It's supposed to be the last day of Shisui's life.

In a way, it is.

To Konoha, Uchiha Shisui is missing, assumed dead.

But to the newly-founded Konoha, Uchiha Shisui is a new face that emerged in the midst of chaos. A stranger from nowhere with the eyes of an Uchiha and the speed of a Senju, a young man who knows both too much and too little to be trusted.

…...

A/N-

"It's like hurtling down a rollercoaster while a madman is trying to eat your face"

-Katlou303, my beloved and eternally patient Beta

Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence, F/M M/M F/F Other

…..

Chapter One:

A World of Pain, A World of Grey, A World Unknown ...And Yet...

Sunlight, streams of amber and hazy gold, pierced the thick canopy above his head. The forest was quiet, almost laughably peaceful, which only made circumstances all the more ironic.

Of course it was such a beautiful day, one so glorious he couldn't help but remember with a pang just how much he loved his village. When the air was fresh and warm, the leaves rustling overhead, the sky aflame under the setting sun as though the Will of Fire had reached up and painted the horizon.

Of course it was on a day such as this that death would finally catch him..

Lungs heaving and limbs like lead, Shisui could only push himself to keep going.

There were chakra signatures, muted but there, just behind him. And below. And above. There was blood in his eyes, slashes of pain and rivers over his skin, dripping from his chin.

He could barely see anymore. And, as one of the most renown Uchiha, that made everything all the more terrifying.

The Village was sacred. It held all the illusion of safety as a holy shrine, as though, although no-one would ever be naive enough to believe it true, no enemy could cross it's boundaries. Ninja, who killed every day of their lives and tore apart homes and villages and hearts alike, could return and feel some semblance of safety. Konoha was a haven from the world, as though stepping through the gates symbolised that your mission-sanctioned deeds were behind you and now you could move on.

That was a lie. But, like all veneers of prettiness, it was a lovely little delusion.

He loved his village.

As a child, raised with a weapon in his grasp, the idea of ever being truly safe had seemed impossible. Everyone was so strong and the war had annihilated any childish dream of peace.

Except…

Konoha was home. Where Shinobi could sleep and eat and flourish without having to watch...every...single...step. Watch, yes. But also breathe. Families only seemed to consolidate that ideal, that even trained assassins could build themselves a future. And, when Shisui had walked around the Compound as a child and, later, an adult...he dared to hope again.

Wasn't it funny that his belief in a haven would see him dead at its door?

With a silent huff, Shisui landed on the next branch, knees trembling upon impact and a hand jerked to brace himself before he could buckle.

Dammit, damn it all-!

A displacement of sir behind him and-

Shisui threw himself to the side, slipping off the branch with an inaudible grunt and landing ankle-deep in the undergrowth below. The kunai thudded harmlessly into the bark but Shisui was already off again.

Like liquid mercury, the teen wove through the projectiles bearing down on him, skidding through the bushes and twisting around trunks. There was no fighting back, besides snagging a few weapons and returning fire. He was, Shisui was honest enough with himself to admit, out of his depth. Blinded by blood and suffering from some kind of Aburame poison - that fizzed through his limbs like toothache and clouded his brain - he was backed into a corner.

Just...buying time.

Itachi was gone, an ANBU mission not due back for a few days yet. He couldn't go to his Clan, even though Shisui knew they'd immediately come to his aid; these nin were from Danzo and, therefore, Konoha...it would only make everything so much worse. There wouldn't be a Coup… it would be a battlefield.

He just- he needed time - to recuperate, to keep his Mangekyou from Danzo.

There was so little time.

Shisui ducked under another branch, cursing when he realized he was on the edge of a clearing - perfect for an ambush, to be picked off without cover whilst his enemies skulked in the trees.

A tantō, insultingly similar to his own, bit into the tree beside his head, missing his jugular by a hairsbreadth. Shit.

Without a choice - they corralled me here! - Shisui ducked out of the protection of the woods and they were immediately upon him.

A swarm of insects, like a putrid fog, swirled overhead but were temporarily held back by a hasty Fire Jutsu. The seals were scarcely completed before Shisui was ducking again, bending beneath the slash of a Katana and stabbing a kunai high into his attacker's thigh.

He'd kept that one back from earlier. Absently, dancing away from another slash at his heart, Shisui wondered if they carried antidotes to each others poisons.

A third operative materialised into the clearing, flashing through signs to spit a huge globe of discoloured water which collided with Shisui's second Grand Fireball with a hiss of smoke and steam.

Time...I need an opening-

Another signature flared beyond the trees and Shisui reacted.

Emerald exploded outwards, tearing across the open grass in gem-like flames and roaring up at the sky. Shisui was swathed in chakra, a warm cloak that tugged at his reserves and he had to lock his knees against the dizziness that followed. Suspended inside the great figure, however, the teen allowed it to support his weight.

Susanoo, taking the form of an ancient warrior, swung its blade down towards ROOT. The three leapt back, taking to the trees with a quickness that belied some kind of desperation. Shisui wasn't sure they could feel emotion like that, let alone in the midst of a battle, but they were still people.

Glowing in the light of the chakra construct, Shisui concentrated his Mangekyou towards the hidden operatives, feeling the thick black and scarlet pattern slowly turn…

A layer of Genjutsu, so fine it appeared like a whip of smoke to Shisui's gaze, and the illusion settled over the entire clearing.

A shadow of the teen staggered, Susanoo extinguished in an instant like a snubbed candle wick, and his illusion self made a dash towards the left, in the direction of the Naka River.

Shisui, releasing his grip on Susanoo and sinking to his knees, waited with bated breath as the hidden nin left in pursuit of his illusion. When their presences had faded away into the distance and followed his Genjutsu downstream, Shisui let out a low exhale. His mouth tasted like fresh blood, although if it was from his injuries or his frantic pulse, he couldn't say.

His heart was racing, thrumming in his chest and pounding blood in his ears. Shaking fingers, too nimble after all these years to be clumsy despite his numbness, burrowed into his pocket for an emergency capsule. Shisui swallowed it dry, forcing it down his sore throat as wary eyes flickered around the now-empty meadow.

It wouldn't give him much but he'd last a little longer this way.

His canteen was almost empty, scuffed and dented from where it was strapped to protect his lower spine, but Shisui uncapped it anyway. The water was warm, washing the blood from his lips around his mouth until all he could taste was iron.

Slow clapping pierced the stillness of the clearing.

Shisui was moving before the noise had fully registered, body groaning with protest and Mangekyou furiously spinning.

