"Ok, let's hear this theory of yours." Sakura and Shisui sat in their usual spot at the training grounds, knees crossed and facing each other. Shisui picked up a fallen leaf, and twisted it in between his fingers.
"Before I can tell you my theory, I need to tell you about my eyes." His gaze shifted from the leaf in his hand, up to her emerald orbs. As easy as breathing, he switched from his onyx eyes to his sharingan. He let his eyes linger on her face, taking in every detail and committing it to memory.
"Have you ever heard of kekkei genkai?" Sakura was sure she had read the term kekkei genkai before, and even heard chatter of it around town.
"I mean, in a very basic sense, in that I know there is such a thing that's called kekkei genkai and it's usually specific abilities related to clans. I don't know much past that, like what kind of abilities there are or how they work." He nodded, thinking about how he's never really spoken with anyone outside of his clan about the Sharingan, aside from Tsunade when she healed any of their eye related injuries.
"This is the sharingan." He gestured to his eyes. "These eyes essentially give me advanced vision, photographic memory, and the ability to cast genjutsu." He saw the tilt of her head in confusion when he said genjutsu. "Genjutsu allows me to control and coerce a person's mind." Sakura's eyes widened at that, hard to imagine that such a thing exists.
"I don't understand, how does that work? They just have to look into your eyes?" Shisui took in her puzzled face, and nodded in affirmation. He imagined it must be a unique concept to her, especially with her medical background.
"That's just… astonishing." She couldn't help herself and the part of her that was always curious and eager for more knowledge, that she found herself slowly bringing her hand up to hover near his eyes, as if she was reverently admiring a gift. Sakura stared into his eyes with an innocence that nearly made Shisui fold; he had never in his life come across someone so willing to look into his eyes like this.
He gently brought his hand up to wrap around her wrist, "These eyes may seem like a blessing, but most of the time they feel like a curse." Her brow furrowed at that, confused at how abilities such as the ones he mentioned could be a curse.
"How can eyes with those kinds of abilities be a curse?" He took a breath in, wondering how much he should tell her.
"Those who wield the sharingan, and every stage of the sharingan after initially awakening it, are only able to do so when experiencing some type of traumatic experience or emotional distress."
He watched the wheels in her mind turning, as if working on a math equation.
"Your family's kekkei genkai is based on emotional pain?" Her face took on a look of confusion laced with something else. Anger, maybe? She put it so bluntly, but he felt validated to hear it in such clear-cut words.
"It's not always bad events that awaken or advance it, sometimes it can be through a good experience. But it's usually the former." A gentle breeze passed around them, carrying some of her pink locks with it to sway in the wind.
"Shisui…what did you have to sacrifice to gain your abilities?" Her eyes bore into his and he hoped she couldn't see through the cracks in the wall he kept hidden deep within the confines of his soul.
"That question would take a lot of time to answer." He tried to shrug it off, and gave her a smile, hoping to redirect the energy of their conversation. "But now that I've given you a brief explanation of the sharingan, I can explain my theory to you." Sakura readjusted her position, ready to take in his thoughts.
"The last time you were able to reach your chakra, was when your emotions heightened and you got angry. It makes me wonder if we can, in a way, awaken your chakra in a setting more conducive with heightened emotions, rather than the meditation we've tried to this point." He scratched the back of his head, "Obviously we don't want to cause emotional pain…I thought something we could try is switching our method to actual sparring, and trying to tap into your emotions that way. The action of being in fight or flight mode in a fight might be just what you need to help you reach and utilize your chakra."
Sakura considered what he was saying, her eyes starting to roam over the training ground before coming back to meet his uncertain gaze.
"Ok, so just so I know I understand correctly…we're basically going to spar, and see if I can use that to tap into my emotions and see if we can reach my chakra that way?" He shrugged his shoulders a bit, with a tilt to his head.
"I mean, it's probably not the most ethical way to go about things, manipulating your feelings that way. So if it's not something you want to try, we can come up with other ideas." He brought his hand over to hold the hand that she had resting on her knee. "To be clear, I don't want you to feel any pain, physical or otherwise. But I wanted to be honest with you about my theory, since I know this is something you're passionate about."
She gave his hand a squeeze, "I'm glad you were. I know that I could keep living life the way I am, but if I'm being honest with myself, if I could learn to utilize even a few medical techniques with chakra, the amount of help I can provide to patients would completely overshadow what I am able to do now. I've read so many books, some multiple times; I understand the theories and science behind it, now I just want to be able to put that knowledge to use."
