Twilight River
Shisui's Interlude I
Eyes Like The Color of Twilight
He saw the blood red first.
It was just his job. He was supposed to patrol and keep general peace. Help lost children, maybe stop some rascals, nothing too intense. Shisui was a talented shinobi but he was still young and while he had seen his fair share of shit towards the end of the war, he was still a child. In peace time, he spent a lot more time than he thought he would patrolling the village.
Generally, something red was a trigger. Red as merely a color induced anger, anxiety and trauma. Shisui didn't have the same trauma as some of the older shinobi but he still flinched because blood was still fresh in his mind from the war. But the red he saw wasn't blood. It was short fluffy hair that was actually a bit purple in the shadows.
Shisui approached the child because he could tell they didn't belong. They were small and scruffy looking with ratty clothes and they were looking into a mirror like they had never seen one before. As he approached the girl turned to look at him with wide eyes. She made eye contact with him.
Eyes the color of twilight, he mused. Those were pretty eyes. This little girl was fortunate in the looks department.
Shisui crossed his arms when she didn't say anything, and he asked, "Did you get lost from your parents, little miss?"
"What bout' you?" she huffed. She stuck out her bottom lip and Shisui thought it was definitely a powerful move.
Shisui pointed to the headband across his forehead with his thumb, "I'm a ninja. You're a little young to be out by yourself. Did you sneak away for an adventure? Hm?"
A smile threatened his lips and the girl pulled her lip back in, realizing she wasn't getting anywhere with the pout, "I'm a big kid."
"Sure. Where do you live? I'll walk you home now. Your mom's probably having a heart attack." Shisui offered gently.
There was a flicker of something in the girl's eyes, "Def' not."
Shisui crouched so that he was eye level with the soulful eyes, "I'm sure she definitely is. That's a mom's job y'know."
"My mom's not around no more." the girl told him rather bluntly, "How 'bout dat?"
Frowning, Shisui questioned, "Are you from one of the orphanages?"
"No." the girl snapped. Shisui didn't let him smirk show but he could clearly read what that answer meant.
Humming he looked over her clothes and pulled the tag from the back of her collar while she struggled to stop him. He glanced at it, smiled at the big 3 on the tag and then let go.
"How about this." he told her with what he hoped was an assuring smile, "I'll buy you a popsicle if you go back with me afterwards."
Shisui was a nice kid. He liked being nice to younger kids. And this little girl looked like she could use a treat. Besides, a little orphan could always use some kind of treat, right?
She narrowed her eyes as if she were making the biggest bargain of her life, "Wha' kind?"
"I like green tea. We can share one." Shisui thought it would be a good, solid flavor to start the kid with.
"Never had." she huffed, looking at Shisui. He thought she looked rather unsure of herself, so he extended a hand to her.
"Try it?"
Her hand was small and warm in his own.
.
Shisui's eyes fluttered open and he looked up at a white ceiling. The hospital, he recognized easily. No wonder he had been having such a good dream. The pain killers they probably had in his IV likely had him in a deep sleep.
He shifted and gazed out the window. The sun was going down and he was sure he would easily be unconscious again in an hour or two. He tried to recall the hazy memory of the injury that sent him here. He recalled getting a good stab wound between his ribs, and damn did that hurt, but the squad medic healed it enough where he could get back to the village after completing the mission.
The door to his room slid open slowly and quietly. His favorite cousin slipped inside with a stressed look on his face. When he saw Shisui was awake the worry only diminished slightly.
"I'm glad you're awake," his cousin confessed, "I was worried."
Shisui grinned, "Worried about me? Really?"
Itachi frowned, "I'm more worried about Miyako-chan, to be perfectly honest."
That wiped the grin off his face immediately. With a troubled frown he looked towards the window, "She's alright."
"Today should have been her birthday." Itachi countered softly. Both paused in troubled silence. It had been over six months since either had seen her.
Shisui shifted in his hospital bed and sadly uttered, "I know."
Itachi turned to look out the window and smiled at the soft flurries that were blessing Konoha this year. It had snowed a few times each year for the past few years. They had even had a few heavier storms with a lot of snow. The dry spell Konoha had been in for its winters seemingly was ending.
After half an hour Itachi left when Shisui drifted back into a blissful sleep. Though his dream was not as blissful as his still body made it out to be.
.
