Akane had originally been fairly resigned to her engagement. She'd understood-by her second funeral of a sibling she'd never know, that she was living in a world so far from her own that the same rules simply didn't apply. Or at least, that was what she reminded herself, over and over again, as she tried to make the best of it. Akane had been willing to try and ignore that she basically had a child bride. She'd been failing-but she had been making every effort.
Of course the straw that had broken the camel's back had been the assassination attempt by the very Lineage she was supposed to marry into. On top of her initial assassination and the hell of her poisoning and recovery-Akane had been done. She was done playing future matriarch and she was done sacrificing her morals on an altar of self hate and good intentions. But mostly-she was done doing everything in her power to make things work and simply hoping for the best.
As Samantha, she'd had plenty of practice at office politics, and she knew one of the most satisfying ways to get revenge was malicious compliance. Akane was the best kunoichi the Uchiha had, and any future matriarch candidate would live in her shadow. Akane found she was petty enough to make sure of it. She would give the Lineage Uchiha against her exactly what they wanted, and then glorify as they became acquainted with the old adage; be careful what you wish for.
Akane had certainly learned that particular lesson the hard way. She'd wanted, rather naively at first, to be strong enough to protect her family in some way-and then she'd wanted to be able to change the clan she'd been growing up in.
She'd lost her life in exchange.
Akane knew death, she'd felt her life come to an end for the second time. Naoya had brought her back, but those hopeless months after her resurrection had felt like part of the price-paid in full. The Uchiha clan was nearly unrecognizable from what it had been before Akane became a Kunochi-but she alone knew what it had cost her.
Having her engagement broken had been such a relief.
She could almost feel the weight falling off her shoulders when she realized she wouldn't have to marry someone she'd potentially groomed. She had tried her best not to, of course, and kept her distance from Madara religiously-but a fourteen year old Samantha had watched a romantic relationship with a nineteen year old devastate one of her classmates and best friend at the time, it had soured the concept of dating anyone under eighteen even before she herself was of age.
Considering a physical relationship with someone she had known their entire life since they were a child made her physically nauseous-especially without the clear delineation of life stages her former life provided. Most Uchiha shinobi lived pretty much the same life from the moment they learned the grand fireball. In her current life, seven year olds were considered adult warriors in the clan, teenagers reproduced, and too many mothers and fathers never even got to set eyes on their children. Even the homemakers lived the same life in their parents house as they would in their husbands, adulthood was a complete gray area.
There weren't high school or college graduates. There weren't working independent adults or first time homeowners. None of the markers she'd once understood to denote adulthood applied.
Children worked to contribute to their parents homes until they worked to support a partner and then any children they had. Marriage was the biggest adult milestone, a warrior in their twenties usually had a couple of children already, almost anyone Akane had felt any fleeting attraction to in her current life was already working to support a wife and kids-but by that time, when she might finally consider Madara a true adult from her point of view, in the clan; he would be considered long overdue for a marriage.
If she hadn't watched Madara grow up, if she had met him when he was closer to adulthood and more sure of himself, then there might have been some wiggle room. But she hadn't-and Akane found herself so grateful she wouldn't marry him and see herself as a monster for the rest of her life just because she couldn't find a way to stomach the reality of it.
She didn't ask too many questions about how Akira made it happen, but her little brother was far too smug not to have been a central player-and much as she loved him, Akira tended to view anyone he didn't outright adore with a utilitarianism that was almost robotic. She hoped he hadn't hurt anyone too badly in pursuit of Akanes freedom from her unwanted marriage, but she couldn't deny that she thought things had turned out for the best.
Especially when it didn't take all of a week for Madara to find himself newly engaged to a young woman named Misaki Uchiha of the Izanagi Lineage instead.
She knew it had been a harsh blow to her support base that she lost her title of future matriarch, but the more Akane had thought of her place in the clan-minus her engagement, the more it made sense. She hadn't realized it before, putting so much energy into making things work as she did-but she made a very poor bridge between the lineages and the rest of the Uchiha. She didn't have a Sharingan and that was something certain shinobi could never understand-or forgive.
Being in place to become the Matriarch of the Uchiha clan, was to embody the Uchiha feminine ideal. It was to be dangerous and demure, submissive to her husband and lady like without reproach. One of the few things Akane had to do to ensure she was a viable candidate and actually marry Madara was memorize an entire etiquette book-something much more difficult to accomplish without the Uchiha bloodline limit. She'd made some inroads over the years, in the occasional inn on her way to or from a mission. But she would have spent a minimum of three months of her life obsessing over her manners and getting interrogated on her etiquette just to marry a guy she didn't actually want to marry.
Misaki was welcome to that headache in her stead. She was certainly better suited for it, Sharingan and all. Hopefully she would find more fulfillment in the role than Akane ever had. She didn't wish Madara's future wife any ill, and honestly the more she learned about the slightly younger woman, the more guilty she felt about how she'd chosen to punish the Uchiha elders-but the die had been cast and Akane wasn't going back.
Being Matriarch, for Akane, was at best a means to an end. But it was hardly the only one.
Akane wasn't powerless in the clan.
She still had all the coalitions she'd worked so hard to establish, her reputation was almost impeccable after her creation of the sole clan artifact-about her only flaw to her fellow Uchiha was, as always, the lack of Sharingan.
But Akane, finally back in shape-had some new tricks up her sleeves. Especially, what she had begun to think of affectionately as her soul sense, once it had saved her. Akane, like most shinobi born without the talent, wasn't a great sensor. You could train yourself to be better at it, but the ceiling for those who lacked the talent was around where most shinobi could train to hide their chakra, so it was a good idea to keep an 'eye' out sense wise, so to speak, but expect to be attacked regardless.
