Chapter 1
May 25th. Tonight, Shisui would stop the clan's scheming. For now, though, he just wanted a hot meal. He had spent the entire afternoon training with his jonin teammates, Hige Hyuga and Rio Aburame and Hige's ninken, Takimaru, and stopped by the bathhouse afterwards before coming home to his apartment.
His keys jangled as he turned and opened the door, walking in.
"I'm home." He said, and was greeted by a flap of feathers and enthusiastic cawing from Piiko.
He laughed as Piiko flew from the perch in the far right corner of the room, swooping over and landing on the dish rack on top of the fridge.
"It's good to see you, too." He said.
Piiko was the only crow in the murder that stayed with him at his tiny, one-room apartment. With a flap of her wings, she glided over to the counter beside the sink and looked pointedly between him and the toaster right behind her.
"Yeah, thanks. I'll get some ramen started." He replied, opening the bread loaf and handing her two slices and getting a plate out of the dish rack. She put them each in the toaster before pushing the lever down with her beak.
He was too stressed out and exhausted to bother with anything more complicated than ramen and toast. It was easy to just fill the electric kettle up, set it to boil, open up a cup of ramen, and wait. He had to stop a coup d'etat and a potential civil war tonight. Tonight was the culmination of months upon months of work, spying on his own clan for Lord Third.
This was all he had been able to come up with. More and more of the clan was siding with the radical faction as time went on, so he had no allies besides Itachi.
This has to work. If they go through with the coup, everyone will be slaughtered.
The toaster clicked, ejecting the bread, and Piiko carefully picked them up with her claws and dropped them on the plate, cawing at him.
"Thanks, Piiko." He said, smiling at her.
The only reason he had toast as often as he did was because Piiko did it when she sensed something was wrong with him, and he couldn't say no to her.
He poured the boiled water into a cup of ramen, set a timer for 3 minutes, and buttered the bread while he waited.
This is the most Academy orphan meal ever. And it's all I've eaten for dinner all week.
All the work was getting to him. B and A-rank tracking missions for assassinations and bounties on rogue ninja, regular training with Itachi as well as his teammates, clan meetings, spying on his clan around the Uchiha district and the police station, all of it. He hardly had any time to himself to just eat or sleep and when he did, he was too restless to actually sleep or eat. His face had become pale, his cheeks hollow, and his normally thick, curly hair had become thin.
The timer on the ramen dinged, drawing him out of his reverie just staring at the plate of buttered toast numbly.
"Right, the ramen."
He peeled back the lid of the ramen, tore it off and added it to the growing pile of ramen lids on his usually neat table, and broke his disposable chopsticks.
"Itadakimasu." He said, and dug in.
Piiko watched him from her favorite spot perched on the dish rack on top of the fridge. She could see his whole apartment from there.
He ate quickly, because eating was more about fueling his body for the mission ahead than it was about actually satiating his nonexistent appetite or enjoying his food.
When he was done, he tossed his dishes in the sink with the other unwashed dishes. He would come back and wash the dishes and clean his neglected apartment when this hell of an assignment was over.
Suddenly, he heard footsteps on the balcony outside his door in the hallway.
Who's that? Nobody's ever comes by.
Suspicious, he put one hand in his kunai pouch while the other opened the door, only to be greeted by the masked face and beige cloak of one of Lord Danzo's Root ANBU.
"Yes? What does Lord Danzo want? I have a mission." he asked.
"Lord Danzo requests your immediate precense at his estate." The ANBU replied.
"Understood." He replied, leaving the door ajar so he could quickly slip on his shoes before joining the ANBU in the exterior hall and locking the door behind him. "Lead the way."
He arrived to find Danzo waiting for him, standing at a small family shrine. Most clans had their own gods, just like the Uchiha did, and surely the Shimura were no exception. It was the cover story the Uchiha told their children and spouses who still served the village to provide as an excuse for missing everything but missions.
