Great Ninjas Don't Make Great Parents
Chapter 33: Curse of Promises
Some people could tell you very confidently what their first memory was. Most people could think of a few old memories. Uchiha Shisui belonged to the second group, but he could say for certain that all of his early memories consisted of Hinode.
Sure, there were a few bits with his father, Lady Kamome, and Obito, but there was always Hinode. So ever since Shisui was very young, Hinode was a symbol of safety to him.
As he grew older, he realized exactly why that was. He realized that Hinode was, simply put, overprotective. Not only over him, but over everyone close to her. He also noticed that no one was doing the same for her. That was why he wanted to get stronger—to protect his sister, even if she didn't want him to.
The Uchiha clan ostracized her for not being a full blooded Uchiha. It didn't make sense to him; he was the same as her: not a full blooded Uchiha. The difference was that he was Hidenobu's male heir. On top of that, their father was hard on her so that she could stand on her own. Was that really the right way to go about it? Every time Hinode went away on a mission in the height of the Shinobi World War, Shisui feared that she wouldn't return.
That was what happened to his mother. He had no memory of his mother, but he knew that she was a woman whom Hinode admired. And if their mother was to Hinode as Hinode was to him, he would be devastated if she were not to return home from the battlefield.
That fear became very real on the day that Hinode returned to Konoha from an S rank mission. Her teacher had sent a messenger hawk to relay the message that she was badly injured and was in the hospital.
Shisui and the rest of the family didn't get the message right away, as they were at the Ninja Academy, going over details of his grade change for the next school year. Shisui was, at first, looking forward to telling Hinode about his advancement to a higher grade, but once his father read the message brought by the hawk, he felt all happiness usurped from him.
The entire family rushed to the hospital. A girl around Hinode's age stood in front of the hospital. She had short blonde hair and extremely pale skin, maybe paler than usual at that time because of what happened to Hinode.
"Sir, it—it was all my fault!" the girl cried to Hidenobu. "If I wasn't so weak, Hinode wouldn't be—"
"You're that girl from that time in the mountains," Hidenobu had recognized the girl.
Shisui looked from his father to the young girl. The girl seemed as if she just received a death sentence. She bit down on her lips and looked away from them.
Hidenobu did not wait for the girl to respond, and continued towards the hospital. Shisui hesitantly followed, peeking at the girl several times.
"My daughter was not taught to blame others for the consequences of her own actions," Hidenobu said as he passed by the young girl. "If she decided that you were important enough to risk her life for, then I acknowledge that decision."
Shisui thought for sure that his father's cold demeanor would make the girl cry, but the girl only turned around to face them again. And even though Hidenobu continued to walk away, the girl shouted at the top of her lungs.
"I, Kusanagi Yakko, vow to never let anything like this happen to Hinode again for as long as I live!"
Although tears did fall eventually down her reddened cheeks, Shisui was impressed by her look of determination.
When they finally got to see Hinode in the hospital room, she was already making great recovery from the near-fatal wound. It confirmed Shisui's suspicion that they had the same healing power that was linked to their chakra. It both relieved him and worried him. Relieved because she was fine in the end, and worried because knowing Hinode's overprotective nature, her healing chakra might not be enough one day.
He wondered if Hinode's friend knew this about her.
When Shisui looked out of the hospital window to see if the blonde girl was still standing outside, she was already gone.
Kusanagi Yakko, Shisui repeated her name in his head. He'd made sure not to forget it, so he could find her another day. As he was not yet strong enough to protect his sister, he would leave it to her friend. He could tell by the look in Yakko's eyes that day that she was strong enough for the job.
"Don't forget what we agreed on: the goal is getting Yakko out only."
Kakashi reminded Hinode as they crouched in the shadows outside of Root's hideout, away from the bright moonlight of the full moon. The two of them had planned the operation in secret, and Hinode had no choice but to accept Kakashi's terms if she wanted him to lead her to the hideout. First and foremost, he forbade her to actively seek out Danzo and engage in combat, which she easily agreed to. As much confidence as she had in her abilities, she was well aware that she would die in a fight against Danzo.
