3 a.m., 18 November 54; Nagi Island

Shisui could hear Kuromaru dragging a body across the wet sand. He quickly pulled on his pack and ran over.

"Revive him and meet me at the bridge," Kuromaru barked before running off into the dark night.

Isamu's eyes were glazed over, locked deep in a genjutsu. Placing his hand on Isamu's shoulder, he pushed his chakra through to pull him out of it.

"What happened?" Isamu asked groggily, shaking his head.

"Genjutsu. We need to leave. Sensei ordered us to head to the bridge."

"It must be Kiri-nin. We saw the mist roll in and thought it was just coastal fog."

Shisui squeezed his eyes shut. He reached down and pulled Isamu to his feet.

"We'll deal with that later. Our orders are to retreat," Shisui replied firmly. "I packed up all our supplies into one bag."

Nodding at each other, they jumped into the trees. Kiri would defeat them on the water, but the trees were theirs. They made it five miles before Shisui felt the enemy closing in on their position. He turned around, disrupting the bark on the branch under his feet. A shuriken was in his hand and flying through the air before the thought even crossed his mind. There was a grunt in the dark of the mangrove forest.

"Six. I sense six of them," Isamu said quietly, unsheathing his ninjato. He passed through the tree branches until his back was against Shisui's. "Steady."

Shisui could feel Isamu's heart thudding against his back. There was a quiet sense of dreaded anticipation in the far recess of his mind. Moments later, they were surrounded by six Kiri ANBU in ceramic masks and gray armor.

"We're looking for the girl," one of them said. "Hand her over, and we'll let you boys go. There's no need for you to try to die today. Live for tomorrow."

"Fuck you, man," Isamu retorted. "I don't know nothing about no girl."

All Shisui could hear was the roaring of his heartbeat in his ear. He felt sick to his stomach as Isamu continued to insult the ANBU captain.

"Leave it to Kiri to be big and bad to go after a couple of kids. You all must have small peckers. Probably can't even get it in. Why don't you all fuck off?" Isamu continued.

The chakra around the leader gave away his agitation.

"What about you, boy? If you don't tell me, we'll end you both right here and now," he said to Shisui.

'They don't know where Katya and Sensei are,' Shisui signed against Isamu's outer thigh.

'We don't know a girl.' he signed back. 'I don't know what they want with her, but it's not going to be good. We can't win this fight. We need to irritate them and throw them off then hightail it.'

'Understood.'

"I don't know any girl," Shisui finally spoke up. "Lose your girlfriend? She probably left you because your face looks like a butt."

Isamu belted out a laugh.

"Man, a butt face and a small pecker, what a winning combo. What about you, big guy?" Isamu addressed the ANBU to his left. "Let me guess, you don't know more than five words and still shit in a diaper."

"Enough of this," the large ANBU said, rushing the boys with a sword in hand.

Shisui countered with a kunai crossed against his tanto. He jumped back, covering the area in genjutsu. It was no match for the ANBU Kiri-nin, who quickly dispelled it. As much as the boys tried to stay in the trees, they ended up on the sandy soil. Shisui threw another genjutsu trap behind them as they ran deeper inland.

They hopped into a nearby coastal oak, jumping to the top of its branches. A cliff ran alongside them, the bridge behind them as they ran closer to the mountains in the center of the island.

"Keep going," Isamu panted, turning around and countering a thrown kunai with one of his own.

"This isn't working. We need to make a stand," Shisui argued back. He threw a set of shuriken that was easily deflected by his pursuer. The sharp blades thudded into the tree trunk next to him.

"We won't win. We need to hide. If Sensei and Katya were both here with us, we'd have a chance. It's just the two of us. Shisui, be reasonable."

"I'm making a stand," Shisui said as he jumped out of the trees onto the forest undergrowth, tanto in hand.

With no other option than to follow his subordinate's lead, Isamu dropped down next to him, his ninjato in hand. There was a ring of metal on metal as a Kiri-nin rushed forward and attacked. Shisui kicked off of the large shinobi, a large fireball erupting from his lips.

