When he wakes up there is darkness.
He blinks at his numb eyelids, but the world remains full of shadows. Confusion takes over his mind, and he doesn't know who he is — he has no eyes he knows that, there is just emptiness where there should be two eyeballs. And the young man tries not to panic as he flails, a primal fear clawing at his throat like claws cutting into his skin and choking him. He knows he's never felt so vulnerable as he does in that moment, as he breathes, trying to shake the panic down, he realizes he should be dead — he is still breathing.
He is still alive.
His name is Shisui Uchiha, he remembers now his mind seems to be less confused and the memories are coming back to him like an uncontrollable hurricane. The young man remembers that he was fighting an old man and had his right eye gouged out , fear and anger embrace him like an erupting volcano, but he fights even after that, because he had to reach someone else; someone important.
And after the betrayal, there is a serious-faced boy who takes him to a cliff, where there would be one last conversation. Words are exchanged and he removes his other eye with excruciating pain, his heart full of pain and a burden none of them should bear. When he is falling to his death, a smile on his face — tears of blood running down the younger man's cheeks, with a scream filled with terror, should be the end, but it isn't.
He's not dead.
Why isn't he dead?
He clenches his teeth tightly as he tries to get up from the soft surface he's lying on, but is stopped by soft, gentle hands. He blinks at his sore eyelids, giving in to that gentle warmth that envelops him for a moment. He frowns a little, only now feeling the calm chakra that in the midst of his confusion and near-death numbness he hadn't noticed before.
It doesn't seem hostile, on the contrary, it gives a feeling of comfort — as if returning home after a long journey.
"It's okay.", he hears the gentle voice, a woman he realizes. "Rest some more."
"I... where am I?", his voice is strange even to his own ears. "Who are you?"
He smells the medicinal herbs, and her gentle fingers on his eyes, applying the medicine; "I'm just a miko who goes where I'm needed.", she replied calmly, moving away a little. "And we're in a cabin near the Naka River, where I found you."
"I should be dead.", he finally says.
"Maybe.", she agrees. "But I saved you, and you'll have to live with that."
He closes his eyelids, it was crazy to say that, but he trusted her. "What is your name?"
"Kaori. My name is Kaori."
"I'm Shisui."
He tasted the her name in his mind, still feeling her gentle hands finishing putting in the medicine. Shisui suppressed a sigh of resignation, not knowing what to do now that his self-sacrifice had been ruined by the priestess. Should he return to the Village after he is better? The thought dances in his clouded mind as the image of Itachi along with his horror filled scream as he fell to his near death made him shudder and even if he didn't return to Konoha his friend should have known he was still in this world, it is not?
"Get some rest, Shisui."
Kaori's hands move away from his face, feeling himself he realizes that a thick blanket had been placed over him to warm him and there was the warmth of the fire, there was probably a fireplace inside the old hut. And before he could ponder it any further, the door was opened with a creak, leaving him tense, however, relief took over his exhausted body when he heard a jovial female voice. "Nee-san, I found the herbs you wanted."
"Well done, Haruki.", she praised and he could feel the smile in her voice. "There's a futon here, go get some rest."
"When are we going to meet Sayuri, nee-san?", she asked.
"Soon, go to sleep."
With narrow mahogany eyes, Kaori watches the young man she rescued from the waters of the Naka River almost dead — one minute later and there would be no saving him. She can't help the curiosity that creeps into her core about this shinobi, from the state he was in when she found him it was obvious that he was in some battle that he had lost and, there was still one very important fact that shocked her; he had no eyes. From what she studied while treating him, they were removed.
As much as she had stayed away from the main shinobi nations, she had heard rumors about the great clans that possessed powerful kekkei genkai, with two noble doujutsu clans in Leaf Village, and she had seen the red and white mon on the back from Shisui. She stopped pondering it, knowing that the young man had his reasons for not telling her who he really was.
"I see smoke coming out of your head, nee-san.", Haruki's soft voice made her look away from the sleeping young man to look at her younger sister, her expression softening.
"Why aren't you sleeping?", she asked, hiding his hands in the long sleeves of the priestess's kimono. "We should leave soon when he wakes up."
Haruki looked at that boy and then at his older sister. "He will travel with us?"
She shrugged. "If he wants."
"Nee-san, don't you think it's risky to travel with someone you barely know?" she asked, genuinely worried.
"No, he could have attacked me whenever he wanted even though he was stunned, but he didn't do anything like that.", she answered.
Haruki nodded, choosing to believe his older sister's words. "Sleep too, nee-san."
"I'm fine, you can go back to sleep."
When Haruki got comfortable on the futon, the older woman leaned her head against the wall of the hut and closed her eyes to doze a little, as she would have to change Shisui's bandages.
She heard him moving, making Kaori stand up abruptly and kneel beside him, rubbing the damp cloth across his sweaty forehead: he was burning with fever.
With a sigh, the miko prepared to make medicine from the herbs Haruki picked earlier.
She saved him, and she wouldn't let him die.
Naruto doesn't belong to me.
I'm bringing this story with my strawberry shortcake, Shisui — my favorite Uchiha.
I hope you like it, loves.