Kakashi believed that Danzo would let his agents deal with intruders, and would not show his face unless it was absolutely necessary. The best way to approach their rescue mission was to avoid any fighting at all, in order not to sound off any alarms.
"I will take care of any Root members who notice us as quietly as possible," Kakashi looked behind him at Hinode and whispered. "You focus on getting Yakko to willingly come back with us."
"Got it, captain," Hinode smirked and gave Kakashi a little salute. "Lead the way!"
"Is this really the time to make jokes?" Kakashi shook his head at her before turning back toward the padlocked gates to the hideout. "All right, follow m—"
Thwack.
Thud.
Before Kakashi could finish talking, he fell forward as he was completely knocked out. Behind him, Hinode's hand was still raised in a chopping form, and she winced slightly at the way Kakashi face-planted into the ground. Knowing Kakashi, she had to hit him a lot harder than she was used to after dealing with children for a while to ensure that he would pass out.
Gently, she lifted him by his waist and hid him in a tall tree. Before she jumped back down to the ground, she held his hand for a few seconds.
"Sorry, Kakashi," she whispered. "I can't let what happened to Sakumo-san happen to you too. You are also someone I can't lose. Besides, I promised him..."
Hinode's voice trailed as she leapt from the tree and landed directly in front of the gates. She held the large padlock in one hand and raised her other fist. She sent chakra to her hand and her fist was immediately covered with fire. She struck the lock hard until it shattered, and she threw the pieces aside. Slowly and quietly, she pushed the gates open.
And she was in.
After a short and dark walkway, she came to a wide open area. It looked almost like a place designed specifically for fighting, with an open floor as large as the Ninja Academy's schoolyard, and nothing obstructing the way to the next door. The three walls that she could see had mezzanines built into them. If this wasn't the perfect set up for an ambush, she didn't know what was.
It would be stupid to head straight to the door ahead of her. She leapt onto the mezzanine on her left, and as her foot touched the surface, she activated her Sharingan.
Eight shuriken flew at her from the ceiling. With her Sharingan at work, she avoided them easily with one jump.
Already? Hinode looked up at the tall ceiling. The color of the Root agent's chakra gave him away, but he didn't know that.
One.
She heard a faint footstep from behind her. Whirling around and pulling out a kunai at the same time, she blocked the swing of a tanto blade. She pushed the Root agent's blade to the side with force and sent him several meters away with a hard back kick.
Two.
Another shadow moved towards her from the other end of the mezzanine. Hinode hopped over the railing, and as she descended, the attacker propelled himself using the railing. He aimed his kunai at Hinode's chest with great speed. Hinode turned in midair, blocking his weapon.
The man pushed away after getting blocked, not letting Hinode have the chance to strike him while in close distance.
Three.
A Root agent donning a beige cloak approached her from the side once she landed on ground level. A kunai aimed straight for her throat. Hinode cranked her neck to the side without moving; the sharp blade of the kunai drew a shallow gash in her neck, but at the same time, Hinode grabbed onto the cloaked man's forearm. The cloaked man couldn't break away from Hinode's grip.
Four.
Just then, more shuriken were shot at her from above. Hinode threw the cloaked man hard so that he was sent crashing into the wall, and she leapt away in the opposite direction. More and more shuriken were thrown at her, and she leapt around the open space to dodge the weapons. The Root agent hiding in the ceiling was really going to kill Hinode even if his fellow agent was there with her.
Hinode touched her neck; the gash from the kunai had already closed.
She bent at her knees and jumped up towards the ceiling. She wasn't going to reach the enemy, but she closed enough distance. Quickly forming hand seals, she gathered a large amount of chakra from her stomach to her throat.
Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique.
The Root agent jumped off the ceiling to dodge the attack, but as he descended, Hinode formed another set of hand seals.
Fire Release: Flame Thread Technique.