Shisui saw the resolve in her eyes, and truly hoped he could help her learn how to use her chakra. It would feel good knowing that instead of always using his chakra to cause destruction, he could help someone learn to use theirs for healing.
"It will probably take some time to teach you the basic principles of fighting to get you fluid enough to try to spar, but I figured it would be fun for us to do together."
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Sakura had to slowly ease herself down onto her bed; she couldn't help the yelp that escaped her lips. She and Shisui had met a few times now to work on basic forms and kata. She was positive she had never used half of her currently sore muscles before this experience, and her body screamed at her as she tried to move after today's session. It was satisfying though, and there was something about it that felt so liberating. She felt so much untapped potential inside, and something about this felt so right.
Flashback
"Ok, try and strike me." Shisui stood a few feet from her, his body in a defensive stance. She was positive he was just humoring her, as if he needed to be prepared and in that stance.
"As in, try to…hit you?" Sakura felt silly asking that, but she couldn't help but smile when he laughed.
"Yes Sakura, give me your best shot." He brought his hands up in front of his chest, preparing to catch her punch, to allow her to feel what the follow-through felt like.
"I can't even believe I'm asking this, but I don't exactly go around punching people-"
"Except for missing-nin trying to rob your clinic, right?" He cut in with a smirk. She let out a laugh, and fell out of form at that one.
"Right, except for them." She winked at him, before getting serious again to finish asking her question. "What if I hurt you?" The look he gave her was endearing. He shrugged, before moving his fingers in an 'I'm ready' motion.
"You broke the other guy's nose, so I wouldn't put it past you." His crooked smile moved back into place, "But don't worry, I'm sure I'll be fine."
End flashback
He sure ended up fine, but me on the other hand… She yelped as she reached over to turn off her bedside lamp.
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Itachi made his way over to Shisui, he could feel the tell-tale warm trail of blood running slowly down his cheek. They weren't surprised by the ambush due to their current location, but they were surprised at the number and skill level of their opponents. It seems Orochimaru was becoming more aware of their strategic chopping down of his army, and it seemed he was starting to take action to combat it.
He quickly wiped the blood away with the back of his hand before then rubbing it off on his pants. He gave Shisui a once over and saw that he looked like he may have taken a couple hits, but was still in decent shape.
"Itachi, you good?" Shisui asked, while scanning the clearing.
"Hn, well enough. You?" Shisui nodded, as he cleaned off his tanto before re-sheathing it, satisfied that the fight was now over.
"Have you seen Genma?" They both scanned the area again. Genma knew that it was a priority for them to try to stay in range of each other during a fight, but it wasn't always possible. And with the number of nin they had to face today, they wouldn't be surprised if he got pushed out of range. Shisui reactivated his sharingan, and started walking back in the direction the fight originated from.
"Shit, Genma!" Shisui used his shunshin to quickly get to Genma, who was slumped at the base of a tree, surrounded by a handful of fallen nin. Shisui quickly scanned his form to assess his injuries.
"Talk to me, Genma." Itachi came to squat next to Shisui, and lifted his chin to check for consciousness and any other injuries. There was no obvious external injury, or excessive bleeding. He was clearly running low on chakra, but not enough to be passed out from chakra exhaustion.
Genma started coughing, and they noticed his body starting to tremble; a cold sweat began to form on his forehead. Shisui and Itachi shared a quick knowing glance at each other. Poison.
Shisui quickly came up with a game plan while scanning the rest of the clearing before his eyes landed on Itachi, who was awaiting his orders as team captain.
"Do a final check for survivors and if there are any, do what you have to to get any useful information out of them. I'm going to take Genma." I'm faster, left unspoken.
"Do you have the chakra for this?" Itachi asked him, as he stood back up.
"I'll be fine." Shisui quickly nodded, and made sure there were no weapons embedded into Genma before hoisting him over his shoulders. "I've got speed as my advantage, and we need to get him back as soon as possible." Itachi gave him a curt nod.
"I'll catch up."
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Sakura looked up from her paperwork when she heard Maki's voice nearing her office door, followed by a quick knock as she opened the door.
"Sakura, someone's here to see you!" Maki turned back to the newcomer, and even Sakura had to roll her eyes at the clear intent Maki tried to display hopefully to the handsome Uchiha.
"Thank you Maki." Sakura stood to greet her visitor, "Itachi-san, I'm surprised to see you here. Come on in." Itachi stepped into her office and closed the door behind him so they could converse discreetly. "What can I do for you?" Before he had a chance to answer, the wheels turned quickly in Sakura's head, and they hurriedly turned to panic. "Is Shisui ok?
