasuke even more and earned Naruto a whack on the head.
"Nani! I did nothing this time! Itai," Naruto mumbled the last part as he gently rubbed the back of his sore head. Naruto asked out Hinata last month when he sought out advice from Sasuke, and got nothing. The poor girl almost fainted when Naruto asked her out, but managed to stutter out her answer. Which was a yes.
They met up with the rest of Team 7 at the fields. Sai was the first one there, drawing something in his sketch book. They arrived the same time Sakura did.
"Ohayo Sakura-chan!" Naruto called out, waving at her from a few feet away.
"Naruto, I can hear you loud and clear, there's no need to yell," she scowled. It was still very early in the morning, and with a late night shift at the hospital you'd assume she would be easily agitated. Her pink hair stopped at her shoulders and had an elegant wave to it while it was straight at the same time. Her bangs framed her face and that infamous wide forehead or hers wasn't even noticed. Her eyes were a vibrant shade of mint green. Sakura was simply in one of her Haruno red shirts, with the sign at the back of it. It hugged her torso, showing off her curves but not too much. Her tan skirt seemed a little too short for the imagination, but luckily her black spandex shorts stopped mid thigh.
It took a few minutes before Sasuke realized he was staring at her. He mentally scoffed at himself
"Why'd you stop? I was enjoying that," his inner pervert snickered at him mentally.
"Because I feel like a pig. She's a teammate, I shouldn't even be thinking about that."
"That's the best excuse you got? We both know she's not just a teammate," this made Sasuke scowl in reality. Luckily no one saw since he was away from his team, leaning against a nearby tree.
Kakashi appeared in a cloud of smoke in a tree, he quickly dropped down and gave a smile to his team.
"Sorry I'm late, there was a little old lady-"
"BULLSHIT!" he was cut off abruptly by the blonde ninja, who pointed an accusing finger at their former sensei. Kakashi nonchalantly grabbed his icha icha book from his pack and skimmed through the pages.
"Alright, I'll tell you the truth now. I was talking to Tsunade about important business," he said without looking up from his book.
"Do we have another mission?" Naruto whined like a little kid as he pouted. He plopped himself down on the grass as if he gave up on the world at that point. The rest of Team 7 just shook their head at Naruto's childish antics.
"No, but I have to say that training is cancelled for the day. You have the rest of the day off-" before Kakashi could finish his sentence, Sakura was already gone. Naruto gave a confused look to everyone, but before he could even question Sakura's actions Sai answered him.
"Probably the hospital, dickless. She has a job to do, unlike someone who eats ramen for their hobby," as Naruto tried to find a retort but ended up just yelling things that didn't even make sense, Sasuke found himself looking at the spot Sakura was standing on before she disappeared. He looked up at the silver haired ninja. Without looking up from his book, Kakashi said.
"Sasuke, Tsunade wants to talk to you," he kind of expected that.
. . .
Sakura sighed as she tried to regain energy after healing another patient.
"Ninjas… Couldn't they just sit their asses down and not hurt themselves?" she mentally questioned.
"Speaking of asses, did you see Sasuke checking out yours?" her inner self snickered at her, which made Sakura scoff.
"He was not! Anyways, I wouldn't care if he did." Sakura spent the three years loving him, and even before that she loved him. The fourth year she decided to get over him. Just when she thought the feelings she had for him were gone, he came back with his brother. Within those four years, she was studying him and his family. What could she say? Her curiosity took a hold of her, and she decided to look into his records.
"Sure girl, don't you lie to me. I live in your head," Sakura rolled her eyes. Ino's voice woke her up into reality.
"Oi forehead! You have another patient!" Sakura groaned and got up from her desk and towards her best friend. The blonde looked at Sakura and gave her a smile.
"You look dead beat tired forehead, you didn't even have training this morning!"
Sakura rolled her eyes at her friend, "Work. It's going to kill me."
"Tell you what, how about this weekend we have a girls night out? You can even bring Miho!" before Sakura could say anything, her patient walked in. "This is going to be a long day," she thought to herself.
. . .