Six months ago, Shisui hugged a small girl amidst a bloodbath. She was screaming her throat raw and crying while chakra evaporated around them. Blood stained her clothes and Shisui wasn't sure how to fix this. Honestly, the situation itself was fucked. All he could do was offer comfort until she eventually exhausted herself.
An ANBU dropped down beside Shisui and appraised the situation. Shisui relayed what information he knew, which wasn't much, and Miyako was silent and heavy. Another ANBU dropped down and Shisui begrudgingly handed his unconscious friend over.
Shisui had entered ANBU as a trainee a year ago, having just come of an age where he was allowed to. He wasn't part of anything terrible, not the Sabotage unit or Seduction Unit. He wasn't even in the Assassination Unit or Infiltration Unit. Shisui was one of the general ANBU who ran missions as part of the Combat Unit. Maybe in the future when he was older they would slot him somewhere else but for the most part, he was still expected to be a kid. He had only just gotten his ANBU tattoo after passing a series of laborious missions and he was really only an ANBU on file. The Hokage was pushing off sending him on most missions and was slowly easing him into being an ANBU agent.
As for him, Shisui had never wanted darker things to find Miyako. Definitely not cheerful and smiling Miyako. Shisui wasn't sure what was going to happen to her but if ANBU were taking her away, and if she had done all this damage herself, Shisui had some kind of idea. And that idea terrified him.
As he was already there he unsealed his mask and slipped it over his face. A slight genjutsu covered anything that could identify him and he helped clean up the remains of the bodies Miyako had slaughtered. He looked at the bloody chunks and thought to himself, how could sweet little Miyako do something like this?
Shisui would never forget this event and it would haunt his nightmares for a very long time.
.
Shisui was released from the hospital quickly and was intercepted by one Uchiha Izumi on his way home.
As he had been for the past few months, Shisui immediately began her confrontation with a lie, "Oh, Izumi-san, how nice to see you! I know you must have been hoping to see Itachi with me but-"
Izumi cut him off, "Have you found out where Miyako-chan is, yet?"
Shisui shifted uncomfortably and shook his head, "No, sorry, Izumi-san."
Izumi looked at him with a very unimpressed look. She crossed her arms, "Are you sure you don't have any idea?"
"No." Shisui lied effortlessly.
With a sigh, Izumi shook her head. Softly she murmured, "Alright."
Shisui stayed silent and tried to convince himself that wherever Miyako was, she would be fine. And someday, she would return to them and brighten up their lives again. But he could still recall every detail from the last time he saw her and his body shivered.
.
It was a sunny spring day when Shisui was supposed to be grocery shopping for his grandfather. He had too much energy and he really didn't want to go shopping just yet. Truthfully he just wanted to go find Itachi and bother him for the day but he knew Itachi was out of the village at the moment. He passed by one of the fruit stands where vendors were beginning to sell watermelons perfect for suikawari.
He was reminded of Itachi and Miyako, and Shisui internally groaned. He kicked off suddenly and a few civilians startled as he launched onto the rooftops and started to sprint away. He would potentially be reprimanded later if any of his cousins saw, since it was considered rude to the civilians to do what he just did. Shisui didn't really care though, he wanted to run away from the thought of his two favorite friends being gone.
As he crossed the rooftops over one of the civilian housing districts, a flash of red caught his eye. With a sense of deja-vu settling over him, Shisui came to an abrupt stop on the next rooftop and peered back onto the street. His eyes found the source of red and he almost thought it had been a false alarm. Then he saw the silver hair pin. He realized that he was actually seeing Miyako again, in the flesh.
She looked small and ragged but her hair was longer than he remembered. She was, ironically, in the same spot she had been in when they first met when she was an orphanage escapee. She was even crouched down to stare into the same mirror.
With his mood suddenly sky high, Shisui was jumping down without even thinking about what he was going to say. He had so many questions, and he knew some of them she couldn't answer, but right now the only thing on his mind was that she was back.
Miyako was back, and Shisui was so glad that soon they would all be together again. It was almost enough for Shisui to forget all his nightmares. Almost.
AN:
This is a relatively short interlude. I wanted to add some of Shisui's perspective, as well as some insight to what was going on during the last chapter. Shisui is about fourteen here, compared to Miyako's seven.
I also wanted to kind of clear up some ANBU stuff? Kind of? An interludes really not the place for that, but there's a little bit of that in there.
Next chapter is like, 1800 words right now? I'm on Spring Break so I hope I'll have a chapter up by the time I go back to college. Let me tell you all, I'm tired. I slept for twelve hours as soon as I reached my bed.
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