Shisui/Aiko oneshot

Absurd and random, I know, but this is from a setting where she’s born 5 years before Naruto.

Xxx

“Uzumaki-san.” Shisui had to stop and suck in a steadying breath. They could afford a few seconds to plan, they had gotten far enough away. He pushed through the pain boring into his skull as his stomach lurched. He could tell that she was looking at him. He managed a grin and looked up at her. “Would you consider taking a break from being the most frightening person I know?”

She had his heart rate up, for sure. Something about the way she’d appeared out of nowhere and wrenched him out of Danzo’s grip made him think of an avenging goddess.

She blinked twice. Then she rolled her eyes. “Let’s go,” she said instead. She looked very tense. “We need help if we don’t want to be dead.”

He bit his lip and stood shakily. “To your mother?” He asked, not unkindly. She was a powerful ally. The Hokage’s widow was someone even Danzo would hesitate to come after.

‘Although I never would have anticipated that he would come after me.’

Uzumaki-san glanced around, teal eyes darting in all directions. “No,” she said. Then she seemed to hear how short that had sounded. She amended, “Nara Shikaku.”

Shisui felt his eyebrows shoot up. “Why him?” He asked. She didn’t answer.

‘I don’t see a reason, when she has arguably better political connections... Maybe that’s why. Danzo-sama won’t be watching for us to go to the Nara compound. And he will be looking for us. Not just because he wants my eye… He must be very unhappy that Uzumaki-san interfered.’

He staggered to follow her, steady again after spending a moment vertically. He just had to keep going. He’d lose more than an eye if he didn’t keep moving.

It occurred to him to be very afraid that Danzo might be right. Especially now that he only had one eye. What if he couldn’t change Fugaku-sama’s mind? Maybe he should have asked Uzumaki-san to step aside, to let Danzo take his other eye and keep both Konoha and the Uchiha safe.

He couldn’t focus on missed opportunities. He was in a mission mode, and someone else had taken point.

He followed Uzumaki mindlessly, just putting one foot in front of the other. It took his full concentration. She was fast, for someone who wasn’t him, anyway. The disorientation of having only half his vision made keeping up a challenge.

The straight route was over the rooftops, cutting through the city center. He would have picked that over circling through the forests, because witnesses would make it a lot harder for Danzo to kill them. And it was “them” now.

‘If she hadn’t helped me…’

Shisui’s stomach flipped.

‘She’d be safe. I don’t want to believe that Danzo would hurt her. But I didn’t think he would attack me, either.’

She was even littler than Itachi. Unconsciously he compared her narrow shoulders to his cousin’s. He felt ill.

Those thoughts were probably why it took him a little too long to realize that they were not heading where he’d expected. Rather than darting for the area of the Hokage tower, Uzumaki took him to a…

“A park?” He asked, mindful to be quiet.

She glanced back at him and pressed a finger to her lips. Then she knelt at the base of a tree and ohhh. There was a sealed trap door. He jumped in after her, landing silently in near perfect darkness. He had to follow by sound.

‘What is this?’ He wondered, keeping his focus off the pain. ‘It’s not part of any ANBU network, surely. Who else would have secret passageways? And what group might Uzumaki-san be associated with?’

He didn’t really know much about her, he realized. He knew she was Itachi’s age, and already a jounin. He knew she was combat-focused… or was good for combat, anyway,  he amended, wondering what she actually did. He’d never gone on a mission with her. ‘Maybe she’s in Intelligence, it would make sense for them to have networks for traveling unnoticed.’

They came back out of the darkness into another green area. He belatedly recognized it as a training ground as they left it.

They came to the gates of the Nara estate.

Even at the late hour, the guard noticed them quickly. A Nara chuunin that Shisui didn’t know sucked in a gasp when they appeared. Her dark eyes catalogued the blood on Shisui’s face, the location of the injury, the deep gouge in Uzumaki-san’s arm guards.

“Good evening,” Shisui chirped, managing a smile with teeth. “Is Nara-sama in?”

The gate guard glanced behind them, clearly looking for pursuit.

“Yes,” Uzumaki-san said, sounding oddly detached. “We are probably followed, but no one is close. You’ll need backup.”

He managed not to snort at that. Backup indeed. The chuunin wasn’t an idiot. She looked at two jounin who had clearly not had an easy fight and she opened up the gate. “Come on,” she said in an undertone.

She must have had some way of signaling, because Nara-sama met them before they reached the main house.

“Please excuse the intrusion,” Uzumaki-san said politely. Her bow was a little deeper than it maybe needed to be, from a hime.

Shisui had a sinking feeling. ‘....do they actually know each other?’ He wondered. ‘I assumed there was a connection. Why else would she choose to come here?’

Unless she’d come there specifically because there was not a connection and no one, including Nara Shikaku, would expect two bloody teenagers to go to his front garden for help.

