Title: Trust
Genre: Family and General
Summary: At some point, she would have to trust him to make the decision. But, she still had time and she would use it to her advantage.
Sakura – old | Itachi – 8 | Shisui - 13 | Tekka – 16
A/n: I enjoyed writing this twist on time traveling. I hope you do to. There is a second chapter that is found later in Sweet Release. Thank you for taking the time to read my work, and a thank you to those who have reviewed; I appreciate any feedback I can get. - Z.z
"Do you two know why you're being punished?" the old woman asked as she curled her white hair, which flowed onto the floor when she sat, and tied it into a bun.
The older of the two boys narrowed his eyes, "Because I spoke the truth."
The old woman sighed. Her long white nails tapped on the wood of the floor. Her skinny legs rested beneath her although it looked as though they would not be able to lift one pound let alone the old woman up.
"He isn't one of us," the oldest said his black eyes darted to his younger cousin then back to the old woman.
"Kakashi is an Uchiha," her dull eyes pierced the hard stare in half and the older boy was forced to look away.
"Just because he stole Obito's eyes does not make him an Uchiha," the boy said with the bite and grief in his young voice obvious.
"Is this what you have been carrying with you, Shisui? Why did you not speak out sooner?" the woman asked. The wrinkles on her arm shifted as she extended her hand in a motion for the boy to speak.
Shisui's head turned to the side, unable to look back at the woman. "Grandmother. I—I" the boy tried to start several times but failed. So he paused, drawing a deep breath. "It's not right! He's no right to blood passage; he's not one of us! Obito should have lived!" The eyes were dark, brooding and in pain. Death was constantly brought up amongst the clan to birth acceptance that life breeds death; but to face it, and so young…
"But Obito is dead and there is no should or could or would… Death is death, second guessing the past will only bring distress. Do you not think that Kakashi carries the same weight as you within his heart?" she asked resting her old, shaking hand back into her lap.
"He's like a board," the boy huffed.
At that the old woman stood, faster than her appearance would give like to and the boy flinched expecting to be hit. "As a ninja, you must see underneath the underneath. In fact, I would suggest you take lessons from Kakashi. The boy has had more trouble than you know. He has no family and has lost a teammate, a friend in battle; if you believe anyone can toss away such feelings then you are sorely mistaken," the woman sagged, as if all the energy had drained from her limbs.
Her crooked back stuck out more as she tried to lean down to look the young boy in the eyes; she got halfway down before she straightened herself. "Stand, both of you."
They both did. The woman looked Shisui in the eyes. "And of your declaration of blood passage… Tell me this; what makes an Uchiha, an Uchiha?"
Shisui stopped in thought and looked down. Then the idea arose to him and he looked at the woman, eyes glinting, "One must be born an Uchiha."
The woman nodded, "Very well." Her hands undid the silencing chakra inside the room then she called out, "Tekka!"
The teenager opened the door and walked into the room, "Ah."
"We are done here, take them to grandfather Atu."
"What?" Shisui cried.
"According to you, I am not an Uchiha. That means that I should send you to one to receive your rebuke."
"Grandmother, you know—"
The old woman silenced him with a cold, distant stare. The child shifted anxiously, never before taking such a look from the normal loving woman.
"What am I, Shisui?" her voice cut the thick silence making all three males in the room shiver.
"A— An Uchiha—"
"I was not born one, nor did I bear one. There is no Uchiha blood in me. So let me ask again, what am I?" The eyes were dead, no longer staring at the boy; but something beyond him. Her back looked far more slumped as if the weight of what she saw, the intangible but real past, rested upon her shoulders.
The boy's cold façade broke, unable to take the harsh treatment of the woman that once baked cookies and read stories for him. He reached out and pulled himself to her stomach. "You're Grammy Saki…"
The woman's long finger nails scratched against the child's skull calming him. She breathed in and sighed. "What does it mean though?" she asked her voice soft and gentle.
"Your family, your Uchiha," the boy said his voice sounded stuffed as he clung to the woman's body.
She carefully pushed the child back and lifted up his chin to look at her. "And now Kakashi is part of our family."
The boy nodded and stepped away; ears reddening as he realized Tekka was smirking at him.
The old woman smiled her toothless grin the boys knew well. "Tekka."
The teenager's mouth twitched but understood what she wanted. He gave her a quick but tight hug. The two younger boys now also sported smirks.
"Now for your punishment, Shisui. At four, before dawn breaks, you will go down to the memorial stone and stand on the west side of it; in the trees. And you will wait there until you understand it's time for you to leave," the woman told him her smile gone and eyes solemn. He would find Kakashi there; he would understand that 'the board', the scarecrow, was not as emotionless as he appeared.
Shisui looked uncertain but nodded.
"Tekka and Shisui, you are dismissed."
Both boys bowed and left, knowing disrupting her was not an option. When they left, she re-did her seals, making sure no one would hear her conversation with the Uchiha heir.
"Do you understand Itachi?" she asked unsure. The boy was a genius, a prodigy, everything she'd ever been told except for one quality was within the child.
"Yes and no, Grandmother Sakura," the boy said his voice sounding like the high ring steel on steel.
The woman gave a nod to the boy, he was still a boy. "Then ask."