Fire spread from Hinode's palms and travelled down like two snakes. The fire was catching onto Hinode's chakra wires that she had been placing all over the open space. In a matter of seconds, a web of flaming wires lit up the entire place. Because they were chakra wires, the fire continued to rage even when Hinode stopped producing fire on her own. The Root agent who jumped from the ceiling did not have enough to react and fell into the web.
Hinode landed onto the mezzanine on the right. Besides the cloaked man who was knocked out from crashing into the wall, numbers two and three were trapped within the web of fire. Number one should not be able to move, considering the third degree burn he should have at least gotten.
She made her way to the door and pushed through without looking back. Ahead of her was another large room. On all four walls were several closed doors. Anything could be behind them; secret intel, weapons, Danzo, Yakko. The floors were clear of any objects, except for faint bloodstains and cracks in the metal. The cracks were produced by weapons, no doubt.
Training space? Hinode questioned in her head. Just then, more shuriken were thrown at her from behind. She sprang further into the room as she looked over her shoulder. The three Root agents still conscious had come after her, even the one with badly burnt skin. The fire had burnt through his gloves, yet he held onto the handle of a tanto blade tightly.
Hinode's stomach churned at the sight. Do these guys not feel pain?
Then, she felt the air flow in front of her change. She ducked on instinct, and the tip of a blade sliced off a chunk of hair from her ponytail. Hinode swiped her foot against the legs of the attacker, but the attacker jumped up so gracefully that it was almost like floating.
A shadow loomed over her; she looked up to see rocks in the form of spears inches away from her. She rolled to the side to dodge the rocks, but she was a second too late. One of the spears cut through her left calf, almost deep enough to expose her bones. Hinode gritted her teeth; more than the pain that she was feeling, she felt a rush of anxiety. Her Sharingan didn't detect any hand seals or the large amount of chakra that should have been used to produce a jutsu like this.
It only meant one thing.
Three Root members appeared from the shadows while she was down. Two of them held each of Hinode's arms behind her back, and the other pushed her head to the ground. Hinode's head rang as her chin was jammed to the hard surface.
"Kinoto-sama, she has the Sharingan," a voice behind Hinode said.
Hinode looked up when a set of feet stepped in front of her. It was the shinobi who used the rock technique earlier, a pale girl with blonde hair and a bear mask, who slowly rolled up a scroll which had sealing scripts on the inside.
Yakko.
"Not for long," the blonde said. Her voice was ice cold, but it was Yakko's voice.
"Let me," the Root agent with the burns stepped up, sounding eager to get even with Hinode.
"No, Tori," Yakko unsheathed her tanto blade that Hinode barely dodged earlier. "You retreat and tend to your wounds, along with Uma and Hitsuji."
"But, Kinoto-sama—"
"Shall I amputate your arm now, then?" Yakko pointed at Tori's arm. The handle of his sword was basically melded into his bloody flesh now.
Without further resistance, the three injured Root agents retreated obediently. Three other Root agents continued to hold Hinode down.
Yakko knelt down in front of Hinode. She reached out a gloved hand and lifted Hinode's head up by the chin gingerly. The cold leather of the glove sent shivers down Hinode's spine, but now, she was close enough to see Yakko's green eyes past the bear mask.
"Yakko!" Hinode called out shakily. "Don't you remember me? I'm—"
"Uchiha," Yakko stated. "I'm taking your eyes."
Yakko angled the flat side of her sword on Hinode's right cheek, the tip of the blade touched her bottom eyelid. Hinode inhaled deeply and resisted the urge to cry.
"Nngh!"
Suddenly, Yakko grunted in pain and backed away from Hinode. The blonde held her head with one hand, but her whole body was trembling. Hinode smirked; it was working. She was sending all of her memories with Yakko through her eyes.
"Kinoto-sama?!"
"Genjutsu! Break their eye contact!"
The grip on Hinode's right wrist loosened, and she used the chance to sling the Root agent away from her. With her free hand she pried away the hold on her head, breaking the man's wrist in the process. Then she headbutts the third guy on the chin.
