An Ember of Rebellion
[AU] For the last twenty years, Asuma has led a charmed life as the second scion of the Sarutobi clan. However, everything was shattered with the murder of Sarutobi Hiruzen in a desperate uprising by the Uchiha. Forced to flee into the Konoha underground, it will take every ounce of wit and charm that Asuma has left to spark a rebellion to restore his father's broken mantle.
Cloaked to cover his distinguishing features, Asuma lounged in a decrepit bar nestled in one of the more unsavory districts of Konoha.
"Three days."
It had been three days since a quarter of the village had been burned to the ground. Three days since a new power had seized rule over the remainder of Konoha. Three days since Uchiha Itachi and Shisui carved their legends into history by defeating the aged Sandaime Hokage in direct combat.
"My old man was a fool to always believe in the best of people. Yet every dream ends when the dreamer awakens."
As he took the last drag on the stub of his cigarette, Asuma carefully eyed the posters plastered on the side of the alleyway.
"Though I suppose it's gratifying in a twisted way to see my own face splayed across an entire alley's worth of posters."
As the last living Sarutobi, there were few men hunted as fiercely by the new provisional government. Luckily for Asuma, he was about to meet one of the few able to claim that dubious honor. He perked up as he heard the barstool next to him shift as a new arrival sidled up to his table.
"The new bounty on your head is enough to retire across two lifetimes", drawled Kakashi, as he flashed his trademark eye-smile at his old friend, "What exactly did you do to anger our esteemed new government so much?"
Pointedly ignoring the question, Asuma gave a crooked smile back, "I had a feeling you'd come find me eventually." With a slight flicker of wind chakra, the door to the bar slammed shut behind them.
"Lucky for you, I'm in the market of looking for other hunted men. It's not like you can walk around in broad daylight either right? – I heard what you did at the Western Gate."
"And how exactly do you plan to take on an entire government with a hypothetical team of two?" deadpanned Kakashi., "Forgive my lack of optimism here, but the Uchiha have rounded up the majority of the old regime's sympathizers. Their will to fight died with Sarutobi Hiruzen."
Asuma exhaled a plume of smoke into the air and paused.
"The human spirit is a funny thing. As long as it has some small modicum of hope left to latch onto, people will rally towards it like a raging flame. No matter how many times you douse it water, it's near impossible to truly quench the flames of rebellion – that's the legacy my father left in the Will of Fire."
Kakashi chuckled to himself as he felt the semblance of a real smile for the first time in a last few days.
"Alright, you've always had a way with words, I'll give you that much. Count me in for whatever scheme you've been cooking up", returned Kakashi.
"Welcome to the team", echoed Asuma as he tossed away the stub of his burnt cigarette and turned to make contact with Kakashi's uncovered eye, grinning.
"Now, how about we pay a visit to our old friends at the Military Police Headquarters to celebrate."
Asuma and Kakashi glided through the moonless night as they hurried towards Konoha's military district. If his plan was to work, Asuma needed a team. And there was no better place to begin recruiting than Konoha's Military Police Headquarters where the most dangerous prisoners are kept.
Both of them were dressed in pitch black. Asuma fingered his favorite set of trench knives as they edged closer to the Military Police Headquarters. As he silently landed behind a fence just outside the building, he signaled to Kakashi to begin the plan they had previously discussed. Kakashi disappeared around the corner of the bar, and Asuma hopped against the outer wall of the building.
"Three men guarding the eastern entrance. And I can sense the signatures of another four men further inside."
Asuma quickly blitzed the nearest unsuspecting guard and quickly incapacitated the man with a silent slash to the jugular. Before the man had even hit the ground, Asuma was already in the space of the second guard. However, this one was ready for him with a short tanto blade held menacingly in a backhand grip.
Bracing himself, Asuma locked blades with the second guard. He scanned his surroundings for anything that he could use to his advantage as he remembered the first guard splayed lifelessly just behind.
Pushing to add torque onto his trench knives, Asuma took advantage of their maneuverability in close combat forcing the second guard backwards. As the man tripped over the corpse of his fallen comrade, that was all the opening that Asuma needed to bury his left knife into the man's gut.
At the very same moment, Asuma caught a glimpse of crimson reflecting off the surface of his knife.
