Warnings in this chapter for graphic depictions of bodily harm. Also, in case of confusion, there is a new character in this chapter that uses they/them pronouns!

"... No."

"What… I am… don't be difficult…Itachi…"

"It's…not…"

Shisui stirs as he hears the familiar name, willing himself awake.

Itachi, he tries to yell out, but all that comes out is a low groan of pain and discomfort. The voices immediately cease, with one pair of feet walking away from whatever enclosed space he's been placed in. He can barely see in the darkness, only specific shapes filtering through his vision, the light not even bright enough to see what's in front of him. Thankfully, the paralysis seems to be lifting up, and he experimentally wiggles his fingers. Dull, but ready.

He tries to lift one of his legs, and all he can do is make it shift a little on the floor. However, it doesn't seem like they've bothered restraining him, which rings all sorts of alarm bells in Shisui's head. No restraints mean they either have an incredible guarding system, they're letting him go, or they're just going to kill him before the poison lets up, and ROOT's track record thus far hasn't been very promising.

As he's thinking, a sound like the shifting of stone permeates throughout the room. Brilliant light shines through for only a couple of seconds, temporarily blinding Shisui and giving him just a split-second view of the simple stone walls surrounding him. Bright shadows are cast on the figure standing by the closing doorway, but Shisui can recognize that silhouette anywhere.

Itachi.

"He is alive, as promised. You may go," Danzo says. Shisui whips his head in the councilman's direction, not even aware that the man had entered the room.

Or maybe he had just been standing there the whole time. What a fucking creep.

Shisui just hears the shifting of fabric before the wall is open again, and Itachi quickly ducks out, his presence gone and left too quick for Shisui to process.

"Wait, what—"

"I'll make this clear, Shisui Uchiha," Danzo interrupts. "You are being tried for treason and trespassing. You'll be placed here until the situation is managed."

"Where's the Uchiha kid you took?" Shisui immediately demands, trying to keep his voice authoritative and low. He already knows the charges are bullshit — he's a high-ranked shinobi associated with the Konoha police force, for fuck's sake. He knows the game.

"That doesn't concern you now."

"Oh, I think a lot of things concern me now," Shisui bites back.

Danzo doesn't react, merely looking at him as if he was a fly on his supper. "It is truly a pity that you are the last crop of Kagami's lineage. At least he had the sense to die for his village, unlike the rest of your traitorous clan."

Shisui shifts, his body pulsing with discomfort as he lies on the damp, cold floor. "What the hell would you know about my grandfather?" He spits out, trying to coax out any sort of information that he can. The truth was that he doesn't even know why Danzo hasn't straight up killed him at this point — he's certain the councilmember has done so for lesser reasons.

"He was my teammate," Danzo bluntly answers, his voice sounding almost bored. Shisui's muscles freeze up in shock. His grandfather, working with this guy? "And you, like him, will be serving your village better this way."

Shisui is about to open his mouth to ask what that cryptic phrase means when he's paralyzed.

It's not the paralytic poison that was still making its slow way out of his system, no, this was something far more familiar. Danzo's chakra wraps around his head, digging into his cerebral cortex and nudging its way into his motor functions like a disgusting parasite, rendering Shisui unable to even gap like a fish.

Genjutsu. An extremely powerful one at that, which Shisui knows is no exaggeration. It's on par with Itachi's abilities, with Shisui's abilities, with the Uchiha clan head's abilities; a sharingan's abilities. Something almost impossible for a non-clanmember to do.

As Shisui sits there, quietly, Danzo takes off the right side of his bandages. Shisui's eyes have adjusted to the darkness enough to spot the faint glow of red outlining the revealed eye, its redness reduced and faded due to overuse, but still spinning its tomoe to signify chakra use.

Danzo doesn't say anything else to him as he reaches out a hand to Shisui's right eye socket. It's almost worse, Shisui thinks, that he isn't gloating as the hand reaches closer and closer. There's only the frustrating silence, the drip of water on stone, the vivid feeling of another person's flesh on his eyelids, and then the blinding wash of incredible pain.

He doesn't even compute what is happening to him, his body dissociating from the situation until Danzo slowly walks out, and the genjutsu is lifted.

Shisui screams.