No one could hide from her soul sense.
When Akane sensed the not quite heat of souls, pretty much any human in range became a bonfire, and even animals were like lanterns in the night when Akane closed her eyes and focused just the right way.
Even her elemental control had reached a place where she felt perfectly comfortable calling it fire bending. Akanes latest exercises in elemental control was trying to reduce the heat of a flame instead of increasing it-not because she couldn't keep going, but because she was beginning to fear what came after cremation when it came to flames. Akane was unmatched in fire manipulation within the clan, an achievement that had already made her a legend many other Uchiha tried to live up to.
Akane had fully believed in her ability to carve out a place of her very own in the clan power structure. Shinobi respected strength and, if nothing else, she had a proven track record of doing what was best for the clan.
What she hadn't counted on was how quickly the Uchiha split in two. Lineage shinobi versus the non lineage.
Misaki, a kind girl who had agreed to her engagement under pressure from her lineage head and the offer of continuous support for her highly autistic younger brother, did not even seem to realize she'd become a figurehead. Like many Lineage Kunochi she had been chucked onto the battlefield before puberty, activated her sharingan, and then stayed home to await her marriage where she would make babies that were 'guaranteed' the sharingan. She had no training on how to spot manipulation, or even any context for why so many of the tea parties she attended as Madara's future bride basically became lineage circle jerks.
Misaki was a sixteen year old child that was doing her best by what little was left of her family. Akane wouldn't blame her for unknowingly stoking the fires of civil war within the Uchiha clan.
Mostly she blamed the proposed ceasefire instead-and the way Madara's announcement hadn't tried to at least pretend the clan had a say on whether or not he agreed to it. Resentful Uchiha needed a place to vent their emotions, and sadly-the undercurrents of the civil war Akane was actively trying not to have were in just the right place at the worst possible time.
Akane had done damage control, blatantly in her favor, because she felt quite aggrieved she had to do any in the first place, and asked Misaki on a friendly spar. After she'd pressed the poor girl into activating her Sharingan and still kicked her ass, tensions had simmered back down. Not even the most pro-Sharingan nut job would feel emboldened after their figurehead lost so soundly. And Akane was working overtime with her mother, Cho, Akira, and even Ryota to turn the discontent rumbling into something less like a powder keg that just needed the slightest spark to blow up completely.
There was something wrong.
Akane had spent far too much time building community and trust among the Uchiha for all of her systems to be failing so badly so quickly all at once.
It was almost paranoid-but if being a shinobi had enforced anything from her first life; it was that it wasn't paranoia if they were out to get you.
Not for the first time, Akane wished she'd retained more about the series. That she'd read the manga, or some fanfiction-that she had more than grief dulled memories about the universe she currently resided in.
The Senju had offered a peace treaty.
A peace treaty, that according to Akira, Izuna was arguing with Madara about because her former fiancee was thinking of taking it. Akane couldn't think of a reason for Madara in the anime not to have made the same choice. To avoid whatever battle he'd ultimately lost his last brother in. But in the series the Senju and Uchiha never stopped being in conflict until the Uchiha were forced into a corner, and either abandoned the clan to join Konoha, or dragged a grief stricken Madara with them, Akane couldn't quite remember which.
But if Hashirama had proposed a ceasefire in the original universe without Akane, her clan head would have been forced to take it. Akane could still remember the desperation with which the Uchiha had once lived, prior to her changes. If-when the clan was significantly better off than it could have been in the original universe, Madara was still considering the ceasefire, then the cool blade of logic would have had him agreeing to it in the anime.
He may be too hot headed at times, but Madara loved the clan-he would do his best by them. Akane had known Madara most of his life, she knew that for a fact.
So if the original universe had the same proposed ceasefire and it hadn't gone through-then there had to be a reason for it. Just like there had to be a reason for the unreasonably high tension between the Uchiha factions. A reason like sabotage. The only questions were who, why, and most importantly, how?
Akane was meditating with the candles on her bedside, basking in her family's flames when she got her first inkling into who, or rather what, was working against the Uchiha.
Akane wasn't happy to discover the evil plant thing skulking around the clan compound.
But she had to admit there was some happiness in the opportunity it presented. The Senju and Uchiha had been at war for hundreds of years. If she could prove enemy action-or at the very least, give them an enemy to unite against, then the ceasefire might make its way towards a full blown treaty faster than it ever had in the anime.
The hope blooming in her chest pushed Akane to a rather reckless plan.
It might have been dangerous-possibly the most high stakes move Akane had made in her current life.
But what was a little risk when peace could be the reward?
X
It has come to my attention that a lot of you seem to have been drawn to this story as you saw it as an OC/Madara fic, in which case I'm sorry to say that Akane and Madara are not end game. There is a romance, later down the line but that is not ultimately the focus of this fic.
The main themes and focus are more; War is Bad (all the traumatized and dead Uchiha), Community and Mutual Aide Is the Only Way Forward (Akanes current Uchiha clan building and future Konoha building), and Be the Change You Wanna See In the World (Akanes everything). Romance was meant to be more of a cherry on top than anything else, so I didn't think it would be a big deal to play the bait and switch pairing wise.
I apologize if you feel you've wasted time on this fic, or if it is something you now feel is of no interest to you-but I hope you at least enjoyed some of your time in my makeshift corner of the Naruto verse, and I wish you luck finding other fics that are more to your taste.
All that aside, next up we have Izuna and his take on things. Who's excited? I'm excited, lol.
