34

Chapter 34: snatch your chain and mace your eyesNotes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

In hindsight, it's a little embarrassing that Raijin takes a while to realise that the ROOT agents were trying to subtly herd him and Shisui somewhere. To be fair, Raijin is less used to methods of subtlety since most of his shinobi career has involved large scale invasions of some sort. He just…didn't notice.

Their first attempt was probably with the coyote. The normal shinobi response to that would be to shift camp, right? That's what Shisui had suggested they do when he shook Raijin awake. Raijin had groggily erected a barrier seal and gone right back to sleep; his eyes pretty much closed the whole time.

So, the ROOT shinobi had upped the ante and lured a bear close to them the next day. Raijin had left Shisui with a clone, gone to the bear and let some of Kurama's chakra loose to sufficiently mark his territory, and then they'd carried on their merry way with the bear scared off.

Sure is convenient sometimes to have the ultimate apex predator on hand for moments like these. No other animal wants to risk pissing off something like the Kyuubi, and Kurama likes getting to throw his weight around every now and then because he's a gangster at heart.

Needless to say, since the prodding didn't work because Raijin is kind of obtuse and Shisui is just happy to go along with most things, the ROOT ninja finally had to resort to what was probably their final option—a full frontal assault.

That, at least, Raijin did notice. Even he can't ignore something like the forest quite literally starting to smoke around them.

The forests close to the border of Storms tend to be drier than the ones that grow closer to Konoha where the humidity makes it harder for fire to catch. Here, where the foliage is packed closely together enough for spread to be fast and the air is dry during summer, a wildfire is relatively quick to catch and hard to control.

Raijin doesn't know any suiton jutsu large enough to control something like this and Shisui doesn't seem to have mastered more than one chakra nature yet either, so their best option is to run.

Unfortunately, that's exactly what their masked little friends were hoping for.

A wind-natured and a fire-natured shinobi stumble into a forest fire. 

It sounds like the start of a terrible joke and Shisui hates that his life is apparently the punchline.

He has never been afraid of fire. He's an Uchiha; to them, fire is sacred. It has kept them alive for generations and it continues to do so even now. All their biggest festivals and rituals revolve around it. Births and weddings are celebrated by lighting lanterns, and upon death, they are cremated so they may return to that which welcomed them into life in the first place.

Shisui thinks it would be all sorts of terribly ironic if he were to perish in a forest fire of all things.

Raijin doesn't seem to be sweating about it (hah!) like Shisui, so at least there's that. The blond appears to be much more concerned about what they're being forced to run towards rather than what they're running from.

Which, okay, valid. Shisui should probably be thinking ahead like a good shinobi too instead of giving into his more primal fears like some sort of civilian.

"Things aren't looking too hot, Raijin-san," he comments.

The ill-timed pun earns him a withering stare. Raijin shakes his head and turns back to look ahead, pursing his lips. "What do they want to take us to?" he wonders aloud.

Shisui looks around and dryly suggests, "Hell, maybe."

"Maybe," Raijin acknowledges, snorting. "I didn't think he'd want us dead. His usual go-to is frightening people into compliance."

Shisui thinks about this as they leap over a falling tree. "What would he gain by killing you? Killing me won't get him much, I can tell you that."

"Unless he's using us to set an example," Raijin says grimly.

'Ah,' Shisui thinks, dread settling within him. 'If Danzou's go-to is scaring people into compliance then killing Raijin-san is the means, not the goal. Who is he really aiming for?'

And the answer is simple once he's looking for it:

Namikaze Minato.

They run for nearly an hour through the burning forest with the ANBU shinobi keeping pace and blocking off any other paths they could take, stoking the flames through calculated usage of jutsu. They operate from within the flames; no fear and no tolerance for failure.

Shisui can feel himself starting to flag. His heart is beating too loudly in his ears, his mouth is filled with the sour taste of smoke and his lungs burn. "I'm not going to last very long like this," he warns his partner. His voice does not shake but his hands are starting to. He's too tired to hide it.

Raijin curses and grabs Shisui's arm, all but throwing the boy onto his back in one smooth motion. "Hang on, kid."

