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a shisui to brighten your day ☀️
or darken your night 🌙
#naruto#naruto shippuden#shisui uchiha#my first time drawing shisui actively flapping my hands#i love his giant ass oversized forehead protector headband
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Penthesilea [10/?]
Cover & Disclaimer
Chapter Summary: The battles resume the next morning with a surprise attack on a nearby Senju outpost; Inabi’s men completely decimate the place in the name of finding Danzō. The Senju forces retaliate the next day with an attack on one of the village that has been supplying the Uchiha with weapons. Sasuke finds himself once more leading a cadre of men to the front.
Chapter Beta: Sakura’s Unicorn
戦国時代
Sasuke doesn’t see her again for another week, and then only when he walks in on her giving Itachi another of his routine treatments. As he ducks into the tent, he is staggered by a rare sound—his brother’s laughter.
“Until he was how old?” Sakura giggles.
“Six,” Itachi confirms. “It’s too bad there wasn’t an artist around at the time to capture the moment for posterity.”
“Is it really necessary to fill your healer’s head with nonsense?” Sasuke asks hotly, suspecting he is the topic of conversation, but not wanting to ask what particular embarrassing moment his brother is relating.
“Don’t be foolish, little brother,” Itachi dismisses. “Sakura-chan is practically family.” She and Sasuke exchange startled glances. “After all, you keep bringing her back to help me, so she must have your trust—and that’s a rare feat.”
“That’s still no cause to tell her things about me that aren’t relevant. You’re the patient, not me.”
“But it could be relevant,” Sakura protests. “The human body can be influenced by any number of factors stemming from childhood. I wouldn’t be doing my job if I wasn’t being exceedingly thorough.”
Those damn green eyes spark with mischievous promise, and Sasuke promptly forgets any retort he might’ve offered.
As Itachi chuckles against his knuckles, Sasuke is torn between annoyance at Sakura getting along so well with his brother and happiness at seeing Itachi in such good spirits. It hits him then with a startling sense of clarity—this is what he wants his future to look like.
Which is why the gods see fit to remind him why that can never happen.
There’s a commotion outside, and a familiar voice demanding, “We need to see Itachi-sama.”
Everyone in the tent stills, and Sasuke is filled with an immediate concern over Inabi discovering either Itachi’s illness or Sakura’s identity.
“He’s indisposed at the moment,” he hears Kakashi say mildly; his tone of voice might be easily mistaken as detached, but from the pitch, Sasuke knows it’s meant as a warning.
“Move your ass, Hatake, or we’ll move it for you,” Inabi snarls.
Sasuke gets rid of the few bloody rags his brother has been coughing into and helps lift him into an upright position. His earlier smile vanishes and he adopts a rigid, straight-backed seiza. Meanwhile, Sakura darts around the tent gathering her materials. Her transformation from confident war medic to common healer is instantaneous; she hunches over, affecting an air of invisibility that any common villager might have in the presence of nobility.
“No need to be rude about it,” Kakashi remarks as the tent flap is thrown open and Inabi barges in, followed closely by Yashiro, Tekka, and Taiko.
“Leave, woman,” Inabi snaps at Sakura, not even sparing her a glance.
While Sasuke is irritated by the manner in which his cousin speaks to her, he’s glad that she’s nothing but an extra body in the room to him. Head down, Sakura hurries out of the tent; with Kakashi’s help, she’ll make it out of the camp without a problem. He’ll visit their usual rendezvous point later to see if she waited for him.
“Is there a reason for the indecorous entrance?” Itachi asks their visitors in a neutral tone, the slightest narrowing of his eyes the only sign of his annoyance.
“Shisui’s dead,” Inabi tells him bluntly.
Itachi’s face drains of colour, and instantly, all thoughts of Sakura are chased from Sasuke’s mind.
“What?” he echoes.
“That…is impossible.” Itachi says.
“We brought back the body. Obito’s woman is examining it now, if you want to see for yourself,” Yashiro tells him.
Itachi’s hand makes an abortive movement toward his chest, as if creeping toward his heart, and Sasuke worries that, in his condition, it might give out from shock. After Izumi, Shisui’s been his brother’s dearest friend. Possibly even more which, until now, has been a notion Sasuke’s mind always carefully shied away from. Seeing the sheer anguish on Itachi’s face now, which he has only seen when his brother lost his wife, Sasuke realises it wasn’t just a notion.
“You should show more tact when speaking of a fallen comrade,” Sasuke chides, angry at his cousin for delivering the news to them so undiplomatically. “Not to mention someone my brother holds in high esteem.”
