SPECIAL CHAPTER 5

Sai's Family Roots
(サイの家族ルーツ Sai no Kazoku Rūtsu)

It has been three days since Sasuke and his teammates have arrived back in the Village Hidden in the Leaves and ever since then, a lot of things were starting to change. Sakura was becoming more distant and distressed while Naruto kept worrying himself about Sasuke's well being. Even Kakashi was not acting like himself and that was kind of hard to tell since he's always been so...poise and calm about situations like that. The only one that didn't seem to let the situation get to them was Yamato and the rest of Konoha 11.

Sai didn't understand why the whole team was beginning to fall apart all because of Sasuke had came back on his own. The artist was still trying to figure out why was this happening in the first place? What was his reason for coming back to the place that possibly caused him so much pain? It didn't make sense to him at all. The Uchiha was a strange person with an insane complex. Too bad his family was all murdered by his older brother, Itachi.

Speaking of family, how was Sasuke raised? Sai wondered about that for a while now. He came from the Uchiha Clan, so he was probably raised with proper values about life. Those values got seriously deterred when the clan got massacred. He probably would have been a nice guy if his family was still living. But he guessed Sasuke growing up alone in the world sort of obstructed his way of thinking clearly.

Thinking about Sasuke's life made Sai wonder if he had parents. Of course, that was a ridiculous question on his part because he wouldn't be here if he didn't have any. Was his parents still alive? He was orphaned, but that's the only thing he knows. Nothing more nothing less. Why was he worrying about this? The artist headed over to the Hokage's Mansion...his inquiring mind wanting some answers...

XxX

At her desk, Tsunade was in her office doing some paperwork that had began to pile up on her. She had blamed herself for letting it pile up like that in the first place. A lot had happened and she had to take some time away from her duties to handle it. These past few days had been very stressful not only to Naruto, but to her as well. In a few more days, everything will change for the better or for the worse...

"Come in..." She answered and the pale young artist walked into the office.

"Sai..." Tsunade said, somewhat surprised by the his appearance. He usually never comes to the office by himself. Was something wrong? "You don't have any missions today and all of the others are taking the day off. What do I owe this visit? I'm quite busy at the moment as you can see..."

Walking towards her desk in slow steps, Sai swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat. He was nervous about asking her something like this, but this was something he had wanted to know. He won't feel any better unless he got some answers. "Tsunade-sama, I was wondering...if you had any information on me that can tell me something about my lineage..."

Tsunade had stopped writing all together when she heard him ask that. She placed the brushed down next to the vial of ink and folded her hands under her chin. She was hoping that he would never ask anything about his lineage. Because of that, she felt uneasy about handling this situation. "What brought this up all of a sudden? You never worried about it before..."

"I know that, Tsunade-sama. Do I have any records about my family at all? I need to know something. Anything about them...if I had any..." Sai's voice was a bit anxious, having mixed feelings about wanting to learn about the truth and not wanting to know. It would not be a good feeling to know that he was possibly abandoned instead of being an orphan. In ROOT, they had confirmed that he was an orphan, but something just didn't seem right about that.

"Are you sure about this?" Tsunade noticed that Sai was not gonna let up on the subject at all. It would asinine to keep trying to convince him otherwise. Her good heart couldn't turn down such a request and not telling him would probably hurt him in some way, but she also knew that leaking this kind of information out could have some serious mental effects on him. "Would you be able to handle this?"

"Yes." He answered sternly. "I'm certain." If Sai could handle being put under a genjutsu by Sasuke and letting his hidden fear get the best of him, he was pretty sure he could handle this.

The busty blonde sighed in defeat. The ROOT Foundation was disbanded now, so it should be okay if she told him that information. After all, they have to give the records to the Hokage as approval for a shinobi to be in ANBU or ROOT anyway. So she opened a drawer next to her that had an assortment of files in it. It had ranged from ninja registrations to death certificates alphabetized and lettering by A-Z and by numbers. Pulling out three folders, she placed them on the desk and pulled something else out.

"What is that you want to know, Sai?" Tsunade asked as she opened the files.

"Well, what is my real name?" He questioned. He knew that what he was called now couldn't possibly be his real name. All ROOT members have a 'code name' they go under while on a mission or otherwise.

"According to this, when Danzo assigned you your code name for when you go on missions, he had actually gave your real birth name as your 'alias'. So your real name is actually 'Sai'." Tsunade concluded and she smirked a little bit. That was a bit of a surprise and unexpected from Danzo.

