I think the writing in this section has a lot of room for improvement, but I figured that readers would probably prefer faster updates over more perfect updates, so here we are. I hope you enjoy this nonetheless!

And as always, I want to give a big thank you to all my readers for supporting and interacting with this story. I really appreciate it.

Chapter 15 - Section II

Realization slams through her in waves—the lethargy—it had been noon—and Shikamaru—she closes her eyes, swallows. Her legs feel like jelly as she forces them to continue behind her cat as if nothing had happened. Or perhaps, not hers—Sakura doesn't know anymore. Mind running at a mile a minute, she stealthily feels out the illusion surrounding her for fault points while trying to figure out how long she's been caught. She's probably been in the genjutsu since she started her stretches, maybe even earlier when she was still on the water. And with all the walking she's done, she can't even start planning how to make a break for it. She could be outside the village already, for all she knows.

Spidery cracks slowly unveil themselves to her as she concentrates, hair-thin fractures in the tapestry for her to exploit. Now the only question is when. Sakura doesn't know why someone would be targeting her—she is a clanless nobody, a child with no developed skills. How could she have an unknown enemy?

And then something cold and heavy drops into her gut as the thought strikes her: Shikamaru. Heir to one of the strongest clans in Konoha.

How could she have been so stupid? How could she have been so careless? There is no time to plot, no time to plan. Lashing out with her chakra, she all but shatters the illusion into a million tiny pieces and lurches forward, head swimming at the sudden return of sunlight. A hand, big and rough, grabs her shoulders and spins her around.

No, Sakura thinks. No, I have to get away. And she blindly punches her captor as hard as she can, yanks herself out of his arms, and runs.

"Hey wait!" the voice calls after her. It is a man's voice, and he does not even sound winded from her attack, but neither does he seem to be giving chase. Frantically scanning her surroundings for any clue as to her location, Sakura sucks in a breath and tries to quicken her speed.

"Stop! Chibi!"

Chibi?

Sakura freezes, nearly falling over from the sudden movement as her brain scrambles to connect the dots. Only one person has ever called her that—only one—

She whips her head around.

And he's there. Face a little thinner, eyes a little sadder, but smile as warm and wide as she remembers. "Shisui-senpai," she breathes, and he's suddenly in front of her, ruffling her hair.

"Hey, Chibi-chan," he says softly. "Sorry I've been gone so long. Not so chibi anymore, are you?"

"Shisui-senpai," Sakura gasps, feeling her own mouth stretch into a grin. It surprises her to realize how much she's missed him. "It's good to see you!"

He wraps her into a hug and laughs above her head. "Likewise, Chibi. How've you been? Clearly you've been training hard—that dispel was awesome."

Blushing at the praise, Sakura nods her head and mumbles her thanks into his shirt, mind still reeling from the abrupt change in situation and body still tense from the earlier adrenaline. When she finally lifts her head, she finds Shisui looking at her with clear amusement in his eyes, and she scrambles for something to say. "Where are we?"

The clearing they are in is smaller than the training ground fields, with a dense ring of trees growing around its perimeter. She must have walked far during her time in the genjutsu, she deduces, for this place is completely unfamiliar. Her eyes widen with sudden recollection.

"Shikamaru!" she gasps. He must be worried sick. Now that the shock of seeing Shisui again is wearing off, she feels a sudden wave of panic at the thought of her friend thinking she'd drowned or something. "I need to get back to him," she says, tugging on Shisui's sleeve. "He'll be frantic if I'm gone too long!"

But Shisui only pats her head soothingly. "Don't worry, your loyal guardian is fine." He winks. "I've bundled him in a cozy genjutsu. He's probably having a really nice nap right now."

"You what!? But why?" Sakura gapes at him even as her mind quickly figures out the reason, and she doesn't bother to hide her excitement when she asks, "Lesson? Right now?"

"Yeah, if you're up for it." He grins at her frantic nodding and pulls her down to the grass. "Sorry for the lack of notice. I just got back from a mission and I actually have to leave again tomorrow."

