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"Ne, Shisui?" Naruto called, lying on her tummy atop her orange comforter.

"Hmmm?" The Uchiha hummed behind her, running a brush through her long hair.

"Why do you call me," She cut herself off, probably to blush, Shisui noted deviously. "Um... why do you call me Sunshine?"

"Hmm? That's easy."

"How so?" Naruto prodded.

The brushing stopped.

Her bed creaked in protest as Shisui leaned over her back, and dangerously close to her ear.

"Because you brighten up my day," He whispered exaggeratedly.

Naruto deadpanned, picking her pillow up and smacking it against his face a little too roughly.

"Im being serious, moron." She huffed, dragging herself into a sitting position.

She turned around to face the raven haired teen, sitting criss cross applesauce.

Shisui just raised a perfect black brow.

"You really want to know?"

The blonde nodded eagerly.

He smiled.

"It's really not as glamorous as you might be thinking." He said. "Remember when we first met?"

Naruto's nose wrinkled cutely. "Of course I remember that! You felt me up, dattebayo!"

"Nu-uh, I was helping you fix that atrocity you called a kenjutsu form!" Shisui defended, and then coughed, remembering why they were talking about that time in the first place.

"It's really simple. If I remember correctly, the sun was setting, and I was chasing that blasted dem- I... I mean Tora, and when I caught 'em, I looked up and remembered thinking 'what's the sun doing down here?'. But that was stupid and I immediately realized it was your hair. And that from where you were standing, the sun had lit it up perfectly and it was like a halo of gold..."

Shisui sighed dreamily, nostalgic.

"I remember thinking you were an angel, well," He snickered to himself. "Until you opened your mouth, that is."

"Hmph!" Naruto huffed, turning away, apparently insulted, though, she was really hiding a soft smile behind her hair.

"Aww, don't be that way Sunshine." Shisui coaxed, twirling a strand of gold around his finger. "If I really cared about how foul your mouth was, would I still be around?"

He burst into laughter when Naruto began attacking him viciously with her pillow again.

"That's not what you were supposed to say, you jerk!" Naruto yelled, though, she was grinning uncontrollably.

"Then what was I supposed to say?" Shisui snickered, shielding his head from the fluffy onslaught. "It's the truth!"

"You're a moron." Naruto huffed, but ceased fire.

"Hoh?" Shisui raised a brow. "Is that a smile I see?"

"No," Naruto gruffed falsely, turning away. "No it's not. I'm furious. I hate you. I hope you choke of feathers and cotton."

She shoved the pillow with frightening accuracy into the center of Shisui's face, still turned away from him.

Shisui tossed the pillow away, peering around to glimpse at the blonde's face, but her hair was in the way.

The kind Uchiha slipped his hands under the the golden curtains of Naruto's bangs, pushing them back out of her face, his heart skipping a beat at her absolutely radiant smile.

He swallowed.

'So... beautiful...' He thought helplessly. 'I never stood a chance against that smile, did I?'

He grinned back, just generally happy that he could be with Naruto.

'I love her so much...'


"Brother," Sasuke called.

Itachi stopped in his tracks, having been about to retire to his room for the day. The sun was setting, and he was tired after a day of ANBU training. He hadn't told anyone but his father and Shisui of his involvement in the organization, and didn't plan to, as ANBU life was meant to be confidential. Shisui would have figured it out on his own anyway. Thus, he had been informed.

"What is it, foolish little brother?" Itachi asked blankly.

Sasuke clenched his fist, reminding himself that Uchihas don't rise to petty teasing.

"Where have you been lately?" Sasuke demanded. "No one else seems to notice, but ever since you became a Chunin, you've been going to training less and less. And now, it's even worse. I don't even train with Shisui and Naruto anymore because they're always in their own world."

Hn. So his little brother was more observant than he let on. It made Itachi happy that Sasuke was worrying about him in his own way, but he could not allow Sasuke to become involved in his affairs.

Yes, ANBU was becoming more demanding, and Itachi was beginning to make quite a name for himself, but Sasuke or Naruto didn't need to know any of that. Shisui, even sharing the same reluctant views towards violence as Itachi didn't count, because he was a part time ROOT operative. Both eldest Uchiha's hands were already submerged in blood. And if Itachi's inquiry was correct, his father would only demand Sasuke's become just as tainted in due time.

The quiet Uchiha knew it was only a matter of time, if it hadn't happened already, Shisui would be checking up on him. After all, Itachi knew he was acting strange in all of their eyes. And he was. But in reality?

He was scared to death of what his father would ask him to do.

"It is nothing of your concern, foolish little brother." Itachi said, inwardly wincing at how cold he had sounded.

He left Sasuke standing in the hallway, retiring to his room to muse to himself in troubled silence.


Itachi stared into the dark eyes of the messenger hawk perched on his windowsill. A scroll was fastened to it's back.

The quiet Uchiha got up silently from his bed, and retrieved the message, rubbing the bird on it's head with two gentle fingers of thanks.

Itachi's expression immediately became bleak.