He screams and screams and screams in pain and agony and regret and anger until he doesn't even know if he's still doing it or not, bracing a hand against his empty socket as blood and other fluids pour out of his head. He knows in the back of his head that no one outside can hear him, so he screams for himself. He failed his clan, he failed his village, he failed Itachi, he failed Saki and himself to the point of no return because oh gods Danzo has the mangekyou and he's going to die here alone because he's the village idiot and he was warned he was warned he was warned he was arrogant he was warned Saki warned him he was warned—

Shisui doesn't know how long he's been screaming. They slowly taper off into half-mumbles, the blood around his eyes stopping their flow as it dutifully clots. He drifts off, but he can't tell if it's from sleep or his body pulling him into unconsciousness for his own health.

He wakes up. He groans in pain. He goes back to sleep. He wakes up.

They must have poisoned me again, Shisui painfully thinks. He can't tell if it's been hours or days, but there wasn't much sense for why he was in this bad of a shape, this quick. The pain — yes, it was never-ending and horrifying, but he shouldn't be losing consciousness like this. He should still be able to move most of his body by now. Then again, it wasn't his body his prisoners were bothered with upkeeping, just one small, dangerous part of it; he was basically acting as an eyeball cooler at this point. So, it might just be sepsis from having his eyeball ripped out of his skull.

Sepsis wasn't down there in the list of ways Shisui would prefer to go out. Definitely no fun at all. At least no hallucinations were starting up yet.

Someone opens the door.

A figure steps into the room, their form cast in shadow as Shisui's eye tries to adjust to the light.

Shisui squints. It's… familiar.

"Akihito?" Shisui hoarsely whispers, his chapped lips painfully breaking up the delicate skin as he speaks. Goddammit, the hallucinations started up. Fuck his life.

Akihito brings a hallucinated finger up to their mouth, their eyes wildly searching for anything else in the darkness. "Shhh!" They whisper back, the command barely breathed out.

Shisui's fellow clanmember presses themself up against the damp wall, searching for something on it that Shisui can't see, the ANBU uniform that they wear barely perceptible against the darkness.

"Akihito, did you know, the children, they're taking Uchiha children," Shisui slurs out, barely coherent even to his own ears. He sees Akihito's black eyes tighten, but Shisui's words are ignored in favour of pressing their hand up against a discolored stone embedded in the wall. Within a second, blue light fills the room, the damp stone showcasing an awe-inspiring array of intricate seals.

"Shit," Akihito swears. "This is the Fourth's stuff. Why is—" Akihito quickly delves into muttering to themself, hands glossing over the images almost reverently for a few minutes as Shisui's head continues to thud out a blinding array of pain. Still, he remains silent, taking in the hallucination's mutterings. He has no other choice.

Akihito does a weird gesture with their hand on a squiggly part of the seal, causing it to turn even brighter for a split second, and their mutterings continue with increasing frequency. Dully, Shisui's eyes— eye, tracks them as they take out a kunai and carefully scrape the edge of the scribbles.

The glow instantly dies out, leaving Shisui alone and in darkness.

"Ha!" Akihito triumphantly proclaims, startling Shisui out of his morose musings. They were still there?

"Akihito?" He tries to whisper again.

"I got that locking seal off this place, Shisui-senpai. Let's get you back home."

There's a shift of fabric, the sound of light footsteps, and then Shisui is being hauled onto a warm back, someone else's hair tickling his nose.

"Akihito," Shisui breathes out, more as a prayer than a question. He takes a rigid hand, trying to place it over Akihito's shoulder to check if they were really real. "What are you doing here?"

Akihito temporarily ignores the question as they adjust Shisui on their back and make some sort of hand sign, opening the exit of Shisui's prison. "That girlfriend of yours… Maki? She was heading to your house when my dad stopped her and asked what was going on. She said she was worried about you and I offered to help look, but I couldn't find you anywhere and you weren't on any mission records. Itachi was missing too, and that caused a bit of a panic frankly, so I called up a friend to track you. Needless to say, it looks like your shit is fucked," Akihito bluntly comments, stepping over two collapsed guards at his prison entrance.

"What frien—" Shisui is about to say, turning his eye around the surroundings.