I need to get this poison out now if that's another operative or they're coming back-

"Hey, don't be so hasty~"

An orange mask, swirled like a sweet, striped like a tiger and surrounded by a messy mop of dark hair appeared. Despite the novelty of its design, Shisui could feel the malice radiating from the figure leaning casually against a tree opposite.

They-they hadn't been there a second ago! Shisui wasn't named after the Shunshin for nothing and he knew that technique better than anyone else. How...how did they simply materialise without a technique like that, even the most basic would register on my senses…

Shisui was the best of his Clan, whispered to be secondly only in speed as the Yondaime. He trumped Itachi in only years, quickness and experience, but it was enough.

Shaking off his shock, Shisui fingered a kunai as he slid into a ready crouch. "Who are you?"

The orange mask quirked, arms crossed so casually that Shisui felt rankled. A foreign nin, so blasè about the potential threat he posed. Shisui wasn't an arrogant asshole but he knew his worth. His Bingo Book entry had hammered that home long ago.

"That was a nice Genjutsu."

Their voice was deep, masculine but somehow familiar, and Shisui didn't recognise his chakra but there was something-

Red eyes narrowed. "You never answered me; who are you?"

A long pause and Shisui risked pulling out a basic anti-venom syringe from his medi-pouch, flipping the safety latch and stabbing it into his thigh. It wouldn't cure the slow advance of the Aburame poison in his veins but...if he had to fight, well, it would help with the symptoms. For a while.

"You can call me Tobi."

'Can call', Shisui's eyes sharpened, pulling out the emergency pen and discarding it. So not his actual name… "Are you from Konoha?"

He knew he wasn't, unless he was another from ROOT. But the mask was wrong, as was his entire presence, so Shisui was betting he was a foreign nin, come to check out the commotion from all the chakra thrown around.

"Judging from your eyes and that pretty hitai-ate, I'd say you were." Another non-answer. Shisui was really losing patience with this guy. Danzo could arrive at any minute, he didn't have time to waste like this if the stranger was just going to play with him.

His leg shifted minutely, skidding on rain-dampened soil, but 'Tobi' didn't so much as twitch.

"You are familiar with the Uchiha?" It was a silly question in these parts but Shisui had blood smeared over his face, Danzo's clawed fingers having tore through a brow and the delicate skin around his precious eyes when he'd tried to gouge out his Dojutsu. Shisui was, understandably, wary.

'Tobi' chuckled, deep and rumbling in his chest and Shisui mentally re-evaluated his suspected age. "You could say that."

Shisui stared, Sharingan boring into the dark hole concealing his eyes in shadow and then-

Red flared to life, almost glowing as it shifted from tomoe to Mangekyou and Shisui paled. There was sweat trickling down his temple and his lungs felt as though they were being crushed in an iron grip.

"You-"

"The Uchiha are so busy, nowadays, don't you agree?"

Swallowing hard, Shisui really didn't think he was talking about the small increase in Uchiha newborns in the past year.

"I wouldn't know," the teen refuted, Sharingan locked and waiting.

The stranger finally straightened, stretching his limbs with an ease that picked at Shisui's nerves. This...isn't good.

"Oh, I think you know more than most," Shisui could almost hear the smile in his voice. It didn't sound like a very nice one. "Why else would Shimura Danzo be after your head?...or, rather, your eyes?"

Dread weighed like an avalanche on his shoulders, yanking his heart into his stomach and Shisui almost staggered with the realisation that he had, quite literally, leapt from the frying pan into the fire. Shit.

"What do you want?"

The- the other Uchiha cocked his head, stepping casually into the meadow and meandering closer with hands in pockets. Shisui, still grasping a kunai, shifted to match him.

"How about a deal?"

Or else...what? He'll kill me?

"Go on."

'Tobi' continued walking, slowly treading a circle around the younger ninja in an eerie imitation of a beast and it's prey. Considering his current circumstances, Shisui didn't much like that comparison.

"The Uchiha have plans but," the masked nin freed a hand from his pocket to half-heartedly gesture towards Shisui's taunt figure. "It seems Konoha isn't going to deal with it peacefully. Say I were to...lend...my assistance?"

'Deal with it peacefully?' Hokage-sama would never-

But, hadn't Danzo shown that they might?

Sandaime-sama has always been a merciful leader. He wouldn't respond so viciously against a Founding Clan, let alone one filled with so many innocents. And...weren't ROOT supposedly disbanded under the Yondaime? I...I have to believe that they wouldn't.

"Why?"

The orange masked tipped again, puppyish and mocking. "'Why' what, Shisui-kun?"

The Jōnin tightened his grip on the kunai held subtly behind his thigh at the realisation that this stranger knew exactly who he was whilst Shisui was still scrambling in the dark. "Why would you help?"

"I have my own reasons."

Another diverted response, Shisui mentally frowned.

"The Hokage-"

"Ah, I see," 'Tobi' finally stopped, arms limp as he turned towards the village. "You still have faith they will not betray you."

Yes, yes, he had faith. Because what was the difference between enemies and allies if there wasn't a home to protect, an ideal to defend? Nothing, and Shisui was through with having nothing to hold onto. At least, this way, maybe Itachi and his family could have such peace.

'Tobi' continued stepping closer, the clearing slowly darkening as the sun dipped behind the mountains and the sky flushed plum-purple. The creeping shadows only made their Sharingan all the more evident. "I suppose you're the wrong one then." Shisui shifted again, his free hand twitching to draw his blade at the dismissal. "Maybe the Heir will be more compelling-"

Itachi.

And Shisui snapped.

His tantō flashed silver as he pulled it from its sheath, slashing through the air only for 'Tobi' to easily take the hit-

Which passed straight through him.

His Mangekyou swirled and Shisui scarcely had time to draw a shocked breath before they were meeting again.

'Tobi' was as merciless as he was cruel, kicking at Shisui's previous injuries with an unerring accuracy that suggested he'd watched the entire damned debacle with ROOT. Shisui's speed was only just enough to spare him an utter beat-down, curling around blows and redirecting limbs so quickly he couldn't even think his actions through, simply do.

When 'Tobi' almost managed to get a hand around his throat, Shisui flickered away for even a second's respite.

His fingers blurred through seals as Tobi blinked out of existence, breathing a scorching wreath of flame around his crouched figure. That should buy me a second to-

An arm, clothed in dark fabric and untouched by the inferno, seemed to melt through the roaring flames and moved to strike before Tobi had even fully emerged.

This technique! Shisui ducked a high kick and aimed a punch that passed straight through. It must be his Mangekyou!

The 19-year-old could barely keep up, only his speed and excellent instincts allowing him to avoid taking any serious damage. Tobi was relentless, his attacks flowing and resolute. He wasn't graceful, but he was obviously extremely well trained. However, just from watching his various attacks, Shisui could see something...off.

