Chapter Five
"I'm sure you all already know why we are here," the Third Hokage addresses, "So let's just cut the bull and get right to it."
The meeting in the city council room is currently happening. The head members are all gathered to discuss the recently relieved surviving Uchiha, Anakin, that has been hiding right under their noses. The Hokage is at the head of the table with the civilian council and clan heads sitting opposite each other. Anakin himself is standing on the floor being the main topic of discussion.
"Yes I find it awfully disturbing that this information was hidden from us," Homura states.
"I did what I thought best to protect him. After all, Itachi managed to kill his entire clan by himself without any interference. I couldn't risk information to reach his ears about one of them surviving to make him come back to finish the job." The Third tells him.
"But you could have told us and we could have put him in some form of protection." Koharu says.
"Yes you could have. I would have been more than willing to take him in to watch over him," Danzo says.
Hiruzen shakes his head, "I don't agree with the methods of 'care' to willingly hand him over to you. I need shinobi, not machines Danzo. Besides, if he wished to stay a civilian then it'd be best if less people knew about him to keep him safe."
"Before we go any further," Hiashi Hyuga says, "how do we know that he is really an Uchiha?"
"Well I do have the hospital records from the night of the massacre along with DNA samples to prove he is who he claims to be." Hiruzen tells him. "Besides that, both myself and Inoichi were in the hospital room when he was there."
"Really? Did you happen to look through his mind to prove this Inoichi?" Shikaku Nara asks his former teammate.
"I did at the time, but his mind was strong so I couldn't find out at the time. Although he did come back later and let me go through his memories and indeed he is an Uchiha." Inoichi explains.
"Wait a minute, he managed to resist you? He must have been only seven or so at the time. How was he able to do that?" Choza Akimichi asks, stunned.
"I believe that is something you will have to ask him. It is not my place to say something personal like that." The blond clan head tells him.
Everyone turns to Anakin, "Well would you care to explain this?" One of them asks.
Anakin takes a deep breath in, "Well to make a long story short, I'm reincarnated and didn't want someone I didn't know at the time to go through my memories."
The council gasps since reincarnation isn't something they've ever witnessed. Danzo on the other hand narrows his one visible eye, "I find this hard to believe. What proof do you have of this?"
"Well not like I have to explain to you, but I did carry over knowledge of a power that I'm sure none of you ever knew about." Anakin then Force pulls an empty seat over to him and sits down.
"Wait, was that it?" Koharu scoffs. "I'm sure all that was simple wind manipulation to pull the chair to yourself."
"It wasn't. I detected no chakra being used the entire time. What he did is something else entirely," Hiashi corrects her.
Anakin nods, "Correct. What I used is something called the Force." He then goes into explaining it to the council.
Dazno gets a glint in his eye, "So this 'Force' sounds like a very powerful thing. Is it exclusive to only you and your bloodline, or is it teachable to anyone? If it is, then this power would make us even more of a formidable village than we already are."
"It is teachable to others," Anakin tries to start.
"Excellent! Then I suggest we start right away. We should begin with Sasuke then. Surely the last Uchiha would be more than deserving to have this." Homura interrupts.
"Now before you get on your high horse demanding me to do stuff, there are conditions for learning it." Anakin tells him.
"Don't you back talk me boy! We can just as easily have you stripped of your rank and throw you in the prisons for insubordination." The old council member yells.
The Hokage looks at him sternly, "You will do no such thing nor do you have the power to do so. Once they become a ninja, only I am allowed to determine what happens to those under my command. I suggest you shut it and let him finish, otherwise I'll throw you out of this council."
"So what are these 'conditions' you speak of," Danzo asks with a worrisome expression.
"Well for the most part, not everyone is able to use it. In fact it's fairly rare to find someone who can in a galaxy." Anakin explains.
"So that means there's a very slim chance that someone from this village will be able to do it other than you?" Shikaku asks and gets a nod from Anakin. "Ok so let's say you find someone, would you be willing to train them?"