Obediently wrapping his arms around the blond, Shisui lets himself slump against Raijin and close his eyes, pressing his cheek against the older shinobi's shoulder. He hates being like this—having to rely on others and acting like a helpless kid, but there's not much he can do right now. Besides, Raijin's chakra feels nice where it wrapped around him; like Shisui is by the sea instead of a raging fire. "Sorry," he mumbles. "M'not used to so much moving around."

The pace of their travels has been demanding with little room for rest. Shisui knows he's a good shinobi, but he can't help that he's only nine-years-old and has the physiology and chakra reserves to match.

"Yeah, sorry, I should have realised." Raijin doesn't even sound out of breath. Shisui is immediately jealous. "Not everyone has my level of stamina."

Narrowing his eyes, Shisui turns to peer at the man. "I think the smoke inhalation screwed me over more than anything else."

"Ah." Raijin hisses through his teeth. "Forgot that was a thing."

The way he says it makes it seem like he's talking more to himself than Shisui but it's not like Shisui is going to miss anything, plastered to Raijin's back as he is. He frowns. "How do you just forget that smoke inhalation is a thing?" Ugh, now that he isn't having to move on his own, Shisui feels sleepy.

Raijin jostles him slightly when he jumps next, startling Shisui awake. He hadn't realised he'd fallen asleep for a second there. "It doesn't really affect me," the blond comments. "I have a pretty great healing factor. My body metabolises most toxins too quickly for them to take, including carbon monoxide."

"That's so cool." Shisui's head lolls to the side and tips against Raijin's. "Is that a kekkei genkai? Can the Yondaime do it too?"

"Uh, no." Raijin sounds distracted. "Nope. I'm pretty sure it's an exclusive ability or something. It's why I'm not using a barrier seal for us to take shelter behind right now."

Shisui makes a sound of displeasure. "Mm, why not?"

"Because mine don't filter out the air. I didn't account for anyone else using them. If I stuck you in one with me, you'd just get severe carbon monoxide poisoning."

"It'd put me to sleep," Shisui concludes. He blinks his eyes open. When did he close them?

"Forever; yeah."

Raijin says something else; Shisui knows he does, but he's trying to focus too hard on staying awake, so he ends up missing it entirely. He's so warm from the fire and from Raijin's own body heat. Shisui sighs and melts into the heat. His brain feels sluggish and he tries to get his eyelids to open but they won't cooperate.

He thinks Raijin is still saying something, but he can't hear the words; only the cadence of the man's voice registers in Shisui's tired mind. The sound of Raijin's voice follows him into the creeping darkness, and then Shisui knows no more.

Okay. So. Show of hands: Raijin has no plan.

What he does have is a severely exhausted child, a burning forest, five ROOT shinobi, and a clearing approaching up ahead which is probably the location they were being driven to in the first place.

Oh, and signs of life in that clearing since he's feeling other people's emotions again. Lovely. An ambush.

Just the thing he needed.

'The spirits of this forest are going to hate humans forever,' Kurama remarks dispassionately.

Fine, so he also has angry forest gods but that's a problem for later.

'Spill the blood of those who have done this and offer it to them,' Kurama advises. 'It will quell some of that anger.'

Gritting his teeth, Raijin pointedly says, 'Can we solve one problem at a time please?'

'Ah, yes, I forget your peanut brain is incapable of multitasking.'

'My brain is not peanut-sized!' he argues indignantly.

Kurama is not impressed. 'I'm the one who lives with it. What would you know?'

He so does not need this right now. Raijin sends a mental flick to his friend and hurls himself through the last of the treeline to come into the clearing.

For a moment, everything is silent. His muscles tense in anticipation, grip tightening around Shisui. Kurama too has retreated from the front of his mind. It's just Raijin.

And then all at once, an explosion of movement as his enemies announce their presence through a wave of kunai and shuriken heading towards him from what feels like every direction. Raijin leaps back, barely managing to free one hand for the handsigns to a futon that strikes out in a curve around him, redirecting most of the weapons and buying him just enough time to form his clones.

His first priority needs to be to get Shisui to safety. Raijin hands the boy off to one of his waiting clones. "Two of you: find cover, set up a barrier and stay there. Go."