Kakashi gives a lazy salute. "Yo," He says.

"Oh," Shisui says, his eye wide at seeing Itachi's former captain. "Hey."

"I'll be honest, I thought Kakashi-senpai was a bit of a tracking overkill, but I'm glad I was wrong," Akihito continues. "Kakashi-senpai, I can't see him, how does he look?"

Kakashi scratches his chin. "Like a less handsome version of me," He monotonously states, pointing to the headband draped over his concealed eye.

Akihito stares at Kakashi. "Shit, his eye? How bad is the damage?"

"Not bad at all, cuz it's not even there," Shisui feebly tries to joke. He's barely hanging onto Akihito's back as the world starts to swim and turn upside down.

"Woah, hey, stay on," Akihito tries to command, gripping Shisui's legs like a vice. "Kakashi-senpai, secure the exit and try to see if they got Itachi-kun too, I'll have to take him out."

Kakashi nods, disappearing with shunshin. Akihito starts a careful jog down the long corridor, winding through the space as if they know it like the back of their hand.

"I thought you retired from ANBU?" Shisui asks, quietly befuddled at his situation.

Akihito shakes their shaggy head of hair. "You never retire from ANBU — not really," They grimly state. Shisui decides not to ask any more questions in favour of immediately blacking out.

There's a blabbering of noises close to his skull, painfully dredging up his consciousness like a hook.

"Then why did you bring him here?" A familiar voice hisses out.

"The Uchiha compound would be the first place they look. I need some time before—"

"And this is the second place they'd look!"

"He kept asking for you on the way here, although that might be the fever talking. Regardless, I'll put chakra suppressor seals up before I go report this. And whatever you see or hear in the meantime, don't go outside."

"What the fuck is that supposed to—"

There's a soft thunk noise as someone moves away, and then blissful silence.

"Fuck. Fuckity fuck fuck."

Thudding steps walk towards him, violence intended within the noise, and then someone starts to pull on his arm with a grip that, frankly, Shisui has known three-year-olds to be stronger with. He's babysat Sasuke before.

Shisui cracks open his eye, his iris desperately trying and failing miserably to adjust to the light, but he can just make out the grimaced face of Saki in front of him.

"Hey," He says. Shisui could almost smile at the relief flooding through his body at the familiar face.

"You idiot!" Saki whispers back at him. Shisui privately agrees. "I fucking told you— UGH!" She yells out in frustration, aggressively shoving his limp body through the backroom. It would have been a hilarious sight if Shisui wasn't sure if he was dying.

"I had plans and plans and plans but nooooooo you and your underdeveloped brain just had to go against the big bad guy because you're sooooo tough and 'I don't have to listen to a civilian woman blah blah blah—" She continues on, panic clear in her voice as she tries to soften it with humor. Bizarrely, it works, and Shisui feels his lips try to twitch at her words.

"Sorry," Shisui hoarsely wrings out.

Saki is silent as he says the word, her grimaced face turning more into something that suggests the influx of tears. She turns her face away, but Shisui notices the rapid blinking of her eyelashes. A shared sense of sadness at his irreplaceable loss and her betrayal of trust stew around them; what more could be said?

"Your face is very gross right now," Saki suddenly comments, her voice holding back nameless emotions. "It's got a lot of gunk we'll need to clean out."

"I'll be more considerate, next time," Shisui quietly answers. Saki's shoulders sag, and Shisui knows he's been forgiven.

"I have to put you in the basement like we originally planned, but it looks like you're going to need some serious antibiotic treatment too," She peers around and suddenly lets go of his upper body, causing his already aching head to smack on the hard floor. Shisui very nearly bites his tongue off due to the blasting ray of pain.

"Antibiotics, antibiotics," Saki starts muttering as she looks through her things. Shisui offhandedly thinks she and Akihito would get along very well if it wasn't for the whole 'I'm a high-ranked assassin and you bake desserts for a living,' situation.

"Saki," He weakly pleads, "Maybe I could be placed in a bed first? Please?"

She jumps. "Oh, right," She lamely agrees, walking towards him and picking him up where she left off, a presumed bag of medicine clutched protectively under her arm. Saki drags him along the floor and lays him down far more carefully than the last time, walking over just a step away to expertly ply off several pieces of floorboards, revealing wooden steps that descend into darkness. She kneels down, fidgeting with something down below.