"That would depend on the person. If they don't show any noticeable signs and have a lot of hate or any other negative emotions, then I probably would have them stay shut off from the Force."
"And why is that?"
"Because it would lead to the Dark Side, which is a dark and dangerous side to take. Take Itachi for example, if he were to use the Dark Side then he probably wouldn't stop with just his clan. He would have probably started going through the entire village killing everyone. Why? Because the Dark Side likes to corrupt people and make them use their negative emotions even more since it's addicting like a drug. This is also why I wouldn't plan on teaching his younger brother either if I didn't already determine Sasuke isn't Force sensitive. Who is to say his quest for revenge stops with his brother?" Anakin explains.
Shikaku thinks for a moment. "Alright I say that's a pretty fair reason to not teach someone. From what I heard from your explanation of the Force, it's a very dangerous power and I have my doubts that even our best ninja would be able to beat someone who would abuse such power. Since the Hokage and my former teammate vouched for you, I trust you to not do something like that and only teach who you deem to not become a threat to us." The rest of the ninja council agrees along with a couple of the civilians and Hokage as well. Although Danzo sports a sour face.
"Well although I'm glad that the majority agrees about this," Hiruzen says, "we have drifted from the main topic of this meeting. So I guess I'll have to address it to you all anyways. We are here to determine whether Anakin is able to claim the Uchiha clan again."
"That would depend if he wishes to go back to it." Tsume Inuzuka states.
"That is true. Anakin before we go any further, what is your decision?" The Hokage asks.
Anakin takes a breath, "After much consideration, I have decided I would like to go back to the clan of my family. Seeing my friends focusing on their respective clans for their families, I would be ashamed to not do the same. The Uchiha clan is all I have left from my parents and I shouldn't throw it away so easily."
Hiruzen knows that the final push for Anakin to make this decision is from what happened with Naruto and finding out about his mother yesterday. He couldn't be more happy about the impact his surrogate grandson is having with the people around him and vice versa. "Leaving a clan is normally grounds for banishment from rejoining said clan and the council nor Hokage can do anything about clan businesses. But considering the current Uchiha clan only has one member, which is only a genin, it can hardly even be considered a clan at this point. This allows for a loophole for us to make a decision for you to be allowed back in without going to the 'clan head'. Granted this loophole only works for those who have the clan's blood so that not just anyone can be let in. The question is, would we allow you to." He tells him.
Inoichi is the first to speak, "I have had many conversations with you and understand the reasoning for leaving the first time. I believe you to be more than capable enough to return to your clan. I cast my vote to let him rejoin."
"Troublesome meeting, but I also cast my vote for him to rejoin as well. He seems to have a good head on his shoulders and we'll be definitely needing an Uchiha member that will actually benefit the village instead of an avenger." Shikaku says.
"He speaks of wanting to be loyal to his family and there's nothing Inuzukas like more than loyalty. I vote to let him rejoin as well." Tsume agrees.
"It's only logical to have all the support we can get to have a powerful clan like the Uchiha again. The Aburame clan supports the rejoin." Shibi Aburame says.
The rest of the ninja council agrees as well, except for one.
"I do not support him being let back into the clan he left. Leaving for whatever reason is disgraceful. Cowards are useless to their clans," such as my daughter. Hisashi claims. "Although I may not have much love for the Uchiha clan, I cannot agree to allow someone like him to bring shame to the clan that once rivaled us in power."
Danzo and a few of the civilian council agree with Hisashi's statement while the rest siding with the other ninja clan heads..
The Third sighs at the pale eyed clan head, "Well other than the Hyuga clan, the council is in agreement to allow Anakin back into the Uchiha clan. I agree as well, so it's my pleasure to state that Anakin is an Uchiha once more.."
"Thank you all! I will not let you regret this!" Anakin exclaims bowing with overjoyment.
The old man smiles at him, "Come by my office later to discuss inheriting your parent's things."