"Shit! I shouldn't have ignored the third guard for so long."
The katana of the remaining guard whistled through the air as Asuma arched backwards to avoid the bloody arc. His opponent snarled at Asuma as his red eyes spun menacingly in the dark.
"Two tomoe Sharingan. An ability that affords my opponent a certain degree of precognition."
"I suppose I'll just have to fight dirty against such a supposedly all-seeing power."
Asuma took a slow breath and reached inwards to brush his chakra circuits. He weaved backwards as his opponent released a volley of shuriken accompanied by some vicious katana slashes. And with his free hand, he threw his left trench knife at the man's head.
His opponent smirked as he whipped rightwards at the same instant that Asuma's knife left his hand. Asuma's knife sailed past its target into open space as his opponent quickly closed in on Asuma's now vulnerable left flank.
And at that instant, Asuma jerked his empty hand backwards as a chakra string flared into existence immediately reversing the flight of his wayward knife. The knife shot back as if controlled by a puppeteer and buried itself into his unsuspecting opponent's back.
"Learned that one during my deployment on the desert front during the Second Shinobi War"
Capitalizing on his opponent's surprise, Asuma leaped against his opponent grabbing the handle from his now returned knife. Infusing a slight edge of wind chakra into the blade, Asuma effortlessly bisected the man's spinal cord ending their brief exchange.
Careful not to get any more blood on his cloak, Asuma rummaged through the dead guard's belongings until he found a small metallic ID card: Uchiha Sekijou – Chuunin.
Catching the scent of fried ozone, he looked up as he saw Kakashi slide into his periphery giving him the signal that he had disposed of the other four guards that Asuma had sensed earlier.
"Bad news – one of the guards managed to set off a flare before I incapacitated him", grunted Kakashi.
"Then we better hurry" deadpanned Asuma, as they both ran towards the now unguarded jail cells.
Using the metallic ID card that he had pilfered off of the dead Uchiha, Asuma unlocked the scanners to the inner cells. Kakashi looked around before cursing, "Damnit, we were too late. It looks like all of these cells are empty"
Out of the darkness, a raspy voice rattled from the cell furthest from them, "Not quite, they haven't executed all of us just yet."
Asuma walked over to the occupied cell and stared at the lanky man sitting on the wooden cot inside.
He peered inside and smiled when he locked eyes with a familiar scarred face.
"Nara Shikaku – I had a feeling that you'd still be alive"
Shikaku gave a sardonic smile, "The only reason I'm still here is their desire to wring out every last drop of information on Konoha's military resources before they off me."
Asuma unlocked the cell using the stolen ID key, "Between Kakashi and me, I'd say our little team is in need of a strategist for the near future. This team of two could use the mind of the ex-Jounin Commander. What do you say?"
"How troublesome...", sighed Shikaku. "It seems I always end up throwing my lot in with you troublesome Sarutobi", he quipped as he climbed out of his cell. Taking a deep breath, Shikaku flared his chakra letting out a content sound.
And with that, the shadows writhed around them cloaking the three as they evaded the swarming Uchiha patrols hunting for Konoha's newest criminals.
Uchiha Shisui paced back and forth inside his study.
"Three days"
It had been three days since the Uchiha had risen up against the degenerating regime of the Sandaime Hokage. Three days since they had chased those monsters Danzo and Orochimaru out of the village. Three days since they had eradicated the military dictatorship of the Hokage system and set up a provisionary republic in its place.
Shisui was certainly surprised that the Uchiha coup had been so successful. Discontent within the clan had been brewing for generations, but they had never found the right trigger to actually act on their thoughts.
That was until the diplomatic disaster with the Kumogakure treaty.
"I still can't believe that the Third had fallen so low to promote peace with Kumo even after the fiasco of the attempted Hyuuga kidnapping. And he even had only made it worse by surrendering Hyuuga Hizashi to try and appease Kumo's demands."
Embittered by such a betrayal, the Hyuuga clan had thrown in their discontent with the Uchiha and withdrawn all of their clansmen from active duty on the night of the coup.
Sighing, Shisui sank into a chair trying to organize all of the new responsibilities he had to juggle as Konoha's newest Jounin Commander. Their forces were at an all-time low, and resources were running low. To make things worse, the Nine-Tails was still nowhere to be found.