His right side was stiffer, slower to react. It was subtle but, with his eyes focused, Shisui found it impossible to miss. His opponent landed out of sync, almost clumsy, when Shisui released his Susanoo again in a desperate bid for space.

"Don't go near my cousin-" Shisui panted, suspended in swathes of emerald chakra as the stranger watched, his breathing barely even elevated.

He waited for the other's own Susanoo to appear.

But...it didn't.

Why? Shisui wrestled with his confusion as he directed the green entity to attack. Susanoo slammed it's blade into the earth, the ground exploding upwards but Tobi merely faded through it. Why hasn't he? Does he not need it?

Scarlet met his searching gaze, glowing from the single hole in his mask. Single-

Shisui jolted, Susanoo protecting him as Tobi spat a ball of fire - was that Grand Fireball?!

He only has one eye. Did that mean...he doesn't have a Susanoo?

Night had fallen completely by now, the trees painted in garish green light from Shisui's chakra construct and casting long shadows into the forest. The earth was scorched, the clearing all but decimated and, as Tobi attempted to merge through Shisui's cloak of pure chakra, the Jōnin desperately focused even more.

And Susanoo grew, glowing with light and bathing the land jade.

However, the cloak may have become stronger, at the cost of draining Shisui's reserves even faster, but Tobi was not to be stopped. Desperate, Susanoo batted it's great, scaled wings and Shisui took to the skies.

Even as far away as they were from the Village centre, Shisui heard the alarm go up. He most definitely didn't miss the signatures that started racing towards their fight. ANBU.

Kami, Shisui could only pray it was his own squad; Genma was a poisons expert and Shisui, legs numb and ears ringing, could only pray to whatever god was listening that he'd get to a healer in time.

"It seems we're out of time." Tobi's deep voice cut through the crackle of Susanoo, the dark figure leaping into the air to join the Jōnin.

But Shisui couldn't let him leave. The thought was unacceptable, that such a threat to Itachi, to them all, would be allowed to slip through his fingers. Or phase.

Desperate, Shisui stabbed his kunai through Tobi's stomach just as he grabbed at the black hair above the mask with his other hand.

His grip held.

He can only concentrate on one area at a time!

The realisation quickened his breath, which was already wheezing as the Jōnin clumsy deflected the worst of his blows. In such close quarters and distracted, Shisui could only just manage to make the hits more manageable when they landed. When, not if. A punch aimed at his throat clipped the curve of his clavicle, a kick to his groin dragging down the side of his thigh.

He was beaten and aching but Shisui kept his tantō in the fuckers torso, stabbing over and over, and kept a grip on his hair.

A prickle of awareness and Shisui could have sobbed with relief when his Captain's signature registered just beyond the clearing.

Until Tobi started to dissolve above him.

"No!" Shisui roared, lashing out desperately with arms and legs and everything he possessed, stabbing his blades into nothing and losing his grasp on the short hair between his fingers. "Oh no, you fucking don't-"

Inu-senpai burst into the field, arms flashing blue and white and cracking the air with raw lightning, the screams of tortured birds.

Just as Shisui, snarling and helpless, threw out his Mangekyou with all the willpower he possessed.

A single red eye met his, shadowed in the stranger's mask, but it was enough.

The Jōnin's fingers clamped onto Tobi's throat. Do not leave Konoha. You cannot leave. You cannot flee-

Tobi faded into nothing.

And took Shisui with him.

All noise faded, a buzz of nothingness that in no way resembled slumber or unconsciousness. It was devoid of sound, a vacuum of reality and Shisui's ears rang from the silence.

He glimpsed at a wasteland of concrete, grey bricks and a black sky, before there was a hand on his throat and no air to be had.

Tobi's grip was hard and merciless, squeezing hard and pushing Shisui's neck into the ground like he wanted to tear through and spew his blood everywhere.

Black dots danced before his eyes, legs twitching and Shisui knew he was fucked. Tobi had the upper hand here, intangible and stronger and in his own territory and Shisui was going to die.

He was going to die and Tobi-

Tobi was going to go back.

Scrambling fingers, that gripped at anything and everything and fought for survival, curled into another endless fist.

Both hands and most of his body weight focused on strangling the younger man, the mysterious Uchiha didn't see that fist coming until, a blur in the dim space, it cracked against his temple. The blow, compared to Shisui's earlier forms, was weak but, against the fragile bone just visible at the edge of the orange mask, it was enough. It was enough.

Tobi was knocked half an inch to the side, head reeling as his vision no doubt rang, and Shisui wasted no time.

His lungs screamed for air but his hands grasped a kunai and stabbed, vicious and hard, against the orange mask above him.

The blade sank straight through, harmless and throwing him off balance.

"Not so easy!" The older man chortled, the humor in his voice only thinly veiling the frustration there. "Don't be so rude, Shisui-kun-"

A single red eye dropped back to his, curved slightly with amusement, but Shisui was already lashing out.

His chakra was down and, in all his years as a Shinobi, he'd never been so close to death. Under the claws of the tiger...the ironic imagery, the striped orange mask, was not lost on him.

But he wasn't going down like this. Not without making sure this 'Tobi' was dead too.

Sluggishly at first and then picking up speed, Shisui's Mangekyou bloomed into existence and spun in a blur of crimson and fathomless black. With the technique stretched out to tether onto reality, Shisui could feel the strange place he'd been taken to. It was...vacant.

Hollow.

Shisui had been in caves before, deep and furrowing burrows that made his Captain twitch and had their team's chakra quivering with paranoia.

Here, it felt like they were encased in a fishbowl, a paper lantern...like a bubble of reality-

-a bubble of reality-

It was desperate and incomprehensible but, if he was going to die, so would Tobi.

Hands clamped down on his abused trachea with renewed viciousness, all of Tobi's supposed good humor falling away in concentration at the task at literal hand. The focus, and therefore distraction, was all that Shisui needed.

So, instead of crafting a new reality within Tobi's mind, Shisui's Mangekyou exploded chakra outwards in a silent roar of destruction.

And tore it.

Barely a minute had passed since Tobi had phased them out and Shisui had realised that, yes, today he would die. That this was it.

The grey world around them writhed, fracturing like glass and tearing like paper and dissolving like acid. The floor rumbled beneath Shisui's spine, falling and pitching as though a great earthquake was breaking the foundations of this little universe.

The grip on his throat heaved him up, gloved nails biting into the tender flesh. "What the fuck did you do?!"