Anakin nods and leaves the council room. Meanwhile Danzo is seething. Damn Hiruzen! He already has the Nine Tails jinchuriki wrapped around his finger and now he has an Uchiha with powers that could make us unstoppable as well! Those two should be nothing but weapons for the village, but that damn peace loving fool would never allow that. I cannot allow this to last much longer. Four Hokages and they've all had the same mindset. Perhaps after the Chunin Exams I'll finally get my chance to properly lead this village, but if that plan fails then there is always the backup plan. Hopefully it doesn't come to that because I'd rather not get too involved with him and the organization he is in. It's too close to revealing the truth that night Itachi made if something goes wrong. Luckily I'm a patient man, I waited this long so I can wait just a little longer.
Anakin stands before the Uchiha District entrance with a couple of packed suitcases. The Hokage signed over everything in the young genin's parent's name to him including the house and everything in it. Anakin quickly packed everything of importance and moved out of the apartment he was living in. While he was thankful for the old man for giving him a place to live, living in a run down apartment complex wasn't exactly what he would call a home. As for why he was using suitcases instead of store seals? Simple, in his rush to pack he totally forgot about them until he was already more than halfway packed and sealing a packed suitcase made it really redundant. He walks in the district and memories just start flowing through his head.
"Now there is no reason to be shy," the soothing voice of a woman says.
A five year old Uchiha hides behind the woman's legs, "But Mama, there's a lot of people here. It's scary."
His mother chuckles softly, "It's alright dear. You are perfectly safe here."
"She's right you know son," the man next to them says, "This is the Uchiha district and here we look after one another. Think of everyone here as our extended family. There's nothing to worry about."
The young boy looks at him, "Are you sure? I don't know any of them, so it's still scary to me."
The man then lifts his son onto his shoulders, "Then how about I place you right here so everyone here knows that you are under my protection. Then no one here would dare do anything to you."
"Hahaha! That's right, Papa is a big strong ninja and there is no one who can beat him!" The boy proclaims.
"That's my boy!" The father says while the mother just shakes her head and smiles at the two most important people in her life.
Anakin pauses as a tear forms in his eye. It's one of his favorite memories of this life before the massacre. It's not a memory he thinks of often since a lot of sadness stems from what cut that family short. He can only hope that those two are proud of the life he has lived so far. After wiping the tear, he walks until he comes around a familiar house of his memories. It's a simple two storied house with a chimney. He unlocks the door and heads inside the home. While a little dusty, the house looked exactly as it did when he was younger. The living room, kitchen/dining room, and study make up the first floor while three bedrooms and a bathroom make up the second. There is a small training ground in the backyard as well. He heads to the room of his childhood and sets his suitcases inside. While he's glad to be back home, he doesn't feel comfortable taking the master bedroom of his parents just yet. The first thing he decides to do is clean the house from the dust. Then after checking the cabinets he realizes that all the food is probably expired by now, so he goes out and goes grocery shopping. Coming back he finds Sasuke and Sakura by the Uchiha entrance. Sasuke looks to be in his typical annoyed mood while Sakura just looks down.
"Get it through your thick skull. The answer is no and will always be no!" Sasuke yells, before he notices Anakin. "If it's not one thing, it's another. What do you want?"
Anakin tries to ignore the attitude and answers politely, "Well I'm on my way home from shopping when I noticed the two of you standing here."
Sasuke raises an eyebrow, "Home? Why would you be heading here if you are on your way to your house?"
"Because I live here now." He states flatly.
Sasuke's eyes goes wide along with Sakura's, "What?! No, that's impossible! You left and are no longer a part of the Uchiha clan!"
Anakin sets a bag down and pulls a piece of paper from his pocket, "This says otherwise."
"Anakin Uchiha…" Sasuke mutters while reading the paper. "You went to the council and Hokage to get back into the clan and it worked because of some bullshit loophole?!"
"Yes, although what I got is mostly just my parent's properties. You still own everything else Clan Head." Anakin teases while putting the paper away. "I know we are on a rough start, but we are the only ones left to revive the clan. I hope we can work past our differences for that purpose."