"Yes, Lord Danzo?" he asked, trying to sound as polite as possible.
The two Root ANBU that escorted him from the gates remained, staying a respectful distance away.
"I hear there is a meeting at the Nakano shrine tonight?" Lord Danzo replied, staring at him, appearing dissatisfied about something.
"Given that you live in the darkness of this village, it's no surprise that you would know that. But I must admit, apart of me is dumbfounded." Shisui replied, carefully, politely.
I've been reporting directly to Lord Third and Itachi in secret. Neither of them would have leaked this. Where is he getting his intel from?
"It is the reality of this village." Danzo replied.
"So you're saying you were just letting us go for the time being?" he replied.
"Yes, you are correct. You're very wise, Uchiha Shisui. I have a question for such a wise young man." Danzo replied, stepping forward.
"I don't have a lot of time, so please keep it brief. I have a mission." He replied, keeping the frustration out of his voice.
What are his intentions?
"Yes, it would be terrible if you missed your change to attack Fugaku." Lord Danzo replied, startling him, though he didn't show it.
Shisui's eyes narrowed. "Even that…"
"Don't get the wrong idea. It goes without saying that neither Hiruzen nor Itachi leaked it. I have been having one of my men look into the matter." Lord Danzo replied.
So someone's been tailing me this entire time. For the entire duration of the mission, probably, and I didn't notice. Some Tokubetsu Jonin I am.
"I can't say that controlling Fugaku with your kotoamatsukami and bringing the plan for the coup d'etat to a halt is a good idea." Danzo said, putting a hand to his chin and staring at him. "The majority of the clan is already leaning toward the coup. Flipping the ringleader Fugaku at this stage, you're just spitting in the wind."
I want this whole thing to end without spilling any blood.
"I won't know unless-"
"I have made it through two great wars, and I am telling you that your plan will most certainly fail." Lord Danzo said harshly, interrupting him.
Inside, Shisui's blood was boiling with anger.
He's not one of us. How dare he. He knows nothing about any of this or the politics of old clans! Lord Fugaku is the head of the main family.
"Even if you succeed in controlling Fugaku with visual jutsu, proposing a halt to action at the meeting today, and manage to pull off this stopgap, nothing will change. The radical faction will only think that Fugaku's change of heart is because he has become cowardly in his old age. They will quickly pick a new leader and move to put the plan into action. Listen to me, Shisui, the head can always be replaced."
"Don't talk like its done already!" he exclaimed.
"About that question, Shisui. Your mangekyo sharingan…I would like to have your mangekyo sharingan. I would be able to use it much more effectively." Lord Danzo replied, fixing him with an intense expression and taking a step forward.
What the hell?!
He tried to step back, but in that moment he realized he couldn't move his legs. He couldn't move his body. He was paralyzed.
No no no no. This can't be happening. I have to move. Come on, move! Move, Uchiha!
Lord Danzo was right in front of him now, just standing there.
"Insects are such interesting creatures. When a human is bitten by a mosquito, the pain is nothing. You don't even notice it. But wouldn't it be interesting, to have an insect with the bite of a mosquito, but the poison of a scorpion or a spider?" Lord Danzo said, his eyes mocking him.
Wh-what did you do?!
"You. What are you calling yourself now?" Lord Danzo asked one of the two Root agents behind him.
"I go by Sugaru." The one in the white tiger mask replied.
"Sugaru. Shisui, this is Sugaru, and he is from the Aburame clan. Given how wise you are, I suppose you need no further explanation? Don't worry, you will live just long enough for me to pluck out both of your eyes." Lord Danzo replied.
You bastard!
"Ngh!" he tried to force his body to move, but failed.
Danzo's lips curled upwards in a smile.
