Notes:

Hello everyone who dropped by! First of all, this story is still being written and planned, I already have a general idea how I want it to go but you know how it is, sometimes the plot runs ahead of us. Second, this is AU, you will be able to tell how as you read, I won't go into details because that would be a spoiler.

If Shisui had to pick his favourite part of this mission, it would probably be this, the coming home part. It wasn't that he hated his job, but after two weeks in Wind Country getting sand everywhere (and he really meant everywhere) even his usual enthusiasm had been sanded (ha!) down to nothing.

He missed his own bed. He missed being able to take a shower and feel clean afterwards. Not to mention that Uchihas were simply not meant to endure weeks of Wind country sun without consequences. His skin was starting to peel again, how attractive.

The first cool shade provided by the tall trees of the Fire country was like a balm to their spirits, he could feel his team's enthusiasm to get home by the way they all picked up their pace without prompting. Anbu or not, the level of done in his team was palpable.

They arrived in Konoha late in the afternoon, just when the scents drifting from the restaurants were beginning to invite those who roamed the streets to come in for a taste. There was a collective groan from behind him as their hunger seemed to catch up to them. Days of nothing but ration bars did that to people, it made them crave real food almost as badly as Shisui craved his bed right now.

He did not envy his taicho. While they were dismissed as soon as they reached the village, reports to be written and handed in aside, the team leader had to report immediately to the Hokage and as considerate as Namikaze Minato was, none of them wanted to wait another hour to get some real food and rest.

And he almost made it, too, but maybe it was his mistake to head straight home. He didn't count on Itachi stopping him halfway into the compound. "Itachi," Shisui greeted, taking his mask off to give his best friend a tired smile. "Here to greet old me?"

"Yes and no," the boy answered in his naturally calm way. "Otou-san asked me to fetch you."

Shisui slumped with a groan. Really? He hadn't even managed to change clothes and already the Head of their clan wanted to see him. It couldn't be anything he had done, he hadn't been back for that long. "Am I in trouble or something?"

"I don't know, have you been giving the shopkeepers a hard time again?"

"Hey! I'm just keeping them on their toes, they're growing too lax with the quality of the sweets around here."

The boy fixed him with a blank unimpressed stare before he turned on his heels, clearly expecting Shisui to follow. And he wasn't wrong. If Fugaku called him specifically then it must be important. They made their way to Itachi's house together, keeping to the rooftops to avoid bringing attention to his Anbu uniform.

"How was your mission?" Itachi asked at one point, falling back to keep pace with Shisui.

"Gritty," Shisui answered, a large grin under his mask. Itachi stared at him, again with that same unimpressed expression (that was his default expression when dealing with Shisui's humour, Shisui liked it better when he used to puff his cheeks and pout), before turning away with a sigh but Shisui could clearly see the twitch on his lips. "It wasn't too bad, we completed it before schedule and no one was hurt too badly." Seeing as it was a simple recon mission no one should have been hurt at all, but Shisui decided not to mention the nasty scorpions that inhabited the desert and loved to sting unsuspecting careless shinobi.

The house was quiet when they entered, not unusual for an Uchiha house, but at this time of the evening, he would have expected Sasuke to be home and come to greet his brother at the front door. That kid was adorable, he was often tempted to steal him away, but he knew he was too young to face death by angry Itachi.

"Where's little Sasuke?"

"Kaa-san took him to get groceries."

Unsaid was the fact that it was probably Fugaku's idea to get his curious younger son out of the house. Both boys took their shoes off at the genkan before walking deeper into the house, straight to the spot where they could sense Fugaku's strong chakra.

Itachi parted the sliding door to the family's sitting room, revealing the older Uchiha sitting in front of a low coffee table, a pile of files in front of him. "Tadaima."

"Okaeri," Fugaku greeted, turning then to nod at Shisui, silently greeting him as well. "I trust your mission went well?"

"Yes, Fugaku-sama."

"Good. Sit, we have much to discuss."

The door was slid shut behind him. If he wasn't so sure that Itachi loved him like a brother and Fugaku prized his abilities, he might have felt like a trapped animal. As it was the thick tension in the room was enough to make the tiny hairs in the back of his neck rise.

Once the two boys had made themselves comfortable, Fugaku laced his fingers in front of him, resting them loosely on the table. "Are you familiar with Shimura Danzo?"

"He is an elder of Konoha's council," Shisui answered readily, his brow furrowed, "he was also the one who suggested Itachi to the Anbu."

Fugaku nodded. "The very one. Today I was summoned to see the Hokage. He informed me that there is a strong possibility that Danzo will try to steal our sharingan, but not just any sharingan." And the way he stared into Shisui's eyes as he talked made a shudder run down Shisui's spine. He knew what was coming. "The Hokage believes Danzo will target you for your Mangekyou Sharingan's ability."

"The kotoamatsukami," Shisui breathed, stunned. "But how could the Hokage know this?"

Fugaku shifted uncomfortably in his seat, his already stern expression growing darker. "He wouldn't say. I don't believe he knew all the details."

"So what, I steer clear of Danzo until the Hokage takes care of him?"

Killing intent oozed from the older man in waves and by his expression it didn't look like he was even bothering to reign it in. Fugaku looked murderous, Shisui had never seen the usually collected man look so ready to tear into someone.

"The Hokage can't take care of him. Danzo is too influent to be taken in without solid proof. The sandaime and the rest of the useless elders would never allow it. No, we must take care of your protection ourselves."