Sasuke sports a sour face, "I don't like this one bit, but I'll tolerate it just because I've seen how strong you are. I only caught glimpses of your and Kakashi-sensei's fight against Zabuza, but I'll admit that I might have not been able to face him since my own sharingan haven't activated until my own battle. Now just because you're back in the clan, don't bother me unless it's about training or about that traitor of a brother I have." He then turns and walks away.
Anakin looks at Sakura's sad expression, "You okay?"
"Yeah…" She starts, "Actually no I'm not."
"I have a good idea why, but how about first we take this somewhere else. Would you like to be the first to visit my childhood home?" He gestured into the Uchiha District.
"Oh! Are you sure? Alright then, lead on." Sakura says.
Anakin picks back up the bag he put down earlier and leads her to his new(?) home. Once inside, Sakura takes a look around while Anakin puts away the food. She walks over to the fireplace to look at a picture hanging above it. It shows a family of three all with raven black hair and eyes. The man and the boy have their arms wrapped around the woman with bright smiling faces. Anakin notices her staring at it.
"That's a picture of my parent's and I." He says walking over to her. "I was six almost seven then and we had just received some great news, but sadly we never got the chance to experience it because…"
"Because of Itachi?" She asks.
He nods, "Yeah because of Itachi."
"Do you hate him for what he has done?"
"Well I'm a bit bitter about it, but I'm not obsessed with wanting to kill him like Sasuke is. I fear for that boy's future." He replies now sitting on the couch with Sakura taking a seat next to him.
Sakura's brow raises, "You fear for his future? I thought since your guy's argument back in the Wave that you wouldn't have cared for him."
"Well based on that alone, I can understand how you can see it like that. But my dad once told me that the Uchihas are one big family and we look after our own, and Sasuke is a distant cousin so he is the only family I have left in the village. If I don't worry about him, then no one else will." Anakin answers.
Sakura can't help but look at the boy next to her in awe. Here is someone who died and was removed from his family, only to be reincarnated and having the new family taken away from him. Somehow he still has the strength not only to still press on and not give in to his anger and sorrows, but still care enough about the people he has left even if they aren't on good terms. And what does Sasuke do the moment he finds out someone else survived the massacre with him? He berates that person and pushes everyone who tries to get close to him. Makes her wonder if Sasuke is truly the great knight she thought he was. Is she really going to be happy staying the way she is and hope that he'll come to her rescue? Perhaps she needs to face reality and focus back on the true reason she entered the ninja academy.
Anakin studies the girl in front of him wondering what is going on inside her head. Sure he could have easily take a peak with the Force, but that wouldn't be right of him to do that to her. He thinks back to their interaction back in the Wave and his conversation with his grandfather. Perhaps his grandfather is right about her. She's been on his mind a lot more often lately and he hasn't had someone like that before. Well except maybe with Tahiri, but that ship has long past sailed by now. Dying does put a damper on that sort of thing. How was she doing by the way? He'll have to ask his grandfather next time he visits. Anakin is brought out of his thoughts by the pink-haired girl beside him.
Sakura nudges him, "Hey Anakin-kun? Could you do me a favor?"
"Uhmm… sure. What is it?" He asks.
"Well before you showed up, Sasuke brought up a very harsh but good point about me. He said that I am weak, and I think he is right. I've been neglecting my training just so I can keep the 'ideal body' I thought he would want. While I've been making some decent progress in genjutsu with Kurenai, I haven't been putting my all into becoming a ninja that I should have been. So would you be willing to train me?" She asks him.
Anakin takes a moment to process what she said. "Oh well sure I guess, but what in particular?"
Sakura looks thoughtful for a moment, "Hmmm… Well you seem to have a great grasp with a sword. Could you teach me as well? My taijutsu is limited to just what they teach us at the academy and that won't get me very far in a real fight when my genjutsu wouldn't be able to help me."
Anakin mulls it over for a second, "I guess I can do that, but it won't be easy I hope you know. We'll have to figure out what form works best for you. But luckily there is a form that is pretty baseline that will be a good stepping stone before we figure out yours. Come with me to my training ground out back."