He had the sudden and entirely unwelcome sensation that he had tracked mud into someone else’s house.

“Uzumaki-hime,” he said, “and Shisui-san. Should I be concerned?”

“Middling,” Uzumaki answered. She straightened from her bow. “I doubt anyone will look for us here, but our pursuit knows Konoha well.”

A muscle jumped in Nara-sama’s neck. “Come in,” he ordered. He turned on his heel and they followed. The shoji room they ended up in must have been a lot better secured than it seemed to be.

“Shisui-san, is it unsafe for you to go to the hospital?” The Nara clan head looked at the elephant in- well. The elephant that wasn’t in the room.

He resisted the impulse to press his hand against his empty eye socket. He’d be sick if he thought about it too much.

“I don't think it’s safe,” he said. “I didn’t exactly expect to be attacked in-village, and Uzumaki-san seems to know more than me about what’s going on.”

She gave him a dirty look which he didn’t really understand. “Nara-sama,” she said, and then stopped. “It’s a little difficult to explain.”

The clan head looked very tired. “I imagine so. If there were intruders, I would not be the authority that you came to.”

Uzumaki nodded. She glanced at Shisui dryly, and then did something bizarre. She opened her mouth wide and stuck her tongue out at the Clan head.

‘Uzumaki,’ Shisui thought, viciously confused. ‘They’re not exactly known for their reverence, but-‘

Nara inhaled sharply. His eyes narrowed and now, Shisui realized, now he looked angry. “You are too young to have that,” he said.

Uzumaki-san glanced away. “Even so,” she said.

And then the full force of Nara Shikaku’s considerable ire was on Shisui. “Danzo,” he said darkly. He grimaced. “Did- did Councilman Danzo take your eye?” The barest hint of incredulity leaked into his voice.

Shisui clenched his jaw and nodded. “Yes.” He glanced at his oddly quiet companion. “Uzumaki-san rescued me before he got the second. But…” he trailed off, not entirely sure what had happened. “I… I think he already had a sharingan.” It was hard to wrap his head around that.

Nara cursed.

Shisui blinked. ‘I don’t know that word.’

“Is there anything else I should know?” Nara asked, looking at Uzumaki.

She nodded.

“About bloodline theft?”

A nod.

‘Why can’t she talk? Is that why she showed her tongue?’

Shisui  regretted that he hadn’t looked closer. He was at the wrong angle, anyway. He’d… he’d put his bad side to Uzumaki-san, he realized. He must have subconsciously trusted she’d protect his blind spot.

“Another sharingan?”

She… shook her head.

Something cold stole across his chest.

‘What is rotting in Konoha?’

Nara looked disgusted. “Another Konoha clan? Yes. Hyuuga? Aburame?” He ran through a list, getting negatives until - “Senju?”

Shisui grimaced.

Nara cursed again. He ran a hand through his head. “Anything else?”

Uzumaki nodded. She seemed unaffected. Her silence was really creeping him out.

‘I was mostly joking before when I said she was scary, but she doesn’t seem like a 13 year old.’ Shisui shifted in his seat. ‘Why does she know so much? Something is going on, and it’s got nothing to do with the Uchiha rebellion.’

“But not more bloodline theft?”

At that, Uzumaki hesitated. Nara pounced. “Theft of bloodline ability but not the organs themselves- theft of jutsu?” He sucked in a breath when she indicated no. His next question took a while. “Theft of bloodline users?”

Shisui felt his stomach lurch with disgust when Uzumaki-san nodded silently.

‘Danzo is kidnapping people? And she knows about it?’ He watched her in disbelief. ‘She turned on him, acted against him to save me. There’s no way he can let her live.’

“And that’s how it’s continued without official oversight,” Nara said, mostly to himself. He stood. “Thank you. I’ll send a medic here. Do we move out or do we hunker down?”

Uzumaki-san stood, which was answer enough. “You keep your face hidden,” Nara said, “I’ll have different clothes sent over. Shisui-san, stay with her. She’s in as much danger as you.” The clan head gave the unrepentant girl a dry look. “Probably more, given how much information she must have.”

“Yes, sir,” Shisui said solemnly. The pain was bothering him less, now that he’d had time to get used to it. He thought he could probably fight. “Allies?”

“I’m sending for Chouza and Inoichi.” The Nara head looked tired, far older than he could possibly be. “We’ll go to the Hyuuga for sanctuary, and approach the Hokage together. It’ll be open warfare. We don’t want Danzo to be able to paint any one person or group as traitors. If there’s enough of us, that’ll be impossible to pull off.” Nara stood to his rather impressive full height. “Hyuuga protecting an Uchiha will make a convincing statement, and the Hyuuga have more interest than most in fighting bloodline theft.”

The whole situation was bizarre, had been since Shisui was ambushed in his own home. But he was starting to feel that it would work out.