"Shisui is unharmed." Sakura almost wilted in relief, but sensed a 'but' coming. "He is however stuck home recovering from the effects of chakra exhaustion." Itachi briefly glanced around her office taking it in, as if a bit uneasy to be here and sharing such information. "I thought you might want to know, in case you wanted to check in on him." He handed Sakura a slip of paper with an address on it. She read it over before putting it in her pocket.
"Thank you Itachi-san, I'm glad you stopped by. I'm just about done with my shift and will go see him." He gave her a polite nod, before exiting the way he came.
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Shisui could slowly feel his consciousness start to come back, and it felt as if it was trying to clear the cobwebs from his mind. He was laying on his stomach, his arm hanging slightly over the side of the bed. He had no idea how long he had been asleep, but he woke up feeling confused and disoriented. His head turned towards his door when he heard movement in his kitchen, and could smell the delicious scent of cooking food drifting into his room.
He rolled over onto his back and reached his arms above his head in a stretch, before bringing his hands down to rub his eyes and face as he tried to adjust to the light peeking around the blinds on his window. Assuming it was just Itachi in his kitchen, he didn't feel the need to get himself fixed up before padding his way down the hall towards his kitchen.
"Have you heard any updates on Genma?" His voice nearly cracked after being in such a deep sleep. The palms of his hands rubbed his eyes one more time as he rounded the corner into the kitchen.
"Um, it's actually just me in here." Shisui looked up quickly when he heard Sakura's voice. It took him a minute to register what was happening, and that it was in fact Sakura standing in his kitchen cooking food. I guess I probably should have at least thrown on a shirt. But when he saw Sakura's cheeks color, and as she attempted to keep her eyes on his face and not his bare torso, he couldn't help his male pride start to creep in. On second thought, maybe not. He couldn't keep his smirk from slipping into place.
"I hope it's ok that I'm here. Itachi stopped by." She gestured to the food she was cooking, feeling a bit shy and like she was intruding on his personal space. "I tried knocking…you didn't even budge when I came in, and I had no idea how long you'd been sleeping. I figured I would try to have some food ready for when you woke up." She brought one of her feet up to rub it against the back of her leg, nervous she might have overstepped.
Shisui walked over to her and enveloped her into a hug. "Thank you." He whispered into her hair, "This was the perfect thing to wake up to." A soft smile reached Sakura's lips as she brought her arms up to reciprocate the hug.
The sound of boiling in one of the pans brought her back to what she was doing, and she reluctantly loosened her grip on Shisui, but only enough for her to look up at him. "You go sit down and rest. I'm almost done here." He nodded at her, before giving her a gentle brush along her cheek with his thumb.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" She shook her head no, and shooed him away from the kitchen.
"You can help by putting your feet up and relaxing. Itachi said you have chakra exhaustion, so I'm sure that means you need to take it easy for a bit." Shisui nearly rolled his eyes at that, given the fact that it was Itachi she was talking about, an expert at pushing himself too far. But he was grateful his cousin thought to reach out to Sakura.
"Before I do that, I'm going to go shower real quick and get cleaned up if that's ok with you."
Sakura nodded at him, "This should be ready by the time you're done."
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When Shisui came back out freshly cleaned and clothed, Sakura had the table set and was dishing up his plate.
"Feeling better?"
"Much. This smells amazing." He went to join her at the table, and took in the assortment of freshly prepared food she made him. "You went all out." She sheepishly grinned at him.
"I wasn't sure how long you'd be back before your next mission, or how long it takes to recover from chakra exhaustion. I wanted you to have plenty of leftovers." She set a plate of food down in front of him, then went to fill his glass with water before coming back to sit by him.
"Sakura, you're the best." The smile he gave her made her heart flutter. "This is just what I needed."
They both dug into the food, Shisui greatly enjoying eating a home-cooked meal. Mikoto was always so excited to feed him when he was around, but when it was just him here at his home, he didn't do much cooking.
"So, what exactly is chakra exhaustion? Itachi told me that's what you had, and that you needed lots of rest."
Shisui finished chewing his bite, before wiping his mouth. "It basically means I used up too much chakra. Chakra is constantly processing and rebuilding after use, and over time you are able to store some of it in reserves. I used too much chakra at one time and ended up going through my reserves; when that happens it starts to deplete the rest of my body's natural energy in order to compensate. The body then slows all of its other functions down when that happens to protect itself and allow you time to heal."