A summons from his father and the Uchiha elders.


"-since the NineTails attack, the Uchiha have been pushed back as if Konoha is ashamed of us! The Hokage favors those blasted Hyuuga over Uchiha, which is preposterous, as we are the ones with the superior doujutsu!"

Itachi watched impassively as the elders in the dark underground passage beneath the Uchiha compound argued amongst themselves.

"Hai, and let us not forget how we are offered no real missions, and are stuck to either rot behind desks, take escort missions no one else wants, or to join the Uchiha police force."

A round of nods passed through the elders, and murmurings began to rise up, filling the room with white noise.

"Enough." Itachi's father, clan head, Uchiha Fugaku finally spoke up.

"We did not come here to share complaints. We have already done that, and even went so far to take them to the Hokage. But what has that brought us?"

No one said a word.

"Nothing." He answered his own question, cruel black eyes pleased when the room became deathly silent, all ears captive to his voice.

"We have all come to a decision to solve every last one of our grievances, the only reason behind our meeting today, being the welcoming into our ascendance to my son, Itachi."

Itachi's blood ran cold when everyone in the room turned to him with greedy, expectant eyes.

"We would like you, Itachi Uchiha, to lead the Uchiha back into greatness." Fugaku announced, spreading his arms grandly.

"To lead the Uchiha's coup d'etat."

And suddenly, all of Itachi's fears were coming true.


Shisui kissed Naruto's lips softly, pulling her blanket up to her chin and smiled fondly down at her peacefully sleeping face.

He climbed out of her bedroom window, closing it behind him and activated the seals.

Taking to the rooftops, Shisui released two quick bursts of chakra. Two shinobi who were secretly ROOT operatives garbed in the Uchiha police uniform appeared at either side of his back, heads bowed in respect, kneeling.

"I'm growing weary." He told them seriously.

This was a face he wore and prayed to Kami Naruto would never have to see. This was the nameless shinobi that protected the village from it's shadow.

"I don't want to suspect him of foul play, but the village comes before anything." Shisui stated gravely.

His most trusted subordinates said nothing.

"Follow Itachi Uchiha." Shisui ordered. "Do not return until you know what he is hiding."

The two kneeling shinobi's forms blurred, gone as quickly as they'd come.

"I smell blood on the horizon." Shisui murmured, he to, fazing out of sight.


A week later, Hiruzen Sarutobi seemed to have aged ten years in a single day. The once proud wrinkles on his face were no longer proof of his skill to survive so long as a shinobi. Instead, they were deeply set in his grimly taut expression, and they seemed to put him closer to the shinigami than ever before.

Shisui Uchiha kneeled behind The Third atop the Hokage's Tower, having just informed him of most worrying news.

"The Uchiha are planning to coup." Sarutobi stated.

"Hai." Shisui confirmed.

Sarutobi sighed tiredly.

"I knew this day would come."

"Sir?" Shisui questioned.

"When the time comes, I know you will do what is right, my boy."

"Of course, Hokage-sama."

Shisui disappeared with shunshin.


Naruto sat on her apartment complex rooftop, lips pursed as she gazed towards the Uchiha Clan District.

The place always gave off the undertone of negativity, such was the way of most Uchiha. But lately, it had been pouring off of the place in waves. Usually Naruto only sensed it if she was passing by, but she could feel the negative vibes spilling out of the area all the way across the village.

The blonde was growing worried, because Shisui and Itachi, if she even saw the two, were giving off waves of worry, constantly. First it was only Itachi becoming distant, but Naruto had just thought that was the stress of being a clan heir. Then Sasuke, though, she knew he just felt awkward being around her and Shisui alone. So he trained mostly by himself and hung out with the blonde at school. And then recently, Shisui had been around less and less too. She knew she saw him everyday, and anyone would assume she was overreacting because she was so used to his presence, but Naruto knew better.

Something in the village was amiss.

And it was affecting her boys.

'This feeling... something terrible is going to happen. I just know it.'


Hinata Hyuuga peeked meekly from behind an abandoned dango stand up at the most beautiful person she had ever known... well, seen... because she hadn't quite worked up the courage to talk to her yet.

Hinata's cheeks were beet red as she gazed up at the blue eyed beauty perched hazardously atop an apartment rooftop. Her golden hair was free of it's usual braid, dancing slightly to the gentle evening wind.

'Sh-she's so pretty... and s-strong... I hope I can be just like you one day, Naruto-chan. '

Hinata would have continued to inwardly gush and admire her secret idol, but her sharp, pupiless, lavender eyes caught sight of the absolutely troubled expression on Naruto's face.

'W-what could make you look so worried, Naruto-chan?' The gentle Hyuuga wondered.

'I h-hope everything will be alright... Oh, who am I kidding? This is Naruto-chan. And she can do anything.'


Danzo smirked darkly to himself, having just dismissed his two Uchiha ROOT operatives.

"And what will you do now, Shisui my boy?" He asked in the thick darkness of his underground office.

"Well, no matter. For I will do all in my power to protect Konoha. By any means necessary. "