"I don't mind," Sakura replies. It is the life of a shinobi—her parents had been the same. "I just did a lot of research in the meantime: reading up on medical and science texts and the like. But we—Itachi and I—did start to get a bit worried. Does he know you're back yet?"

"Oh yeah, he sensed me before I even reached the village gates!" Shisui throws his head back and laughs. "Really gave me hell too, for not sending a message sooner." He sighs dramatically at her, an expression of exaggerated suffering on his face. It makes Sakura smile a little, to see him still capable of such lively expressions in spite of the more somber image he had cut earlier. "By the way," he adds, "Itachi told me to ask you whether you've had a chance to find out your elemental affinity yet?"

That's enough to make her smile disappear. "Yeah." She swallows and fiddles with her fingers, dipping her head down to allow her hair to curtain her face. "Um." She clears her throat. "I don't have one."

He is silent for a moment, but she keeps her gaze resolutely trained on her lap.

"What do you mean?," he asks eventually. His voice doesn't sound particularly grave, just surprised, and Sakura feels her shoulders relax in response. "Everyone has one—you kind of have to. Are you sure?"

"None of the papers reacted." She shrugs. "A...friend of mine was with me, he's a jounin and I think he checked."

Shisui's eyebrows immediately shoot toward his hairline. "You told someone!? Who?" Now there is a shocking note of urgency in his voice, and his eyes are wide.

"H-he told me to call him Kakashi," Sakura stammers. "I got lost trying to find the shop and bumped into him—I didn't tell him about our lessons though!"

"Hatake Kakashi? Crazy silver hair and a mask over one eye?"

"Yeah, I guess…," she mumbles. "He probably suspects I know some Uchihas, but I swear I tried to tell him as little as I could."

Shisui is shaking his head. "You're friends with Hatake Kakashi...incredible. You're really something else, Chibi-chan." He sighs. "But yes, do try to keep your connection with Itachi and me as much of a secret as you can, alright? It's probably best if no one knows about our lessons and the seal for now. Hatake knowing about your elemental affinity is unideal, but I trust he won't blab." He furrows his brows. "But not having an affinity is a singular occurrence...what was his reaction to that?"

"He...he said I should stop doing...interesting things. And that I won't like ninjutsu."

"Good, he's right." Shisui nods. "Listen to him. And yeah, elemental ninjutsu probably won't be your forte if you don't have an elemental affinity, at least relatively speaking." He shrugs. "Perfect chakra control will still make you better than many, but your potential to excel at any specific element will probably be capped."

He pats her on the head and gives her a wink. "Don't worry, genjutsu is way cooler anyway."

"Will that mess up the seal though?" Even though it wouldn't technically be her fault, Sakura knows she would still feel terrible if Itachi's hard work had to be scrapped because of this.

"Probably not? I don't know much about the seal, but just based on the theory it should be fine...I'll check with Itachi." He offers her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry about it in the meantime! Let's do some genjutsu, okay? You seem to really be getting the hang of dispelling illusions, so I want to work on casting them today."

Sakura watches as Shisui executes a brief series of hand signs and places his palm on the ground. With a puff of smoke, a small animal appears.

"Kumo!?" Sakura gasps.

"Masakumo, actually. But that's really close." Shisui raises his eyebrow again. "Impressive!"

"But...Kumo-chan…" Sakura wavers between surprise, relief, and betrayal as the cat hops into her lap and curls into a ball. "So you were the one causing the nightmares and hallucinations?" A nin cat indeed. She just can't understand why Shisui would do such a thing. Perhaps it was an attempt to prepare her mentally for learning genjutsu?

The cat meows, sounding almost contrite as he rubs his head insistently against her hand. Glancing unsurely at Shisui out of the corner of her eye, she gives Kumo's head a gentle pat. It would be ironic if the purpose of the nightmares was to build up her mental fortitude; she feels so much more tired and brittle now than she did months ago, her brain a hairsbreadth from fracturing.

Shisui is grinning at her. "Did you ever figure out that I was the one who sent him?"

The flippant question sends a shiver down Sakura's spine. Suddenly, the man beside her feels like a stranger, and she involuntarily recoils in the face of his amusement.