Inabi retorts, “Perhaps, if your brother gets angry enough, he’ll get off his ass and lead us against the Senju to avenge his friend. Like he’s supposed to do. Or, at least, appoint someone with the balls to do it for him.”
Sasuke’s Sharingan flares. “Watch your tongue, Inabi. You are still in the presence of your betters.”
“That’s debatable.”
“What happened?” Itachi asks quietly.
“He was ambushed by Senju forces near the waterfall,” Taiko tells him, either not noticing or not caring about Itachi’s distress.
“That’s neutral territory,” Itachi says. “The Senju wouldn’t—”
“They would if they were led by Shimura Danzō,” Tekka replies darkly. “From the tracks around the falls, it looks like they were waiting for him and got lucky.”
“And how can you be certain it was Shimura if you were not witness to this attack?” Sasuke prompts furiously. “If you saw him in trouble, why didn’t you help him?”
“We didn’t see the attack. Only the results—and this,” Yashiro says, holding out a ripped kamon��embossed red fabric twists into the symbols of the Shimura clan. “Shisui had it clutched in his fingers. We had to break them to get a hold of it.”
“That’s enough!” Sasuke snaps, eyes flying to his brother’s increasingly tense demeanour; his face is hidden in the shadows of his hair.
“Not yet, it isn’t,” Inabi says darkly. “Shisui’s Sharingan was removed.”
Silence rings, revulsion and shock washing over them all at the implication.
Sasuke knows that there’s no choice now, truce or not. The theft of a Sharingan is among his people’s greatest taboos.
“Find this Danzō,” he orders over the disgusted lump in his throat. “Bring him here to me—at any cost.”
While the men clamour in support, Itachi remains utterly silent. But when he looks up, his eyes are red, the black blades of his Mangekyō spinning, and Sasuke knows things are about to take a turn for the worse.
戦国時代
There’s no opportunity to rendezvous with Sakura after that, though Kakashi assures him she left the camp without trouble. Honestly, Sasuke isn’t in the frame of mind to worry about it. He vacillates between grief and disbelief—he liked Shisui. That someone would kill him for the sole purpose of stealing his eyes fills him with a coiling, corrosive rage.
He can’t even imagine what Itachi is going through.
The Uchiha camp is once more alive with activity, the sounds of weapons being forged and recruits being drilled. Raiding parties and spies come and go, the men spurred to action by the news of Shisui’s death. He was popular among the conscripted forces and in the surrounding villages. News of his demise sees a sudden incursion of young recruits wanting to hunt down the man responsible for his death.
The battles resume the next morning with a surprise attack on a nearby Senju outpost; Inabi’s men completely decimate the place in the name of finding Danzō. The Senju forces retaliate the next day with an attack on one of the villages that supplies the Uchiha with weapons. Sasuke finds himself, once more, leading a cadre of men to the front.
“Capture, but don’t kill, if you can help it,” he orders. “I want Danzō.”
The first order he knows will likely be impossible to follow—the enemy are as committed to their cause as he is, and would die rather than be captured. But his men know better than to challenge him on the second one.
The once green fields of summer are soon soaked with blood and smoke and the smell of death; Sasuke finds that, for the first time, it bothers him.
As the fighting continues, he experiences a growing appreciation that Sakura is nowhere to be found. He doesn’t understand why, considering the brutality of the fighting these days, but he’s relieved he won’t have to come face-to-face with her in battle. He isn’t sure what he’d do.
Sasuke doesn’t experience the same conflict when it comes to Naruto.
“What the hell, Sasuke?” the other man demands, appearing before him out of the smoke and debris of the battlefield. “Why’ve you broken the ceasefire?”
“As if you don’t know,” he snarls in reply, swinging his katana overhead and forcing Naruto to duck. As he completes the swing, he changes his stance, bringing the blade down in a lightning-quick strike aimed for the other man’s blind spot. Just in time, Naruto brings his own sword up to block with one hand, the other pulling together a Rasengan. He shoves it at Sasuke, forcing him to disengage and jump back.
“If I knew, I wouldn’t be asking, asshole!”
Sasuke renews his attack, hammering the blade down so quickly that Naruto doesn’t have a chance to bring up his sword this time. Instead, he crosses his wrists above his head, catching Sasuke’s hands and hilt on them. Not to be deterred, Sasuke kicks out a leg. Naruto loses his balance for a moment before tumbling to the ground, rolling heels-over-head until he ends up in a crouch. One hand braces himself on the ground and the other grips his katana behind him, ready to draw.
As Sasuke circles him, Naruto jumps to his feet and mirrors him.