Shisui's head was foggy, distant as a smokey silhouette, but he managed to salvage a final, crooked smile. Not laughing now? He wanted to snicker but the abuse of his neck made any answer impossible.

The space around them constricted, flickering like an aftershock or the blur of the horizon mid-Shunshin.

And, speaking of…

Shisui flexed the last of his reserves, barely enough for a handful of jutsu, and smiled.

His namesake, his beloved Shunshin, shivered around him just as Tobi, with a similar idea, started to dissolve into nothing and any sense of triumph died swiftly.

"No!" Shisui croaked, pathetic and choking. The older man's thighs had already disappeared as the Jōnin scrambled up. No, no, no- it couldn't end like this! He'd tried so fucking hard to trap the bastard and he didn't give a shit, not anymore, if he lived to revel in his victory. But everyone depended on this stranger dying.

Itachi, Sasuke...for the peace of Konoha.

"You fucker-"

And, impossibly, they both disappeared again.

The vacuum of sound, of reality, hadn't even faded before Shisui felt Tobi fist a hand in his shirt and wrap an arm around his neck. The hold was strong and insistent and Shisui was barely conscious. It was a miracle he'd lived this long. The bones of his neck creaked in protest, the muscle against his cheek clenching in preparation to snap.

For the first time that night, Shisui's kunai sank into flesh.

The bite of the blade was enough, tearing through the taunt length of his attacker's ribs and only stopping when Shisui felt it scrape bone.

They hadn't fully formed back into reality when Shisui shoved himself free.

His back slammed into bark, punching the air from his lungs as soundly as a Warhammer would have. His eyes swam from the sudden lash of pain, burning his throat like acid and Shisui dropped limp.

There was no noise, dampened soil pressed to his cheek and barely conscious.

The world was hushed, with only the creak of the lofty tree boughs and rustle of a million leaves to disrupt the stillness.

His body screamed with pain, shutting down either in death or in exhaustion, Shisui didn't even know.

But he didn't sense Tobi. In fact, he couldn't sense anyone.

And, as the world slipped away, Shisui hoped the bastard was dead.

…..

The blackness did not hold him long.

Shisui came to with a whining groan, limbs heavy with exhaustion and every breath making him tremble with agony.

He was still face down in the grass, unmoved from his original fall. No-one had found him or, if they had, they hadn't even touched his kit. Shisui, for himself, was far too wounded to have shifted in his sleep. The body recognised its own condition.

If Shisui had the strength to stand, it would be a feat.

His chakra reserves, previously empty, were in slightly better condition. The rest had obviously helped but, without healing and nourishment, Shisui's inevitable death was just being drawn out here.

Throat far too damaged to groan, Shisui could only stretch his lips, cracked and bleeding anew, in a silent scream when he rolled onto his side.

Adrenaline and unchained animal terror, so it seemed, had been his saviour last (?) night. His left arm was so heavily bruised, his favourite to block with tantō in his right, it might as well have been broken. His skin, beneath his greaves, was mottled purple and red, the bruises swollen and sore to the touch. They'd need a salve for sure. His torso, when, with creaking bones and bloodied knuckles, the Jōnin lifted the hem of his ruined shirt to investigate, was just as discoloured.

Filthy, scratched fingers fumbled across the tender flesh for any sign of internal bleeding and Shisui, eyes still closed against the leaf-filtered light and head rested back, breathed in relief.

He was singed and torn and beaten but.

He wasn't broken and he was alive.

It must've been an hour before the Uchiha felt able to peel back swollen lids and squint at the sky above him. The light had grown, the yellow cast suggesting the closing in of dawn, but it was warm enough that Shisu didn't feel chilled.

Propped against the very tree he'd collided with, Shisui laid out his remaining supplies. He had to be careful, rationing out as much as possible with enough to keep him alive. Until he could get back to Konoha.

Maybe he'd get close before sending a crow to Kakashi-senpai or Itachi.

But he had to be cautious. Tobi...Danzo...there were too many wild cards for him to be careless. Too much depended on his return, to warn and protect.

He had four kunai and six shuriken, his tantō, two pills, a roll of bandages, a small medics kit (he'd never go without one after the first time he was stuck up shit creek without the bare minimals), and an emergency injection of adrenaline.

He'd been lightly equipped for a simple training run in the woods. He'd practice his mid-Shunshin throws, recited a few Katas on the edge of the waterfall...generally just had a bit of me-time, cathartic exercise to ease the tensions running high.

Hindsight was 20/20.

And it had all gone to utter shit.

No moping, Uchiha. Shisui reminded himself, lips pressed together as he reached his thigh holster. This is a mission. Act like it.

Water was the first crucial marker. Shisui wasn't just dirty but he was caked with blood and the stench of fear, pain and general prey. He was easy pickings for any predator, human and beast alike.

Not to mention that he was dehydrated and his wounds needed cleaning before they became infected.

Eyes fluttering shut, Shisui felt for what little chakra has returned in him and grimaced at the shallow flicker.

It was barely enough but, desperate times called for desperate measures, and the last of Shisui's chakra trickled down his limbs. It was a trick pioneered by Senju Tsunade, the Slug Princess. Whilst the blonde Sannin used the effect to be a devastating force on both the battlefield and the operating table, Shisui had picked this little trick up from Mikoto-sama herself. His Clan's Matriarch had been a kenjutsu specialist before marriage and, with fine accuracy, she'd extent a ribbon of chakra into her wielded blade.

Shisui hadn't progressed as far as her but he knew enough for this.

As his chakra, such a small amount, filtered into his weakened limbs, the energy surge temporarily deadened the pain.

Knowing he was literally running on borrowed time, Shisui clambered awkwardly to his feet and, gazing between the deciduous trees that rose around him, followed the natural slope of the land. The ground was damp, the layer of pine needles and decomposing leaves sticking wetly to his sandals. It had obviously rained here recently. But, from the dryness of Shisui's own clothes, it couldn't have been whilst he was 'sleeping'. It hadn't rained around Konoha or Fire in weeks, the height of summer as humid as it was hot. But no rain, just a disgusting, uncomfortable, inherent stickiness.

Shisui risked a deeper breath, staggering through the undergrowth-

He faltered.

This forest wasn't right.

Dark eyes flickered up and around and realisation had him swallowing harshly.

These trees...weren't right.

Senju Hashirama had surrounded Konoha with great, mammoth trees formed from his kekkei genkai. The forests were saturated with his sunshine-bright chakra, even decades and decades afterwards.

These… were not those trees.

I must've been cast out of 'Tobi's technique even further from what I'd thought. I could, theoretically, be anywhere…

It didn't matter in the long run. Smaller goals first. Worrying about his possible location, and how the fuck he was going to get back. Water. Find water… he could do that.