Taking a break from his planning, Shisui cracked open a worn book on his desk as his Sharingan flared to life.
"Medical Physiology: Advancements through the Ages"
He'd never wanted to become a frontlines fighter – he was only there because his battle prowess had put him at the pinnacle even amongst the vaunted Uchiha clan. He gave a melancholic sigh as he pondered his choices.
"To think I threw myself into this system so that one day I could protect those who needed it most; yet all I know is fire, blood, and death."
He frowned as he flipped through the book, Sharingan photographically searing the information into memory. He checked the clock on the wall as he finished the last page.
"126 seconds; At least my reading speed is improving."
He tossed the finished book onto a growing mountain of discarded reads next to his windowsill, and looked up when he heard a disturbance from outside.
Two of his officers burst into his room in a desperate hurry.
"Sir, there's been a break-in at the Administrative Tower. Two unknown assailants have collapsed the left wing around the Library. We have reports of seven injured and three dead, the intruders are both easily A-class missing nin…"
And Shisui was already gone before his officer finished his report.
"Two A-class missing nin? The entire Land of Fire likely has less than twenty ninja in that class, and just my luck, two of them show up at my front door."
As Shisui arrived to the scene, he immediately crouched beside one of his injured clansmen. His Sharingan flared as he summoned chakra for the mystical palm technique and began knitting together the man's deeper wounds.
However, his instinct screamed at him to move as a set of kunai sailed through the night sky.
Eyes blazing, Shisui deftly caught two of the kunai before spinning on his left heel and battering away the rest of the incoming projectiles. With three-tomoe Sharingan, he could see the path of any projectile a full second before it actually landed.
The moment he blocked the last kunai, a fist erupted from the shadows as a masked woman took a vicious swipe at his throat. Using one the kunai he caught, he brought the blade up just in time to intercept the swipe of a tanto from a hooded man who had emerged from a sealing array behind the woman.
Just as the woman's fist was about to smash into his windpipe, Shisui's chakra roared to life utilizing his signature Shunshin no Jutsu. Time dilated around him as he maneuvered behind his two assailants.
The Shunshin no Jutsu was a technique that afforded the user rapid movement almost akin to teleportation. However, the weakness of the technique was its tunnel vision forcing movement in predictably linear paths. However with a three-tomoe Sharingan, Shusui had reformed the B-rank technique into something borderline S-class.
As he was about to plant his kunai into the masked woman's back, the hooded man twisted in midair and released a kick that even Sharingan had difficulty tracking.
"So fast! It's been awhile since I've faced such an unpredictable foe."
Shisui quickly weaved a subtle Genjutsu of himself feinting backwards. As the hooded man over-extended himself into Shisui's mirage, Shisui smashed his fist into the man's temple.
Yet at the last second, a sealing array activated an invisible barrier subtly deflecting his fist from making contact. Instead of a direct headshot, Shisui's blow instead ripped the hood off of the man.
Shisui caught a flash a sun-kissed yellow hair and blue eyes before the man flipped his hood back on and skidded backwards.
"Could it be? If it's really him, then chances are the masked woman is…"
His female assailant moved into position covering the masked man's retreat. She quickly glanced back at the masked man with a worried expression.
"Minato, are you injured?"
The masked man sighed, "What did I say about using our real names? Well, he's probably recognized us anyways in that last slip, Kushina"
Kushina flushed red as she looked to the side embarrassed.
Taking advantage of his assailant's conversation, Shisui unleashed a volley of fire at the bickering couple.
Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Jutsu
He could feel Kushina's chakra flaring to life as she pressed her hands together.
Water Release: Storm Barrier
A deluge of water rose from the ground in response to his onslaught of fire. From the periphery of his vision, he could see chakra building up where Minato must be.
Wind Release: Vacuum Wave
Heavy storm winds tore through the night as they converged to where Shisui stood. With his advanced vision, he could almost see the razor sharp edges of the wind hurled towards him. Crimson eyes flaring, Shisui pressed his hands together in a form reminiscent of Kushina just a few moments prior.
