"If I am not mistaken, this should be our first real conversation."
Downstream of the Naka River.
A fire crackled on the bank.
Amane smoked quietly. Across the flames, a man lay on a sheet of white cloth.
His breathing was shallow, as if life could slip away at any moment.
Amane was sure his will was still clear.
He had hit face first when he dived, the bruise visible even from a distance. Poison from his fight with Root still lingered in his body.
He was alive.
Uchiha Shisui.
A heart like still water. No wind, no ripples.
A cheerful Uchiha should not have to run himself ragged like this.
"I actually... remember you well..."
"When you were... only a few days old... Itachi was over the moon and told me to hold you."
"Then... you... peed all over me on the spot."
People near death often flip through their lives like a slide show.
Shisui's memories had reached that day.
Baby pee. A flood of yellow.
COUGH! COUGH COUGH!
A fierce fit took him. His thoughts blurred, yet he kept talking.
"What I... did not expect..."
"Every time after that I held you... you peed on me again..."
Sigh.
Amane shook his head, beckoned the bewildered Sasuke over, and pulled a small bottle from his coat.
"Pour this down his throat."
Root antidote?
What a joke.
Danzō had prepared for this. He knew Shisui was Root, and would not use a standard toxin.
After stealing Shisui's eye, he would force Itachi to choose, stand with the Uchiha or help the village purge the clan.
Even knowing the story, Amane could not possibly obtain the exact antidote for Shisui's poison.
What he held was a prize from grinding daily quests.
Enhanced Golden Juice: it stinks like sin, but it saves lives.
Note: do not breathe while drinking, or you will experience the taste of dung. Neutralizes most toxins.
Amane did not know its makeup, only that the raw material was feces.
They had reached life and death. Taste no longer mattered, and he was not the one drinking.
Besides, with Tsunade gone, taking Shisui to the hospital now would be the same as killing him again.
"This smell..."
Holding his breath, Sasuke puckered and dumped the stuff into Shisui's mouth in one go.
The next instant, Amane watched the diving prince's face contort in terror. Without eyeballs, it was a sight to freeze the blood.
"Water... give me water..."
The moment the Golden Juice hit his gut, Shisui clawed his way from the brink and staggered for the river. If you did not know why, you would think he meant to die again.
He had tasted something worse than death.
Only the gods knew what that flavor was.
He had just lost his eye. Without Sasuke to steady him, he would have tumbled into the water.
"What was that..."
Ten minutes later, still shaken, Shisui let Sasuke guide him back to the fire.
It was deep autumn.
Soaked clothes in this season bit to the bone. Only the flames carried warmth.
"Do not ask. Knowing is bad for your health."
Amane shook his head. System rewards came in all varieties. He would sooner die than use that one himself. On Shisui, it was perfect.
Hopefully the stench would jar him awake. No more dreams of Uchiha and Konoha living in harmony, no more declarations that he would protect both.
Amane would slap him with facts.
Loving peace was not wrong. The wrong was a world without true peace.
Even in the later tale when Naruto saved the world and became Hokage, once he died and the peak vanished, war would flare in an instant just as it had when Hashirama and Madara passed.
"Still... you should not have saved me."
Shisui no longer cared what was in the bottle. Blind, he could not see, yet he could picture the look on Amane's face when he said it.
More than an antidote, he wanted to know why this man had waited here as if he knew a suicide was coming.
Coincidence did not exist. As a fine shinobi, he did not believe Amane and Sasuke had come to fish and accidentally hooked him too.
"You are useful, so I saved you."
Amane answered with brutal simplicity.
Shisui was useful, and in no small way.
His death drove Itachi into isolation and fixed his choice to stand with Konoha.
Think about it and you had to laugh.
Honest truth.
It was the village leadership that orchestrated Shisui's death.
The Third put on a stern face to scold Danzō not to covet Shisui. When he learned Danzō had struck, the matter simply vanished.
Of course.
It was Kotoamatsukami.
No one wanted that power in Uchiha hands.
Even if the wielder was a former comrade's descendant, the trusted Uchiha Kagami under the Second Hokage.
Even if Shisui loved peace and served Konoha with countless deeds, the famed Shunshin no Shisui.
Because he bore the name Uchiha.
Even now he had likely not shaken that guileless nature.
"Useful, am I?"
Shisui sighed. What use was an Uchiha without eyes.
He had survived and become a blind man.
Blinder than the nearsighted kid with glasses before him.
"Of course you are. But I need you to be a proper corpse. At least do not let my foolish brother recognize you."
Amane snapped his fingers, and a thread of flame bloomed.
He pushed his frames up and stepped to Shisui, laying the burning hand upon him.
"Hm? What are you doing?"
A prickle of dread ran through Shisui.
"Brother Shisui, first time cutting hair. Please forgive me."
Half an hour later.
A brand new Shisui appeared in the Uchiha compound, in the clan head's study. Fugaku stared, dumbfounded, and raised a finger.
"This monk in sunglasses..."
"Who is he?"
"And where did his eyebrows go?"