Following the natural curves of the forest, relatively easy even just growing up in Konoha, Shisui kept his eyes peeled for both signs of nearby water and Tobi. Ears straining for an approach and the rush of water.

After far longer than his screaming muscles would have liked, Shisui stumbled (depressingly literally) upon a free flowing river. It wasn't ideal in his condition for a bathe, the rapids far too swift without chakra, but a seemingly abandoned otter dam had pushed the flow and bloated the riverbed into marshy shallows running along the edges. The water wasn't the fresh and cool liquid of the main moving body but Shisui really couldn't care less at this point.

He peeled off his ragged clothes, unwound his bandage wraps, and slowly crept into the water.

A whimper tore from his ruined throat, open wounds aching to the bone in the biting cold water. Pale hands, bruised purple and smeared with blood, cupped water and rinsed filthy curls, gently scrubbing down his limbs and cleaning out his various cuts and scrapes.

He dragged himself from the water before his core body temperature could drop too drastically and proceeded to dump his clothes into the water as well. It was a risk, to soak his clothes, but the sun was growing stronger and stronger and he wouldn't take long to dry off in these conditions.

The bandages that had smoothed down the edges of his trouser cuffs, circled his thighs, bound his wrists, were to be repurposed to bind his creaking ribs and support his knuckles and wrists like a taijutsu expert. After they had dried out, of course.

His shirt was an utter loss, stretched from being heaved and thrown about in Tobi's grip, slashed from knives, singed by fire. But a layer was a layer, so Shisui didn't even hesitate in redonning it.

He did however take a kunai to the high, Uchiha-style collar and the Clan symbol between his shoulder blades. With his curls and laughter lines, Shisui could pass as a generic, if battered, unknown. He couldn't risk a Clan association this deep in unknown woods and, if he didn't find somewhere soon to, apologetically no doubt, raid for healing supplies… he'd be stuck travelling civilian for a while. It might throw Tobi off his trail anyway.

That's if the bastard was even still alive.

If he hadn't simply transported himself to Itachi-

No.

No, he couldn't go down that route. He had to-to have faith. Faith in something, someone, or he was a corpse walking.

Speaking of corpses-

A fish darted through the water, lingering around the fractured beaver dam, no doubt seeking brief shelter from the harsh current.

Shisui's usual technique here was to strike fast, whether with an aerial weapon or his bare hands. Right now though? He would probably wrench something.

He sat utterly still.

And-

It was an undignified, mad scrabble. His thighs came together, aching hands slipping over scales until the both of them flopped to the shore, a very unhappy fish wiggling and gasping in Shisui's grasp.

God, he hadn't been this ungainly since he was in single digits.

But both man and fish were ashore, wet and unhappy, and it was simple for Shisui to slip his thumbs between the gills and snap its spine.

Gutting and sticking it on a stick, a quick fire jutsu that barely licked at his pitiful chakra stores that boiled the fish from the inside out, and Shisui heaved himself away from the water into the nearest patch of sunshine, and promptly collapsed back.

His clothes, laid out on the grass beside him, quickly dried in the morning light as Shisui swallowed down the pitiful meal.

It was hard to focus, recuperate, knowing time was ticking.

Itachi was still on his ANBU mission, meaning he had first dibs of the crows, and with days still left until he was due back, Shisui couldn't justify summoning their tracker Fujiko-san away from his cousin's side.

Things were really fucked up on his end but if he summoned her at a crucial point in Itachi's mission and did damage or, even worse, saw his cousin killed?

He would wait a little longer, in the hope that, by then, Itachi would be travelling back to the village.

Casting aside the fish bones, Shisui wrapped himself up in the clean(ish) bandages before tugging on slightly damp trousers and easing his way, mindful of his beaten body, through his shirt sleeves. With the torn collar of his top, Shisui tied his curls back from his forehead.

His hitai-ate was moved to his bicep, under the sleeve. Precious, not to be discarded, but a potential liability.

In ANBU missions that went to hell, they were taught to destroy all village association to minimise political backlash. Shisui knew the procedure. It wasn't bad enough for him to melt his metal leaf plate, but he could do it… if he had to.

The sun was rising towards noon when Shisui pried himself off of the forest floor. For a ninja in a pinch, sleep (no matter how unwitting) and food could do wonders for reserves. No, Shisui had no illusions about his physical state for travel, let alone a fight. But, at least now, his chakra slowly seeping back like embers burned low but easing their way into flame again, he was able to hold an edge.

Shisui wanted to hurry back, take to the trees and Shunshin his way back to Konoha faster than he'd ever pushed himself before.

But Shisui wasn't a total idiot.

He needed rest, not just for his energy and chakra, but for the ache of his bones and the pulse-thrum of pain thundering behind his eyes.

He wandered away from the water, which would surely see traffic of region-native animals, and found a tree with both a good vantage point of the surrounding area and a bough sturdy enough to support Shisui's not-inconsiderable build. He had the Uchiha height but, instead of slighter shoulders, he was also broad. He certainly surprised people at first glance, the contrast of size and his speed.

Shisui glanced upwards again, decided upon an hour's power nap to see him through an afternoon's chakra-enabled travel until nightfall, and settled himself in the carefully chosen spot.

His eyes closed and, like all professional shinobi who knew to train themselves to take whatever rest they could, he fell asleep immediately.

…...

Shisui's eyes flew open when he sensed a concentration of chakra, moving in tandem, in his rough direction.

The local village? ROOT?

Immediately, Shisui was arming himself, all supplies firmly tied down and his tantō poised. His reserves were already back to half - wherever he was, the ambient energy was revitalising. It was like fresh, mineral-rich, mountain spring water compared to an earth-dug well.

He didn't remember anywhere with such latent, inherent, chakra. Shisui himself wasn't a great sensor, something self taught and patchwork picked up from ANBU, but here… his senses seemed to yawn wide.

His reserves were already back to half, which felt more than a little crazy.

He couldn't tell who the-the crowd, it seemed, were. He didn't know how many there were either. Only that they were skimming far too close to him for comfort.

Shisui, every foot placement careful, one hand on the sheath of his blade, raced through the trees like a ghost.

They've ...started fighting?

Shisui crept closer, senses straining for a clue. Was it some sort of clash? A mission gone sour?

He carefully Shunshined closer.

It was in the middle of a leap that Tobi found him.

Shisui was renowned for his use of the Body Flicker, nothing could touch him once he'd gotten going. So fast he was able to leave after images by impressing his chakra out in a mild not-genjutsu with every stutter.