Water Release: Storm Barrier
Shisui's own barrier of water rose in front of the onslaught of Minato's wind jutsu. However, Minato only smirked as he used his left hand to draw a small kanji in the airspace around him.
"Did you think we were completely ignorant of how the Sharingan works?"
Shisui's breath caught in his throat as a seal array exploded to life. The array began dissipating Shisui's Storm Barrier as liquid water was converted to vapor upon making contact with the explosion of chakra from the seal.
As Minato's original wind jutsu passed through Shisui's now dissipated defense, Shisui tapped his chakra in preparation for a quick escape. However, as he activated his body flicker, adamantine chains burst from the ground wrapping around his legs.
Shisui mentally cursed, "Shit! I shouldn't have let Kushina out of my sight."
Unable to dodge, the elemental wind tore into Shisui leaving deep gashes across his arms which he used to shield his vitals. He passively summoned his chakra to begin knitting the flesh back together, but was interrupted by the arc of Minato's tanto.
As Minato directly charged in, Shisui brought up his kunai to exchange a flurry of blows with the blonde.
Fortunately for Shisui, the Sharingan's strongest suit was direct combat. Even against the darkness of night, he could almost see shadows of future blows stretching from Minato's form.
While deflecting a slash to his abdomen from Minato, Shisui quickly scanned his surroundings for Kushina. He was instantly wary when he caught sight of her carrying a large scroll on her back that she didn't have before.
"So that's why they're here. I wonder which scroll they're trying to steal from the Hokage's Library."
Superior in single combat, Shisui pushed Minato to retreat with some ambidextrous maneuvering of his kunai.
"I can't let them get away now. Perhaps it's time to truly use these cursed eyes?"
"Kushina, get out of here!", yelled Minato.
As Shisui quickly pooled together chakra to unleash his most vaunted ocular technique, a murder of crows suddenly swarmed before Kushina.
A hand materialized out of the swarm, grabbing Kushina by the neck.
A voice floated over towards Shisui, "I'm surprised they gave you so much trouble, cousin. Perhaps you're losing your edge?"
Itachi had arrived.
Asuma yawned as he sank into his makeshift bed. The three of them had opted to convert an old wartime bunker into their base of operations. The old room probably hadn't seen life since the end of the Second Shinobi War, but there were still basic necessities like canned food, candles, and futons for the three men.
"You aren't supposed to still be alive", mused Shikaku glancing towards Asuma as he stretched out on an empty futon.
Kakashi cracked a curious eye at Asuma as he pretended to read his trademark orange book, "Yeah, everyone by now has seen the ruins of both the Hokage Mansion and the Sarutobi Clan Compound. Those were the first hits of the coup after all."
Asuma lit a cigarette and let out a long sigh, "My old man saved my life. I was with him when they blew the Hokage Mansion to bits. He flooded the entire room with chakra saturated with the water release. It was enough to keep us safe from the explosion that the Uchiha had primed."
"And the Sarutobi compound?", Kakashi asked gently.
Asuma gripped the emerald pendant that hung around his neck tightly. "Blown completely to pieces; they thought that's where my old man initially was and sent that bastard Uchiha Shisui in to conjure up a firestorm."
He bit his cheek hard enough to draw blood, "Uchiha Shisui is a monster hiding in human skin. The only people at the Sarutobi compound were my mother and my seven year old nephew. Even that didn't stop those damned Uchiha from torching the entire building without confirming who was inside."
The three men fell into a melancholic silence as Asuma fiddled with his cigarette, Shikaku pretended to sleep, and Kakashi stared at his book.
"I'm going out", grunted Asuma as he dusted off his pants and wrapped his cloak around himself, "I have a meeting with an information broker later tonight"
Kakashi lazily flipped another page, "Do you want cover?"
"Nah, it's fine", replied Asuma, "She's an old friend; stay here and read your smutty book. You'll need all the rest you can get before our next little excursion."
Asuma surveyed his surroundings as he quietly maneuvered through the crowds of Konoha's Red Light District.
He ducked into a musty doorway on the corner of the street. The inside of the building was dimly lit and filled with a thick hazy smoke. While prostitution wasn't illegal in Konoha, brothels and the sex trade were avoided by all except the seediest of Konoha's underground.
