The night reeked of betrayal.
I had felt it in the air all day, like a storm pressing down on the village. And when my Sharingan caught the faint glow of chakra exploding in the distance, my body moved before my thoughts caught up.
By the time I reached the cliff outside the Uchiha compound, I was already too late.
"Shisui!"
His body crumpled on the jagged rocks below, blood seeping into the river. His chest heaved faintly, breaths shallow, pulse broken. And the eyes that should have burned like pinwheels were gone.
Danzo.
I almost tore the ground apart in fury.
But rage could wait. He didn't have to die tonight. Not this way.
I leapt down, kneeling beside him, his voice rasping. "…Akari…?"
"Don't talk," I snapped, pressing a hand to his wounds. The regeneration wouldn't save him—his injuries were too severe, and his soul itself was slipping away.
Unless—
My demon blood pulsed like fire, whispering a forbidden solution. I had done it only once before, with Minato and Kushina, on the night of the Nine-Tails.
But Shisui…
He looked at me, half-delirious, but still Shisui. "If… I die… it all ends wrong. Please…"
I didn't let him finish.
"Then don't die," I hissed, biting into my wrist until black-red blood welled up, thick with power. "Drink."
His lips trembled, but he obeyed, swallowing the fire that was me. The moment it slid down his throat, I felt it ignite inside him, tearing apart his fragile human shell and rebuilding it in my image.
He convulsed, clawing at the rocks, his body writhing between death and rebirth. And then—silence.
Shisui's eyes snapped open.
Not Mangekyō. Not yet. But crimson burned faintly in his irises, glowing even without the tomoe. His wounds closed as though time itself rewound, bones knitting, flesh healing, life restored.
I exhaled. "…You stubborn crow."
He sat up slowly, staring at his own hands in disbelief. "…What did you do to me?"
I leaned back, letting the river wash away the blood. "I saved you. That's all you need to know."
"No," he whispered, trembling. "This… this isn't human. My body feels… wrong. And strong. What—" He looked at me, horrified. "You turned me into what you are, didn't you?"
I met his gaze evenly. "Better a monster that lives than a martyr that's forgotten."
For a long moment, he just stared at me, torn between gratitude and fear. But in the end… he laughed weakly. "…You're insane."
"Maybe," I said, helping him to his feet. "But you're alive. You've got a thousand minutes of sunlight resistance in you now. That's more than enough to outlast Danzo's shadow games."
He blinked at me, clearly confused at the strange number, but chose not to press.
Instead, he looked out at the river, then back at me. "…So I'm supposed to be dead. Danzo has my eyes. The clan will think I betrayed them, or that I fell. What now?"
I smiled faintly, though it was more teeth than warmth. "Now, Shisui, we play a different game. You'll be my crow in the dark. A ghost no one expects."
His lips twitched, the corner of his mouth lifting. "…A demon crow."
I didn't correct him.
Because he was mine now.
Back in the village, Naruto stirred in his crib, restless as though he had sensed the shift in fate outside his window.
And somewhere, far below the earth, I swore I felt Black Zetsu laugh faintly in the dark.
The timeline was already breaking.
But I would decide what rose from the pieces.