Hinode sprang towards Yakko and grabbed the sides of her bear mask. As Yakko was still trapped in Genjutsu, Hinode easily ripped the mask off of her face. Hinode gasped at Yakko's face.
The blonde's once porcelain skin was now cracked with numerous scars. Her emerald eyes had lost their shine; even the whites of her eyes seemed almost gray. She was looking forward, but as she was under the effects of Genjutsu, she could not see Hinode. Her face wrangled with the pain that came with Genjutsu; veins and sweat emerged from her forehead.
Was it enough?
Hinode couldn't bear to watch Yakko suffer for so long.
Red Sharingan faded back to black. Yakko's shoulders slumped at the release of the Genjutsu and Hinode caught her by the shoulders.
"Yakko…?"
The girl being called looked up at Hinode; there was no emotion in her eyes besides fatigue. With lightning speed, she swung her blade upwards and cut deeply into Hinode's forearm. As Hinode winced and loosened her hand, Yakko's knee rammed into her stomach. The other leg swoops and struck Hinode in her temple.
Hinode's ears rang as she tumbled to the ground. Meanwhile, Yakko got down on one knee and breathed heavily.
It didn't work? Hinode shook her head to make the stars in her eyes go away. She struggled to get back on her feet, but just as she took her first step, she realized that she was stepping on an open scroll. Before she could step away, bolts of lightning traveled up her leg and spread throughout her body. In a flash, she was completely enveloped by the lightning.
It felt as if hot lasers were penetrating every pore on her body and all she could see in front of her was white. In the next second, she was down, with smoke permeating from her skin. Her entire body was numb and the only thing she could register in her brain was the smell of burnt flesh.
When she could finally see, Yakko's tanto blade was pointing at her again.
It was past midnight and Sasuke was fast asleep in Hinode's bed after a tiring shurikenjutsu practice with Shisui. Meanwhile, Shisui was downstairs in the living room, staring at an old family photo. The photo was the last remaining image of his and Hinode's mother. Uchiha Hidenobu stood rigidly behind a sitting Uchiha Byakue. The beautiful mother smiled kindly into the camera while Hinode sat on her lap. In Hinode's arms was Shisui as a baby.
Hinode, like the deviant child that she was, was smiling at Shisui instead of the camera.
Shisui looked at the clock; it was one o'clock in the morning and he knew for a fact that no drinkery in Konoha was open past midnight after having worked for the Police Force. He already had a feeling before Hinode left that she was up to something, but now he was sure. And if Hinode lied to him about it, it was something big.
As to not awaken Sasuke, Shisui quietly opened the front door and stepped through. As soon as he pulled the door closed again, he flickered away into the night.
Finding Hinode was not a difficult task; his immediate thought was that she was going to go after Root. He and Itachi had been secretly meeting with the Hokage and Shimura Danzo for some time, ever since they found out about the Uchiha clan's plans. As both of them did not want the clan to go through with the coup, they had been trying to work out a solution. His transfer to the Police Force was part of that plan, getting close to Fugaku so that in the worst case scenario, he could use Kotoamatsukami on the clan leader.
But in their last meeting with Hiruzen and Danzo, the latter mentioned Hinode's name.
"Uchiha Hinode is your sister, is she not?" Danzo had said her name as if she was some kind of nuisance. "I suggest that you keep an eye on her. Her loyalty to Konoha is questionable and mentally, she seems highly unstable."
"Hinode-san is against the coup," Itachi had defended her right away.
Shisui had stayed silent as he processed what Danzo said. He didn't know how the two had met, but that was alarming to him. For a while now, Shisui had been wary of Danzo. Whenever they met, Danzo was very pushy with the agenda that the Sharingan was the only thing capable of controlling tailed beasts. It became a little obsessive.
While Shisui was the kind to stay quiet and observe, Hinode definitely was not. If she had picked up the same impression from Danzo, she was not going to sit still.
But then she did. She was oddly calm for about a month. To Shisui, it meant that she was actually being careful and planning something big. And that was not a good sign.