An old woman with a hawkish gaze gave Asuma a raised eyebrow, "All of our girls are taken tonight, come back another time, Stranger."
"I'm not here to cause any trouble", returned Asuma as he raised his hands placatingly.
He reached into his pocket and tossed her a few ryo, "Can't a weary traveler get a cold drink or two?"
The matron eyed him suspiciously before reaching under the bar and tossing him a bottle of lukewarm sake. Asuma caught it deftly with one hand and settled down into the nearest sofa.
He quietly sipped the liquid and winced as the cheap sake burned his throat.
"She's late. But then again, when is she ever not?"
As if summoned by the devil itself, a purple-haired woman sauntered into the room with a seductive smirk on her face. Her heels clicked on the ground as she cut her way through to Asuma's sofa. Grabbing the sake out of his hand, she curled up beside him and took a long drag of drink.
Asuma raised an eyebrow at the newest arrival, "I paid good money for that drink, you know."
The woman flashed a predatory grin back, "Then how about I make it up to you in one of the private rooms?"
He forced a blush on his face as she led him by hand to one of the rooms upstairs.
The second the door shut, he schooled his features to match the annoyance he was feeling inside.
"Cut the theatrics Anko, would it kill you to ever be on time for once?"
"Oi Ma-chan, I've got a reputation to keep. Keeping a schedule on clockwork is a good way to get killed in our profession" grumbled Anko.
Asuma smiled and tossed her a hefty bag of ryo, "So did you find the location of the Sarutobi clan scrolls or was it too difficult for your team of idiots?"
She gave him a mock glare in return, "Of course I did, who do you think I am? Two of my men spotted the Uchiha moving the salvaged contents of the Sarutobi Compound into the Hyuuga Compound earlier today. Good luck getting in there though, that wasn't part of my contract."
"Don't worry about the little details", replied Asuma as he tossed her an extra ryo, "Go get yourself a drink on me. I'd say it was a pleasure doing business, but.. "
Anko settled into the bed and pouted as Asuma turned to leave. "Leaving so soon? We've got the room for at least another hour" as she arched her back enticingly towards him.
He gave her a long look before sighing and settled down in the bed next to her.
At that instant, "Anko" erupted into a plume of smoke right into Asuma's face. Through his coughing fit, he could hear Anko's laughter as she climbed towards an open window nearby.
"You're always too easy to tease Ma-chan. I'd love to stay, but I'm already thirty minutes late to my next appointment", grinned Anko as she leapt out into the night.
Asuma couldn't help but chuckle to himself as he listened to her laughter fade into the night.
"Stay safe Anko, the next few weeks are going to be a dangerous time to walk the nights"
Back at the Konoha Administrative Building
Shisui breathed out a sigh of relief as he watched Itachi lithely emerge from a haze of crows.
"L-l-let go of me you freak" wheezed Kushina as Itachi's chokehold on her grew tighter and tighter.
"KUSHINA", panicked Minato as he sprinted almost too quickly for even Sharingan to track.
Shisui turned curiously towards Minato as a bright blue sphere of chakra whirred to life in the center of his palm.
RASENGAN
Minato slammed the spinning mass of chakra into Itachi's chest only for the Uchiha to explode into a murder of crows. However, the now freed Kushina dropped to the ground gasping for air and massaging her neck.
Itachi reformed to the right of Shisui shooting him a critical look.
Shisui grinned weakly and held up his hands, "Sorry, these two are a lot more troublesome than they look"
"We don't have time to waste, cousin. Let's finish this quickly and take the jinchuuriki into custody"
Itachi closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he built up chakra behind his eyes.
Mangekyo Sharingan
Shisui watched as Itachi's eyes morphed into the spinning pinwheel characteristic of their clan's most powerful technique.
The two Uchiha glanced at one another before taking off towards their opponents.
Shisui flickered just behind Kushina and unleashed a vicious kick towards her head. As she ducked, Itachi emerged from in front of her with a kunai swinging for her jugular. Before he could connect the blow, Minato had materialized in front of the Kushina to deflect Itachi's blow with his own.
Taking advantage of Minato's engagement, Shisui wordlessly cast a Substitution Jutsu quickly switching positions with the still recovering Kushina and burying a kunai into Minato's back.