"Ah-hah!" She triumphantly exclaims. There's a faint click noise and then the opening is illuminated in warm, yellow light.

She side-eyes him, and he side-eyes her back. "You can't walk, right?"

"I can't even tell which way is left or right, right now, so probably not," Shisui answers, continuing to lie on the floor.

Saki lets out a big sigh. "Do you think you can crawl down the stairs?"

A piercing scream reverberates outside.

Saki crouches above him, turning towards the noise with her eyes wide. Shisui moves on instinct, adrenaline dampening his pain as he gets on his hands and knees in an effort to get ready for combat. They wait a few seconds like that, neither of them speaking, and then footsteps sound off on the roof of the bakery before quickly disappearing.

"Shisui," Saki whispers to him, her voice far too loud. "Get in," She commands, pointing to the basement without looking, her eyes firmly on the bakery's exit. Shisui doesn't waste any time arguing, quickly but carefully crawling down the wooden steps as he minutely pauses to regain his balance. Saki follows him as quietly as she can, her figure turning around to stare out into the hall and rapidly close the floorboards around them, along with a swinging opening previously hidden from view. Shisui is trying not to pant with exertion as he finally reaches the last step, but sweat pours down his face in streams, and he tries his best to ignore the feeling of something leaking out of his empty eye socket.

He collapses as he finally makes his way down, exhausted beyond all measure. Nausea threatens him, and Shisui gags, careful to keep whatever fluid he can in his stomach.

"Shit," Saki mutters to herself. Shisui hears her walking around, and then some type of dense fabric is splayed on top of him. Saki's hands adjust the blanket and then gently push him over on his back, turning the fabric into a makeshift futon.

"Take this," She orders, holding something up to his lips. He obediently opens them, trying not to gag on the pill as water rushes down his parched throat. He doesn't feel better, but at least he now knows he won't die of thirst.

"We'll stay here for a little bit, and then I'll figure out what to do," Saki continues, fear and determination laced within her voice. She moves forward, cradling Shisui's head so it's cushioned in her hands. Honestly, Shisui doesn't need the extra help, but the contact provides him with a primal sort of comfort, bringing forward almost-forgotten memories of his mother gently running her hands through his hair as she sang him to sleep. That, more than anything, brings the harsh burn of tears to Shisui's lone eye.

He pulls his hand upward, gently prying off Saki's hands. "We'll figure it out," He slurs, and then darkness consumes him.

He wakes up to soft noises reverberating above him.

It's dark, but hints of light calm down his instinctual panic as a lone lightbulb splays out along the upper basement walls. There's something tight along his face, and Shisui brings a hand up, finding the right side covered in thick gauze. I must have really been out of it for that, Shisui muses to himself.

The noises continue, now accompanied by a slight creak. Shisui shakes off the blanket that covers him, peeling away sheets stained with sweat and droplets of blood. He spots a half-filled cup of water and greedily grabs it, chugging it down with all the grace of a newly born deer, ignoring the dull thud of pain lacing through every inch of his body. Shisui experimentally flexes his limbs, finding them all in functioning order, which comes as a bit of a surprise. He really believed he was about to die, if not in that disgusting cell, then from just the shock of having to move his body after… Danzo.

A shiver moves up his body, and he aggressively throws the empty cup of water away, hearing it clatter in the distance. A small thud from above answers him.

Screw it, he was already getting stir-crazy.

Grunting to himself, he slowly, carefully, stands up. Shisui gives himself a few seconds to make sure he won't immediately collapse as sparks fly across his vision, but the world continues forward. He takes one step on the cold floor, then another, until he's relatively sure the events from last time won't repeat. However, his single eye limits his depth perception far too much, and Shisui wobbles as he corrects his balance.

Gritting his teeth, Shisui determinedly takes a step up the stairs, clenching his hand on the frame for support. Despite the effort, he makes sure to keep his feet quiet. He shouldn't assume only Saki would be in the bakery.

I'll just peek in, then go back down, he consoles himself, knowing very well he's probably lying. He at least hopes he hasn't influenced Itachi in that way.