He was frozen, helpless, equally terrified and angry, as Danzo lifted his gnarled hand with its well-trimmed fingernails up to his face, up to his right eye, and touched his eyelids. He trembled, scarcely able to breathe as Lord Danzo kneaded chakra and pushed his eyelids back, back, back. Without hesitation, Danzo thrust his fingers into his eyesocket, sending blinding pain through his eye and face. Danzo paused for only the briefest of moments to check his grip before he cut the optic nerve with his chakra and pulled his eye out.
He couldn't help but scream in pain, and his hand instinctually tried to move to hold and cover the injury.
My hand-!
"And now, one more…" Lord Danzo replied, smiling as he handed the stolen eye to not-Sugaru to put in a glass jar before turning his attention back to Shisui.
But in that moment, Shisui had applied a genjutsu with his remaining eye to distort their perception of his body so he could slowly pull a half-ram sign and body flicker away.
He must have taken so long talking that the initial paralytic effects of the poison wore off already.
He catapulted himself out of the Shimura clan grounds and into the forest surrounding it, stopping on the first tree and pulling out a kunai. He quickly slashed at the bite with a kunai, hoping to bleed out some of the poison. He could worry about blood loss and infection later. As soon as he made the laceration he hurried onward, making a beeline for Uchiha territory. Root wouldn't dare risk the ire of the Uchiha clan by following him there.
It was hard to run, jump, and keep track of his pursuers and their weapons when he was missing half his field of vision, lacked depth perception, and was running with a numb, twitching, wounded leg. He couldn't tell if it was the poison or the panic that was making it hard for him to catch his breath as he ran.
Danzo's words echoed in his mind the entire time he ran through the trees, half blind, leg numb, occasionally slipping and catching himself. Straight for the old Naka shrine up on the cliffs where his crows lived and he and Itachi met up. It predated the founding of the village and had fallen into disrepair decades ago. No one went there anymore, it was too out of the way.
I am telling you, I have made it through two great wars, and I am telling you that your plan will most certainly fail. Even if you succeed in controlling Fugaku with visual jutsu…nothing will change. The radical faction will only think Fugaku's change of heart is because he has become cowardly in his old age.
It hurt how much Lord Danzo's words made sense.
He went around through the clan training grounds, now empty, and through Itachi's careful path through the blind spots in the Leaf ANBU's cameras.
The meeting's only just started. Itachi might not even be there yet. Even short meetings last at least two hours.
He half jumped, half collapsed to the ground when he got there as his leg gave out underneath him and his vision faded in and out.
Maybe the poison's why I can't catch my breath after all.
"Ngh!"
"Shisui?" came Itachi's stunned voice as he fought to steady himself.
"I'm sorry, Itachi…" he said, walking over and past his best friend on unsteady feet. "I failed."
"What happened to your eye?" Itachi asked, alarmed.
"I couldn't even…make contact with Lord Fugaku." He began, walking to the edge of the cliff, rambling and explaining all at once. "The meeting's already started…they'll decide on the key parts of the coup today…we lost our only chance…our plan failed…"
Maybe we were both just naïve fools after all. A fifteen-year-old and twelve-year-old, stopping a civil war?
"That doesn't mean it's over. Who got you?" Itachi said. He could feel his disappointed eyes boring into his back.
Disappointed at him giving up, not at being attacked.
"Lord Danzo and Sugaru Aburame…poison insect bit me…stole my eye…he wants the other one…I'm not gonna make it, Itachi…it's a rare, fatal breed…even for Aburame." He said, his voice low and weak, chest heaving. "It doesn't look like…there's any way now to stop the coup…If Konoha starts fighting itself…and its military strength is weakened…other countries will take advantage…like Cloud did when they tried to…kidnap Lady Kushina…and the Hyuga heiress…Lord Third's getting old…he can't control Lord Danzo…"
He paused to catch his breath, and Itachi made no move to interrupt him. His heart was hammering in his chest as the nausea he had been ignoring overcame him, and he vomited his dinner up all over the ground.
He steadied himself, hands on his knees, and listened as Itachi approached.