That was something Sai thought Danzo would never do. The now deceased man had enough decently to use his real name in a secretive organization? Talk about a man with hidden morals.

"Also, you've come from a clan that uses artistic abilities and skills as their main fighting style, the Tomoe Clan."

"The...Tomoe Clan?" Sai tried the name out, but he wasn't familiar with it at all. He had never heard of a clan with that name before. Was it an ancient clan? "Can you elaborate on that?"

"Yes. The Tomoe Clan was an old clan that resided in Konoha. Members of the Tomoe Clan had excellent chakra control and high level dexterity when it came down to performing jutsu. Every other generation, shinobi contracted "Myopathy", which was a serious condition where the muscles in the body do not function properly. Because of this, they had below average strength and stamina. The good thing about this is that they could use the chakra that they do have efficiently without wasting it. In some cases, most Tomoe members acted as a Intel and Ambush type shinobi to aid their teammates in battle from long distances..."

"Wait...was? What happened to it?"

"You mean what happened to the Tomoe Clan? After a tragic battle, most of the clan members had scattered across the shinobi nations, creating different branches of the Tomoe Clan for each village."

"Anything else?" Sai hoped that there was so more except for little piece of information.

"Well, reading back over these certificates, your father's name was Jiseki Tomoe and your mother's name was Kaori Tomoe..." Tsuande then handed Sai a small back book with gold writing on it. It was about the size of a small journal. Sai didn't like how the woman just gave him the book in silence like that...

"You mean...they're..."

"Yes. I'm terribly sorry, Sai. Your parents were killed during that battle. The details of that are pretty abstract, so there's not much I can tell you. That diary is the only thing that remains from the two of them, Sai. It belonged to your mother. You can take it with you and see whats inside it..." Tsunade only hoped that she wasn't making a mistake of giving Sai that diary. But then again, it could piece together some of the things that she explained to him.

"I see...Thank you, Tsunade-sama..." Not saying another word, Sai took the diary with and left out the office in sullence, quietly closing the door behind him.

'Everything and everyone around here is becoming so depressed and dishearten. I hope this feeling goes away really soon...'

XxX

When he was walking home that afternoon, Sai was still in shock from what Tsunade had told him. He actually came from a noble clan and he actually had parents. He had also learned that his father was the second generation's leader of the Tomoe Clan, his family clan and his mother was originally from the Village Hidden in the Grass and was a master of the Poison Release. Sai never thought...that he would have such strong parents. To him, that was quite impressive in his book. Pulling out the diary that Tsunade had gave him, he flipped through it until he got to the last page. He then noticed there was in a side pocket of the diary.

"What is this?" He asked, looking at the object inside the pocket. Letting curiosity getting the best of him, Sai slowly pulled it out from its resting place and it turned out to be a photo. In the picture was a man and woman, who looked like they could be in their late 20s. He had his arms wrapped the woman's waist and he had a bright smile while the woman looked at him with a sweet yet expression.

Sai noticed that the man had pale skin similar to his and he had black eyes. His hair was long that it fell to his shoulders and he wore the standard attire for Konoha and the forehead protector worn around his neck. The only difference was that he was wearing short sleeves and had bandages wrapped around his elbows and wore fingerless gloves. His father, Jiseki wore black...just like he does. He just added the color of dark green into his style of fashion.

The woman had a fair skin complexion and she had short, dark brown hair with pure black eyes. She was wearing her forehead protector in the traditional manner as well and had a silver flower pin on the left side of her head. She wore a sleeveless red shirt with a black undershirt with gray tights that stopped to her knees. Under the shirts, she wore a wrap across her waist and knee-high shinobi sandals.

So this was what his parents had looked like. They weren't bad looking, either. In fact, they were nice looking people. Normal looking people, except for the fact that his Father could have been a possible fool with that mischievous smirk on his face. It was a shame that he had never got the chance to meet them or spend time with them. Now he wished that they we're still alive, so he could get to know them and experience the one bond that he will never ever get the chance at: learning and understanding a true family bond.

Not knowing what it was like to have someone watch you nearby as you executed your first jutsu. Not having anyone to protect you from danger when you were still just a child. To have someone see you off on your first day of going to the Academy, even though he had never went. The feeling of coming home to them every single day...just to see their smiling faces and smelling the sweet scent of a home cooked meal. Sai...Sai didn't have any of those things during his younger days as a child and just imagining it made him feel so...pensive...