He'd never, ever been caught before.

The hand around his neck, perfectly timed, set a new precedent.

"What have you done?!"

Shisui found himself slammed against the nearest tree, barely avoiding another attempt at inflicting a nasty concussion, and stared up at that cursed orange mask. But-

"You took us here," he spat back, uncharacteristically poisonous. "With your Mangekyou. Uchiha." The name was twisted, rueful and sarcastic and bitter. His fellow Clansman was a monster. His future murderer… he'd just have to make sure that was mutual. "Who are you?" Shisui tried again, kicking out sharply only for the blow to fall through nothing.

Tobi leaned back slightly and chuckled. Like in the clearing, his voice seemed to drop another pitch every time he spoke. "You tried to use your own little Mangekyou, didn't you, Shisui-kun?"

Shisui didn't reply, choosing instead to attack with an uppercut to the gut and to wrench Tobi's ankle out from under him. Just as the teen had hoped, Tobi chose to phase the punch - aimed to instigated internal bruising - so ankles snagged and the duo pitched off balance.

Tobi phased through the branch that Shisui smacked into with a clack of his teeth.

Fuck all his enemies but fuck this bastard in particular-

Tobi wasted no time, as Shisui was beginning to become acclimated to. He sunk through the trunk behind the teen, throwing out a ruthless procession of punches at the base of Shisui's spine and the back of his knees. Mercy of mercies, Shisui endured the first three but was able to drop his weight and slip around the girth of the branch, knees braced. He jabbed at the older man's exposed toes.

"Coupled with my own and your little Shunshin…" Tobi continued to muse, uninterrupted, before quirking his head. He resembled more a predator at the jugular of its prey than a child at play. "What does it do?"

Shisui palmed a kunai and slashed at his knees.

"Ah, ah, ah!" Tobi hopped out of reach, kicking at Shisui's knees, who dropped to the ground in time for Tobi to join him. Duck, duck, spin- a hand, reaching for his hair, caught at his bandana and ripped it off to drop carelessly. His idle posturing was slow enough that Shisui was able to dead-kick the nerves of Tobi's dominant thigh. Simultaneously swiping his kunai blade towards the liver, the kick connected. Hopefully that would deaden-

A haymaker knocked the wind from his sails with an explosive gasp and, at he staggered back, Shisui angled his foot, snagging around Tobi's knee to tip-

Tobi disappeared, leaving Shisui to painfully catch himself in a crouch that had his beaten and bloody body scream in protest.

"What do those eyes do, Shisui-kun?"

"Fuck you," he bit out, and grasped the hilt of his tantō.

The moment of distraction cost him and Tobi, apparently done with demanding answers Shisui had no intention of providing, decided that another demonstration was in order.

He hadn't meant to play along, to give the mysterious Uchiha what he wanted, but Tobi had grabbed him, brutally yanking him into the microdemension and-

It was on the verge of collapse, the walls tearing with scars that hurt the eyes to behold, thrumming with the abyss.

It was what nothingness looked like, a void of no creation. Like deep space, beyond the stars that their science books had briefly touched on (taught for navigation and direction, naturally).

Something small and terrified screamed inside Shisui's mind, the corner that was still base animal and wanted to live live live.

He had to get out of here, it was going to combust any fucking moment and it was a miracle they'd been able to return-

Tobi had thrown him, one handed, across the space upon their return and, as Shisui scrambled back to his feet, he noticed that his discarded weapons were still here.

He managed to grab two more kunai and his second tantō before Tobi snapped another rib with a sharp kick.

"Do it again-"

The tears in the dimension gaped obscenely, like infected wounds that wept nothingness.

Tobi came for him again and Shisui automatically flashed away.

But there was a hand on his arm, nails biting deep, and another closing around his throat-

Mind filled with his near strangulation, the desperate desire to be free and go home, Shisui lashed out.

Tobi got what he wanted.

Shisui's eyes spun and matured, body thrumming with an Shunshin and the masked man yanked them through again.

As soon as his head stopped splitting open, Shisui knew where he was.

The scent, the air itself as he heaved in a desperate breath and clawed his way free.

Two failed activations - or, rather, interrupted - of his Mangekyou and he felt like his eyes were bleeding all over again.

He staggered away, falling to his knees and heaving up what little water remained in his stomach. Tobi, unmoved upon arrival, simply stood by dispassionately and watched on.

They'd been there four seconds when the screaming registered.

The night was dark, a dizzying contrast to the daybreak haze of the forest they'd left behind, and blue enough that sunset must've not been long ago. The light was dim but, Shisui's Sharingan glowing openly and Tobi's visible through his single eyehole, it was more than enough to make out the gentle slope of the roofs, the wall and the vacant streets.

It was the Uchiha compound. He was home.

But Tobi was with him and he wanted Itachi, for something no doubt nefarious and-

Shisui didn't know how long they'd been gone. To fight at night, wake at dawn, only to jump between afternoon and daybreak… clearly the transportation anomalies were not as instantaneous as they felt. Was Itachi back yet? Had Danzo acted in his disappearance or had, as his foolishly hoped in his heart, the Hokage acted.

When the screams, low and broken, reached his ears, Shisui moved.

That was Rikari-san, the mother who lived across from the main house, who worked with the Nara to make medicin-

He leapt over the nearest roof, sandals silent as they skidded on the tiles and pushed him onto the next property. Tobi was following, half a step behind him, but Shisui didn't have the time to deal with him.

Because the air was thick with death and blood and fear and-

There were bodies in the street, blood pooling black as ink, and Shisui knew instinctively that, despite their lingering warmth, they were dead. Beyond saving and his throat was so tight, it was like being strangled all over again.

He cast out his senses, ears straining and chakra reaching out with a trembling desperation, but...the only signatures left were near the main house.

No...no…

Inside the main house.

His breath stuttered.

Shisui Flickered.

Itachi- please, not his cousins...not after everything-

Tobi grabbed his arms, pulling him back into iron-like restraints, and Shisui howled.

"What is wrong with you?!" He thrashed in the older man's grip, "Is this what you meant?! Why did you take me here if-"

"I didn't," the masked man interrupted, voice steady despite how they were scuffling on the rooftops. "It was you."

What-!

"Amazing, isn't it?" Tobi mused, easily avoiding a series of kicks to his weak side. "I gather your Mangekyou can somehow distort reality, hmm? More than a usual Sharingan."

Shisui didn't reply, heart thundering, and only moved to make another leap for the main house, fairing his chakra in a desperate ANBU code for URGENT and praying that this wasn't the work of his beloved Konoha.