"Shisui…"
He waved him away and wiped his mouth on his hand.
"I won't let him take it…I won't let the clan find out about this…before he does…I'm giving it to you…I'll be dead soon anyways…you're my best friend…you're the only one I can ask this…please, whatever happens…the village…the Uchiha name…protect them for me." He said, lifting up his hand.
Using everything he had learned as an Uchiha about ocular medical ninjutsu, he carefully removed his remaining eye and handed it to Itachi. He waited several long moments. He heard one of Itachi's crows get summoned with a poof of smoke and caws.
"I accept. I've implanted it into one of my crows." Itachi said stiffly, trying not to sound as emotional as he was.
He set his outstretched hand on Itachi's shoulder and squeezed it in a gesture of support, relaxing.
His breathing was getting worse. His heart was racing painfully. No longer was it similar to pneumonia, where his lungs were sore and infected and lacked the capacity to breathe fully. Now it was morelike his body forgot how to work them sometimes, and his breathe would seize up and leave him for a terrifying moment.
"I'm sorry, Itachi…I'm so fucking sorry…you're about to walk a long and dark path…filled with pain and suffering…and I can't be there for you." He said, his hand tightening on Itachi's shoulder. "There's one more thing…I want to give you…but before I do that…there's something I want you to know…I've never told anyone…"
"What?" Itachi asked, deeply concerned.
He had never let Itachi see him like this. He knew Itachi had noticed the worsening bags usnder his eyes, the hollowing of his cheeks, and the tapering of his jawline that was all from exhaustion, overwork, and not eating enough.
"Eight years ago…I killed my best friend Uzumaki Kaito… We were in the same graduating class and…got put on a genin team with a girl named Yuki…and Inuzuka Shiba-sensei…and his ninken, Tobimaru…we went to Academy together…we competed in class…but we really trusted each other…he was my first friend that…wasn't an Uchiha…" he began, his voice flat. "It was supposed to be a simple C-rank mission picking up after the war…Gathering up all the traps…But we were ambushed and my team got separated…Me and Kaito fled into enemy territory…He was badly wounded…We were stranded for ten days…He was dying of infection and we were both starving…living on the bugs, nuts, and berries my crows brought back…some fish if I was brave enough…I didn't know what to do…He said a lot of mean things cause he was scared…and I got mad and refused to help him when the search and rescue squad got there…Him and the chunin who had to help him in my place…both got killed by an exploding tag on a kunai."
I'm tired. I'm just so fucking tired.
"I love you, Itachi…You're my best friend…and I would never have made it this far…without you." He said, giving him a smile. He really meant it. He'd been a recluse after losing Kaito, his mom, and great grandpa all in a year's time.
I didn't want it to end up like this.
He didn't have to have eyes to know that Itachi's mouth was quirking upwards in an attempt at reciprocating a smile for him.
"That's how…I got my mangekyo sharingan…killing Kaito…I'm gonna die anyways…so I may as well…leave you with a mangekyo too…as a parting gift…make sure you leave…a suicide note in my handwriting…at my place so they don't blame you…please, use yours and mine…to preserve the honor…of the village and the clan…good luck, Itachi…I believe in you..."
"Let's get this over with…They're waiting on you…to go home and me…to lose consciousness so they can…try to capture me without…attracting attention this far out…I'm gonna turn around…and you're gonna push me off...I'm glad I met you…I'm counting on you to handle the rest…"
He turned around to face the roaring waters below.
Death sounds so peaceful right now. I deserve this. If only I hadn't trusted Danzo…
"One the count of three…1…2…3."
Itachi hesitated at first, but gathered himself together and pushed him off the cliff into the raging Naka river below. As he tumbled, he ran through the hand signs to activate the fuinjutsu. Chakra crackled over the seal, spreading all over his body, as he hit the water below. All the air was knocked out his lungs only to be quickly filled with water. He was knocked unconscious when his head was bashed against a rock by the waves, just as the light of the seal enveloped his body.