“There was a raid at the waterfall,” Sasuke tells him. Naruto’s eyes widen in surprise that is far too genuine for Sasuke’s comfort. “My cousin is dead, and his Sharingan stolen. Your man Shimura will pay for what he’s done.”
“Danzō? What are you— Sasuke, wait!”
But he doesn’t want to hear it.
They fall into another series of rapid-fire attacks and dodges; each time, Sasuke’s blade comes closer and closer to Naruto, fuelled by his anger. It’s so close that, once, he even nicks the helmet on his head.
“Listen, it’s not possible,” Naruto insists. “Danzō shouldn’t have been anywhere near that area—none of his people should’ve, either.”
“You’re lying!”
His katana crackles with electricity as Sasuke cuts a brutal downward arc, determined to slice through armour and bone—
Only for the body to explode into thin air.
Sasuke whirls around just as the real Naruto appears behind him, grabbing him by the front with two hands and forcing him close. He struggles to free himself, too close to the other man for either of them to draw their weapons.
“Why would we attack you?” Naruto demands. “The ceasefire was beneficial to us all. It’d be just as bad for our forces as for yours if we broke it!”
“And yet Shisui’s dead.”
Naruto tenses in dismay which allows Sasuke the opportunity to free himself. He butts his head against Naruto’s brow. Startled, his opponent lets go, and Sasuke grasps him by the throat, shoving him forward while he brings his blade back around. Naruto slaps his hand away, but this gives Sasuke a chance to slice the katana in another overhead arc to finish him.
Naruto trips over his feet and ends up kneeling before him, just bringing up his own blade in time to stop Kusanagi from biting into his throat. With a grunt of effort, Sasuke shoves all his weight forward, trying to force the steel into the other man’s neck. Naruto still continues to fight him, inching the blade away from his carotid artery. It’s still too close to his body, though, and as Sasuke increases the pressure, the other man loses ground.
“I’m sorry…about Shisui…” Naruto bites out, pained. “I promise you…I’ll help you find justice for him.”
“Your promises won’t bring him back from the dead,” Sasuke retorts. “They’re useless…just like you.”
The sharp metal cuts through the armour of his shoulder as if it were butter, and only Naruto’s own strength keeps it from going deeper. As it is, blood soaks his sleeve. Something happens then—a trick of the light that makes Naruto’s eyes appear to gleam red or orange as the very air around him appears to boil.
Moments later, Sasuke finds himself thrown backwards, forced to ground himself with one knee. When he looks up, he sees Naruto staring down at him, a rare hint of true anger etched into his features. It’s gone a second later, replaced with chagrin and resolve.
“I won’t fight you while you’re grieving,” Naruto says. “People act rashly when they’re hurting. I won’t hang the fate of this war on that. Go home and mourn your dead, Sasuke. We’ll figure out how to fix this afterward.”
He vanishes as Sasuke takes a last frustrated run at him.
戦国時代
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you?”
“You and your brother just lost someone dear. Grief is something that could easily set back Itachi’s recovery,” Sakura tells him sombrely from where she stands in the middle of his tent. “A broken heart is not just a saying, Sasuke-kun. I had to check on him.”
“Which I assume you did,” he replies tersely. “And yet, here you are, courting discovery by visiting me. No doubt Kakashi’s involved, as usual.”
“I had to see you.”
“We don’t have the time—”
“I’m so sorry about your cousin,” she whispers, and like Naruto, there’s no false sincerity in her words. “He was a good man, from what I heard of him.” Sasuke clenches a fist and Sakura pauses before cautiously reaching out to lay her hand over it. He’s torn between shrugging her off and pulling her closer. “We’re looking into it on our side,” she assures him, and now he jerks away from her.
“I don’t need you to look into it,” he growls. “I need to get Danzō and separate his head from his body.”
“It’s more complicated than that,” she argues. “Shimura-san is one of Tsunade-shishou’s advisors. He’s counselled the Senju since her grandfather and uncle led the clan which means it’s hard to overrule him.”
Sasuke’s lips thin, but he concedes her point. Even Itachi—and lately Sasuke—won’t make major decisions without consulting the council and the older generation. Those who’ve survived so long have invaluable skills and knowledge, and it’d be foolish to act against them.
It doesn’t make him more inclined to forgive Danzō, however.
“So, you’re saying he’ll be given amnesty.”
“I’m saying it’ll be difficult to build a case against him, especially without credible witnesses,” she says. “He has eyes and ears everywhere, and there are many he’s trained personally, and so, has their loyalty. The group who ambushed your cousin are probably Danzō’s own people. Before we can go after him, we have to root them out.”