But Tobi was in front of him again, equal parts frustratingly capable of containing him and incapable of keeping Shisui from slipping away at the last second. "You've no doubt noted I'm down an eye, Shisui-kun." His deep voice found some of it's old playfulness, even if the childish shift in pitch failed to make a reappearance.

"Imagine if I could combine our gifts without you? How...fun."

Shisui's mind whirled.

There was no doubt that Tobi was talking about stealing his eyes. He had a vacant eye socket after all. But...to combine abilities?

Shisui's Mangekyou latched onto reality and knitted an unshakeable impression, a restructuring of perspective. Reality wasn't remade but, using the user and victims, it could make it...side step, so to speak.

The Shunshin, when used with particular finesse by Shisui especially, allowed for extremely high speed chakra travel.

Tobi had a...pocket dimension. Shisui could only guess that this phasing ability was actually just him dipping between his 'pocket' and the real world, although he didn't have a clue how he could only phase certain parts of himself.

Shisui thought about the forest he didn't recognise despite over a decade as a shinobi who travelled all across the Elemental Nations, the richness of chakra, the pitched fight in the distance.

The shift between days and nights in the course of a few moments.

Itachi's signature, quivering but alive, a few streets over.

Dimension hopping and the ability to remake reality- the tears in the pocket- my Shunshin-

"...Where are we?" Shisui croaked.

It must be a dream, an alternate existence or something-

Red flared again, glowing in the shadows of that eerie, single eye hole.

"Oh, Shisui-kun...the better question would be when?"

The world seemed to freeze, stop, and then start spinning backwards. He was underwater with no direction to the surface and no air.

His feet threatened to slip off the tiles, his chakra fluctuating out of his limp grasp, spluttering once, twice, before Shisui skidded.

As with most of their fight, it seemed fate favoured the younger Uchiha, who slid a foot before centring himself again. It was enough that Tobi, who'd wasted no time in reaching for his eye, merely scraped his temple.

Dropping into the street and avoiding looking directly at the- the corpses of his Clan, some part of Shisui's mind that managed to maintain a scrap of humour noted that his eyes were popular. Mikoto-sama had once said they were pretty but Shisui didn't think she's meant people admired them in this way.

Thoughts of his 'aunt', regardless of their tenuous blood connection, were a knife of reality as the chakra signatures decreased again.

Where were the fucking ANBU?!

There should have been a patrol by now, a report by someone about something going on regardless. The chakra here was shrieking in agony. There was a Shinobi block of flats not far from here and they'd have definitely sensed goings on and at least reported it.

Unless.

Unless the village were behind this.

Shisui's ANBU team, with Kakashi-senpai and Genma-san and shy Tenzo-kun, danced into his mind's eye. Is that what he'd find, if be escaped Tobi long enough to reach the main house? His own team slaughtering his family, the clan he loved only slightly less than the village around them.

Shisui ran.

Tobi wasn't far behind, constantly appearing before him and beside him and forcing Shisui to scramble and duck and weave like a mouse in the gaze of a hawk but he was moving and he was alive and, at this rate, it was an achievement.

Shisui flared his chakra again, remembering how Kakashi had entered the clearing just as Tobi had first taken them.

Shisui wasn't a religious man. He respected the Two Sides of the Moon, as all Uchiha were expected to, but he depended on what he could see and touch than much else.

In a clan of Dojutsu Genjutsu users, reality was vital.

But, as he twisted away from Tobi and waited for some kind of sign, sidestepping his family's cooling corpses with tears stinging his reopened wounds, Shisui prayed.

The chakra in the main house cut down to two.

And no-one was coming.

A hand at his throat, now-familiar fingers crushing into previously inflicted bruises, and Shisui's next move was instinct.

The world tore itself into nothingness, was remade within the same instant eternity, and those empty woods closed around them once more.

"Let me fucking go-" Shisui howled, half mad with grief.

He'd survived this long, desperately scrambling at the line between life and death, because he had to believe his sacrifice was going to be worth something.

Family. Kami but his family-

Shisui was an orphan. The Clan members who had raised him - it takes a village to raise a child - were all the more precious to him because he'd not been blessed with living parents, living close relatives, living siblings. His closest blood connection had died over half a decade ago.

...gone.

Fingers scratched his brows, the bridge of his nose, and Shisui was exhausted.

What was the point, why keep them...for all this suffering and anguish?

What if-

Itachi was alone in the Compound with one other. By now, he was probably dead too.

Shisui was the Last Uchiha.

Shisui and… and this bastard.

No, no, Shisui couldn't let him win. He had approached with a plot, had threatened his cousin, and suddenly the Clan was gone.

This man, insanely strong and boasting a proclivity for intangibility, could easily have sent shadow clones-

Shisui ducked, threw himself into the forest - it was the same one they'd just left, pitched fight still on going a kilometre away - floor and slammed palms down to the earth.

The Summoning tattoo - Itachi's bright idea seeing as they shared the contract - that spanned his back, runic wings in the darkest black ink, writhed with chakra.

An explosion of nightmare-black feathers, a corvid's scream that rang the eardrums, and scaly talons clamped around his shoulders-

"Eiichi-" Shisui gasped, the ground tunnelling far below as the huge crow, easily the size of a cart horse, carried them high with a few beats of its great wings. "Is Itachi-"

"Discuss later. Save now."

"Excuse me~"

"Shit-!" Shisui yanked his legs up, Tobi's sweeping kunai missing by a hairsbreadth, and threw himself, still hanging from his summon's grasp, to swing around and up. Eiichi released him and the momentum carried him through to land heavily on the crow's back. "Faster-"

Hands clamped down on a great, batting wing, and the bone snapped with horrific ease.

Eiichi screamed, pitching from the air, and Shisui's Mangekyou burned. "No-!"

His heart seemed to slow. The air stilled around them, sound narrowing down to the immediate stimuli.

It wasn't the high speed comprehension of the Sharingan.

He drew his tantō with his right, a kunai with his left, and forced Eiichi back into the Summon Realm.

They started free falling but Shisui didn't care. He lunged both weapons simultaneously, the tantō swiping across Tobi's torso - and subsequently fading through harmlessly - whilst he buried the kunai to the hilt in Tobi's weaker shoulder.

Tobi forced Shisui beneath him, fists warping the jagged collar of his shirt until it slipped, taunt, over one pale shoulder and the seam bit into flesh. The tear in his robe collar tore, Shisui's grip forced to falter with the movement, and the older man's sleeve was ripped off.

White.

White skin, bloodness and moulded like...clay and Shisui couldn't even waste a second to gape at the horrified realisation that this man wasn't completely human.