Shisui traded a wide-eyed look with Itachi, the younger boy looked calm except for the slight widening of his eyes.

"What do you want me to do?" he asked Fugaku. He would defer to him, Fugaku wasn't only his clan leader, he was also personally invested in Shisui's future since Shisui was one of the most powerful ninjas of his clan. Whenever the clan popped a kid strong enough to make everyone stop and take notice it was a matter of pride to them, and as Uchiha, they took care of their own.

"Produce some heirs."

"What?!" he exclaimed. He had heard Fugaku wrong, right? Temporary partial deafness was a thing, right? Maybe that scorpion had stung him harder than he originally thought.

Fugaku spread the files in front of him and opened them to reveal photographies, all of them of young pretty women with the dark Uchiha eyes and pale skin.

"But why? A mangekyou's ability isn't passed down by blood."

"True, but there is a higher probability for a child of your blood to inherit that particular ability."

"With all due respect, Fugaku-sama, but I'm not going to impregnate women until another kotoamatsukami shows up," Shisui snapped, affronted by the very idea.

"You are not. You are going to pick one, marry her and then you will impregnate her."

Shisui gaped at the man, not believing his own ears. "An arranged marriage?"

"You are powerful, the elders of our clan would have pushed for it at one point if you took too long to pick a wife on your own. It would be a waste for your talent to end with you."

Shisui frowned and ducked his head. He knew what Fugaku said was true, the clan was encouraged to marry within the clan to preserve the purity of blood, arranged marriages weren't rare, if he remembered correctly Fugaku's and Mikoto's marriage was arranged when they were children, it was pure luck that they ended up suiting each other so well. Still, he was sixteen, far too young to be forced into this situation, even if by shinobi standards he had been declared an adult by the age he made genin.

"Can I at least get to know them before I decide?"

"Of course. This will provide the perfect cover for your stay within the village, the Hokage agrees and he has made plans to place you within the team of handpicked anbu that are responsible for his protection. We will oversee your protection until Danzo is no longer a threat."

"Thank you, otou-san," said Itachi from Shisui's right, bowing his head respectfully. "I will protect Shisui as well."

Fugaku nodded like he expected nothing else from his son. He pushed a file towards Shisui, and then another and another until all of them were on Shisui's side of the table, like a crowd of beautiful faces, staring him down like he wasn't worth the time of their day let alone their hand. He probably wasn't, what did he have besides his power? He wasn't from an influential family, the money he made was used to support both him and his mother, any girl worth catching the council's eye had to be special in some way, at least he thought as much.

At first glance he could immediately recognize a few of the girls in the pictures, two of them had been in his class back in the academy, another was the daughter of the owner of the dango shop he and Itachi usually went to, one of the girls with lighter hair was the daughter of the seamstress who had a store down the street from his apartment. Overall they were just pictures, pretty pictures that told him nothing about the person they depicted.

Itachi, who was looking at them over Shisui's arm, pointed at one specific girl. "I like Seiko-san, she gives me free dango," he offered. Of course she did, everyone thought Itachi was an adorable kid.

"Isn't she a bit old?" Shisui asked, pulling the file named Uchiha Seiko closer to him so he could read her info.

"She makes good dango," Itachi countered, "her father told me she makes all their dango herself."

"Itachi, I'm not going to pick my wife just so you can indulge in dango."

"Really good dango."

"Fine, really good dango."

Itachi nodded, satisfied that that had been cleared out and quieted down to let Shisui read but Shisui noticed him discreetly pushing the other files away. Well, no point asking who had Itachi's vote.

Uchiha Seiko was... unremarkable really. She had the standard Uchiha beauty but there was nothing in her picture that jumped out to him. Straight long black hair, darker than his and Itachi's, probably closer to Mikoto's colour and therefore Sasuke's, in the picture it was down but he knew that she often wore it up in a high ponytail while working at the store. Her eyes were all Uchiha, black and narrow, sharp in an otherwise soft face.

A closer look revealed that she was a civilian, and not even one of those that had spent a few years in the academy only to then quit. She had no training at all. That wasn't as surprising as one would expect, her family owned a business and as far as he knew her younger brothers were shinobi, someone had to take care of the store and help their parents, as the eldest and the only girl the role naturally fell to her.

That was a point in her favour if the council had their say. A civilian woman was less opposed to having children younger, while kunoichi often thought more about their own careers and had children later in life.

"I don't know, Itachi, she seems very plain," he confessed.

"That's rude," his friend pointed out. "You should give them all an equal chance."

"I guess she's better than Miss high and mighty over here," he said, pushing one of the files away. The seamstress daughter wasn't a nice person by far, she took pleasure in mocking the less fortunate in their clan, the orphans who couldn't afford more than hand-me-downs. He refused to spend even a second in her presence. He noted, though, that unlike with Seiko, Itachi didn't comment on his own comment. Give the kid some sweets and he was a goner.

Shisui looked over the other files with half-hearted interest putting them in a pile by order of interest and pushing aside the ones that didn't look like they were a good match for him. To Itachi's visible horror, Uchiha Seiko's file ended near the bottom of the pile.

"May I take these, Fugaku-sama?"

The man nodded, gathering the other files Shisui didn't plan on taking in a neat pile. "You know where to find me once you've made a decision. The council has given you until the end of the month to narrow it down to two possibilities."

The end of the month was two weeks away... Maybe he should have cut down the number a little more, two weeks to get to know six girls.

….He really should have taken the longer route home.