He takes a moment to catch on to what she’s saying, and then he narrows his eyes. “You’re awfully well-informed.”
“One of my good friends was part of his unit,” she admits.
Sasuke recoils. “Your friend,” he sneers, unsure what angers him more: that she’s friends with someone who might be responsible for Shisui’s murder, or that she trusts so easily. “If you say Danzō’s men are loyal, this friend is likely feeding you false information.”
“Sai would die before he did that,” Sakura defends. “I said he was part of the unit. Past tense. He is wholeheartedly loyal to Naruto now.”
“Someone who switches allegiances so easily can never be loyal.”
“It’s one thing to choose your loyalty, instead of having it forced on you,” she shoots back. “Which do you think would be the stronger bond?”
“Then he should tell you more useful information than he has.”
“It’s a bit difficult sharing any information when you have a paralyzing seal on your tongue which only breaks with the caster’s death,” she deadpans. “Danzō knows the difference between true loyalty and the forced kind as well. Whatever we know about him was pieced together from the little clues Sai’s been able to give us. Naruto and Tsunade-shishou are working on it as fast as possible, but it’s not an exact science.”
Sasuke crosses his arms, simmering in his anger for several seconds before exhaling through his nose. “I want to hear the minute you find something out,” he decides.
“You know you can’t get involved.”
“The hell I can’t!”
“Sasuke, if you get involved and kill him, it’ll just be another act of war!” she protests. Though she barely speaks above a whisper, he can tell from her expression that she’d be yelling if she wasn’t in the middle of enemy territory. “If we deal with him on our side, then it’s us dealing with the traitor who violated the truce!”
“So, in the meantime, we wait, and he has time to protect himself?!” Sasuke hisses back.
“He’s already protecting himself. He’s popular with the more conservative elements, and he’s always been critical of Tsunade-shishou’s leadership. But he also has a tendency to show his hand too early.” She lowers her voice even more and leans closer. “Years ago—long before we were even alive—he tried to argue that the Senju needed a male leader. He tried to marry into the clan. Around the same time, Tsunade-sama’s betrothed was found dead under mysterious circumstances. The whole thing was far too convenient, and even his own supporters thought it was suspect. He stopped pursuing the matter, but people remember.” She sighs. “Really, Sasuke-kun, it’s a simply a matter of time and laying the groundwork.”
“We don’t have time,” he reminds her. “Between Itachi’s condition and the atmosphere in the camp, there’s no option to wait this out.”
“On that front…I may’ve found a cure,” Sakura says slowly. “Or, at least, the closest thing to it. It doesn’t involve drawing blood, so much as giving it.”
Sasuke is momentarily distracted. “Explain.”
“We’ve been treating this pharmacologically,” she begins, “using herbal remedies to treat your brother’s symptoms, but if the underlying problem is genetic, those will only ever be temporary measures. His body is attacking itself right now. Based on the non-invasive measures I’ve used to test him, his white blood cells don’t appear to be strong enough to fight it off. Does that make sense?”
Sasuke nods slowly; he never learned much about the human body, and it’s only through the weeks of discussing Itachi’s condition with Sakura that he’s picked any of it up. “Is there a way to give him more of those cells?”
“Not in the short time we have, or without the medical equipment he needs. I’ve read about the machinery we’d need in Tsunade-shishou’s books, but anything like that it far beyond this continent. In another life, we might’ve been able to send for it—or send your brother for treatment.”
“Which is impossible right now,” Sasuke concludes. “But you didn’t come here to tell me what can’t be done for him.”
“There was another technique mentioned in the scrolls,” Sakura agrees in a neutral tone. “It’s transfusing bone marrow—that’s where the cells are produced. If we could find someone who’s a healthy match, we could use their marrow to help his system produce those cells again. Then he can fight off this disease himself.”
Sasuke frowns, thinking through what she just said, and then asks, “What’s stopping the cells from dying off again? Maybe months or years from now?”
“Every procedure has the possibility of failing,” she allows. “From what I’ve read, if the initial transfusion is successful, the chance of relapse is less than ten percent.”
“If,” Sasuke repeats. “Has this technique ever been successful?”
Sakura is quiet a moment and then admits, “No. It’s pretty much only theory. Uzumaki Mito nearly managed it. But the power required caused her patient to die and nearly killed her in the process. Hashirama-sama declared it kinjutsu.”
“Then there’s no point.”
“No, there is!” she insists. “I’ve been over all the notes—I discovered what she did wrong, and I could do it properly. If…if you and Itachi decide you want to try it.”
Sasuke studies her, considering the information she’s presented him with.
