Two chapters in a day eh...
Uchiha Shisui strolls down the high-street, weaving his way through piles of rubble and fresh bricks. The village has begun reconstruction and the Police Force is partially engaged in monitoring the ruins and helping them rebuild.
'I can't believe they didn't send me.' Outwardly calm as he ducks into Ichiraku's, he feels a deep frustration over being unable to express what he feels in Michiko's absence, and how he feels about being excluded from the recovery mission.
In truth, he is devastated. He keeps trying to remember whether he had seen her in the Uchiha compound. The only reason she could have been there is to look for him. He feels responsible for her kidnapping, and he should have been on the rescue team.
He feels like he has failed her, somehow.
'There's got to be something… maybe, if someone else knew about her kekkei genkai.' He was one of the first people to witness it's awakening, and he was lucky that Hiruzen hadn't doubted him. Who else could have leaked the information to Orochimaru?
At first, he had suspected Tenzo or Kakashi knew, but they didn't. Michiko made sure. She was adamant that she hide her abilities because… she had issues with them.
'She had issues with her kekkei genkai because of her mother.'
He recalls the day she found out- on a particularly rough mission that she was doing alone, Shisui wasn't supposed to be there. Not even officially. He had felt her chakra from a few miles away and it had triggered a wild panic that set him on an irrational spur towards her.
But Michiko never needed his protection.
Seeing the bones had made him uneasy and slightly…nauseous, at first. The scars they left on her skin didn't look pleasant either. Shisui couldn't imagine that she took any pride in her ability. She told him all about it, a few days later.
He had turned home from a long shift, to find her lazing around his room. She had been waiting for him. Seeing her out of uniform, her hair in a messy bun, Shisui had wasted no time in diminishing the space between them with a very passionate kiss.
The memory of it makes him blush, so he sits in Ichiraku's, kicking his feet in the air with his cheeks and ears aflame.
She had told him everything- about her mother, and how she had abandoned her after her father died. She told him about her links to Kirigakure. What had irked Shisui the most was the way she had retold everything to him, as if she was admitting something she was guilty of.
"Michiko." He held her face gently between his calloused hands, "You're not responsible for your mother's past. You are a Sarutobi, you belong to Konoha."
At the time, that had felt like the right thing to say to her. Her loyalty couldn't have been questioned- her father had fought in the third shinobi war, her uncle was the sandaime hokage, she was an Anbu with a very clean record- and most of all, she was a bright, passionate girl with a very strong will to protect those she loved.
The village belongs to her, just as much as she belongs to it.
'She belongs to me too.' He thinks, sullenly.
Upon discovering his little spy at the Sarutobi estate, Hiruzen had really handed his ass to him and that left Shisui sore. He feels useless. Hiruzen had ordered him to 'know his place'.
There wasn't a single stone unturned or lead left unfollowed by Shisui, hell, if Konoha knew that Orochimaru had Michiko, it was thanks to him.
'Well…if they couldn't send Team Ro, I was also way out of the equation.' Pouting slightly, he orders a bowl of ramen and sits with his forehead resting on the cool countertop.
Ichiraku's is mostly empty at this time- most families ate around 7.30 and 8 PM, while the shinobi population begins trickling in past 9.30 PM. Shisui is the only patron at the refurbished restaurant.
"Shisui-san," Ichiraku's gentle old-man voice rouses him to look up. "Why don't you take a seat in one of our booths, they're new."
Yes, even the old-man is telling him to sulk in a corner out of sight. He doesn't mean it that way, he wants to give Shisui some privacy.
'Man, I must really look beat.' Smiling politely, he slips off the stool and trudges to a booth in front of a window. He slides to the end of the seat and leans his forehead against the glass. He wonders how the recovery mission is going.
'What if they fail?'
It's a dangerous thought, but he has a contingency plan forged and ready the minute he finds out if the squad has failed. Kakashi is in on it too.
Morosely, he glances out the window.
Hatake Kakashi has grown into an acquaintance of sorts, and although Shisui trusts him now, there is a faint envy of the silver-haired boy.
When Shisui traipsed off to 'rescue' Michiko, she had mistaken him for Kakashi.
He taps his fingers on the table, considering the benefits of not being on Team Ro.
'How on earth could I possibly carry out missions if I kept thinking about protecting her?'
Yep. It's definitely much better this way.
Shisui lapses into a trail of slow, boring thoughts about his day. The Police Force is helping rebuild the city and his arms are very sore from construction. He sighs audibly, just as Ichiraku-san brings a steaming bowl of ramen and places it gently on the table.
"I heard they've gone looking for your friend."
Surprised that he knows about it, Shisui turns his gaze towards the old-man. "Yes, they have."
"I hope it all works out." He knocks on the wood, and retreats to the kitchen calling out behind him, "Let me know if you want seconds."
'Seconds?'
Shisui stares at the steaming hot meal, feeling slightly sick.
'Michiko is out there, somewhere. Maybe she's not even alive. And I'm sitting here scarfing down all this food.'
He feels guilty. Sick to his stomach, he puts his head in his hands and fists his hair. It takes a lot of effort to not fling the bowl off the table.