"Chibi?" The smile vanishes in an instant, and then he's leaning down and looking into her eyes with furrowed brows and a frown upon his lips. "What's wrong?"

Sakura opens her mouth, but finds no words to say. Shakily, she closes her mouth and swallows. Prepares to try again.

But then warm fingers land gently on her shoulders and steal her breath a second time. Shisui is running his gaze across her face now, sharp eyes taking in every detail, as if seeing her for the first time that day—really seeing her. Concern and panic seep across his features like an ink stain upon calligraphy paper, and then she is suddenly standing and he is before her, spine bent in a deep bow.

"I am so sorry, Sakura-chan. I didn't realize the toll this would have on you—an egregious oversight on my part. Please accept my sincere apologies."

"Shi-shisui senpai!" Sakura squeaks, hands tugging at his arms weakly in an attempt to pull him back upright while she simultaneously attempts to dip into a bow herself. "Please—there is no need, I—"

Cold sweat trickles down her back and she nearly sags in relief when he finally straightens and guides them both back into sitting position. Masakumo pads over again, sniffs at her leg, and then hops back into her lap with a contented meow.

"I'm serious, though," he says to her, voice a murmur over the soft rustling of the grass. "I really am sorry. This whole thing was my fault." Shisui sighs. "I was called away for a mission with no warning and didn't have time to introduce you to Masakumo formally, so I just summoned him and told him to help you out. It's been so long since I learned genjutsu myself, and because of the sharingan I never had to go through this—I'm so, so sorry, it just never occurred to me." He rakes a hand down his face and sighs again with his entire body, his shoulders heaving with the motion. "Masakumo doesn't have the ability to speak out loud, nor can he normally communicate mind-to-mind with people besides myself through our summoning contract, so he couldn't explain the situation to you either."

Sakura sits quietly, slowly absorbing this new information into her mind. After a moment, she shuffles a bit closer to Shisui and touches her knee to his. "It's okay," she whispers with a small smile. "You were just trying to help."

Shisui returns her smile wanly. "You're too kind for your own good, Chibi-chan." Reaching over, he gives Kumo several scratches behind the ears, face briefly turning into a mask of concentration, before pulling back. "It looks like he did try to talk to you several times—while you were sleeping," he finishes with a sigh. "Of course, the trouble with dreams is that they often get forgotten as soon as you wake up. His method of communication usually only works with people familiar with his abilities, like Itachi."

Sakura glances between Shisui and the cat in her lap. "So...you're telling me that Kumo can't talk to me while I'm awake—but he can while I'm asleep?"

"Only when you're dreaming." Shisui smiles, slowly regaining his earlier cheer. "That's his special talent. It might not seem like much compared to the flashy abilities that the rest of his clowder possess, but it's actually a very useful skill to have at your disposal." For a moment, the flash of his smile gains a devious edge in the sunlight.

"I'll bet." She can already imagine some amazing benefits: a highly efficient way of transmitting messages across long distances, an invaluable look into the enemy's mind before a battle. She wonders what sorts of secrets a dream-drifting cat could gather about an opponent, what nightmares he could cause.

'More blood.'

The echo of a memory whispers into Sakura's mind, and she jolts with the realization. 'Make him scream.'

Nerves already frayed from the day's back-to-back surprises, Sakura's muscles waste no time in tensing against the newly realized danger. "Sh-shisui-senpai!" She half-shouts, body jerking away from the cat curled up against her stomach and nearly dislodging the animal from his perch in the process. A warm hand immediately wraps around her upper arm to steady her, and she gasps again at the contact.

"Sakura?"

"Kumo...I think he has spoken to me before." She swallows, fighting away a sudden wave of nausea and the instinct to push the cat away. "He...he was influencing my nightmare, not just causing it." Accusation leaks into her voice despite her best efforts. "He made it worse."

"Sakura-chan," Shisui says gently, "that was the only way to teach you genjutsu."

"What do you mean?" She stills. "You mean...you mean, all this time—they were actually genjutsu—"

"No, no," he says hastily, "those were bona fide nightmares alright. But in order to learn genjutsu, you kind of need to know what casting a genjutsu feels like, and hallucinations, nightmares, lucid dreams are the best way." He sighs, and opens his mouth again to say more, but Sakura puts a hand on his arm to stop him.