Speaking of, his footsteps slowly lead him to the top of the staircase. It takes an excruciatingly long time for someone touted as the fastest shinobi of his generation, and the difference stings at Shisui's pride in a way he hasn't truly felt in a while. He brushes the emotions aside, lifting up his other hand and gently opening the first hatch, causing it to swing down, revealing the bottom of the floorboards. Shisui licks his lips; this would be a harder task. One careless floorboard would lead to obvious creaks.

Shisui tries to search his concussed memories for the order that Saki took them off, but all that remains are brief, hazy flashes. Taking a deep breath, Shisui slowly lifts one up, jiggling it a little to set it free.

Nothing happens.

Letting out a quiet sign, he continues. All the wooden pieces fall out like a puzzle, and Shisui gently stacks them to the side, making sure he continues to not inadvertently call someone to notice.

"I told you, he's not here," Saki's voice forcefully states. Shisui jumps at the noise coming from down the hall, almost slipping and falling his way down the stairs. He wobbles, barely regaining his balance as he grips the open floor. Breathing heavily, Shisui pushes himself up, pressing his back up against the bakery's open wall.

"Listen lady, there's—"

"You know my name is Saki, Genma-san."

Shisui's lips thin.

There's an annoyed tsk, and he frowns at Genma's behavior. "Saki-san, sorry. Listen, orders are orders, and you seem nice. Let's not get you into trouble just because a misunderstanding took place."

Even without looking, Shisui knows Saki is bristling at the patronization. Tension pulsates throughout the building, unrelenting and shifting higher and higher. Emotions grip Shisui's throat at Saki's safety, and he knows what he has to do.

Shisui steps forward, uncovering himself from the doorway.

Everyone freezes.

"Shit," Genma mutters.

Saki's wild eyes veer towards Shisui. She opens her mouth, clearly about to say something, but closes it just as quickly.

"Shisui," Genma says, grimacing. "You don't look like you're doing so good."

"So, I'm still doing better than you?" Shisui half-heartedly jokes. He thinks he knows why Genma is here, and it's not for any good reason. He tries not to self-consciously touch his bandages.

The sebon in Gemma's mouth unnecessarily shifts, betraying the other's anxiety.

"Guess so," Genma drawls. "I got orders to take you in to see the Hokage — for real this time. Know anything about that?"

Shisui shrugs. "I'm a popular guy; who can understand the intricate inner workings of Hokage-sama's mind?" He rhetorically asks, trying to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. By his friend's pinched look, it seems like he wasn't all that successful.

"The Uchiha clan, they're attempting a coup," Genma bluntly proclaims. There's a collective pause as everyone surveys each other, the air thick with tension waiting to be snapped. "And neither of you look surprised," Genma finishes, frustrated disappointment clear in his voice. Neither Saki nor Shisui responds.

"Shisui," Genma continues, his voice low and pointed. "This is out of my hands. I personally asked to come get you because I know you're smarter than this. It's for your own protection; I know you're not part of it."

Shisui grits his teeth, feeling the bone grind down and reverberate throughout his mouth. It causes his eye to suddenly ache something fierce, and he inadvertently winces. "You see, it's a bit hard for me to trust you considering the fact that I got my eye gouged out and clan members taken by a person close to the Hokage," He smoothly answers.

Genma narrows his eyes, hands open by his side. "There's no reason to distrust everybody just because a shinobi went rogue," He carefully answers. "Besides, you can't condone the violence your clan is causing at the moment," He lazily gazes around the structure of Saki's bakery. "And this place looks markedly untouched, considering everything happening right now."

He sees Saki stiffen in the corner of his eye, likely sensing the whirlwind of chakra ready to snap between the two of them.

"Then I'm sure you've got bigger issues at hand, then," Shisui carefully answers. Realizing just how bad the tension had gotten, Shisui fights against his instincts and relaxes, unfurrowing the frown laced across his face into something more tired. "Genma, I don't want to fight you," He honestly proclaims, keeping his voice low. "There are bigger issues at hand than me."

"Alright, then," Genma neutrally says. Shisui's heart sinks in his chest.

