Straight into the Fire
The night weighed heavily on his already exhausted back as he made his way through the Konoha gates and towards the Hokage tower, black dots covering the corners of his vision in preparation for his long-awaited sleep on an actual bed.
It had been a rough past three weeks, and he was sure that the only thing keeping him going was the years of training he put himself through and the dust-covered compound he called home. He has been trying his hardest these last few years to be out of the village as often as possible, to be away from his clans cold and empty compound and away from the child he was forbidden from seeing. Both painful heart-wrenching regrets that left him feeling empty at just a thought. He knew the path he had been taking lately would cause his friends to worry and it wasn’t healthy at all but, it was how he coped, needing to be useful or help any way he could.
Trying to help was all he was good for after all, a bitter thought that kept him going even when his body told him to stop. Now, he wasn’t a guy of sentiments, he was a shinobi, and a sentimental shinobi would end up hesitating and dying because of it. He was not sentimental but he did take his failures and losses to heart. Letting them work him to become stronger and destroying the innocence he used to have as an academy student. One who had suffered no loss and hadn’t become a war-hardened shinobi yet. A path that eventually all academy students must go on in order to stay alive. There was no war (not anymore at least), no massacre(for now), everything was peaceful; at least he had believed that until tonight.
After giving his verbal report to the Jounin on duty, he trailed through the side streets in a longer route to his compound, unease filling his entire being at the peaceful and quiet night. Something about it felt so wrong and not how it should be. His trail took him to the outer parts of Konoha near the Uchiha compound whose silence was normal and utterly uncomfortable tonight. It hadn't even occurred to Genma that his trail was on the opposite end of his home, and the thought was shoved further down when the slight clang of metal was heard in the forest to his left. He moves quickly, silently, gone is the fatigue for the potential threat that was up ahead near the shrine for the Uchihas all his muscles taut with tension. He places himself high up in one of the trees, sensing a small group on the other side also hidden from the view of the two in the clearing. The two who were fighting faster than most Jounin would be able to accomplish. He catches a glimpse then of Councilmen Danzo as his hands reaches into the others eye socket and pulls.
The blood and the pure scream of agony jolts through Genma's entire being as he watches the other person hit their knees with a thud. There's definitely some sort of noise cancelling around the area, as the only reason he heard was his specific route was through trees near the edge of the village and not through the village.
Knowing the battle is lost, the other begins to flee, not before he turns just enough that Genma sees their face. His face.
His world views shift upside down as he sees the face that now only had one eye.
Uchiha Shisui.
One of the strongest and most loyal shinobi he knew. One he had gone on missions with a couple of times and had a laid-back personality just like him. One not like his Uchiha brethren and yet was stronger than most. One that was now running further into the woods to get away from the pursuing Anbu (their masks were different he's sure that can't be Anbu). One that he just watched lose his right eye with a scream of pure pain and terror ripping through him. One he was now gonna save from whatever is happening. Because they were or had been teammates and he would never leave his teammates behind.
It was at this point in time he really wished he knew the body flicker technique that the fourth Hokage had briefly explained to his guards so that he could get to Shisui's aid quicker but, even if he could, he was already worn out and probably wouldn't have the chakra to get to him. So, he moved in the direction they went, making sure his chakra was concealed, and he faded into the background movement only noticed if you were looking for it. There wasn't much noise so the slight rustling of leaves gave him a direction he continued to follow until he reached a rocky hill where he paused feeling around him for what he could tell was there. A genjutsu. Hidden so well that even Genma almost went right past it, something Shisui's pursuers had obviously done. If Genma hadn't been recently dabbling in chakra sensing and concealment he would've walked right past as well.
Before breaking the genjutsu he lightly sprinkles an odorless poison that will cause any who breathe it in to pass out (he's an exception may be something to do with his clan or the fact he's been around both lethal and non-lethal poisons his whole life) before muttering a quiet kai that breaks the genjutsu for him and shows the cave entrance.
He's a little hesitant to enter not knowing how Shisui will take to seeing him but staying out here might cause someone to eventually notice him, so his best chance was with an ally. Dropping forward into the small hole he quietly enters till the cave opens up wider and he can at least crouch more comfortably. He doesn't hear anything but the light dripping of water onto the cave ground, a show of the great shinobi Shisui is even after the loss of an eye. Genma places a concealment tag on the cave wall- a project he's been working on to create a barrier that conceals both sound and chakra from entering the outside world-before allowing his chakra to flare so as to make him aware of Genma being there.
"Shisui" he calls out softly, cautiously taking a few steps into the cave trying to see the boy hiding behind some boulders further down the cave.
"Hey ya, kid you alright over there?" He asks the sound of released breath the only response he receives.
"Okay I know this is gonna be difficult but, you're gonna have to trust me" a light whimper at the word trust breaks Genma's heart over and over again (He's just a kid, a strong shinobi and very loyal one too, but a kid all the same. A kid who just lost his eye to one of his superiors and is now hiding from those exact same people. God this was fucked up.)
