From the Valley of Fears

Part 1

The ground underneath Shisui's foot shifted slightly as the rocks loosened from the dirt. He plopped backward and extended his hands behind him. Itachi sat beside him and offered him his canteen. Like any Tuesday, they'd just had a successful spar and now planned on sitting on this cliff for the next two hours, watching the clouds drift through the sky.

"Itachi, I don't see any other way around it. I just want this to end peacefully." Shisui sighed, breaking the silence. Leaning back, he crossed his arms underneath his head.

Tucking a knee underneath his chin, Itachi replied, "If that is the only option, perhaps we should involve the Hokage?"

Shisui had always thought his friend was maybe a little too optimistic. "Maybe. Just maybe."

A flash of light poured out from the trees. Shisui and Itachi jumped up to face it. A giant burst of chakra erupted from the grove, and there was a slight thump against the bark as they ran toward the perceived threat. They lowered the kunai at the sight before them. A teenage girl crouched there with her hands on her ears, her matted brown hair tied in a loose ponytail, and her lips moving quietly as she cowered against the old oak.

Shisui nodded toward Itachi, who tilted his head to the right. The sixteen-year-old put his kunai into his weapons pouch and held his hands out in front of them. When the girl looked up, he found himself staring into mesmerizing lilac eyes. Itachi held himself at the ready, looking for any signs of false play as his best friend crept closer to the stranger.

She huddled down towards the base of the tree when she saw Shisui move closer, muttering to herself, "I'll be good. I promise. I won't say anything. I'll be good…"

When he was six feet away from her, she cowered even further and held up her hands as a shield. "I'll be good…"

"Hey. It's okay. It's okay. Look at me," Shisui whispered, crouching low, the red irises of his sharingan spinning slowly. The slight figure slumped, powerless against his genjutsu.

He slipped his fingers against her carotid artery and checked her pulse. It felt much too slow. Dark bruises and open wounds covered her wrists and ankles as if she had recently been shackled. What bothered him, even more, were the dark fingerprints against her thin neck.

"What did you show her?" Itachi asked as Shisui placed his arms underneath her legs and back.

"The most peaceful place I know." Shisui shrugged slightly, careful not to jostle her as he lifted her into his arms. The pair jumped into the trees and headed towards Konoha General Hospital.

As the teen opened her eyes, she panicked and fell against a plastic bed rail. An IV had been inserted in her arm, attached to hanging bags of fluids. Without a second thought, she ripped it out, muffling the scream that followed against her shoulder.

The lock on the inside of the door pointed upright. They hadn't locked the door. This was her chance. She could finally escape and be free. They would never touch her again.

The door opened, and the girl tried to stand up from the bed, clutching her bleeding forearm. Her knees gave out from underneath her, and she began to fall face-first.

A strong pair of arms caught her and gently laid her back on the bed. "Woah, careful there," a soft voice said. Moreover, this one sounded kind. If only she could convince him to turn around and look the other way. And if only her legs would work.

"I know what you're thinking. Just calm down, please. Listen to me first, okay?"

Hoping to gain his trust, she sat back on the bed and nodded. This room was different from the others. It was bright and sterile, a soft waffle-knit blanket resting on the bed. Machines beeped and whirred in the corner. The whole place was a far cry from the dank dungeon that she remembered.

"Okay, are you listening?" the teenage boy asked, running a hand through his short curls. "You are in Konoha at Konoha Municipal Hospital. Do you understand where that is?"

The girl went stock-still. There was no way she was out of that lab. It was impossible. The white-haired scientist had removed her chains and scrawled those odd symbols on her. She remembered the ink searing itself into her flesh, but nothing after that.

"Konoha?" she rasped. It just wasn't possible that she was that lucky. "I'm in… Konoha?" A tear slipped down her cheek. The teenager nodded back, worry painted across his face as he looked down at her bloody hospital gown. Subtly pressing a button for additional help, he busied himself with straightening her pillows.

"Yeah. Konoha. My name's Shisui."

"...That's...that's not possible," she whispered, her voice hoarse. Tears fell in earnest now, her shoulders trembling as she stared at his lap. "It's far more likely that I'm dead."

"Well, you're not dead. What's your name, sweetheart?"

"I don't… no one has asked me that in a long time." She swallowed hard, her voice hurt from the disuse, but such a question deserved an answer. "Maiya. My name is Maiya."

The door opened behind Shisui, startling Maiya. She blinked and found herself staring into concerned red eyes before losing consciousness.

The next day, Maiya opened her eyes with a little more coherency. Even so, it took a moment to recognize that she was lying in a hospital bed and not on a stone floor. The blankets were tucked underneath her shoulders, and cool liquid from an IV dripped into her veins. She shivered slightly and pulled the blanket around her shoulders. There was a knock at the door and a moment of hesitation before it opened.

Shisui ran a hand through his hair and held up a bouquet of flowers in question. It wasn't very often that he had an occasion to visit the hospital. Normally, the Uchiha relied on the clan medics to take care of them. Maiya raised an inquiring brow as he carefully arranged the bouquet in a sterilized bedpan.

"You look a lot better today, Maiya," he said with a disarming smile, rolling a doctor's stool over to her bedside before sitting down.