She follows him to the small personal training ground. He pulls two wooden swords to him before tossing one of them to her. They stand across from each other as Anakin gets into a stance.
"Now the form I'll start you at is called Shii-Cho. It is the oldest form of lightsaber forms and is mostly just taught to new trainees because of how basic it is. By the way a lightsaber is basically a laser sword with a connection to the Force, but that is a topic for another time. Anyways Shii-Cho is the baseline into learning the other forms, so you'll have to learn this form anyways. But just because it's basic, doesn't mean it should be underestimated. It's quite useful especially since there are times when the other forms fail and it's a good form to fall back to. While appearing aggressive, it is actually a defensive form. One only masters Shii-Cho when they have attained inner peace and the weapon is an extension of themselves." Sakura cringes somewhat at the last part making Anakin chuckle a bit. "Do not worry though, I don't expect you to master this. Most learn enough to be proficient at it before moving on to one of the other six forms. Now watch me and copy what I do. We will start with the stances of it before we get into any spars with it, which will be a while from now."
Anakin then begins to teach Sakura the basics of Shii-Cho with Sakura doing her best to repeat him. It isn't easy for her since physical training is one of the things she has been neglecting, but after a few hours she is roughly getting the idea for it. A couple more hours later, Anakin decides to stop it there.
"You made some decent progress today, but it's extremely obvious that your physical condition needs to be worked on before I even consider moving you on to sparing." He tells her. "Otherwise you'd be tired out five minutes into a fight if you make it that long."
Sakura pants for air, "Yeah… I know… I was worn out fighting those thugs back in the Wave… and if it wasn't for Shino… I would have probably been hurt or worse. Which is why I asked you to help me."
"Well of course I'm more than willing to help you. You're not only my teammate, but a very good friend of mine. It wouldn't do any good to see you fall behind. But I'd suggest getting some personal training done on your own time to help improve your physical condition. Even a simple jog every morning can increase your stamina and when you start to not run out of breath, increase the distance or go faster. I take one with Naruto and Hinata around the village every morning. If you wish then you can join us."
Sakura looks ecstatic, "You sure? Then of course I'll join you guys. Besides, it would give us more of a chance to try and get those two together."
"That would be great. I can't count how many times I have failed to get Naruto to even look at Hinata that way in our morning runs. That boy only has one thing on his mind when it comes to training and while admiral, it's also frustrating. Seriously, how can he not look at her during one of the few times she takes off her oversize jacket and reveals her sweaty shirt clinging to her huge assets?" He shakes his head.
Sakura's eyes narrow, "You mean to tell me you stare at her when she does? That would be the only reason you'd know."
A sweat rolls down Anakin as he nervously tries to think of an answer, "Well umm, hey you hungry? I know I am. Let me go see what we have." He quickly goes back into the house.
Sakura goes after him, "Hey we aren't done with this conversation yet!"
Author's Note:
This chapter is mostly just Anakin finally accepting being two people and embracing his Uchiha life/family along with him realizing he does in fact have feelings for Sakura. Also it has a small bit of hinting of a future plot for what scheme Danzo will be doing later on. The chinin exams will begin after another chapter or two, so look forwards to that. I might be willing take suggestions of which characters will face off against each other during the preliminaries since I haven't decided on that yet. Also side note, I noticed that I made characters in both of the stories I'm writing have a love interest with a girl named Sakura. It is unintentional, but I found it funny nonetheless. And once again, I have more reviews to answer.
dragon44pride: I have something special planned for Danzo. What it could be? Well I'll give you a hint. I will not be doing the normal two to three year time skip to Shippuden that most fanfics take since this story diverges from the linear plot of Naruto there. Though that said, it doesn't mean that everything up to that point will be exactly the same.
DS2010 and Guest: I'm really glad you both loved the visit of Anakin Skywalker to his family. I enjoy writing Skywalker as a loving father/grandfather. It's a side we sadly never got to see of him.
Thanks for reading and leaving the reviews you guys and I'll talk at y'all next time!