It takes effort to clear her mind enough to think, but once she does, Shisui's words make sense. After all, being caught in a genjutsu is a sensation much like dreaming; it is not a huge leap to assume that casting a genjutsu would feel like a mixture of hallucination and lucid dreaming. A dream cast onto a conscious mind, controlled by a conscious mind.

"I think I get it," she finally murmurs. "So Kumo...Kumo-san was sent to help me prepare my mind for casting?"

Shisui nods. "Masakumo's job is usually to be a kind of back-up teacher for Uchiha children, actually. Remember how we told you, months ago, that genjutsu is a rare specialty?"

"Yes," Sakura responds dutifully. "You mentioned that the number of genjutsu specialists in Konoha is much higher than the norm."

"Yeah, and that's primarily because of the Uchiha clan. As you can probably imagine, mastering the feeling of casting a genjutsu is very difficult, like trying to teach a kid how to cry—you can't, really. It's instinct. The Uchiha kekkei genkai basically gives Uchiha children that instinct for genjutsu casting that most people do not have. But the bloodline does not show up with equal strength in all Uchihas; for some, it is faint enough that the Sharingan does not activate, and for others, it is weak enough that not even the genjutsu instinct is fully developed. And that's when Masakumo's abilities are called in."

"I see," Sakura says slowly. "But all the Uchiha children have at least some Uchiha genes. Why is it that Kumo-chan was also able to teach me?"

Shisui shrugs and gives her a wry grin. "To be honest, I wasn't sure if it would work. But you definitely have an instinct for genjutsu—it was as clear as day from the moment we met. So I figured, worth a try, right? It was the fastest and most effective way."

"Right." Sakura frowns.

"Again, I really am sorry, Sakura," Shisui says. He hesitatingly wraps his arms around her and pulls her into a hug when she doesn't object. "I wish I could have warned you."

Sakura understands. Becoming a genjutsu caster means to step onto a playing field filled with other genjutsu specialists. It means she would likely be the target of vicious genjutsus much more often than she casts them on others. Pain was a price she had to pay, and Shisui was just preparing her for the reality of the goal she had set for herself.

"You did nothing wrong," she tells him, because it's more honest than any words of forgiveness she could have uttered.

"Do you regret it?" He asks her softly, without judgement. His fingers card through her hair in slow, rhythmic strokes. "It's not too late to change your mind."

And Sakura really considers it for a moment. She thinks about the phantom pain that still laces through her head at random times, about all those shogi games and cloud-watching afternoons that she could have experienced instead. She thinks about her father, pathetic and broken, bone and sinew gleaming wetly beneath his shredded skin as his life seeped away against his will.

"I'd say I passed the point of no return a long time ago," she says lightly. He doesn't respond, the tilt of his eyebrows still unsure, and she straightens beneath his gaze. "I don't regret it," she assures him. After all, she no longer has any alternative to return to.

"Alright." He nods and straightens as well. "Then let me teach you how to cast. That should stop the hallucinations, at least, because you'll subconsciously know when and how to turn them off."

"Thank Kami," Sakura sighs. "How long do you think it will take me to learn that?"

Shisui smiles and claps her lightly on the back. "My plan was to teach you how to do that today, actually. I know you're super clever, so I think it will be no problem. Once you figure out how to do the initial casting, we can move on to improving the quality of the illusion itself, which is actually where the bulk of the work is."

Clenching her fists, Sakura nods. "Okay," she says, summoning as much determination as she can into her voice.

Shisui stares at her for a moment longer, considering. And then, he slowly allows his smile to gain a teasing edge. "You ready, chibi?"

Sakura takes a deep breath. "Is there any other important information that you've forgotten to tell me?"

Shisui pauses, thinking, then huffs a laugh. "Not that I remember."

"Alright, then," Sakura sighs with a wry grin of her own. "I guess I'm ready."

The next section is mostly written and should be out soon. Until next time!

I also want to thank the reviewer who gave me their thoughts on my Snapshots and new story summary. I really appreciate the feedback!