He leaves some money on the table, slides open the window and leaves.
First, he walks to the Sarutobi estate. Skirting along the borders of the lawn, he realises that he is being watched by Anbu, suspiciously. He pretends to ignore them, more so to save them from embarrassment.
'What kind of Anbu isn't stealthy?'
He leaves, and trudges slowly to Hokage Rock, where he had his first date with Michiko. Perched atop Tobirama Sanju's head, he spends a few hours just sitting there in the cold wind. His head begins to ache- a stress headache no doubt.
Surrendering for the night, at about 3 AM, he trudges back to Michiko's small flat. He has a spare key and has been spending most of his nights sleeping here. It is his only reprieve and comfort.
Unable to undress himself, he lays on the unmade bed that now smells more like him than her. The fan turns and creaks slowly and he has pushed the window open because he suddenly feels too warm.
Staring at the ceiling, he passes the next few hours in a strange, sleepless state where he thinks of nothing. He mutes his mind and ignores the uncomfortable stickiness of his skin.
When the sky begins to lighten, he pushes himself out of bed and takes a cold shower.
He is towelling his hair when Kakashi comes through the window, looking twitchy.
"Shisui!" The man pauses when he realises the Uchiha is naked, and overlooks it, "They got her, she's back. She's alive."
"What?!"
Shisui fumbles around, losing control of his muscles for a moment. Tossing the towel, he darts to the closet and pulls out his spare clothes. Dressing quickly, forgetting his headband and usual gear, he follows Kakashi to the hospital.
Shiranui Genma and Might Gai are standing on opposite sides of the doorway, casually leaning against the frame, their arms crossed as they talk under hushed voices. Inside the room, Hiruzen Sarutobi is overlooking his old student, Tsunade, as she heals his niece.
Unassumingly, Kakashi appears with Shisui. The two had to wait outside the entrance while Kakashi tried to get Shisui to calm down. He hasn't slept properly in some time, and his hair is still damp but wild from having rushed here.
"Okay Shisui, if you barge in they won't let you into her room."
The Uchiha agreed, taking time to collect himself before walking into the building and climbing up the stairs, two steps at a time.
Seeing them approach, the other two jounin block the doorway.
"Hokage's orders." Genma explains gently. He gives Kakashi and Shisui a lazy look, and Gai appears less enthusiastic.
"Is she okay?" Shisui probes, hands in his pockets, projecting a strange sense of collectedness that wasn't there when they went scrambling from Michiko's flat to the hospital. Kakashi eyes him wearily.
"They…" Genma exchanges a look with Gai. "They're healing her. Lots of…genjutsu damage." He speaks carefully and once his gaze settles on Shisui, he pretty much ignores Kakashi.
"Genjutsu damage?" Kakashi asks, Genma nods without sparing him a glance, and then leans against the doorway and closes his eyes, "You'll have to wait until they're done for the details. Sorry, Shisui-san. It's confidential until Sandaime-sama says it isn't."
His laid-back attitude irritates Shisui. Kakashi deadpans, eyes flitting between Genma and Gai.
"Well. I guess we can just wait here until they're done, right Kakashi?" Shisui forces a smile and Gai fidgets as his cheeks redden. If they hang around any longer, he won't be able to keep the information to himself.
Excusing himself, Gai rushes down to the toilets. Genma, used to his teammate, fills the silence with brief details that don't give away too much of what happened.
"You were right, Shisui-san. It was him." He's chewing a piece of straw between his lips, furtively. "She wasn't doing so well when we found her."
Kakashi leaves the pair, following Gai to the toilets. The other man is in a corner, in tears.
"Forgive me, Kakashi!" He blubbers, "I have to tell you what happened."
"Maa. Gai-san, you don't want to go against Sandaime-sama's orders do you?"
Fidgeting, Gai grows more uncomfortable and under a tensed, whispered breath he says, "She has prolonged exposure to a mangekyo sharingan. Tsunade-sama thinks she won't recover some parts of her memory."
"What?"
"Keep your voice down." Gai urges, beckoning Kakashi to come closer. In the space of the public toilets, two shinobi huddled in a corner whispering is a strange, concerning sight.
"She was unconscious and hooked up to some tubes when we found her. We had to…fight off some weirdos- but no sign of Orochimaru himself, just his labs."
Gai glances at the door for a moment, "When we brought her back, the medic healed her, but she wouldn't wake up- when she suspected 'genjutsu' damage, Sandaime-sama called in Tsunade-sama."
Now he shakes his head, afraid of looking Kakashi in the eye. "I'm sorry Kakashi, I just don't know where or how someone could have done that to her."
"Done what exactly?" Kakashi's voice is strained, and his throat feels like someone has clawed it raw from the inside.
"I can't say I know. Tsunade-sama said something about being repeatedly exposed to the Sharingan over a short period of time, she said it was enough to make some people go insane."
Kakashi quietens, the cogs of his mind turning. "I didn't know Orochimaru had an Uchiha on his side."
Gravely, Gai shakes his head. "He doesn't… not that we know of at least."
That's when they both think it; that the Uchiha have been covering up on their strays and missing-nins.