As if in slow motion, he watches Genma's hand start to go towards his holster, and then—

"Genma Shiranui, born July 17th, Blood type A. Graduated age 10. Currently a special chunin, but will be promoted to Tokubetsu Jōnin. You were on a team with Might Guy and Ebisu, under the leadership of Chōza Akimichi, and your future teammates will be Raidō and Iwashi Tatami. When the Kyuubi jinchuriki becomes twelve years old and is initiated into the chunin exams, you will replace Hayate as proctor. Orochimaru will invade Konoha during that time, with limited success," Saki announces.

Genma pauses, staring at her all the while.

"What the fuck?" Genma says, which Shisui thinks is quite a fair reaction.

"Like I said," Shisui begins, voice still wary. Genma whips his head in Shisui's direction. "There are bigger issues at play."

"Do you know where Itachi is?" Saki asks, her brows furrowed. Now it's Shisui's turn to stare at her, silently pleading with her to not continue that line of conversation.

Genma shakes his head. "Gone. He hasn't been seen in days. Why?"

Saki purses her lips. "He may be attempting something. Something bad."

"You don't know that," Shisui tries to argue, voice harsh, but a deep pit in his stomach threatens to settle inside his body at her words.

Saki straightens up, ignoring him. "We need your help, Genma-san. I work within the civilian vicinity of ANBU and have privy to information that will help Konoha's stability as a village."

The sebon in Genma's mouth shifts. "This 'civilian ANBU' doesn't exist."

"Not officially. You of all people should know that a lot of our work doesn't make it into the records. After all, our daimyo is a civilian, is he not? He's the most powerful man in the Land of Fire — possibly even the world." She rhetorically asks, staring at him straight in the eyes. Shisui is a little impressed at her use of their ingrained paranoia to steer back the conversation, but it also unsettles him. What else could she have been lying to him about with her talks of the future?

Genma flickers his eyes at the both of them, gauging their words and body language. If he believed Saki, then he would potentially be going up against the Hokage with the daimyo, who he is legally subject to. If he went against the daimyo's plans to follow the Hokage's orders, Genma would not be under any legal production in the face of possible execution.

A perfect no-win situation. Considering that the other option was being killed or Shisui disappearing into T&I, it was definitely a better deal.

Genma sighs. "Shikaku was right, this is a fucking drag," He mutters, taking out his sebon to place it in his pocket. Shisui slowly relaxes as his fellow shinobi makes no move to pull out a weapon.

Footsteps sound off on the roof.

Saki and Shisui immediately tense up again, eyes peering up above, but Genma stays relaxed. "It's the squadron sent to surround the Uchiha occupying the administrative building," His eyes flick to Saki. "But I'm guessing you didn't know that," He announces.

Saki remains unperturbed. "I was given orders to stay inside. Shisui was on the brink and needed to get out of critical support. Danzo went rogue and stole his eye," She dramatically proclaims.

Shisui nods. "It's true. He has other clan children with him — undocumented ones."

Genma doesn't look surprised. "Yeah, I heard the rumors; it's supposedly the reason why the Uchiha started it up, but officials are calling it a power-grab. Considering the fact that the Yamataka and Hyuuga are staying out of the process, it's pretty fishy. Not too much bloodshed yet, the Uchiha are taking their right to the Hokage hat based on some vague law written by the First, but people have started disappearing," He says. Shisui can see his clenched jaw from across the room. "And it doesn't look like it's going anywhere good."

"We have information that states that Itachi, under the orders of Danzo, will wipe out the rest of the Uchiha clan. We can use your help in stopping it," Saki says.

Genma lifts an eyebrow. "Stopping it in the sense of also stopping the coup?"

Saki hesitates, and both shinobi spot it. "That's a goal that's bigger than the three of us; if you have a plan to take on every ninja in Konoha for that, let me know. For now, however, we should focus our efforts on curtailing genocide. I'll be honest Genma-san, we need to ask you for a favour," She steps closer, staring at the chunin. "I need you to help us take Uchiha children away from Konohagakure. Away from danger."

Genma slowly turns to stare at Shisui. "And this was also your plan?"

"Whatever Saki says, I'll do," He determinedly states. Shisui gestures towards his face. "This is what happened when I didn't."

Genma turns towards her. "What's the plan?"

Saki takes in a deep breath. "So, here's the new plan—"