"You got it, boss!"

They take off while the rest of them turn back to where their opponents have recovered. Three of them leap down from the trees. One of them has dual swords that Bee would probably approve of. One of them stays hidden somewhere in the treeline judging by what Raijin feels moments before they tamp down on their emotions in favour of a mission ready calm.

Another two immediately take off in the direction that his clones went with Shisui.

Alright, at least he knows who to go after first.

"Distract those guys!" he throws over his shoulder, creating more. He needs this to be done quickly so he can get back to the little Uchiha in his care. Being away is making him nervous and being nervous leads to mistakes.

Better to just overwhelm them with sheer numbers and catch them off guard.

The kunoichi whirls around before he can get in close enough to sever her jugular, meeting his kunai with her own. There is a flash of surprise on her face that bleeds into grim-edged determination. Her Grass hitai-ate has a slash through it.

Narrowing his eyes, he twists his arm, forcing the kunoichi's arm into an odd angle until she releases her blade and decides to try her luck with aiming a hard punch at his ribs instead. Raijin leaps back and is forced into another backward flip when she follows closely with a sweep for where his feet would have landed.

A kunai whistles as it flies past, mere inches from his face. The faintest buzz of electricity lingers in the air in its wake. So, the other shinobi has noticed and is officially backing up his partner instead of going after Shisui. Good.

The memories of the clones that have popped flood his brain, neatly categorising themselves without him needing to linger on them even as Raijin forms the signs for a katon that the pair has to leap away from to avoid. His opponents seem to be in a range of high chuunin to mid jounin level. One of them continues to remain hidden stubbornly.

He can work with this.

Not everyone has the luxury of throwing out as many chakra demanding jutsu as he does without thinking twice. Raijin is a powerhouse of no parallel for a reason. He is unfiltered brute force when it really counts. Nothing about the way he fights is particularly graceful. It is awe-inspiring though.

If his enemies thought they would have the upper hand simply because there are more of them, that is their mistake.

Raijin calls up an earth wall to crouch behind just in time to avoid a raiton net being thrown his way. He switches with a clone underground and pops up behind the kunoichi instead, taking her down while she is distracted by watching her partner engage his clone.

The partner whips around when he realises what has happened, barely managing to respond when Raijin is on him in a second, crowding in close and not letting up for a second until finally the other shinobi is just a heartbeat too late to avoid a decisive nerve strike that knocks him out.

His clones have managed to put another of the opponents out of commission. That leaves two more in the clearing with Raijin. So far, their aim has seemed closer to maim and capture, but it seems that he has managed to piss them off enough that they're looking to just kill him altogether now.

That's just as well. It will make no difference to Raijin.

He shunshins into the heart of the fight, dismissing some of his clones so they don't impair his own visibility, and releasing a wind blade jutsu before his new opponents can realise any difference between fighting him and his clones.

Grimacing as the blade neatly catches one of the shinobi around the middle, Raijin absently waves his hand to unleash enough of a gust of wind that the subsequent spray of blade is swept away before it can reach him. He turns to look for the other shinobi who'd had enough foresight to trigger a kawarimi and leave behind a log of wood in his stead.

He feels the disturbance in the air behind him and, before he can even think twice about it, switches places with the clone next to him. The kage bunshin is immediately dispelled by the hit and the sworsdsman growls in wordless frustration at the failed attack.

Raijin snorts and whirls into a roundhouse kick while the other shinobi is distracted. The swordsman just about manages to dodge, though Raijin's foot does manage to clip his shoulder enough that one of his arms ought to be out of commission.

With his kenjutsu and ninjutsu now probably drastically limited, the other shinobi is starting to look visibly panicked. Raijin almost feels bad for him.

Unfortunately, that doesn't translate into mercy.

Soon enough, it is Raijin who stands alone in the clearing.

'No,' Kurama murmurs in his mind, bringing him to attention. 'You aren't alone yet. Remember the one who is hiding.'

The air shifts. The final enemy has revealed himself at last. Raijin stiffens.

"Kakuzu."