Blood splayed into the night as Minato violently turned around backhanding Shisui with a fist. He then quickly retreated backwards with Kushina as his wound began to bleed more profusely.
"The puncture wound has collapsed your left lung", Shisui offered as he eyed at Minato's injured form. "If you don't get aid now, I'd give you five minutes top before you drown in your own blood. Surrender now and we can get you to a hospital immediately; this doesn't have to end in death."
Minato bit back a retort before summoning the chakra to scrawl a seal array on his own flesh. Immediately, a cloud of red vapor began emerging from his wound.
Shisui eyed the blonde curiously before realizing, "That's the same seal he used before! Except instead of converting liquid water to steam, he's using it to convert his own blood to mist to prevent himself from drowning."
"M-minato, get out of h-h-here", mumbled Kushina, "it's me and my tenant that these two are after."
"Never", growled Minato as he settled into a loose battle stance glaring at the two Uchiha. "Not until death do us apart."
Kushina only smiled sadly as she looked at Minato's wobbling form.
"Sorry Minato, but you mean more to me than this damned village ever did anyways", Kushina said softly as she slapped a teleportation array on Minato's good shoulder.
"I want you as far away as possible before I have to use my last resort"
She gave his hand a quick squeeze as the sealing array activated warping him away to safety.
"Take care, Minato, I'll meet you back at our base, hmm? You better have a hot cup of tea ready for me when I get back…"
As the seal array consumed the last of Minato's form, he shifted into an ethereal form as he was transported back to the location of the original array. Yet, even the powers of time and space itself couldn't hide his anguished cry into the night.
Wiping at her eye, Kushina now turned to face the Uchiha cousins.
"You'll find that I'm not as merciful as Minato. He isn't a monster like you and I,"
And with that, a miasma of demonic chakra erupted into the calm night.
Shisui had to squint as the pure unadulterated chakra flowing from Kushina almost blinded his hyper-sensitive Sharingan. He could barely make out the form of a chakra construct swinging malevolently behind the woman.
"Take no prisoners, Kyuubi, let them know fear", whispered Kushina.
ONE tail
A tail of dark-red chakra erupted from Kushina's form; she dashed towards Itachi and arched a clawed fist back to tear into Itachi who only narrowly dodged by the precognitive abilities afforded by his eyes. As he drifted backwards, Itachi spit out an enormous fireball at Kushina which she quickly vaporized with a swish of her tail.
TWO tails
Kushina's twin tails whipped at Shisui in a corrosive explosion of chakra. Shisui flickered behind the ruins of the library building as the chakra seeped into walls melting both steel and wood. The world around him shook as the metal supports of the building creaked under the disrepair of its foundations.
THREE tails
Kushina let out a howl of rage as her chakra flooded the entire grounds slowly suffocating the entire area in a cloak of death. Kushina's once human features had begun to mix with the more animalistic ones of her demon. As Shisui stared at the demonic sclera of the Kyuubi, he felt a wave of icy fear wash across his body. It was only his years of battle experience that kept him moving one step ahead of the fiery death that the Kyuubi's visage promised.
FOUR tails
Itachi attempted to block Kushina's clawed swipes with his tanto. However, her demonic chakra quickly disintegrated the ANBU-grade steel blade in mere seconds. Shisui jumped forwards unleashing a volley of fireballs only for the jinchuuriki to bat them away carelessly.
FIVE tails
Shisui's Sharingan spun into overdrive as he barely dodged the spears of chakra erupting from the enraged jinchuuriki. Even with the ability to flicker almost instantaneously, he still took some deep cuts from Kushina's onslaught of attacks.
SIX tails
The pressure from the Kyuubi's chakra was so heavy that Shisui struggled to breathe. He could hear cries in the distance of other shinobi mobilizing to engage the demon. The jinchuuriki's form had lost all vestiges of humanity at this point. It prowled through the rubble on four legs, glaring hatefully at the Uchiha cousins.
"I can't let even more people get hurt. Itachi and I will have to settle this before the reinforcements arrive.", panicked Shisui.
SEVEN tails
Itachi took a deep gash across his chest right as Shisui flickered next to him preventing the jinchuuriki from bisecting his torso into two. Itachi turned to Shisui,
"Get the demon to stay still somehow. If I can make direct eye contact with it, we might just get out of this alive", yelled Itachi.