He did have time however to offer another prayer to whatever force, being or fate or whatever, had seen him through this far.

They smashed into the first tree, bark and trunk fracturing around them as Shisui, taking advantage of Tobi's engaged grip, scrambled at his stupid orange mask. His fingers slipped through.

They careened through a second tree, Shisui's spine screaming in protest at the abuse, and the light flickering through the blur-like leaves caught a glint of metal for an instant. The reminder, the inspiration, struck like a match.

Shisui grabbed the kunai in Tobi's shoulder and wrenched it.

It was the first time Tobi had loosed a noise involuntarily.

The kunai slipped from the incorporeal flesh, lost to the woods, just as Shisui's desperate hands gained purchase and the mask followed his weapon into the space below.

A nightmare snarled at him.

Shisui's heart shattered, eyes wide in animal terror and incomprehensible tragedy. He couldn't believe it.

The hands once more migrating to his trachea begged otherwise.

"O-"

A punch, brutal, broke Shisui's collarbone with an audible snap.

Shisui felt like vermin, flayed open and blood pooling and organs strewn and-

Oh, this day. This terrible day-

They broke from the tree line, colliding with the earth like a meteor and skidded a great furrow a hundred yards.

The battlefield - because evidently that's what it was - they interrupted half-paused at their entrance but the two Uchiha paid them no mind.

A blaze of chakra, earthy and bright, like Tenzo-kun's but more, burned like the sun a brief distance away, head to head with what felt like a volcano of an aura. It itched not to pay attention to, like consciously ignoring the dragon across the hill, but Shisui had more pressing concerns.

His-his unmasked adversary was presently attempting to wrangle one of Shisui's tantō free. He had been unarmed this entire damned time, argh.

They rolled in the dirt, Sharingan spinning furiously, before, finally prying Shisui's fingers free of his sword, Tobi raised a leg - his weaker one, so hopefully Shisui's numbing kick had been even a little effective - and kicked Shisui clean across the field.

"You want a sword?!" Shisui howled, curling mid air to land on his feet, unsealing his second tantō, the one he'd stashed after picked it up in the pocket dimension. Mikoto-hime had commissioned those blades for him, had taught him kenjutsu, and this traitor had no right to touch them.

But if it was kenjutsu Tobi wanted, Shisui would give it to him.

His chakra pulsed, in sync with his heartbeat, and then Shisui stuttered from view.

His Body Flicker activated so quickly, fast as light, faster than the Sharingan, and a dozen Shisuis appeared across the field, all with tantō poised-

Tobi curved to the right, twisted with a slightly stilted flexibility, and Shisui was right there, all focus on that pale, weak, left side.

Frustratingly, the older merely vanished when Shisui blade attempted to bisect his spinal cord.

"You have a lot of nerve," the teen hissed, jaw clenched against the traitorous upswell of emotion.

Tobi reemerged high to his right, sword curved for a downwards slash which, when Shisui automatically parried, he feigned into a reverse upstroke. "Oh, you're too k-"

Shisui coiled his chakra, lightning cracking down the blade which connected to Shisui's stolen tantō - at last - and conducted down Tobi's arm. "Don't speak from his face, you bitch!"

The next series of blows sank through the elder, who evidently deemed the current mid-battle chit chat more important than remaining corpreal enough to do damage. "Oh? Is there something wrong with it?"

The spiderweb of scars, twisting achingly familiar features, mocked him. The cruel curl to a mouth that had never known such an expression of malice in Shisui's carefully preserved memory.

"You're a lie."

A kick connected to his hip and Shisui skidded back a few feet.

Obito's face - dead, you're dead, this is an incomparable cruelty - transformed into the mask of a monster, teeth bared like a savage beast. Like he wanted to rip into Shisui's jugular for the audacity of those last words and the expression sent a thrill of true terror down the teen's spine.

This was hell, personally tailored.

"Life is a lie, not me."

For the first time, Shisui allowed himself to take in the rest of the field, dark haired warriors, dressed almost like samurai but moving without the strict regility, jutsus woven freely alongside weapons and -

That...that was a...a Sharingan-

And another-!

These-

These people were Uchiha.

Shisui wheeled around quickly, Mangekyou flickering urgently, before his gaze refocused with careful precision on Obi-Tobi. The imposter was unbothered however, his expression clearly revelling in Shisui's unveiled anguish.

He didn't know these faces, not a single one. And after what they'd just witnessed…

"What is this?" Shisui's voice was hoarse from misuse and abuse but Tobi heard him clearly.

"Think harder, Shisui-kun." His arms opened to gesture around them. "This is all your doing anyway. Everything that has happened… is your fault."

Shisui's nostrils flared, temper sparking. "No."

Tobi bore his teeth in a mockery of a smile. "Yes."

Shisui stared around again and-

A pale face, at home in the Uchiha Clan, but-

The curve of his cheek, the flare of ebony hair either side of a small forehead, a slightly upturned nose, sharp eyes…

He'd seen that face, round with childhood and petulant in the school yard, just yesterday morning. The man was older, his hair spiked and just as untamed as always, his traditional Uchiha robe embroidered between the shoulders with the Clan Fan and-

Their bastardized combined Mangekyou travel had never been instantaneous, shown in the inconsistent sunlight hours, but to take so long?

Shisui had felt the signatures across the compound flicker and die like candles in the wind, and yet this field, this battleground, was filled with them.

And then his baby cousin's - not a baby anymore, older than Shisui now - adversary, a white haired water user - probably Kiri - triggered a seal matrix that looked terrifyingly similar to the Yondaime's Flying Thunder God. Shisui was Genma's ANBU teammate, had heard the older brunet speak in low, respectful tones about the Yondaime's abilities. It was always carefully out of range from Kakashi-senpai's keen hearing, the wounds still too soon and bleeding for their Captain who wasn't much older than Shisui himself. Shisui had heard enough about the technique.

Oh Kami, oh fuck-

The only thought Shisui had was not Sasuke-chan, not Sasuke-

He crossed the field as if he was a ghost, faster than comprehension, and then he was there and there was no place for thoughts, no place for anything but instinct.

His hands came up, palms securely wrapped in both bandages and a layer of chakra.

His caught the blade between his palms, the tip frozen too inches from his chest, and Shisui had taken his eyes off of the imposter. Had unarmed himself for a man who hadn't seen him since he was scarcely seven.

But Sasuke was safe, sprawled uninjured on the ground beneath Shisui's legs.

And then Shisui's gaze settled on thin red tattoos, a face that was both alien and strangely familiar.

Senju Tobirama, cherry irises flared wide with cold, angry disbelief, stared down his blade at him.