Shisui comes to slowly, throat painfully dry and head pounding. His eyes are still stinging a little, but nowhere near as bad as they were while they were still stuck in the burning forest.

A touch of salt and starburst chakra against his before the feeling of a flask against his mouth. Shisui grabs at the flask immediately, still blinking spots out of his vision as he sits up with the help of warm hands at his back.

"What happened?" he asks, annoyed that it comes out half slurred. He twists, squinting at the rippling luminescence of Raijin's barrier seal.

"We're hiding until Boss gives us the all clear," replies Raijin, smoothing Shisui's hair out of his face patiently.

Shisui frowns, blinking hard to clear the last of his vision before turning to raise an eyebrow at the blond. "The Boss?" he repeats in confusion.

Raijin looks amused as he flashes him a bright smile. "I'm a clone!" he declares cheerfully. "I've got a few buddies keeping the ROOT agents occupied while I watch over you. Glad to see you awake by the way, kid."

"Uh, thanks." Shisui blinks. "Wait, but you're so solid."

"Shadow clones are like that." The clone shrugs, twisting the flask shut and storing it back in Shisui's pack.

Eyebrows shooting up in disbelief, Shisui asks, "Multiple shadow clones? Isn't that, like, kind of illegal?"

Raijin 2.0 shrugs again, winking mischievously. "Only for those who don't have the chakra reserves to handle it." Then, looking thoughtful, he adds as an afterthought, "You probably shouldn't try until you're older though. Your chakra coils don't finish developing till you're fifteen. Don't do anything to screw that up."

Shisui stares for a moment longer before shaking his head, deciding to focus on the more important matters at hand. "You said there's a couple of your friends holding the ROOT agents off."

Nodding, the clone elaborates, "I think the plan was always to get you guys to split up and then overwhelm you separately. They probably want to kill Boss off, but it seems like they want to simply capture you."

A part of him wonders how the clone can so easily say all this when the original Raijin is probably out there still actively fighting for his life. Shisui exhales.

"Why would they want to take me?"

Smiling wryly, Raijin points out, "Young minds are easier to shape. Not to mention, Danzou probably covets those special eyes of yours since he's a creep of the highest order."

"But you're the more skilled one."

Raijin considers this, tipping his head at an angle that strikes Shisui as strangely uncanny for some reason. "Boss is more valuable to Danzou dead," announces the clone, completely blasé. "You've realised it too, haven't you, Shisui-kun? All this is a message to the Yondaime. If he wants the rest of his family and friends safe in the future, he'll stop challenging Danzou so much. He might try to take Boss hostage to negotiate the same thing, but since Boss will prove to be trickier than he probably expected, Danzou will think it will be better to just kill him. It will be a warning to all the other clans too."

"If the Hokage's own blood isn't safe, no one's is," Shisui infers numbly. He'd realised this himself, but it's different hearing this from the mouth of someone older and more experienced. Somehow, it feels more real this way. It sinks in just how royally fucked they are.

"What if the other clones can't hold off the ROOT shinobi?" he asks.

"They can," the clone answers serenely, "and if they can't, then that's what we're behind a barrier for. I'm still working on an air filter feature in case they try an aerial toxin to harm you again, but we're safe from almost everything else."

Shisui had no idea that shadow clones could be this useful even outside their creator's influence, but he is now suitably horrified by Raijin's dependency on them. Narrowing his eyes, he asks, "How many of you are running around right now? Won't Raijin-san be running short on chakra if there's too many of you?"

Raijin may be smart enough to realise that too many clones would put him at a disadvantage but it's also exactly the sort of harebrained self-sacrificial bullshit Shisui can see him pulling despite being aware. The only people Shisui would risk himself like that for are Itachi and his parents. Raijin seems like he'd do it for anyone.

The clone smiles secretively. "Don't worry about Boss's chakra reserves. He's got plenty to spare."

"How can you know that though?" Shisui demands, frustrated. "We're here cowering behind his seals while he's out there fighting by himself with like a quarter of his usual reserves."

For a moment, the clone watches him with unreadable eyes. Then, he repeats, "Boss will be fine. He's strong."