A small clear liquid the size of a pearl plopped on the photo and a couple more followed, splashing onto the semi-soft material. Reaching his hand up to the right side of his face, Sai had pressed his index finger on the wetness that had stopped midway on his cheek and he analyzed it. It was...tears. He had tears in his eyes? He was actually shedding tears. The artist couldn't believe that he was experiencing the natural phenomenon such as crying and this notion let him know that not even he, a emotionless person with no personality can suppress the magnificent power of human emotions.

His childhood was very dark. Lonely. Plain. Dull. It lacked the vibrancy and brightness that he always wanted to know. Just black and white. Darkness. Everything that was bland and distasteful. He was also in Root, which did not make things any better for him...well, except for Shin. In reality, that was not the kind of life he wanted for himself nor did he had much of a choice for the life that he had led up until now. The artist guessed that the feelings that were buried deep, deep inside of him were slowly starting to resurface, letting him get reacquainted with the foreign emotions that came with the human mind.

He looked at the picture once more and he could tell that his parents had possibly lead very interesting lives. They may have had their share of trials and challenges, but there were probably at least fun and exciting. Something that he has yet to do yet...but he intends to change all that. Slowly, but surely, he will try to live his life the way his parents. If so, he would try to live life even better than they did. This feeling he had felt...the feeling of wanting to change was something that he never felt before. The swelling that resided in his heart was emanating from within him, awakening a brand new desire for change...

Change. A simple word that held so meaning and it was very powerful as well...

Sai had flipped the picture to the opposite side of it and tt said: To our precious son, Sai. We love you with all our hearts. Remember us forever and grow up to be a fine shinobi! Jiseki and Kaori.

The fact that Jiseki and Kaori left a diary for him as a keepsake made him wonder what written inside it. From what he saw by scanning through the diary earlier, mostly all of the pages were filled with entries. In any case, a lot of his parents' life, history, and adventures was probably held in this book. It would be worth finding out when he had the free time to do so. This was something that he would have to do when he was alone and didn't have any distractions.

'This...is the only memento I have left from my parents. I won't let ANYTHING happen to this diary. I'll protect their memories...and create new vivid memories for myself so I can cherish them...just like my parents cherished me enough to bring me into this world...'

From a nearby building, the silhouette of a young girl was watching the artist closely. Witnessing just about everything that had happened from the distance, the girl couldn't help but somberly smiled at the young man for being able to handle such a trial so well. It must have been extremely painful for him to grow up in a world of no emotions, no free will, or a way to express himself by living life. But he wouldn't have to worry about that for long.

The girl sweet smile turned in a mischievous smirk as she placed a hand on her firm hip. Excitement was building up inside of the young girl from anticipation alone. She could only imagine when the day comes to let the cat out of the bag. "Don't worry, Daddy. You will see your daughter and your son very soon...I promise you'll get the chance of understanding a true family bond. ..."

And with that declaration, the girl vanished again.

Faintly sensing something, Sai had turned around a moment later to see if someone was following him. Of course, he had saw nothing on top of that building. "That's strange...I could of sworn that someone was following me. Maybe I just need to go back to my apartment and get some sleep. It's been a rough day as it is and I don't need to have paranoia on my plate as well. I'll leave that to Dickless..."

For that split second, Sai chuckled from saying the first nickname he had given Naruto and that brought back some good memories. Sai would taunt him, Naruto would challenge him, the artist would antagonize him and the two would always end up in a awkward and hilarious situation. There hasn't been one time where this confrontation would fail. It happened every time. They were consequential yet fun and nice memories.

His thoughts of good times lingered towards a more...pressing matter. From what he heard from Shikamaru, Naruto didn't have long before he would be in a court room full of higher ups, the Kages, and the Daimyō from the Five Great Nations. The question that ran through Sai's mind was: What the hell did he do to get the Shinobi Nations to want and get involved? That was one thing he didn't understand. Sai knew Sasuke from their last encounter at the Tenchu Bridge that he was working with Orochimaru and Kabuto. What happened to their alliance?

In any case, Naruto was willing to put himself on the line for that bastard. As Sai started to walk home, he only said one thing in his mind: 'Naruto's got more balls than I thought...even when the odds are against him...'

* * *NEXT CHAPTER SYNOPSIS* * *

The next chapter of Changing Fate is:

New Rivals
(新しいライバル Atarashii Raibaru)

Karin ends up making a new enemy. Meanwhile, Suigetsu spends time with Miyuki at the hospital and something or someone interrupts them...with a hard apple to the face!