Up at SAS Mateo Cruz's office in Quantico, the phone rang.
"Yes, Ms. Garcia?" he asked, immediately dropping everything he was doing.
She only rang his office for one thing.
"Sir, the cameras at Area Zero just picked up another ninja appearing. It's a teenage boy." She said, sounding heartbroken.
"I'll call an ambulance. Tell your team to take over." He said.
The first thing he sensed when he woke up was pain. Overwhelming, agonizing pain all over his body. Madara, it hurts. It hurt to breathe. It physically hurt his head to think and try to wake up enough. It was instinct, really.
Am I not dead? How am I not dead?
The first thing he was truly aware of was an incessant, steady beeping sound.
A heart monitor? Am I in a hospital?
Panic seized him at the thought and he heard the monitor's pace increase as he tried in vain to get his body to move.
If I stay in one place, Lord Danzo will find me here. I can't risk all these people getting caught in the crossfire.
But his body wouldn't respond, and his lungs could barely take in shallow, sharp, painful forced breaths. Like something else was breathing for him, it didn't feel natural. Something foreign was shoved down his throat and into his lungs helping him breathe. If he were capable of rational thought he would have been panicking more, but as it were his thoughts just evaded his grasp and slid through his fingers like sand.
How…?
Footsteps approached. He couldn't move his body or open his eyes to react. Everything was too foggy, too heavy. He heard someone messing with something near him and before he knew it the pain was fading away and he was unconscious again.
At the Morgan household, Derek was just opening the cabinets to pick out what to make for dinner when his cell phone rang.
What's the director want?
"Hello, Morgan here." He replied.
"Derek Morgan, I have a question for you, and I need to have your confirmation that nothing I say to you will be repeated to anyone else except your wife." Said SAS Matteo Cruz.
"Of course, you have my word. Now what's this about?" he demanded, pulling out some spaghetti noodles and sauce instead.
"Your team is one of the handful that are permitted access to Area Zero. A few days ago, we got another ninja. He's at Bethesda right now being treated in the ICU. His physical injuries are minimal, save for the concussion. It appears that he was poisoned and had his eyes ripped out of their sockets. If he survives, I need to find a home for a blind fifteen-year-old ninja." Director Cruz replied.
"And what makes you think I'm the best man for the job? Sir, I have a one-and-a-half-year-old son. There's no way I have the time to babysit a blind ninja who doesn't even know English." Derek replied, frustrated.
"It appears that your wife has already become acquainted with him, I see that she's his nurse in the ICU. I would like to keep this as close to home as possible." Director Cruz replied, pausing before continuing. "Morgan, I'm not asking."
"Fine." Derek sighed, as the water started to boil. "I'll ask Savannah about him. Send me all the paperwork and information you have about him. I'll look it over. When does he get out of the hospital?"
Shisui spent a long time like that, fading in and out of consciousness. Sometimes he'd hear the nurses talking to him, but he didn't understand what they were saying. They talked to him in fake pleasant, cheerful tones. Sometimes in gentle, hushed voices.
Where…?
It was a while before he woke up feeling well enough to be truly conscious and alert. He was still in a lot of pain, but it wasn't as bad. For the first time in a long time he felt aware of himself and his surroundings. Quickly, he took stock of his body without opening his eyes. It felt like he was hooked up to a lot of different machines. A heart monitor, a ventilator, an IV, a feeding tube, and a catheter.
Where am I? I've never heard this language before. Have I been in a coma?
The second thing he noticed was that he was on a bed, a comfy bed, and it felt like he was in a hospital gown which meant someone had changed his clothes, which also meant he was probably in friendly territory, wherever he was. Certainly not anywhere in the known shinobi world, given the foreign language they'd been speaking around him.
