Chapter two

Shisui Uchiha had been watching the young woman from the leaf village for several months now.

He stumbled across her one day, as he patrolled along the forest border of the Uchiha territory. After that day, he kept coming back to get a glimpse of her. Not only because it was an excuse to get away from the high pressure environment of his clan, but also because she interested him more than any other woman or girl ever had.

He could not figure out what drew the woman back to this particular spot to walk across the deep ravine like an acrobatic artist. She was a complete enigma to him. Nothing like the Uchiha woman he was use to dealing with.

Though she was pretty, she had not an ounce of refinement or constraint. Her face was always full of emotion, and usually sad. Strands of her brown hair escaped from her two side knots like wriggling snakes around her face. And she did not appear at all concerned about her appearance sometimes having dirt outright on her face and clothes.

Where had this young woman come from? Though she had the leaf symbol on her sleeve, she did not appear to be from any particular clan. There were no markings or a traditional style that Shisui could identify.

Crouched in the tree, wondering about all the questions that this stranger raised, calmed Shisui's racing thoughts. So he started to look for her. Coming back to this spot often to watch her from the trees.

The fact that she was a leaf shinobi, added to Shisui's curiosity. He did not know her from the time before the civil war when the Uchiha clan was still part of Konoha. He had been so deep in the ANBU from such a young age that he did not know many of the younger children outside of his clan. The young woman looked like she was a few years younger than him. Possibly his cousin Sasuke's age.

More than anything what she represented was the larger part of himself that he constantly had to hide in order to move seamlessly among his clan. He did not have the reserved constraint of his cousin Itachi, or the unrelenting ambitions of his youngest cousin Sasuke. He did not even have the strong desire to please of his adopted brother, Baio. He was the non-Uchiha, Uchiha, but he was also the oldest and the one, who every one counted on to keep things set just right.

Until it happened, he did not fear that the regular Uchiha patrol would spot her. Except for Shisui, no one came near the portion of the territory that sat next to the ravine because it was wide enough that most thought it was uncross able. Even with that tree down across it, Shisui was certain that no one else would have dared to walk the thirty yards across the open ravine on that narrow trunk. He was more afraid of the tree cracking beneath her weight, sending her tumbling down into the small river below than anything else.

He spotted the group of Uchiha ninja before they threw the shiruken at the young woman's head. Jin jumped on the girl pinning her to the ground until she was able to produce a hidden weapon that caused him to have to fall back. Jin had already put her in the genjutsu by then, and Shisui knew unless she was a genjutsu user or was able to produce a very powerful counter jutsu, she was done for. Then he saw her fall off the side of the cliff.

Shisui saw this was his chance to save her without being spotted. He was much faster than she was able to fall, so he transported himself down into the ravine just enough to catch her. And then using the same jutsu, he got her to the river without making the 100-foot bone crushing fall.

By the time he got her to the beach, she was completely unconscious and bleeding profusely from the many wounds over her body. He knew she was going to die if he did not act quick. So he carried her to a nearby cave on the Konoha side of the ravine. He cleaned out her wounds and used the little medical ninjutsu that he knew to heal her.

Despite his treatment, she still became feverish as the day wore into night. So after losing some of his initial inhibitions, Shisui built a fire and peeled off his wet clothes until he was down to his boxers, and then he took off her clothes too, before lying with her skin to skin under a pile of leaves to keep warm through the night.

He stayed awake the entire night. Not sure that she was going to make it through. But then her fever broke and his rudimentary medical treatment seemed to be working. He left her that morning to steal some medicine from his village clinic, and then he caught a rabbit on the way back. When he finally made it back to the cave, she was awake and unsuccessfully attempting to leave.

"Thank you for what you did for me." The young woman said as she watched him skin the rabbit. "What is your name?"

He looked up at her cautiously. He was not sure how much information he wanted to give a konoha shinobi. She seemed to catch on to this. "I'm Tenten. Tenten Hatake. Now you can tell me your name… I know your family name is Uchiha."

"Shisui." He said quietly then he leaned over to restart the fire, so he could cook the rabbit.

Tenten paused as though contemplating that name. Then she sputtered, "Sh-Shisui? As in the Shisui Uchiha that is heir to the head of the Uchiha family?"

Shisui was annoyed by her knowledge of his name. He had hoped he could remain anonymous and completely disconnected from his family when he was with her.

"Why would you help me?" She asked, suspiciously. "Your family obviously wanted me dead."

Shisui huffed. "You were just at the wrong place at the wrong time. You're of no consequence to the Uchiha clan. They were after another one your shinobi –one that is a lot more dangerous."

"I'm a lot a stronger then I look!" Tenten protested.

Shisui looked at her, surprised. She appeared to be insulted that his clan was not specifically targeting her. He laughed.

"What's so funny?" Tenten asked, frowning.

Shisui stopped laughing. He reached for a strand of Tenten's hair which was as wild as ever, having fallen completely from her two knots and down her backside. "What were you doing roaming around in a war zone alone? Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

Tenten shrugged, lowering her eyes to the ground. "Maybe."

Shisui twisted her hair all the way around his finger. "So can you do me a favor, kid, huh? Try and stay alive a bit longer. I went through a lot to save your ass."

Tenten smiled, weakly. "Yeah. Whatever."

She took the bit of cooked meat that Shisui handed to her to eat and then took some of the antibiotic that Shisui stole. After eating, she lay back down on the leaves and drifted off to sleep again.