The problem isn’t just the odds, but the possible loss involved. If he and Itachi agreed to this, he might not only lose the brother he cares so much about, but the woman who possesses his heart.
“No,” he says. “Not until the odds are better. And not while the political situation is so precarious. If something were to happen to Itachi now, of all times…we should wait, or this war will never be over.”
Sakura watches him thoughtfully, and her expression softens. “You sound suspiciously hopeful right now. That’s not usually in your nature.”
“You’re a bad influence,” he retorts, but lets her come forward and slip her arms around his waist. She presses her face into his chest.
“I can do this, Sasuke-kun,” she mumbles, words slightly muffled by his robes. “I’m sure I can.”
“Mito was an Uzumaki. They have extraordinary chakra reserves,” Sasuke says. “You’re strong—you may even be beyond Tsunade—but you don’t have that. If something goes wrong…” He doesn’t want to think about it.
“If extra chakra reserves are all you’re worried about, we have an Uzumaki,” she points out.
It takes him a moment to figure out if she’s being serious or not. When he realises that she is, he pulls back, holding her away from him by the shoulders. “Are you insane?” he demands. “Do you understand what you’re asking?”
“I’m asking you to ask your friend to help me save your brother,” she replies stubbornly. “That’s pretty simple.
“We are not friends.”
“That’s not how he tells it.”
“Then I’ve hit him in the head too many times and caused brain damage!” Sasuke growls. “We are on opposite sides of a war!”
“A war no one wants to be fighting anymore!”
“He’s not a medic-nin—you are. What could he possibly do to help?” he challenges.
“He has…it’s this…” she flounders for a moment then shakes her head. “I can’t tell you.”
“…what?”
“This is one thing I can’t…it’s not my secret to tell,” Sakura attempts to explain. “If he wants to tell you, he will. Maybe it’ll all be for the best if he does. But please, Sasuke-kun, don’t ask me to tell you.” She raises her hands up to cover where he grips her shoulders. “I need you to trust him. You might be on two different sides, but you’ve gotten to know each other over all these years. Based on your fighting style alone, you probably know each other better than anyone.”
“I can’t—”
“Do you trust me?” she interrupts. “Would I ever ask you to do something that could hurt you? Would I even be suggesting any of this if I thought for one instant that I couldn’t do it, or that you would be harmed? I realise the odds we’re facing, but I also know we can do this if we all work together.
Sasuke’s mind races, going over every possible flaw, imagining all the repercussions of failure, even as his gut tells him to trust her—even considering this is beyond all the treasonous acts he’s committed up until now. Yet, he knows his decision is made even before she reaches up to press her hand against his jaw.
“I’ll speak to Itachi,” he says finally, and pulls away from her.
He feels unaccountably weary and lets himself fall heavily down on his pallet. He can’t remember the last time he slept.
There’s a soft thump beside him, and then he feels her head on his shoulder. “Can I stay with you?”
“It’s not a good idea,” he tells her. He’s slightly perturbed that, for the first time since they began their illicit affair, he has no desire to bury himself in her.
“Not to do anything,” she amends. “I just…want to stay beside you. I spent the last week worried about you. Every time someone came back from the front with updates, I thought I’d hear that you’d been killed.” He shoots her an insulted look, and she rolls her eyes in the face of his pride. “You know what I mean.”
“Not that I’m not grateful, but why haven’t you been on the field?” he asks. “There are those who could’ve used your healing.”
“I haven’t been feeling well,” Sakura sighs. “Tsunade-shishou says I’m expending too much energy healing the wounded in camp. That and the fact that I’m up all hours of the night reading old scrolls.” He feels a minor jab of guilt at that—sort of. She’s only sacrificing her sleep for Itachi’s well-being, even now that their two sides are once more engaged in active conflict. “Even those who’ve mastered medical ninjutsu get overtired and have to rest sometimes.”
Sasuke nods, his arm winding around her back to pull her close. They lie back and he lets her settle on his chest, wrapping his arms around her more securely. He would like nothing more than to escape reality with her tonight.
But he can’t.
“Even if we do this and save Itachi, even if we manage to bring about peace,” he begins, staring up at the dark canvas of his tent, “Danzō must die. He stole a Sharingan, and that’s unforgiveable.”
She tightens her hold on his waist. “We’ll figure out a way to get him,” she promises. “And if we can’t…I’ll help you kill him.”
つづく
Holy pushing the plot forward, Batman! And so it begins...
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#naruto fanfiction#sasusaku#rating: teen#warring states period#au#sfw#kuriquinn#angst#drama#romance#canonical character death#sasuke uchiha#uchiha clan#naruto uzumaki#sakura haruno#the storm begins
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