"Yess," Itachi all but hissed.
"And two, you have no clan, I killed them. Every last one of them."
Sasuke gaped at his brother, more shudders wracking his small body. "Wh-What?! Y-you killed them!?"
Itachi's face turned into a predatory grin. "Yes, I did. Want to see?" His eyes flashed into a three-pointed shuriken design, and Sasuke was sucked into Tsukiyomi.
Sasuke spiraled through the memories, watching them, never getting to look away. He saw the light leave his clan member's eyes, saw their pointless struggle. He even saw Cousin Shisui's death, a long fall from the top of a cliff overlooking the Naka River.
Anytime he made a sound, whether it be a whimper, a scream, or a slight sniffle from crying, his parent's voices, Itachi's voice, Cousin Shisui's voice, any other clan member Sasuke has known and cared about, scolded him mercilessly for showing weakness, for speaking out of turn, for speaking when there was no one who had spoken to him.
Sasuke's mind never stood a chance.
He woke up in a hospital bed, disoriented and in so much pain. A young man who looked an awful lot like his Cousin Shisui, but with an arm made of fire, was sleeping peacefully in a chair next to his hospital bed. Sasuke immediately tried to leap from the bed. He had to know what happened to Shino, Shikamaru, and Naruto, and he had to know now! He had been strapped down however, an IV stuck firmly in his arm.
He opened his mouth to scream, to do something, but without permission, the mocking and scolding voices of those he knew filled his mind, and his voice refused to work. Instead, he began to thrash, beginning to panic.
The teen woke up with a start, displaying one green eye and one blue eye, nothing like an Uchiha's. He leaped up, smashing his fire arm down on a nearby seal.
A nurse hurried in and quickly moved to stop Sasuke's thrashing, only to realize he was awake. "Sasuke, you're okay now, you're fine."
Sasuke stopped thrashing, trying to get his vocal cords to work. They still wouldn't work, the scolding voices floating around his head again.
The nurse looked confused. "Is there a problem Sasuke?"
Sasuke couldn't answer, so he twitched his arm.
The nurse and the young man seemed to get it, and quickly undid the restraints.
"Alright, Shisui, you stay here and watch him. I'll go get a notepad and paper." The nurse instructed quickly before moving quickly out of the door.
Sasuke stared at Shisui in shock. Was it possible that this was actually his cousin? But what happened to his arm? And his eyes? Wait. Sasuke's brain paused and picked a memory from the box Sasuke had subconsciously shoved them in. He quickly scanned it, and realized that as Shisui fell off of the cliff, it kinda looked like he had no eyes. Sasuke snapped back into real life and opened his mouth to ask a question, only for his vocal cords to not work. He frowned and tried again, the voice of Shisui, who was right in front of him, playing in his head, scolding him harshly for speaking out of turn, for being weak, for speaking at all.
Sasuke closed his mouth again, realizing that nothing was going to come out, so he might as well stop trying.
The nurse came back in and handed Sasuke a notepad and pencil with a smile.
Sasuke quickly opened the notepad, scribbling quickly, 'Naruto, Shikamaru, Shino?'
The nurse tilted her head. "Are you asking if they're okay?"
Sasuke nodded emphatically.
The nurse smiled. "Yes, they're doing well. All three were treated for water in their lungs, and Naruto and Shino got out of the hospital in a couple of days. Shikamaru will get out of the hospital in a few days, we had some complications with the chakra burns. Nothing too bad, it just set back his healing a little bit."
Sasuke nodded, relieved. The chakra burns part made him remember what Itachi had said about his teammate.
He quickly scribbled on the pad. 'Naruto, Kyuubi?'
Shisui looked shocked, as did the nurse. All of a sudden, Shisui's expression darkened. "I am going to kill your older brother. If you don't mind Sasuke."
Sasuke shook his head. He'd be fine with that. As far as he was concerned, he had no brother. Shisui could be his new one.
"Not until you're all cleared," the nurse shot down Shisui's idea immediately.
Shisui drooped slightly. "Alright, I'll wait."
Sasuke pointed at the words he'd written, a mildly irritated look on his face.
Shisui sighed, pulling up a chair and straddling the back of it. "Sasuke, what do you know of the Kyuubi?"
Sasuke thought for a moment, scribbling some words down. He showed them the notepad again. 'Biju? Red chakra, Naruto?'