Sasuke stood at the doorway to the Hokage's office. Tsunade's desk was over flowing with paperwork and books. Not to mention the empty sake bottles that laid sprawled across the floor. Tsunade herself was standing up with her back towards Sasuke, she was looking at Konoha from her glass walls. Before Sasuke could knock and get her attention, she already knew he was there.
"Sit down Uchiha," Tsunade said. He walked in, but he didn't sit down. She knew that, and she scowled but didn't show her face. She didn't fancy the Uchihas that much, well, Sasuke at least. She knew of her apprentice's feelings towards the boy. She knew how it was to be in love, she didn't know how it was to be in a love that was unrequited. Therefore, she couldn't bear to imagine what her apprentice felt. The immense pain she felt for this boy. Sakura Haruno was surely a strong girl, Tsunade made sure of it. Though, that was probably painful for Sakura to see Sasuke leave the village and become a rogue ninja. Tsunade also knew, by the way Sasuke looked at her apprentice, the love wasn't going to be unrequited for long.
The older Uchiha made his way into her office.
"Hokage-sama," Itachi bowed. Tsunade turned around to face them. The Uchiha brothers stood side by side next to each other. Her blue eyes scanned them, no doubt they were brothers. The resemblance between them was undeniable. Their eyes showed the rubble that was left of them from past obstacles. She felt sorry for both of them.
"I'll have you know that your court date with the council is exactly a month and a half from now," she informed them. They gave a simple nod. "Well, the witnesses of your change are your friends. They will all be called up to the stand to say if both of you have changed or not." Sasuke mentally questioned why he was here. He knew what was going to happen at the court date, and he was sure Itachi knew as well.
Tsunade sighed, "You both probably know what's going to happen. Though, I'm not appointing you two lawyers." Both of the brothers' heads shot up to look at Tsunade. If this weren't such an important and serious conversation she would've laughed at reactions. She continued, "Instead. I'm giving you two my best people for this case. They aren't lawyers, because if I give you lawyers they won't do their job properly since everyone in Konoha, except those who are familiar to you, fears you two."
"Hokage-sama, I don't quite follow," Itachi questioned her.
"The two people I have appointed to your case are skilled in persuasion and are far more advanced than lawyers. I want you two to win, since I believe you two have potential to be in Konoha. It's going to take more than a miracle for you two to get approval from those oldies we call council members."
"So exactly, who are they?" Sasuke asked. Tsunade smirked at his question, and he assumed the worse. On cue, a certain medic ninja walked in. Sasuke didn't need to turn around to face this person, his eyes were already widened. He sensed her chakra, and knew what kind of chakra she had from training sessions. Itachi was snickering at this point.
"Tsunade-sama you called for me?" Sakura stood up straight, not letting her eyes wander on the Uchiha brothers. She had to admit, they were definitely brothers. Even if Sasuke was only seventeen and Itachi twenty-two, it was obvious.
"Yes Sakura, you will be appointed to represent Sasuke and Itachi's case. Mostly Sasuke, I'm appointing another person to work with Itachi and collaborate with you. You and I both know who else I'm appointing." Sakura nodded at Tsunade's words. There was no fighting her, even though Sakura wanted to object so badly. At least she knew who else Tsunade was appointing.
While Sasuke was busy glaring at Itachi, and Itachi with a mocking smirk on his face. Sasuke couldn't help but ask, "Who else is appointed to represent Itachi?"
On cue, again, an ANBU membered appeared in the room.
"What the fuck… Is everyone on cue or something?" Sasuke scoffed mentally.
"Hey. Just be glad Sakura is appointed to us. This'll be fun," Sasuke groaned mentally. Sasuke watched as Itachi looked at the ANBU member with interest.
It was clearly a female; her curves were shown even through her ANBU outfit. Her mask was a cat with designed with black and crimson paint on the white exterior. She took it off and as she took it off she exposed her light skin. She licked her light pink lips as she opened her chocolate brown eyes. Her hair cascaded down to the middle of her back. Her hair was layered so the back looked like a tail as it got longer. It was black, so black it could compete with Itachi's hair color. Though, it had bright maroon-ish magenta highlights. It almost seemed unnatural until Tsunade said who she was.
"Miho Kawano, Sakura's cousin."