Fire consumed his kunai when he threw it. He substituted with a shuriken, leaping behind his enemy, slicing down with his tanto. Isamu was somewhere further in the trees, taunting the ANBU captain in front of him. Two more ANBU followed Shisui as he tried to reach Isamu. Chakra burned through his eyes as he twisted and turned to avoid the weaponry.

He grabbed Isamu's hand, reached up, and threw him into the trees as they had practiced. The area was covered in Shisui's sharingan genjutsu traps. All of a sudden, Isamu was falling from the branch he was fighting on, straight down the edge of the cliff.

"Isamu!" he cried out, rushing to catch him before he went over.

"Isamu! Kai! Kai! Kai!" he called out desperately, trying to recall his genjutsu. He was too late. His shirt ripped as he dove for the edge of the cliff. His fingers brushed the back of Isamu's shirt when he failed to reach him. A kunai flashed past his face, and he turned on his back to avoid it. Shisui cried out when another landed in his shoulder. He countered with a shuriken, throwing blindly in the instant that Isamu was in free fall.

Strong hands twisted around Shisui's wrist before he could reach into his pouch for ninja wire.

"Got you now, brat," the Kiri-nin said menacingly. He pressed a knee against Shisui's back. "Want to watch your friend die? Be my guest."

The man behind him forced him to his knees. His fingers cruelly gripped Shisui's hair, forcing him to watch as Isamu hit the edge of the rocky river below with a sickening splat. Sharingan perfect clarity captured the moment his friend's blood mixed with the water below. His leg was unnaturally bent against his torso. Blood ran from his head and mixed with his abdominal wound.

"Got him caught in your own genjutsu," the man tutted. "Tsk, tsk. Too bad."

Chakra rushed to Shisui's eyes as he screamed out at his own inadvertent betrayal of one of his best friends. It was his fault. Isamu had told him weeks ago their combo move had a flaw. He didn't listen. He thought he knew better. They could have made a run for it. It was his fault. He wanted to make a stand. It was his fault. He couldn't reach Isamu quickly enough. Tears fell from his eyes, thick and hot. His fault. His fault. The chakra was blinding in its intensity, and the Kiri-nin moved in ultra-sharp clarity.

"Now brat, you're going to tell me where the girl is," he said, holding a kunai to Shisui's throat.

"No. I'm not."

"Suit yourself. But when we find her, we're definitely going to blow off some steam, if you know what I mean."

Shisui felt the flood of chakra crescendo in a mad rush through his eyes. 'Never surrender to a Kiri-nin,' his textbook had said, the phrase bounced around his head.

The mission report he read detailing how his father became lost echoed in his mind. 'Ito Uchiha was forced to torture his male teammate, Jounin Haru Watanabe, to death while Kiri shinobi repeatedly violated Tokubetsu Jounin Akira Watanabe—'

"Kotoamatsukami," a deep voice said from his own mouth. The Kiri shinobi froze. The man from his subconscious hijacked his voice, forcing him to stand to his feet. "You are simple fishermen. You will live on the coast of the Land of Fire, retaining your Kiri identification. When the next Konoha ANBU patrol comes into town, you will turn yourselves in. Only when your feet touch the dungeons of the Konoha Torture and Interrogation department will your memory return."

"No," young Shisui argued. "They killed Isamu! I want them to die!"

"You don't kid. You don't want that on your conscience," the man argued from the corner of his mind.

"Yes, I DO! Get out of my head!"

"I can't! Can't you see that I want nothing more than my own existence to fade?"

The shuffling of feet as the enemies left barely registered as Shisui collapsed onto the ground unconscious.

Warm sunlight filtered through the Hashirama trees of Shisui's mindscape. He could hear the waterfall from the Nakano River past the edge of a cliff. The field of wildflowers blew quietly in the tree line. A man walked out, with short curly hair and familiar eyes.

"Ojii-san?" young Shisui asked, shaking his head.

"I'm afraid not," the man said. "I'm you. Well, you plus about twenty years or so."

"I don't understand."