Dragging a hand over his face, Shisui grits his teeth against his headache and exhales harshly. "I know that, but you can't just—" He makes a noise in the back of his throat. "He isn't infallible. No one is. It's dangerously arrogant of you to just believe he'll be fine when I can help. He needs backup. Especially if they're actively trying to kill him."

"Boss asked to keep you out of harm's way because your presence will distract him."

"Because I'd intervene in his stupidly altruistic plans," Shisui retorts. "He can't be out there by himself."

The clone is starting to look frustrated now too. 'Good,' Shisui thinks vindictively. Let him feel some of the cloying annoyance burning in Shisui's lungs right alongside the damned smoke.

"You're at half your regular capacity," Raijin stresses. "You're also the one they actively want to steal away. Why would you want to leave?"

"You're the one they want to kill!" Shisui throws back heatedly.

"They're not going to succeed." Shisui has no idea how the clone can sound so certain about this. "Boss can handle himself."

As soon as those words leave Raijin's mouth, something in the distance explodes with enough force that the ground under them shakes with it. Shisui's heart shakes too.

The thing with most barrier seals is that they're meant to keep things out. Shisui knows the odds of this being one such barrier too. He knows the rough distance towards the site of the explosion where he's sure Raijin is, and he knows the speed he'll need to go at to get there without the clone catching hold of him before he gets there. Shisui knows he could make it.

He's up and gone before Raijin's annoying clone can even process what's happening. A delirious laugh bubbles out of Shisui's mouth as he hears the loud and colourful swearing that kicks up behind him.

"Get back here, you little hellion!"

There's the telltale sound of branches creaking under an adult shinobi's weight but Shisui doesn't turn. He doesn't worry.

They've begun calling Shunshin no Shisui these days. He gave them good reason to do so. Shisui carefully directs chakra into his legs, reinforcing the muscles and pushing them to the limit as he runs, shooting through the air like he's all but weightless.

He breaks through the treeline and into a clearing, narrowing his eyes at the scene before him, letting red bleed into them until the world is pulled into focus with stark clarity.

There is a man—a nukenin—with two strange masked black creatures attached to him, heaving at the heart of the smoke still clearing up from whatever led to an eruption so charged with chakra. One of his arms has been severed, bloody black threads hanging limply from its stump now.

And opposite him stands Raijin, blond hair dusty and panting, but tall and relatively unhurt. Judging from the wide spread destruction to the terrain and the lingering chakra that hangs in the air, Raijin remaining unscathed is impressive—only large scale battles have been fought here with powerful jutsu being thrown around and still he retains the upper hand.

Shisui watches with his breath caught. He doesn't even flinch when the familiar chakra signature comes to a stop behind him.

"I told you he'd be fine." The clone sounds exasperated.

But Shisui is still trying to wrap his around things. He can count five bodies on the ground even now. Danzou wouldn't have sent anyone weak after them; it isn't like him to waste resources when his goal is so clearly to maim, capture or kill. And Raijin fought all these people by himself?

The Root shinobi too, Shisui reminds himself. Raijin's clones are just extensions of himself. He's fighting the ROOT shinobi right now too then.

It's not like he hadn't know Raijin was strong. Everyone had heard about his battle in Kumogakure where he held off over five hundred shinobi by himself, in enemy territory, for hours. But it's one thing to hear things like that, and it's another to see evidence that it was true. 

"I think I need to sit down," he mumbles.

The clone squawks. "Are you going to pass out again? Boss is gonna kill me."

And then, as if to prove this point, Raijin starts preparing his next jutsu, gathering what appears to be a swirling mass of unfiltered wind chakra in his palms. Shisui watches, a bit numb, as the mass starts to take form into a condensed sphere.

The look on Raijin's face is nothing like Shisui has ever seen on him before; it's cold and focused. His blue eyes look almost unnatural like this.

It's like Raijin has sucked out all the air from around them and gathered it in the palm of his hand. He pulls his arms back and—

Shisui's eyes squeeze shut against his will from the sheer force of the torrent in the aftermath. It feels like the entire world explodes into sound, wind, chakra and debris. Shisui thinks he hears screaming but that might just be the ringing in his ears.

