FicWad

Chapter Thirteen

It had been a few days since Hana and her team had left for Kumo. The Third Hokage had also gone to the Land of Lightning to observe the exams. It was late in the evening when Itachi was returning home. He gave a nod to the guard at the Uchiha Compound gate.

"Hey, Itachi." the guard called, "Shisui got back a couple hours ago. Thought you might want to know."

"Thank you."

Finally, Itachi would be able to get some answers to the questions that had been eating away at him for nearly two weeks. He did not bother to go home first, instead heading directly to Shisui's house. It was Shisui's mother who answered, a sour woman embittered by the deaths of her husband and oldest son.

"Shisui only just got home. I don't think he-"

"It's fine, Mom." Shisui's voice called from inside. He came to the door, looking tired, "What's up?"

"Could we talk? Preferably somewhere private?"

"Sure. Give me a second to get my shoes on."

Itachi and Shisui made their way toward their clearing. Along the way, Itachi tried to make small talk, a skill he had not quite mastered.

"So… Hana's on her way to the Chunin Exams as we speak."

"Really? Good for her. She'll make it." said Shisui.

"Yeah… I finally told her, by the way."

"About Mariko? How'd she take it?"

Itachi shrugged, "She was angry, but you were right; it was because I didn't tell her sooner."

"Of course I was right. I'm always right. You should know that by now."

The cousins reached the clearing. Itachi sat down against a tree and picked up a rusty kunai that had been forgotten on the ground. He began spinning it absently on his finger.

Shisui leaned back against his own tree, "So, what did you need to talk to me about that couldn't wait until morning?"

"Do you know Danzo Shimura?"

"I know of him, but I've never met the guy. Why?"

"…He came to talk to me a while back. It was about the masked man. He said I would never be able to fight him in my present state, but that I had 'unique potential'. The whole conversation was really strange. Then he started talking about you."

"Me?" Shisui asked, clearly surprised.

"He said something about you reaching another level, that you had paid some kind of price. Do you have any idea what he was talking about?"

Shisui was suddenly a million miles away, "I… I know what he meant, but… How could he know that? No one knows that… How…?" he said, mostly to himself.

"What?"

Shisui slid down the tree to sit on the ground, "…You've been doing a lot of research, right? In the clan archives?"

Itachi nodded.

"Did you ever come across anything about the Mangekyo Sharingan?"

The term was alien to Itachi, "No, I've never heard of it. What is it?"

"It's like… well it's what Danzo said; it's the next level of the Sharingan—more advanced, more powerful. The jutsus it makes possible are… pretty much unreal."

"If it's so powerful, why haven't I heard of it? That seems like something the whole clan would know about."

"Well… for one, it's not all good. As soon as it's activated, it starts to deteriorate little by little, faster the more you use it. Eventually you go blind. But… that's not really the worst part. It's kind of a dark part of the clan's history. See, the only way to activate it is to lose the person closest to you, and not just lose them, you have to really experience it, you know? Way back when, people started just killing their best friends trying to get the Mangekyo. Even then, it didn't always work. I guess we were kind of killing ourselves off. Not really surprising that the clan decided to just cover the whole thing up."

"What does all this have to do with you?" Itachi asked.

Shisui ran a hand through his hair, "Well… I have the Mangekyo. As far as I know, I'm the first one in a very long time."

Itachi took a moment to sort through the information he had just been given.

"Okay… If you have to lose the person closest to you to get this Mangekyo Sharingan, then how did you…"

"I know it was a long time ago, but do you remember Masato?"

"Sort of…"

"He was my best friend in the Academy. We were pretty much inseparable, even managed to get assigned to the same Genin team when we graduated. Made Chunin at the same time too."

Itachi vaguely remembered a boy about Shisui's age, tall and skinny with curly blond hair. Shisui had once talked about him often, then one day he had just stopped.

"We were out on a mission in the Land of Water with this other Chunin neither of us had worked with before. It was supposed to be a basic recon; you know, in and out, no enemy contact. But a few days in I started to get the feeling we were being followed. I was right. There was this team of Mist shinobi that had been tailing us since the border. Thing is, the only way that was possible was if they knew we were coming, and that meant that someone must have sold us out. Masato was my best friend; I trusted him, so obviously I figured it must have been the new guy."

Itachi had a pretty good idea where this was going.

"I told Masato my suspicions. The next morning, I woke up and the new kid was dead, throat slit… and there was Masato with a kunai. He told me that Kiri had offered him a fortune to report back to the village with false information. He wanted to cut me in on the deal. I told him he was crazy and refused. He asked if I was going to turn him in, and I told him I didn't have a choice. He attacked me. I did the only thing I could, and fought back. I didn't mean to kill him, but…" Shisui trailed off.

"It's alright. Keep going." Itachi urged.

Shisui took a deep breath, "Anyway… Just as Masato dropped, the Mist team showed up. I managed to take a few of them out, but the guy in charge was different. He had this patch over his right eye that had to have been hiding some kind of dojutsu. I was losing bad. The team leader and two others pretty much had me dead to rites when… I don't know, I guess instinct took over. I didn't even realize what I was doing until it was over. All I knew was that the team leader suddenly ordered the other two to retreat, and they took off. I found out later that I'd used something called Kotoamatsukami. It's a genjutsu that basically… well, it controls the target's mind without them even knowing it's happening."

"A genjutsu that powerful… shouldn't even be possible." Itachi mused.

"Trust me, I know. To be honest, it scares the hell out of me. That was the first and only time I have ever used it. But that's not the only thing I got from the Mangekyo. It enhances your natural abilities too. People think I'm fast, but that's me holding back. There's probably more I could do, but… I'd rather just forget I even have the thing."

"And you've never told anyone about it?"

"Not a soul until today. That's why I can't figure out how Danzo could possibly know. This thing… it's dangerous, and I don't like that he's taking an interest."

"Shisui… does this mean that you're going blind?"

"That would be the part you'd be worried about." Shisui said with a forced-sounding chuckle, "But, yeah, I guess it does. I haven't noticed anything yet. I almost never use it, so I guess that slows it down. Sooner or later though, I'll be blind. At least I'll get to retire early, right?"

"There's nothing you can do to stop it?"

"Not anymore… Not that I would have done it anyway… Look, don't worry about it, okay? I'll be fine. And… stay away from Danzo. I've got a really bad feeling about that guy."

"…Fine. But you'll tell me if your vision starts to go, right?"

"Either that or you'll figure it out when I start walking into walls." Shisui replied.

Itachi shook his head and sighed, "That's not funny… And speaking of which, we need to talk about what you've been telling Sasuke."