Sakura took a drink of her water, absorbing all of the information he was sharing with her. It was different when you hear it first hand, as opposed to reading about things in books.
"So you weren't hurt then, right? You just used too much chakra?" She looked at him, concern in her eyes. Shisui nodded to her, as he dished up another plate of food.
"Correct, I wasn't injured. I pretty much just need to eat and sleep to give my body time to recover." He smiled before taking another bite, "And thanks to you, I'm well on my way back to normal." Sakura smiled, before giving him a clinical look he figured she must give her patients while providing care.
"Gotcha. Then when you're done here, you need to go right back to bed." She ordered, before taking another bite.
Shisui chuckled at her, "Of course, Dr. Haruno." Sakura joined in on his laughter before sobering again.
"When you walked in you asked about Genma…is he ok?" Sakura hoped she wasn't being too forward asking about something involving his mission. Shisui stilled, and a look of worry flashed quickly in his eyes.
"I need to go to the hospital and check in on him. He was injured on the mission, and we had to rush back to the village to get him to the hospital." Sakura wondered if the rush back to the village could have been what caused Shisui's chakra exhaustion.
"If you need to go to the hospital to check on him, I can stay here and clean this up." Shisui finished the last of the food on his plate, and thought about what he should do.
"I think Itachi and Tsunade-sama would kick my ass right back here if they saw me step into the hospital." He actually looked a bit embarrassed, "I actually got kicked out after falling asleep in the waiting room, and was told to go home for a few days. As much as I want to check on Genma myself, I know Itachi will keep me informed. But I will go tomorrow if I don't hear from him." Sakura nodded, standing up and reaching for his plate.
"If that's the case, you head back to bed. I'll get this taken care of." She turned to make her way to the sink with the dirty dishes.
"Really Sakura, I can help. I'm not completely useless right now." Sakura gave him the look, with a pink eyebrow raised as if challenging him to question her.
"Dr's orders, Shisui." She said, as she held her finger up matter-of-factly. His face fell into acceptance, a small smile showing because of her concern for him. She may be small, but he didn't doubt she knew how to get her way when she wanted to.
"Yes ma'am." Shisui started making his way back to his room, and Sakura filled the sink with soap and water to start washing the dishes. When she heard him start walking back into the kitchen she was just about to turn and tell him to get in bed before she put him there, but the scent of pine and sandalwood engulfed her, and she felt his firm chest and strong arms wrap around her middle, embracing her in a hug. His face burrowed into her neck, and she could feel the warmth of his breath, and fluttering of his eye lashes.
"Thank you." She leaned her body into him, attempting to join in the embrace while her hands were occupied in the soapy dishwater.
"There's no need to thank me, I'm happy to be here to help." She felt his lips turn up into a smile, before he gently kissed the curve of her neck.
"I don't deserve you Sakura." He placed one more kiss there, before being shooed back to bed.
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Sakura had finished putting leftovers away and cleaning the kitchen, before looking around to see if there was anything else she could help with while she was here. It was dark out now, and she figured she'd better get home before it was too late. She made her way down the hall to the room she saw Shisui go into, wanting to check in on him before she left.
She found him lying asleep on his bed, the blanket haphazardly strewn about, as if he had been tossing and turning at one point. She tried to quietly sneak into his room, hoping to tuck him in and make sure he was ok before she left. She walked past a tall dresser, and her gaze caught when she saw two pictures on display: one of him and Itachi, both looking much younger than they are now, and a bit scuffed up as if they had just been sparring. The other picture was of a young Shisui standing in between who she assumed must have been his parents. Her chest clenched thinking about the loss he experienced. She shook her head, bringing her focus back to the task at hand.
Shisui was lying on his side facing her, and she tried hard not to make any noise as she reached for the corner of the blanket so she could pull it over to gently lay it down on him.
He looks so peaceful. Shisui always had an air of confidence and surety about him, but it was moments like these that she felt she could see the Shisui hidden underneath all that. She brought her hand up to brush his wavy ebony locks out of his face, and couldn't help admiring how handsome he was.
Sakura stood up to leave and was about to walk out when she heard movement. She looked back to see Shisui, eyes slightly open, and using his hand to lift the blanket as if asking her to join him.
Sakura couldn't help the smile as she turned to walk back to the bed, and curled up under the blanket in Shisui's arms as he drifted back to sleep.
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A/N: I love reading your reviews and am so glad you are enjoying this story. Thank you, thank you, for taking the time to read, review, favorite and follow. I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