Shisui had been investigating Danzo and his Root organization during his night shifts at the Police Force. He was able to track down Root's hideout rather easily, and when he saw the broken padlock, his heart immediately sunk.
Without wasting any time, Shisui activated his Sharingan and flickered into the building. He zoomed past the first open room, which was tricked out with chakra wires, Hinode's most frequently used tool. He held the wire between his index finger and thumb; the wire was still hot. He flickered past the wires and into the next room. Immediately, he saw Hinode on the ground, and a Root agent with a tanto blade raised over her head.
Shisui threw two shuriken towards the Root agent and charged forward. The Root agent looked up when she sensed the shuriken coming and jumped back. The shuriken cut a few pieces of her blonde hair, but they were only distractions. Shisui was suddenly right in front of the Root agent, swinging his right arm towards her, when her toes touched the ground.
Shisui widened his eyes. "...Yakko-san?"
He dropped the kunai that was previously in his right hand out of instinct and formed a fist instead. The Root agent, who was undoubtedly his childhood crush Yakko, didn't bother dodging his punch. Instead, she rocked forward on her toes and aimed the tip of her blade at his chest. Shisui flickered away just in time.
"Shisui?!" Hinode yelled out from behind him. "What are you doing here?!"
Shisui did not answer her question, but he smiled to himself. "Now I see why you came here on your own. I was afraid that you might try to fight Lord Danzo on behalf of the clan."
Hinode called his name again, but he charged toward Yakko again. Yakko retrieved another scroll from her belt and summoned a half dome of earth over herself.
Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique.
The fireball collided with the thick walls of Yakko's protection and caused a great explosion. A dense cloud of dust rose from where the half dome once stood and spread quickly throughout the enclosed space. A regular shinobi would have trouble seeing, but the Sharingan could see clearly.
The chakras of numerous Root members caught Shisui's eyes; they were hiding in the ceiling. As the Root agents descended with their weapons in hand, Shisui fought them off easily. But more and more of them emerged from every corner, and even the Sharingan had its blindspot.
Shisui felt a wave of heat behind him and then a muffled grunt. He turned around to see Hinode up on her feet; she had knocked out a Root agent who was going to attack him from behind. The flame on her fist was small, and she was breathing heavily. The burns on her boy were slowly fading away, and a deep cut in her forearm had stopped bleeding. Shisui didn't get a chance to tell her to step down before the Root agents attacked again.
So did Yakko.
Yakko's chakra was of a light blue color, and it spread round the blade of her sword. More of the light blue pulled at her feet, and she launched herself at Shisui, who was dealing with another Root agent.
"Shisui, jump!" Hinode rammed her shoulder into the Root agent in front of Shisui, freeing him of an enemy. Shisui jumped up immediately, avoiding Yakko's weapon by an inch. But Yakko swung her sword upwards while Shisui was in the air.
Wind nature chakra!
Shisui gritted his teeth as the razor sharp wind from Yakko's sword cut into his leg. His brain had just registered the brain when Yakko leapt towards him.
"She's no longer the Yakko we know!" Hinode shouted from the ground. She desperately looked at Shisui whenever she had an opening from fighting the Root agents who kept coming.
Shisui could hear the pain in Hinode's voice when she shouted. The message was clear; Hinode wanted him to stop holding back. It was just like Hinode to be able to tell right away that he was holding back as he faced Yakko. But now that he gained the knowledge that Hinode had infiltrated Root to save her friend, how could he resolve to kill Yakko?
"You always come first, Shisui."
He couldn't possibly let his sister lose another person important to her in exchange for his life.
The three tomoe in Shisui's Sharingan spun as Yakko caught up to him in the air. The image he projected to her in Genjutsu was of herself that afternoon in front of the hospital. He saw her eyes falter slightly, but she jammed her tanto sword into her thigh. Shisui nearly winced for her as the sword had pierced all the way through to the back of her thigh, but with that much pain signals disrupting the chakra in her brain, she was free of his Genjutsu.