"At least let me heal your eye, I'll place my vest and even my senbon on the ground and if you want i'll tie my hands behind my back and heal you turned around will that help?" Genma kept his voice light as soothing as can be for fear of hurting the kid. Hoped that he could actually do something even if it wasn't much right now. Hoped to ignore (at least for now) the implications of a direct leader doing such a thing to a loyal shinobi.
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Shisui was scared. Terrified. The feeling of his eye being ripped out is still there as if Danzo's hand was still in his socket ripping his eye away and the intense pain traveling to every neuron in his body was still there. Everything hurt. And now he wasn't even sure his plan to stop his clan from the coup would even work and Danzo his superior in Anbu just stopped him, stopped his Sharingan, and he's not sure how and he's not sure how and...
He took his eye. Nothing was right. Everything was all going wrong and he didn't know what to do. He couldn't stop them who was he kidding, Shisui the odd Uchiha would never be strong enough to stop their clan. He wasn't strong enough to protect Itachi from the expectations and the pain he went through, and he can't stop his family from destroying themselves. He just...isn't strong enough. Was never strong enough. He had failed his mission.
He buried his face into his knees, shoving himself behind some boulders and trying to ignore the still bleeding eye socket that was now soaking his right pant leg. His only option now was to go to Itachi and hope he would be able to accomplish what Shisui had failed at. He knew his cousin could do something he's not sure what, but Itachi is a genius and competent nothing like the failure Shisui is.
The emptiness of his socket was a visual representation of how he was feeling internally. The emptiness and the loneliness were all he had left. He had utterly lost. So much so his own leader had gone after him. What an utter failure.
Then, someone broke his genjutsu. He wasn't really sure how anyone had found it. If Shisui was confident in anything it would be his genjutsu and to have someone find it so easily, (means he must be more pathetic than he thought) he didn't move but tensed his body in preparation for what was to come.
There was no other sound but the dripping of water onto the cave ground and his fear of the unknown spiked. Nothing happens for a moment and then for a split second something entraps the cave into its own world and a flare of chakra lights up. Familiar chakra of not a friend but a close acquaintance. Someone whose personality matched so well with Shisui's. Someone he considered a comrade, a person that just the thought of fighting made Shisui want to break down crying. Because it was Genma. The kind and laid-back familiar face that everyone knew. The person that would drop everything to help anyone in a heartbeat and a shinobi that everyone looked up to. Someone Shisui looked up to. A strong leader who could command a room just with a movement and fade into the background just as quickly. Oh god please don't be under Danzo please not him.
Shisui doesn't move as Genma lightly calls out his name nor does he move when he asks if Shisui is alright (though when Genma calls out kid he almost breaks down running into the jounin's arms because that word is filled with such warmth and kindness and god Shisui needs that, needs it like he needs to breath and he's hurt and lonely and everything is wrong but maybe Genma can make it right).
"Okay I know this is gonna be difficult but, you're gonna have to trust me" the word trust brings out a light whimper because didn't he trust Danzo, didn't he trust his clan, didn't he trust himself, and each one was broken because he trusted.
But it's Genma. Genma isn't attacking him like the Anbu were. Genma isn't Danzo who ripped out his eye. Genma is talking soothingly, showing his kindness even without Shisui seeing his face.
"At least let me heal your eye, I'll place my vest and even my senbon on the ground and if you want i'll tie my hands behind my back and heal you turned around will that help?" At those words, Shisui's conflict faded because the enemy would never show their back, would never intentionally tie their hands behind their back, even allies would have a hard time showing each other their back; an ultimate sign of trust between friends and comrades. Even his senbon a trademark to both his clan and the person everyone knows and loves. He was willing to show his back and leave his senbon, his weapon, and heal him without looking Shisui was going to trust him.
"No-no need I-I-I Genma" His voice doesn't even sound like his anymore and it cracks at saying the other man's name. Slowly uncurling from his place on the cave ground, he stumbles from behind the boulders and toward Genma tears falling and sobs wrecking his form. Genma is safe. Genma will protect him is all he thinks as he reaches him allowing Genma to wrap him in a hug that's so warm and so so comforting. So much like how his mother used to hug him after coming back safe from her missions or how his father would ruffle his hair with a bright smile on his face so unlike an Uchiha. They stay in each other's arms for a moment as Shisui's breath calms down and Genma pulls back.
"Shhh, you're okay" Genma whispers after Shisui whimpers from the warmth trying to leave him "I need to check your eye, okay kid?" He waits for a nod of the head before his hand glows over the right eye finally stopping the bleeding that had only been dripping by then. Reaching into his Jounin vest, Genma grabs a handkerchief and gently wipes it under the eye, keeping his left arm around Shisui in a protective gesture to soothe them both. Getting as much blood off as he can, he places the now bloody handkerchief back into the pocket before placing the kid into his arms once again holding him tightly fearing if he didn't the kid would shatter.
The only sound is the light sniffling of a nose and the dripping of water onto the cave ground. The concealment tag still works perfectly and for a moment they both forget everything. Forget the betrayal. Forget the hurt. Forget the horrors and the world views that have been shaken.
"It will be okay," Genma says quietly "I got you; I'll protect you, you're safe now" For once since his parents died Shisui believes it, believes that he'll be safe, and isn't alone. Not anymore.