Shisui lowered his trembling hand, his gaze fixed on the door before him.
His fingers would not stop shaking.
Why?
Why had the Kyūbi's rampage erupted?
Why did it have to happen at the precise moment when he was away, carrying out his mission?
Rei… she must have been terrified.
Was she hurt?
Shisui's eyes burned with desperate intensity, staring at the door as if his will alone could tear it from its frame. Yet he restrained himself. He knew he could not simply force his way through.
From within, the sound of footsteps drew nearer, each one striking at his heart.
Shisui's chest tightened, his heartbeat surging so wildly it seemed ready to break free of his throat. Never in his life had he felt such suffocating tension.
Creaaak—
At last, the door that had held him in such painful anticipation swung open.
And there she stood—Rei.
For a moment, relief washed through him. The suffocating weight upon his heart loosened.
But the instant his gaze traced the fine details of her face, a sharp, crushing pain seized his chest.
The Rei before him looked utterly exhausted.
Her complexion was pale as fragile parchment, her lips drained of all color. The shadows beneath her eyes deepened her fatigue, and bloodshot veins laced her gaze with raw red streaks.
As Shisui drank in her fragile figure, Rei's weary eyes in turn rested on him.
The night wind slipped past Shisui, flowing into the room.
Rei, ever attuned to the scent of blood, caught it immediately. The faint, metallic tang clung to him—not overwhelming, but undeniable.
It likely was not his own wound. She could sense that.
Their eyes met. Shisui's black pupils, filled with unbearable worry, bore into hers. Suddenly, he reached out, grasping her wrist tightly. His voice, raw with desperation, broke the silence.
"Rei… you're not injured, are you?"
His gaze swept her body again and again, searching, frantic, unwilling to miss the smallest trace of harm.
Only when he confirmed there were no wounds, no scent of her blood, did his racing heart loosen, if only slightly.
Rei shook her head faintly, her expression heavy with unmasked fatigue.
"I'm not hurt."
Then, after a pause, she returned the question.
"…The blood on you. Were you wounded?"
From the look of him, Rei could already guess—he must have rushed back the very instant the news reached him, completing his mission in haste and racing through the night to Konoha.
The Kyūbi's rampage was not something that could ever be concealed.
The massive form of the beast, the devastation of the village—it was impossible for the outside world not to have noticed. And with the shinobi world balanced only on the thinnest thread of temporary peace, spies from enemy villages lurked everywhere.
Within mere hours, the news of the Kyūbi's attack would already have spread across the entire shinobi world.
Shisui forced a smile, shaking his head stiffly.
"No… I'm not injured."
But his fists clenched hard, his knuckles pale.
He had lingered outside for a long time, letting the night wind wash over him, hoping it would disperse the clinging stench of blood. But in his frantic rush, perhaps not enough time had passed—the scent had not fully dispersed.
At the level of a jōnin, every mission demanded blood.
That was the cruel truth.
But he could not—he would not—let Rei know his hands were stained red.
"…As long as you're unhurt," he murmured.
Rei, drained to the core by the relentless torment of mathematics and physics, had no strength left to shoulder Shisui's worry.
Lowering her lashes, she spoke softly:
"It's late. You should go back and rest."
Shisui looked at her, his heart still heavy with unease, wishing to speak further. But the exhaustion in Rei's eyes silenced him.
When he had heard of the Kyūbi's rampage, he had rushed back to the village without a moment's hesitation, running straight for the Hokage's residence. His only thought had been of Rei's safety.
Now, knowing she bore no wound, he could finally breathe again.
And yet, deep within, unease coiled tight around his chest—a shadowy premonition, cold and relentless, though he could not name its source.
He nodded gently, forcing a reassuring smile.
"Rei… rest well."
"You too."
The door closed before him, quiet and final.
Inside, Amamiya Rei collapsed onto the sofa. Within three breaths, the dull weight of mathematics and physics pulled him into heavy, dreamless sleep.
Outside—
Shisui descended the steps, walked to the gate of the courtyard, and cast one final, lingering look at the small house bathed in moonlight. Then he slipped away into the silent street, closing the wooden gate behind him.
He wandered the streets of Konoha, weighed down by a storm of thoughts.
Then suddenly—instinct flared. His head snapped up, his black eyes sharp as a hawk's, catching a gaze fixed upon him.
A lone figure stood, half-hidden in the shadow of an alley wall, body wrapped in the shroud of moonlight.
Shisui stilled. Then he stepped forward.
Even masked, instinct told him without doubt—this was Kakashi-senpai.
He halted before him, but his eyes turned back, resting on Rei's quiet home. From Kakashi's position, the house lay fully in sight.
"…Kakashi-senpai. Were you here for Rei?" Shisui asked quietly.
Kakashi's visible eye narrowed. He shook his head.
"I came for you."
And to protect Amamiya Rei.
Tonight had been nothing short of a nightmare.
His sensei, His sensei's wife—both gone.
And Rei, forced against her will into the path of the shinobi.
Everything Kakashi treasured had been shattered in a single night.
And yet, he knew with piercing clarity—Rei's suffering was even greater than his own.
Unlike him, Rei had never faced the shinobi world's cruelty so directly. She had never endured its pain so nakedly.
That was why Kakashi so worried for her.
He had lingered here, silent in the shadows, unwilling to leave her unguarded.
But Shisui had returned earlier than he expected.
Perhaps, Kakashi thought, Rei might find greater comfort in Shisui's presence than in his own.
So, without hesitation, Kakashi resolved to tell Shisui everything that had transpired—so that Shisui could prepare himself.
His words were clipped, merciless in their weight.
"To save the villagers, Rei revealed Mokuton. Everyone saw it."
At once, Shisui's pupils contracted violently.
But Kakashi gave him no time to react.
"And the higher-ups… they used Uzumaki Naruto to force her into becoming a shinobi."
Shisui felt the air ripped from his lungs.
It was as though a raging tide had risen from nothing, crashing down and pulling him beneath its crushing weight.
Every emotion within him drowned, dragged mercilessly into the abyss of this cursed night.
When Kakashi finished, he turned away, his figure dissolving into the shadows.
Shisui did not move.
He did not even seem to see.
He stood rooted, as though carved from stone, unmoving until dawn broke and the first pale light spread across the sky. As the morning birds stirred Konoha awake, Shisui still stood there, silent.
And in that stillness, regret consumed him.
Only then did he finally understand—he had been wrong.
Terribly, irreparably wrong.
He had brought Rei into Konoha.
Yet he could not protect her.
It was his fault. His sin.
It was because of him that Rei had been forced to betray her own will, to become what she despised most—a shinobi.
It was he who had destroyed her life.
No repentance could ever repay what she had lost. No atonement could ever restore the future he had stolen from her.
Closing his burning eyes, Shisui let the tears fall.
They slipped silently from the corners of his eyes—grief, guilt, and love condensed into a fleeting drop, lost to the cruel wind.
***