While he was still in shock, Yakko's fist was already so close to his left eye that he felt it touch his eyelashes.
Shisui's hands shot up and grabbed Yakko's wrist and forearm, effectively stopping her attack just in time. Yakko opened up her fist and five small blades of wind propelled from her fingertips. Two of them slashed into his left eye as he bent backwards, lifting Yakko over his head, attempting to throw her to the ground.
Without even blinking, Yakko dislocated her own shoulder of the arm that was held by Shisui. Twisting herself in an unnatural manner to his side, she used her free hand to snatch him by the back of his neck. Using his neck for balance, she whipped her leg against his stomach. The sudden loss of air caused him to loosen his grip. Then, her other leg came and sent him crashing into the ground.
The voice of Hinode calling his name echoed in his head, but she sounded so far away. When he opened his right eye, Yakko was standing over him. She frowned as she popped her shoulder back into place, but she made no sound.
Sweat ran down Shisui's forehead and mixed into the blood that oozed from his left eye. He tried to calm himself as he felt a large amount of his own chakra flow into his eye. His eye was healing at a much slower pace than the cut on his leg, even with the high chakra flow. It made sense as eyes were the second most complex organ of the body; it was just a horrible time to find out.
"Do you not have any regard for your own body?" Shisui asked in an attempt to buy some time.
"Do you have any regard for the tools in your bag?" Yakko threw the question back at him. It was astonishingly clear that she was ready to either kill him or be killed.
Shisui quickly formed hand seals behind his back, and he flickered to Yakko's back. The girl leapt forward, but Shisui was there again. And when she realized it, there were multiples of him surrounding her.
That was the peak of Shisui's Body Flicker Technique, which he flickered so fast that he was seen as multiples to the naked eyes. And yet, each of him was not just an illusion; they were all of him. He attacked Yakko from every direction; his kunai created countless gashes into her body, but he never dealt a fatal blow.
She will pass out from the loss of blood in a minute.
But Yakko relaxed her body and closed her eyes and started to take deep breaths. Shisui was impressed; only very experienced shinobi could be so calm in a situation like this. She had closed her eyes to heighten her senses, to feel the air current and to smell his scent so she could tell where the next attack was coming from.
Yakko began to dodge all of his attacks. Even as Shisui picked up his pace, she dodged them like a feather dancing with the wind. In a moment of frustration, Shisui flickered behind Yakko again, and channeled his quickly dwindling chakra into his hand.
Koshōken. Shisui said the name of his sister's technique in his head as fire formed around his fist.
Just enough to knock her out, Shisui repeated to himself as his fist neared Yakko. The fire licked the surface of her vest and quickly, it ate away at the fabric. He got her.
Suddenly, he felt his fist being pierced by something. In the next second, his body was pierced by countless kunai, shuriken, swords of all lengths. Before his Sharingan shut off, he saw the faint color of Yakko's chakra flowing through the fibers of the shirt underneath her vest.
She had sewn Fuinjutsu scripts into her shirt with threads of the same color.
Shisui didn't know which was draining faster, his blood or chakra. Or his vision.
He fell to his knees, and as his vision blurred and darkened, he had barely enough strength to keep one eye open. Or breathe, for that matter, as his lungs were pierced through. He looked up at Yakko, whose clothes were tattered and skin covered with cuts and burns. But for some reason, Shisui was convinced that the pain in her eyes was not physical pain.
Just before darkness completely consumed his sight, he swore that he saw Yakko's tears. Her lips moved, but he couldn't register any sound. He couldn't read her lips without his Sharingan, but he took a wild guess.
"I'm sorry, Shisui-kun."
To be continued.
Author's Note: I have so much to say but I can't say it!
Action is not my forte but I hope this was somehow enjoyable (even with the ending.) No matter how many times I tweaked the plot, this was Yakko's role in the story. BUT, her job is not finished yet! I hope you guys liked this chapter, I hoped you guys liked the Shisui POV; I was nervous posting it!