Shisui sighed. "Alright, the Kyuubi attack was on the day of Naruto's birth. Or rather, the night. A biju is a being of pure chakra. You can't kill pure chakra, not really. When the Fourth Hokage battled the biju, he knew he had to seal it into something. Less powerful biju can be sealed into teapots, or into scrolls. The Kyuubi can only be sealed into an Uzumaki."
"Our chakra is dense enough that we can not die of chakra poisoning if we get a biju that powerful," the nurse explained.
"Sasuke, the Kyuubi is sealed inside of Naruto, but he is not the Kyuubi."
The nurse glanced at Sasuke's confused expression. "Like a storage seal, but way more complicated. Naruto basically has a giant storage seal on his stomach that holds the Kyuubi. Different modifications to the seal allow him to draw on its chakra in dire situations. Unfortunately, biju chakra is highly corrosive, and that is what caused Shikamaru's chakra burns."
Sasuke nodded, thinking hard. It fit, of course, in Konoha, the villagers hated Naruto and called him a demon, but didn't here in Uzu. Because the Uzu citizens understood that Naruto was a container, not the biju itself. The jailor, not the criminal inside the prison.
Shisui sighed. "Technically, you are bound by the Third's law saying that no one can speak about it to anyone who doesn't know. But with this, I think it's about time we told Naruto ourselves. Uzu is not constrained by the Third's law. But you can't talk about it in Konoha, alright?"
Sasuke nodded firmly. He held up the note pad, which had two more words on it: 'tell Naruto.'
Shisui sighed and nodded. "We will. He needs to know after this incident anyway. Unknown if he remembers the incident clearly, we haven't spoken to him about it."
'How long?'
Shisui cocked his head. "How long? Oh, you've been asleep for about half a week."
Sasuke was stunned.
Shisui shrugged. "We're pretty sure you were hit by a special Sharingan technique that warps time. It's a genjutsu, and depending on the length of contact, you can stay in there anywhere from one day, to four. 24 hours, to 96 hours straight. We weren't entirely sure that you would wake up, to be honest, it's a very difficult technique to predict."
Sasuke frowned, but was overtaken by a yawn.
Shisui smiled. "Sleep, little cousin. We'll try and get your friends in here when you next wake up."
Sasuke was too sleepy to bother protesting the little cousin bit, his eyes closed, and his breathing settled.
The next time Sasuke woke up, Naruto was sleeping in the chair. Sasuke looked around, spotting Shino in the corner, watching him. Sasuke waved a bit, and Shino nodded to him.
Shino moved around, gently waking Naruto with a touch on his shoulder.
Naruto blinked awake, looking around for a moment, before realizing Sasuke was awake. Naruto lit up like a Christmas tree, and quickly latched onto Sasuke, bouncing slightly.
Naruto detached, beginning to rapidly sign, before realizing that no one in the room could actually understand it, as Shikamaru was down the hall.
Naruto pouted and dropped down into the seat.
Shino adjusted his glasses, and walked out of the room, coming back in with Shikamaru leaning heavily on him, bandages wrapping around his chest and arms. Naruto winced as he saw him, signing what Sasuke assumed was an apology, as Shikamaru waved it off.
Naruto began signing again, but this time, Naruto had Shikamaru to translate.
"Are you okay? You haven't spoken a word since you woke up, is there a reason?"
Sasuke held up a hand to stop the flood of questions. He spotted the pad of paper, and quickly picked it up, writing quickly. 'Yes, I'm fine, you? And yes, there's a reason, don't wanna talk about it.'
Naruto thought for a bit, then began signing.
"I'm fine, and it's fine if you don't wanna talk about it. We really have to teach you signs now." Shikamaru yawned at the end, displacing Naruto and sort of draping himself over the chair like a human-shaped rug, being careful of his wounds.
The nurse came in and smiled at Sasuke. "Alright, time to let him sleep. We don't want him taxing himself quite yet. He still has to recover properly from nearly drowning."
They all nodded, reluctantly leaving. Sasuke let out the yawn he'd been holding in, and set the notepad aside.
"Have a good rest," the nurse said softly, adjusting his IV.
(A/N) Sasuke is mute now, to be clear. It's due to trauma, and I looked this up. It can, and has happened IRL. So, yeah, Shisui's in Uzu now. He will remain as an Uzu shinobi, as Danzo would probably try and kill him if he knew he was alive. He does go by Uzumaki now, as the Uchiha clan is supposed to be dead except for Sasuke. Go check out A Nara's Shadow Through Time and Space, afterall, you picked it!