Clearly, he'd fucked up. Wherever the fuinjutsu had sent him, it was unknown territory. Friendly, but unknown. Surely with a language barrier like this, his Tokubetsu jounin uniform and his Konohagakure hitae-ate were just as foreign to them? So they probably thought he was just a random kid that got beaten up. Even if it wasn't an advantage he was used to having, it might be useful.
He opened his eyes, and then he remembered he was blind. He moved his right hand up to his face – the one without an IV in the crook of his arm restricting his movements – and felt around his empty eye sockets.
Bandages. Did I mess up? Or is it for their comfort?
The steady beeping in the background sped up a bit.
Shit. Where're my weapons?
He felt around with his hands, but all he found was his bed, the railing, a remote, and the monitor and another big machine.
Footsteps approaching made him shift his blind gaze sharply to the door. Someone was coming.
Someone walked in with a quick, hurried pace. No rusting of clothes to indicate a drawn weapon, so probably a nurse.
The nurse said something to him and walked over, but he couldn't understand her. She sounded young. He could only assume she was introducing herself and explaining his condition, but he couldn't talk to tell her with the ventilator in. If he was on a ventilator he probably hadn't recovered enough to risk trying to make a shadow clone to talk for him.
Damn it. I can't understand a word she's saying.
Eventually, his nurses realized he didn't speak the language. The communication barrier wouldn't be resolved until he was removed from the ventilator a couple of weeks later.
It was a slow process of weaning him off the ventilator. Once the nurses were sure he was breathing on his own with the ventilator turned off, they removed it. There were two nurses in the room. The younger one was talking to him to keep him calm and laying down while the older one was pulling the tube and gasket out of his lungs and back up his throat.
He steeled himself and fought the urge to cough but ended up in a coughing fit anyways. He heard movement and a small plastic cup of water was pressed to his lips.
He drank eagerly. The water felt relieving against his dry, irritated throat.
Feels like I've been sick with a cold, but it's just the tube.
He was hooked up to an oxygen concentrator instead, with two nostril tubes that went from the machine beside his bed, across his chest, up over and around his ears, and into his nose. Once it was set up and they declared him stable enough to move, a male nurse named Matthew pushed his hospital bed out of his room in the ICU, through the halls and onto an elevator, and into a private room on another floor.
It was a whole day of drinking water and sucking on throat lozenges before he could actually talk. The pain he was in had faded from excruciating agony to a dull throb since he first briefly regained consciousness. He had enough chakra recovered to feel aware and alert, but that was it. He hadn't even gotten out of bed yet and they'd kept him on a bedpan and urinal so far.
How long's it been?
He was even more sure of it now that he could think a bit clearer. He'd fucked up and sent himself to another world – not into nothingness. He'd been a shinobi since before he could even write his name in kanji. He'd been deployed all over the shinobi world fighting in three wars – the Third War, the war with Kumo afterwards, and the war with Kiri most recently. If there was a technologically advanced society that spoke a foreign language, he should have at least heard of them by now.
But does that mean it's safe to tell them who I am? Or where I'm from? Or any of the basic biographical information they're going to be asking for when I'm off this thing. They can't use it to get at Konoha. But would they even believe me? Does this happen to everyone or just me? Genma wouldn't have messed up applying it.
It was another few weeks of recovery hooked up to the oxygen concentrator before he was recovered enough to summon one of his crows, Sora.
"Hey, Sora. I fucked up real bad. I lost my eyes, so I need my dad's now. Okay? Yours will return automatically." He said, stroking her feathers gently.
She trilled and nibbled his fingers affectionately.
"Thanks, old girl." He replied.
All Uchiha who awoke their sharingan were taught how to remove them and either crush them, gouge them out, or transplant them into crows. The crows were trained to take the eyes to the Nakano shrine where the person's next of kin would ensure they were properly sealed and preserved to be kept at the shrine for anyone who needed them. They were guarded by the clan crows and complex fuinjutsu that didn't allow a non-Uchiha to enter.
