Sanpei Uyeno

Sanpei Masaaki Uyeno is a ninja from Kasai Village in the Kalos region. He previously met and helped out Division B of the Mokusetsu when they came to the village. He's the youngest brother of Ippei Uyeno and Nihei Uyeno. His current goal is to be the future chief of his village.

Background
Sanpei is the youngest of three brothers from Kasai Village. The village is full of ninjas who train to get stronger and defend the village, if need be. With Sanpei being the youngest, his two older brothers, Ippei and Nihei, don't take him seriously as a ninja and don't think his skills will ever improve.

Pretty recently, the village was attacked by a former ninja of the place who was very strong. His name is Kagetomo and he's a member of the Tekiyoku currently. Before he joined, he was tired of not being recognized by the chief, Hanzo, and became overcome with avarice. He gathered some supporters and attacked the village. Most of his allies are in jail, but he escaped and joined the Tekiyoku. The damage caused was great enough to have the village cleaning it up for years.

Sanpei is aware of Kagetomo and trains each day in case he attacks again.

Present
Citizens were still cleaning up in Kasai Village after Kagetomo attacked. Sanpei was among the people helping out. In Episode 14, he noticed some visitors there helping to clean up as well, and he introduced himself. It was Barry, Zoey, and Kenny, who explained how they're helping out Alain and his organization, the Mokusetsu, to assist others who need help in various regions, along with finding people to become Manipulators later to help stop the Tekiyoku. They're in Division B of the group and explained that the main group (Division A) is locating Plates to allow more good people to be Manipulators and eventually free Arceus.

Sanpei offered to help train the three of them and get them better at fighting, teaching them the fighting skills he knows. They happily accepted, referring to Sanpei from this point forward as their "sensei". Sanpei kept helping to train them over the next few days.

Later on a video call, Sanpei introduced Division B to his good friend and sensei, Saizo. Saizo taught Sanpei fighting skills for years and always supported him, unlike his brothers. Saizo is a member of the Kasai Militia, led by Heidayu. It was mentioned that the current village chief, Hanzo, was getting ready to retire soon and would be announcing a new chief: either Sanpei's oldest brother, Ippei, or the militia leader, Heidayu.

One day, Ippei was supposed to go to Unova to meet up with Saizo on a mission. He failed to show up, which worried Sanpei and his second-oldest brother, Nihei. Nihei led Sanpei and Division B away from their training session to investigate.

They went to Hanzo's office to see if he knew anything. There was no answer. Upon hearing a loud noise outside, they went to the middle of the village at the tower. They saw Heidayu at the top, announcing that Hanzo was about to make an announcement. It turns out that Heidayu kidnapped Hanzo and his assistant, Shinobu, to force Hanzo to announce Heidayu as the new chief. Ippei was nowhere to be heard from, making Sanpei and the others think he's been kidnapped by Heidayu's militia.

Nihei challenged and fought Heidayu, to no success, then Ippei and Saizo made a surprise entrance to the scene. Fighting broke out, with Heidayu getting another militia member to fight Ippei, while Heidayu fought Saizo. Heidayu was about to kill Saizo, but Sanpei punched him in the face to save his mentor.

Sanpei then fought Heidayu. When he was about to get killed as well, Ippei stepped in and saved him, truly angering Ippei. Ippei and Heidayu did one final fight.

Ippei technically won, since Heidayu ended up retreating from the village. Ippei was then named chief of the village, Nihei was named his second-in-command, since Shinobu was retiring as well, and Saizo was named the new head of the militia. Sanpei was proud of his mentor and brothers; Ippei and Nihei started to finally respect Sanpei and believe in his strength more. Sanpei declared he'll be the future chief of the village. Sanpei declared to Barry, Zoey, and Kenny that he'll join the Mokusetsu later to become a Manipulator and fight in the final war.

Personality
Sanpei is very underappreciated by his older brothers, Ippei and Nihei. He's very ambitious and keeps training each day to be a stronger ninja. He's not as strong as his brothers, but he surely has the most heart and commitment to his training.

Regardless of the work he has to do, he has no problem helping out Barry, Zoey, and Kenny to sharpen their fighting skills. He ends up being a good teacher, since they learn a lot to help with their fighting down the road when facing future enemies. They respect Sanpei as a sensei.

He gets intense when his family or mentor is in trouble. He will act recklessly to protect them, even if it means fighting an opponent much stronger and more skillful than himself.

Naming

 * Done in the Pokémon anime, his first name, Sanpei, is a play on the Japanese word for "three", which is "san". He shares this characteristic with his two brothers: Ippei's name is from "ichi", which means one, and Nihei's name is from "ni", which means two. Sanpei's number is three because he's the third brother and thus the youngest.
 * This name is also the surname of his Japanese voice actress, Yuko Sanpei.
 * His middle name, Masaaki, and his last name, Uyeno, were randomly selected from a Japanese name generator.

General

 * His birthday, February 20th, is the original Japan air date of the episode of the Pokémon anime he first appeared in.
 * Kasai Village is not the name of the village he and his brothers are from in the anime. It's really called Ninja Village, but Nocturnal Jay changed the name. "Kasai" basically translates to an out-of-control fire.
 * Barry, Zoey, and Kenny end up adding the suffix "sensei" to Sanpei's name once he helps to teach them his ninja fighting skills. The use of Japanese honorifics is present in this portion of the series.