Maiya nodded. She felt like she wanted to sleep for months. The nurses had brought her a bowl of soup the night before and a loose porridge that morning. It had taken a tremendous effort to not throw it all up immediately.

Shisui cleared his throat. "The... uh, nurse said that you might have some difficulty speaking. But they did heal your larynx, so it should be better than yesterday. I'm here in an official capacity, as it happens."

"Oh?"

"I'm a member of the Konoha Military Police, lieutenant by rank."

"You're going to interrogate me?" she asked quietly, picking at the threads in the blanket.

Shisui looked down at his cuticles uneasily. "Yeah, I suppose I am. I'm sorry, but it's standard protocol. We need to know how you got here and whether you're an enemy of the state. Let's just start with where you're from."

"A small village to the southeast in the Land of Rice."

Pulling a small notebook from his pocket, he quickly started to take notes. "Family name?"

Her fingers trembled against the threads. "I… don't…"

He hurriedly waved a hand. "That's okay. Not a big deal, lots of people don't have one."

"I did…" she whispered. "I must have…"

"Maiya, if you need to, we can take breaks. Do you want a glass of water? I can get a glass of water."

"Thanks. Sorry. It's been a while since anyone…"

Shisui turned around and grabbed the bedside pitcher. The effort that it took to hide how upset he was at the situation surprised him. 'A while since anyone had talked to her? How long was she in captivity?' he thought.

"That's okay. Take all the time you need. This is way better than patrolling the streets. They have air conditioning in here," he joked with a wink.

Maiya stared at the cup that he had placed in her hands. Her fingers traced paths through the condensation while Shisui shook his head to get on task.

"Do you know how you were injured? Were you in captivity?"

A short bark of a laugh answered him. "Yes. My village accused me of witchcraft. They sold me to a shinobi outpost north of where I lived… I don't know who the shinobi were or what they wanted. The last thing that I remember, before showing up in this room, was the white-haired one drawing symbols on me. I don't know what his plans were for that."

"Your medic says that you had a concussion, a broken leg, and several large bruises consistent with being beaten." He pulled out a chart from beside the bed and read, "'The bruises on the patient are in different stages of healing, indicating that she was beaten regularly.' It also says that you had restraints on your wrist, ankles, and neck."

"Yeah. That sounds about right." Maiya looked away. Her fingers turned white as she tightened her grip around the water glass. Warmth surrounded her when Shisui laid a palm on top of the back of her hand.

"Here, let me put that on the side. I know this is heavy to get through, to say the least."

The glass switched to Shisui's left hand, and he curled his right fingers around hers in comfort. The notepad lay on his lap, forgotten.

"Ready?" he asked gently, looking for any sign of hesitancy. He wasn't lying about being available for the rest of the afternoon. The Uchiha patriarch may be a hard nut to crack, but trafficked women were a soft spot of his, and he was more than happy to grant Shisui the day for a gentle interrogation.

She exhaled slowly, borrowing strength from his hand in hers. Human touch had long been a rarity in her life. "Okay. What's the next question?"

"Why did they accuse you of being a witch?"

Shisui pulsed a soft burst of chakra in his hand, and the teenage girl relaxed against the pillows behind her. It was an old trick that his grandfather taught him, used to warm people that couldn't produce their own body heat anymore. A long-forgotten point of pride that the Uchiha used to have—only fire-natured chakra could do this.

"Sometimes I see things before they happen. I warned the village elders not to make deals with the pale-faced shinobi—the snake handler and the medic that accompanied him…They didn't want to listen. Instead, they locked me in a cell and called a priest to exorcize me… When that didn't work, I kept warning them. Then some of the smaller children disappeared. They blamed me. That's when...well."

"That's when they sold you?" The muscle in Shisui's jaw ticked, and he quickly tried to relax. There was absolutely nothing further he could do about this situation. She wasn't the first victim of Orochimaru's to have escaped. She was just the first one to have lived.

"...yes."

He ran his thumb along her index finger and lightly squeezed her hand before letting go. "Well, I don't think I have any further questions for you, Maiya. Thank you for participating in my investigation. I'll be back tomorrow to check on you." Shisui smiled at her and was pleasantly surprised when she attempted a small one in return before he stood up.

"Ano. Shisui?"

"Yeah?"

Maiya picked at the threads on the blanket. "Don't trust the bandaged man. Don't meet with him alone. He means to harm you and your family," she said softly, never moving her eyes from her hands.

Shisui stilled and nodded before leaving the room entirely.

AN: This was written in the summer of 2021 and has been kind of an idea sitting in the back of my head. I had this thought of her growing into a civilian midwife for Konoha and them finding each other again, falling in love and all of that. (I absolutely love the idea of Shisui with a civilian and then coping with that, I think it's a beautiful thing and makes for a good read.) Then of course a climax, pinch-point and fin. If you guys like the start of this let me know. I find your comments, likes and kudos encouraging.

Jan 9 2023 Update: I am up to about 50,000 words for this story and the end is nigh; it will probably end at about 75k or so.

Beta'ed by: Mrs. Sakura Hatake ( /users/Mrssakurahatake/pseuds/Mrssakurahatake) she's amazing, all of her writing is witty and super original.

*and*

The lovely Cherryberry12 ; thank you so much!