"Alright, let me put it like this." The man stuck out his hand for Shisui to shake. "My name is Shisui Uchiha. My goal is to protect Konoha from the shadows. I like early morning runs and sweets. I love my family, and friends and would do anything to protect them. Your turn, kid."

Young Shisui hesitated a moment. "My name is Shisui Uchiha. My goal is to—protect Konoha from the shadows. Like my grandfather did…I like early morning runs with my cousin, Obito, sweets, and Katya. Just because we like the same things doesn't prove anything. I could be under a genjutsu from those Kiri-nin."

"No, I suppose it doesn't prove anything." Elder Shisui sat down on an overturned log and leaned back. "But I'll ask you this, does this feel like a genjutsu?"

"No," the younger replied, plopping down on the same log. "Why are you here?"

The elder gave a long sigh before replying, rubbing the back of his head. "I turned the Kotoamatsukami on my wife and completely wiped her memory."

The eight-year-old blinked in surprise. "Why?" he asked slowly. He couldn't imagine turning such a powerful weapon on a loved one.

"To protect her. I didn't want her to remember our past life. I was worried it would drive her crazy. But, it interfered with the plans of a goddess. She wanted both of us to remember. You know about yin and yang? How chakra is composed?"

"Yeah," the kid started slowly. "Physical strength and spiritual strength combine create chakra, or something like that. That's what the chakra theory book said."

"Exactly. I, well, we, have more yin chakra than most people. Your grandmother told you that when he explained the Kotoamatsukami."

The boy nodded in response.

"My wife, she has always had more yang. Combined, we were better together. Anyway, it was this goddess' plan for us to go back in time. Change things. We're a soul pair, or soulmates, I guess you could say. You know a few of the other soul pairs, each bonded to perform a task for the greater good, or to change the course of a timeline. My soulmate was stolen from our world by a god of chaos."

"Wait, so what was your task?"

"To bring peace. To temper those around us and prevent the outbreak of a fourth shinobi war."

"Why was your soulmate stolen?" Younger Shisui asked, his heart sinking.

"There is a being on this planet who learned about what fate had in store for him as a consequence of playing with unnatural forces. It was our fate to stop him. Unfortunately, he made a deal with the god of chaos who threw her into another dimension. As you can imagine, this tipped the scales of balance between the gods."

"Who's your soulmate?"

"You already know."

"No." Shisui began to back away from his elder self. He rapidly shook his hands in front of him in denial. "We're just friends."

"You can try to deny it, but she's your soulmate. You'll always find your way back to her. You will always love her. You can't help it. It doesn't matter what universe or dimension you're in. There's a tie that binds your souls together for eternity."

"No. We're just friends. She's a Senju."

The man shrugged noncommittally. "Maybe that's all you will be in this lifetime. Soulmates don't have to be romantic. But, you complete each other. You lean on each other. My wife was the missing piece to my puzzle. I imagine you probably feel the same about your Katya."

"Why? Why would they do all this?"

"It's a game to them. A game of the gods. To mess with the fate of humans, toy with them, move them like pieces on a shogi board."

The kid sat back down on the log. "You're leaving, aren't you?"

"In a way, I'm only a fragment of your soul, Shisui. It's time for me to return and mend it. You'll carry my memories to help with your task."

"And Kat?"

"No. The Kotoamatsukami destroyed her memories. She doesn't know who she is. I loved my Katya enough to not put her through this. Nothing can break the Kotoamatsukami."

"She's not your Kat, though. Not anymore."

He smiled at him, ruffling the child's hair. "No, she's not. She's a different person. You'll have to figure out who you both are as people as you age. A word of advice though, before I'm released: cherish each other. Don't waste each other's love. Even an eternity is not enough time to say I love you to your soulmate. I wish I would've said it more often."

The man stood up and walked to the edge of the cliff. His body became translucent before disappearing altogether.

Shisui came to with a gasp. His hand reached for his heart, and he panted.