When he opens his eyes, the clone beside him has forcibly dispelled, unable to stand the power either.

The nukenin Raijin is fighting looks to be in much the same boat, laying in a broken heap at the centre of a crater singed right into the earth. He isn't moving, but Raijin approaches the man all the same, still wearing the frigid calm from earlier.

Leaping into the crater in one smooth move, for a moment, the blond stands over the nukenin. Then, condensing wind chakra into a tight sphere on the tip of his finger, almost like a bullet, Raijin flicks downward, letting his jutsu pierce right through the other shinobi's chest, presumably through his heart.

"Farewell, Kakuzu."

Around them, the dust is finally starting to settle a little. Shisui opens his mouth to call out to Raijin—

A sharp pain blooms through the back of his neck. Shisui gasps in surprise, whirling around with wide eyes to find a ROOT kunoichi who had managed to sneak up on him while he'd been distracted, her mask cracked and armour damaged and covered in her own blood, arm still outstretched from when she released the senbon that is now embedded in Shisui's neck.

'Poison,' he thinks and pulls the senbon out before he can even think better of it. Sure enough, the tip of it is coated with something, though he can't identify it.

Something whistles right past his ear, and Shisui looks up just in time to see a kunai embed itself in the ROOT kunoichi's throat. With a trembling hand, she reaches for it, fingers curling around the hilt. Shisui look away but he's still in range for the spray of warm blood that follows the kunai being pulled out. He hears the thump of a limp body hitting the soft earth.

As if in sympathy, his own knees give out, pulling Shisui to the cool forest floor. There are ashes on the ground from the fire. He wonders if someone put it out yet. The nature gods will be upset enough as it is; someone should do something about that.

Someone lands beside him. Shisui twitches in surprise and feels immediate relief that he can, in fact, still move. Paralysis hasn't set in; he's just in shock. Good. The poison's effects have not truly taken just yet.

"Shisui-kun, come on," someone is whispering. Shisui blinks his eyes open and squints, trying to focus past the tears he hadn't realised were clouding his vision. "There you are."

"Raijin-san," he mumbles, sighing at the warmth of another human body as he is pulled into the older shinobi's arms. Shisui's head falls against Raijin's chest and he leans into it, liking how Raijin's heart beats like a drum under his ear.

"Yeah, I've got you, buddy," Raijin responds. He's gentle when he lifts Shisui up and holds him close, like Shisui is a precious baby that he is cradling. "I've got you."

"I think I'm poisoned," Shisui informs. A tear slides into his ear. It tickles. He wishes he could laugh but his chest still kind of hurts from the smoke earlier. Besides, he's a little occupied with crying right now.

"I'm sorry, kiddo," Raijin says. His voice sounds oddly tight. Maybe he's crying too. "Just hang in there, okay? I'm gonna get you home."

"Am I going to die, Raijin-san?" he asks. Shisui sniffles; he can't help it.

Vehemently, Raijin tells him, "You're not going to die."

"I think I might," Shisui whispers. A sob rips out of his mouth and he flinches away from the sound and how it hurts his throat. "I think I'm dying. Itachi will be sad. Mom and dad too."

"No," Raijin says. "You're not dying. No one else is dying. Not again."

"I don't want to die." Shisui is properly crying now. He feels every bit of his age. He feels small. He wants his mom. "I don't want to die."

His head hurts. The world keeps swimming in his vision and it's making him nauseous, so he closes his eyes. 

"Shisui-kun? Hey, come on, kid. Stay awake for me. Please, stay awake."

Shisui hums. "I'm scared," he confesses. He hopes Raijin won't tell anyone. He hopes it's quick. He hopes it's just like falling asleep. He thinks he's falling asleep now. His mind feels sluggish already. It's almost like he's swimming. Flying. Floating. Right out of his body. Dreaming.

"I hope it doesn't hurt," he admits quietly.

And then the world falls away.

Notes:

So, are we having fun yet?

I call this one: Raijin and Shisui's No Good, Very Bad Day.

Anyway, Kakuzu came and died like immediately. I still can't write action to save my life but I'm trying to get some practice in so we'll see if it pays off sooner or later I guess.