Ok so I'm feeling good today. and I have decided that despite the smaller response, and because this is a necessary but not too cracked up chapter, I'll throw this in early too. So I know you might feel bored now, but I PROMISE. the fun. is. a coming.

Please try to enjoy this chapter!

Shisui flew off the bed in seconds. Why did Itachi have to pick Rei of all people to help salvage his dignity?! If Rei saw him like this, he wouldn't have dignity left to salvage!

Facing the world wasn't supposed to be an option today!

The curtains and windows were flung open, and Shisui had storage scrolls all over the place, frantically stuffing all his piles of work and papers into manageable sections to hide away. As soon as those were done, the piles of clothing in the corner were tossed in several directions.

In the span of ten minutes, Shisui of the Shunshin made his mess of a room presentable enough for the Hokage himself. Shisui sighed in relief, he had five more minutes to organize himself to face the one person who was like Itachi and Mikoto put together with a dash of crazy.

Shisui stepped out of his restroom, obediently freshened up as Itachi had demanded fifteen minutes ago. He sat on his neatly made bed to wait as he mussed with his hair, trying to hide his face as much as possible.

He looked up with his hair creating a nice fringe just as two familiar shadows flitted through his open windows. Itachi had returned as promised with Rei. The former teammate stood beside her former captain with a lighthearted expression, glad to see Shisui after so long.

"Shisui? Ohayo!"

Shisui looked at the smiling girl standing in his room. Running his hand through his hair again, he mumbled a reply back.

"Mhm. Ohayo."

Itachi and Rei both plopped down onto his bed beside him, comfortable from having been there before. Rei turned to face him as she reached out for his face with an amused smile dancing on her lips.

"Daijoubudesuka? 'Tachi told me you needed me to help heal something?"

Shisui dodged her hands, pursing his lips at the fact Itachi had told her of his injury, eliciting a soft laugh from the girl.

"As good as you look with your hair like that, it's not very practical for you, Shi-kun. Now let me have a look."

He gave in with a small grin, letting the cool fingers brush his hair from his face.

"So I look good like this?"

Rei's lips twitched in amusement, not granting him an answer. Shisui's grin grew but quickly vanished when he noticed Itachi being a block of wood off to the side.

"Itachi, stop doing what your father always does and set up the food you promised."

Their former teammate sniggered at Shisui's statement, making two sets of Uchiha eyes land on her briefly. Completely unfazed, she kept healing Shisui.

"Are you two still doing that?"

Itachi snorted softly as he got up to comply with Shisui's constant demand for food.

"Doing what?"

Rei's fingers made quick work of the bruises marring Shisui's rather handsome face, her silvery chakra easing the swelling and hastening the removal of discoloration. She finished and quickly jabbed Shisui in the same spot he once had the bruise. A playful grin prancing on her face as Shisui grunted and rubbed the sore spot.

"You managing to piss Shisui off somehow and then bribing him with Mikoto-san's food, only for him to start demanding it incessantly until satisfied."

Itachi smirked, taking advantage of this to poke fun at his older cousin.

"Does that ever change?"

Shisui scowled at the two as he picked up his chopsticks. Rei took hold of Shisui's pillow and hugged it close as she sat indian-style on his mattress.

"His love of your mother's cooking is probably something that won't ever change. By the way, what have you two been up to?"

Opting to ignore the two, he settled for enjoying his meal as they chatted.

Shisui observed his two closest friends as he dug into Mikoto's special-made breakfast.

Shuiro Rei. She first came into their lives after Itachi was moved into Shisui's Academy classes at age 6. Her parents had moved to Konoha in hopes of finding a better place for their child to make a living, considering how it was just after a war and the only remotely prosperous place was a shinobi village. Born to civilian parents and utterly without help in a shinobi world, she had been forced to learn on her own. At age 6, she had been sent to the Academy and not given much to live up to.

To many's surprise, she had actually gotten the information down and was able to execute advanced techniques fairly decently, and thus joined his class shortly after Itachi did. She placed third to last on the genin exam, but managed to pass and was put on the team no one else could stand to be put on. The team with two Uchiha.

He remembered ostracizing her due to the fact she was young like Itachi but no where near on par. She had been rather pathetic; incredibly weak and close to useless when she first started as a genin. But she proved her worth through hard work, and was most definitely a genius of her own right. They had gotten close in the three years they were genin. So close in fact, by now her instinctive protectiveness of them could rival Mikoto's.

Shisui finished his meal with a contented sigh, and caught the attention of the conversing pair. He noted that since he had last seen the girl, her hair had changed.

"Hey, Rei, what happened to your hair? You look so different I could barely recognize you."

Itachi remembered that he had also wanted to ask her that.

"Yeah, what did you do that for?"

Rei gave a wry smile, running a hand through her long wine red locks.

"You two active ANBU aren't the only ones having all the fun. I've been on a mission for the last two months, posing as one of those exotic specimens those crazy capital people like to buy."

The cousins couldn't help giving a small smile as they realized the type of mission she had been assigned. Infiltration missions and such were right up her alley. Rei could bluff her way into the Daimyo's inner palace if she wanted to.

"How'd it go?"

"It's not over yet, so I can't tell you much. The client sent me back to deliver information and to see what other intel has been gathered. I've got a few weeks before I have to go back though. Ah! You two busy today? I'm dying to do something interesting for a change. Capital people are so incredibly boring it could be a fatal technique."

Itachi and Shisui both smiled, remembering her hatred of the mundane politics that went on in their clan as well.

"Well, there is something we need to do, but I don't know if Shisui still wants to..."

Rei's red eyebrow lifted slightly. Shisui realized what Itachi was talking about, and proceeded to frown.

"I don't want to. He threw me to the lions and didn't even realize he did. I don't want to save your brother from those things. Especially not after yesterday!"

Rei scoffed, thinking Shisui was just over reacting.

"What do you mean? What things? It's not like Sasuke was related to those bruises on your face."

Itachi suddenly found the ceiling very interesting and Shisui suddenly became occupied with cleaning up after his breakfast.

"You're kidding me."

A series of forced coughs and uncomfortable shifts were her only reply. Rei's expression of "oh my god" didn't even scratch the surface of her disbelief.

"What happened?"

And albeit reluctantly, Rei got her answer. When she had heard the full story, Rei reminded the two exactly how similar she was to Mikoto.

"THOSE ABOMINATIONS FROM HELL ARE BACK?! I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL SELL THEM TO THOSE CAPITAL PEOPLE LIKE MEAT ON A HOOK! WHY THE HELL DO THEY KEEP COMING BACK?!"

Then she paused, and her stone faced words hit nearly as hard as Itachi's hand had.

"And what kind of idiot do you have to be to walk into a freaking lamppost on the other side of the street?"

Alright, there's the answer to who Rei is!

I hope none of you mind me throwing in an OC. There may be a need for a few more depending on how my storyline evolves so if there are any objections to this feel free to let me know!

Where's the madness?

well it's a coming! every now and then if i feel there isn't enough, I'll do a multiple update!

but I mean... reviews you know... they.. they kinda...speed things up on this end... a bit... yeah... so... hm... yeah...

You like you review? yes? :3

Many thanks,

Silent-Himitsu!