EIGHT tails
Blood everywhere, Shisui could barely think straight as the corrosive chakra prevented his healing jutsu from closing his wounds. He flickered behind a tree as Kushina's latest attack razed what was left of the surrounding buildings to the ground. Spinning in frustration, the demon let loose another roar of defiance at the Uchiha cousins.
NINE tails
The demon let out a victorious cry as it arched up on its back legs and began forming a mass of condensed chakra at its muzzle. Everything became deadly still as Shisui could only watch in terrified awe at the sheer concentration of power pressed into the attack.
And that's when Itachi appeared beside Shisui.
Seshinkai no Yomi: Tsukiyomi
"Could the legends be true?", thought Shisui, "I hope Itachi knows that he is gambling our lives on an old myth from times before written history?"
And as if Shisui's prayers were answered by heaven itself, the night stilled as the demon froze mid-action under the haze of Itachi's Mangekyou.
Beside Shisui, Itachi's body began to quiver as his own chakra was depleting from his body at the pace of a raging river.
Shisui placed his hands on Itachi's shoulders and began to focus his own chakra to supplement Itachi's emptied network.
With the influx of Shisui's stores, Itachi's Sharingan began to spin once more.
Busshitsukai to Hikari: Amaterasu!
Itachi fell to the ground in exhaustion as black flames erupted across the jinchuuriki's form. Shisui dropped to his cousin's side and quickly began running medical diagnostics across his cousin.
The heavenly black flames of the Goddess Amaterasu... This was no elemental fire; it was said that these legendary flames would burn for seven days and seven nights.
The Kyuubi howled into the sky as the black flames burned relentlessly across its mortal form. The corrosive chakra began to recede into the flailing demon as the fox-like attributes gave way to Kushina's human form.
By the time reinforcements had arrived, Kushina had fully returned to her human form, screaming into the night as the black flames burned her entire body.
"Is she still alive?", whispered Shisui as he felt sick watching the woman's hoarse voice scream for the release of death as she clawed at her own burns.
Uchiha Fugaku stepped up beside him gazing dispassionately at Kushina, "She's a jinchuuriki. Her regenerative abilities will keep her from crossing the edge of death as long as she has chakra. Add in her Uzumaki heritage, and I wouldn't be surprised if her regenerative capabilities hold out for another few days"
"She's already lost. Look at her, no one deserves to die like this", gritted out Shisui.
"She?", questioned Fugaku, "as far as I can tell, there's no humanity to be found in the likes of jinchuuriki. I see your time on the battlefield still hasn't yet cured that weak heart of yours, Shisui."
"Fugaku, I beg you, close your eyes and listen to her screams. Tell me that's not a human crying for respite in death", bit out Shisui.
He took out a kunai, and levelled his aim at the woman's throat. "If none of you will approach her, then I will end this travesty"
Fugaku wrapped his hand in an iron-clad grip around Shisui's wrist, "You will be doing no such thing, Uchiha Shisui."
"As the Patriarch of the Uchiha Clan, I order you to stand down. War has no room for mercy, and we aren't ready to move the Kyuubi into a new vessel just yet."
Fugaku turned to the surrounding reinforcements, "Any earth specialists here, hollow out a confinement pit under the jinchuuriki and bury her alive. Take care that the flames don't spread anywhere else."
Shisui felt like puking as he watched the proceedings. As Fugaku and the other men filed away, he took one last look at Kushina. She was wordlessly writhing on the ground now, her voicebox having given out from having been screamed hoarse.
Slowly, Shisui knelt beside her as his eyes slowly morphed into the characteristic pinwheel shape of his Mangekyou Sharingan forever searing the memory of the atrocity into his mind. And in a moment of impulse, he whispered to Kushina,
"Kotoamatsukai"
An illusion of the highest caliber, the Kotoamatsukai, was Shisui's most powerful technique. As Shisui wrested control of Kushina's mind, he layered genjutsu upon genjutsu numbing out all five of her senses.
Satisfied that she could no longer feel any pain, he turned his back against the burning woman to face the night so that no one else could see the tears of blood he had cried for his once enemy.
End of Chapter 1.