It was a quick, painless process to remove the eyes from Sora and transplant them into his own empty eye sockets.
It was a few hours before the doctor came to look at his eyes and check him over, only to scream when he cracked open his eyelids and saw a brand new eye where a formerly empty eye socket had been.
He would find out later that everything about his powers and abilities, was considered a government secret. He assumed that the doctor was probably either assassinated or paid off.
SAS Matteo Cruz called Derek about it while he was in the car driving home from work to pick up his son.
"Yes sir, Morgan speaking. How's the Uchiha boy doing?" Derek replied, distractedly, as he pushed the button in his car to pick it up over the speakers.
"Good. He has been taken off the ventilator and put on an oxygen concentrator instead. Normally they would release him when he's at a level 2, but because he's classified they will not be releasing him until he is off of it entirely. He has been moved from the ICU into a private room. They're getting him up and walking around so he can regain his strength. There's just one anomaly. Morgan, if you're driving, I want you to pull over before I tell you this." Director Cruz said.
"Pull over? Is it that bad? I mean, sure, give me a minute." Derek replied, bewildered, and pulled into the large parking lot of a crafts store and a home decorating store. "Alright, I'm parked."
"Remember how I told you he had his eyes removed? He's somehow managed to transplant a pair of fully functional eyes." Director Cruz said, pausing to give him time to digest the information.
"I-how?" Derek asked, speechless.
"It's straight from the ophthalmologist himself. All Uchiha will say is that they're his dad's and he transplanted them himself. He refused to explain and he refused to have any tests done on them." Director Cruz explained.
"I thought ninjutsu was elemental attacks." Derek said.
"It is, you're right about that. I'm hoping he will tell you in time, because the ophthalmologist has recommended that he continue to see a specialist once a month for observation." Director Cruz continued.
"And he won't allow tests to be done on them? Great. Okay. I'll take him, but I can't promise the results you're looking for. He needs to trust us, so I'm not forcing him." Derek replied, a note of finality in his voice.
"That's fine, Morgan. He's the first ninja that might make a full recovery and be useful in the field. Anyways, that's all I had to update you on. I will ensure that the paperwork is filed so he has all the documentation and insurance any foster child would have. The doctor reports that he is still a few weeks out from being discharged. I will keep you posted, Morgan, have a good evening." Said Director Cruz.
"You too, sir." Derek replied, before Director Cruz hung up.
Derek pulled out of the parking lot and continued driving to the daycare center to pick up Hank.
When Shisui was finally discharged after being in the hospital for four months, he had at least managed to learn the language. His sharingan made memorizing Japanese to English dictionaries and spoken accents easy.
"Shisui, your foster family is here to pick you up." The nurse, Sarah, said.
"Alright. Give me five minutes to get ready." He replied.
She left, and he went to the bathroom to change out of the hospital scrubs and back into his normal clothes. They had washed the clothes he'd arrived in and put them in the chair by the window. His weapons were nowhere to be seen.
Nurse Sarah reappeared to collect him. "Ready? Let's go, I'll show you the way."
Author's Note:
The date was chosen at random based on my headcanon that the original massacre takes place between Itachi and Sasuke's birthdays, and Shisui's assassination a year or just over a year prior to that. There's a manga panel somewhere where Itachi says Shisui's death bought them a year's time and he's thinking about how Hiruzen has done nothing with that time.
If it's not clear enough, this is just how the seal works, and they've had no way to confirm or study it beyond "well, they're obviously gone, so it obviously works".
I apologize for making yet another Shisui-centric crossover and not working on any of my other ones.
Edited on 12/2 to expand the opening and add in the phone call scenes and expand on the hospital scene a bit.
Note: a lot of the dialogue between Shisui and Danzo and Itachi came straight from the light novel Itachi Shinden: Book of Night. It's a set, book of light and book of night I highly recommend reading it!