'Isamu,' he thought, his fingers grasping the spiky coastal grass. He risked a glance over the edge of the cliff and brought his knees to his chest. A sob escaped before he could stop it. Tears fell from his eyes, cleansing the dried tracks of blood on his cheeks. Time was irrelevant as he sat there crying for his dead friend. By the time the sun was high in the sky, he finally moved. He couldn't allow the wildlife to destroy Isamu's body.

Hours seemed to pass by with every pebble that fell off the cliff as he climbed down. The pack was heavy on his back, pulling him backward with each hold. Finally, he reached Isamu's body. The young teenager's fingers were cold, the skin had already taken a blue hue. His lilac eyes were unseeing when Shisui turned his body over. A fresh wave of tears fell as Shisui unwound an empty body scroll from his bag.

With every movement, Shisui had to remind himself to keep the chakra out of his eyes. He didn't want to remember this moment. He didn't want to remember how Isamu's cold, stiff body felt as he pulled it onto the paper. He didn't want to know exactly how much chakra he used to seal the body scroll.

He rolled it back and wrapped the scroll in a black ribbon before placing it in his pack. Katya had said the night before there were ten shinobi on the island. Eleven, he corrected himself. Ten in a group and one on their own. He and Isamu had only encountered six. That meant at least four, possibly five, were after Katya and Sensei. Biting his thumb, he traced the kanji on the ground and summoned the crows for the second time since signing the contract.

The largest crow looked at him, tilting his head curiously.

"I need to find Katya. Blonde hair, green eyes, my height. She's with Kuromaru, a large nin-ken. Grey and white fur. They might be injured or in hiding."

"As you wish," the large crow said, bowing his head once more. Twenty crows scattered in all directions over the island.

When they left, Shisui sat down among the rocks. He threw pebbles mindlessly into the current. He felt numb. The only thing on his mind was finding Katya and his sensei. Whatever their fate may have been. He didn't think the gods would have been so cruel as to have allowed Katya to die outright. However, they could be cruel enough to allow her to be tortured.

'That wouldn't have interfered with their plans,' he thought sarcastically. His heart seized in his chest at the thought of Katya in the hands of the Kiri-nin. He tried not to imagine her crying for help, the way she cried out for her brother and father when they were kidnapped years ago.

"Can't do anything about it until you know where she is," he mumbled to himself. "One minute at a time. Just one minute."

Hours passed before the crows returned. They perched on the dead remains of an ash tree.

"We have located the girl," the largest said politely. "She is north of this location by eighteen miles, at the base of the mountain. We found her near a water source and followed her to a cave."

"And the nin-ken?" Shisui asked tiredly, running his hand over his face.

"We did not see the nin-ken."

"I see. Thank you. I have nothing further."

The crows bowed their heads once more before disappearing into the ether.

9 a.m., 18 November 54; Nagi Island

Katya hugged her knees to her chest and shivered against Kuromaru. The cave was absolutely freezing, large icicles formed along the walls. She had read about this, how lava caves in mountains reacted. Reading that it could have up to a thirty-degree temperature difference from the outside was much different than living it in the middle of November. The Kiri-nin were still searching for them. She could feel their chakra signatures moving around the island. Every time she tried to touch the tree roots to see if they had left, they were there. They felt like slime on the tree bark that they touched.

Kuromaru was still unconscious, and she worried he had slipped into a coma. Shisui's chakra was steady, eighteen miles south of them. Isamu's faded slowly until it disappeared altogether. A tear slipped down her cheek when it faded from existence. More tears fell in earnest at the loss, at the fear, at the pain and uncertainty as she sat huddled by Kuromaru's body, counting every breath he took.

Hours passed slowly, one after the other until the sky outside of the sheltered cave entrance darkened. Shisui's signature grew closer. Katya pulled her tattered jacket close around her and peered out of the branches in front of the cave. With one last check to ensure he was alone, she waved him over.

Shisui stopped in front of her and swallowed. "Isamu—"

"I know. We need to hide. They're still looking for us. Five more arrived when you started moving closer."

He nodded and followed her into the cave.

AN: Thank you for reading. If you have time, please leave a comment. I'm curious what you all thought of Isamu's death.

Beta'ed by CherryBerry12