"I don't understand what really makes an Uchiha," he stated calmly. His black eyes, keen and piercing analyzed her, waiting for an answer.
"Hmm..." The boy was quick to catch on that she never really told Shisui what was an Uchiha. She had let Shisui find his own truth. The Uchiha clan was one which vied for power and sought destruction, but that wasn't really what the boy was asking. The first answer Shisui gave was correct, on face value. A true Uchiha was an Uchiha by blood, not by marriage. Only by birth, baring, or siring was one a 'true' Uchiha. "For Shisui an Uchiha is family. But the point of my conversation wasn't about what makes an Uchiha."
The boy's brows flew together in thought. His chubby cheeks looked pinched and his tiny stress lines seemed to deepen as he bowed his head letting shadows chase along his cheek bones. The boy shook his head, not finding an answer. "What was the point?"
The woman smiled sadly, "Kakashi is not an Uchiha."
The poor child would probably go insane within his own mind if she kept up with it. But she had to force him to see the world for what it truly was. But she had contradicted her. What she truly wanted was to get him to see the world the way she did and to see peace within it.
"Just as I am not an Uchiha," she murmured quietly to the boy, prodding.
"The point is that it matters not if one is an Uchiha," the boy looked up, questioning, "It matters that one is considered to be family."
She smiled, he was truly brilliant. She carefully held his head in her hands and kissed his forehead. "Now tell me, who is our family."
"The village, for we live as one, we breathe as one, our will of fire is one…" the voice trailed off as he recited the line she had told him thousands of times before. He nodded more assured before he began quoting her words once again. "We cannot be defeated because we cannot be separated. For family is not of blood but of bonds and bonds born of one cannot be separated into two." The words were memorized, but now they held conviction, "As such, Konohagakure shall never fall."
She smiled and patted his cheek. "Do you understand you are not just heir to the Uchiha clan?" she asked.
The boy titled his head to the side and answered, "I am heir to the village."
The woman nodded. If everything continued well then he would one day take over as Hokage; that was certain. She had done all she could, tried all she could to keep it so that the mistakes of the past, of her past, did not affect the new future.
She had tried her hardest; but evil befalls even the best laid plans. Her hunt for Madara Uchiha in her younger years was a folly; her search to return to the present also ended as such. After several years, she returned to the village. There she had stumbled upon the young third and a worrisome Senju.
With her medical skills she was able to open the door way to high councils and was able to identify the needs of balance within the clans, satisfying their wants and quelling what might have become rebellions. She kept her eyes on Danzo and made sure he stayed in a high but unmanned position of power. She married to keep peace, but eventually found small comfort in her home. But knowing the future, to dream of people yet born, drove her to roaming and with her roaming she was able to create more allies for her village, but alas more enemies.
She returned unable to bare; but it mattered not for the man was gone. She hadn't lost any respect; her wandering had brought many men and women to learn the art of medical ninjutsu and serve the village.
But it was upon the death of Obito that she truly began to see her purpose and decided to begin to meddle far more in the affairs of the upcoming generations. The fox had still come though, Minato had still died, and Naruto remained an orphan; but with a better future she promised to the wind, wondering if the world she once knew and the people in it still existed and continued on without her.
She made sure people knew what the boy was. He was a human but a container that had saved the village. For, she claimed, the child would wrestle with the fox and prevent it from escaping. Many offered their homes, but it had been Mikoto, whom had just given birth several months earlier, that took the boy into her household. The Uchiha were brothers to the Senju so the boy's welfare was theirs they claimed.
Her hand brushed at Itachi's hair subconsciously and the child was still, enjoying the small comfort he was not given often due to his shinobi training. The boy at her hand would either destroy what she had tried to create or continue on his current path, creating a better world for all.
She understood that her end was near, and that she would not live to see several more years let alone five, when the massacre would take place. So she'd already taken to writing down things, things that would be given solely to the boy when he reached his fourteenth birthday. Her written works included her memorization of the Bingo book, politics in foreign affairs, enemies and spies that had been in her time. She'd written him her explanation of the past, his future; making sure that he would pay attention to specific people in a specific set of time.
He would do well, she believed. At five he had come to her and talked about truth and peace. It was then she knew there was no one else she could trust it too. It was odd, that in the end the boy was different from the devil she heard Sasuke whisper and whimper in his sleep about.
"Let me think, what would be a good punishment for you?" She smiled looking down at the boy, whom she had held several hours after his birth.
The black eyes stared up at her then they squinted, happy to have the grandmother he knew back.
"Ah, yes… Tomorrow you and your genin team will help me grocery shop," she said tapping at the nose of the boy as his lips twitched. "Perhaps I'll be in the mood to make some cookies too… You're free to go." She waved one hand and patted his head with another.
The boy smiled then gave her a quick hug before he left to find Shisui.
Sakura sighed and rested cross legged back on the floor. Her body creaked; her body was old and decaying away. Years had come harsh, and truth harder; but she had survived and she would continue to survive for a few more years.
She had written everything she deemed a man would need to know, hiding nothing and being straight with facts. But now, now she could take the time to write and be a grandmother. She had hints, tricks and genjutsu's to put to paper.
She rose and her bones made grinding noises. She shouldn't have moved so fast earlier.
She padded to her desk and lit her candle. She picked up the pen and began to write on a fresh piece of paper.