Apple of My Eye

Chapter 1: Eye see you

Uchiha Shisui laid flat on his back, regrettably sober with his damp clothes clinging to his body and sharp pebbles digging uncomfortably into his skin. He raised a hand, covered with tremors and no doubt blood, and touched his cheek, unsurprised by the familiar feel that was liquid life on his skin. Morbid curiosity made his somewhat numb fingers trail the source until they dipped disgustingly into an empty socket, causing him to flinch, more so in repulsion than pain.

(Shisui stared in apparent horror as fingers, wrinkled and clawed, neared his sight in slow motion, closer and closer, until all he could feel was pain painpainpain pain-)

Shisui bit his lip. As an Uchiha, the notion of being blind left him frightened and devastated. He hadn't been prepared to live the life of a blind man, especially after the resolve to unalive himself. Fear of Danzo finding him in this vulnerable state, devoid of chakra and sight, left him shaken.

If he was able, Shisui would have pushed past his limits to escape, to move, to warn both his Hokage and clan about Danzo's betrayal, but his legs felt off, his sockets were empty, and the poison in his system continued to run rampant in his bloodstream. If Shisui still had his sight, the world would have been spinning an unappealing shade of puke green right now.

He clenched his fists and unclenched his left hand almost immediately at the feel of a slimy, round object attached to fibre-like strings in his palm. Shisui let loose an unconscious shudder of breath, the thought of holding a part of him, his eyeball, nauseating. To further his feeling of dread, the circular object meant that he hadn't passed it to his intended before he had jumped.

("-I want you to have it." Shisui showed nothing but his determined will of fire as he pushed past the nausea to gouge his remaining eye. He held his tongue, unwilling to cry out, and presented it with a sombre smile on his face. "You're the only one I can trust. Protect the village, and the Uchiha name as well, Itachi.")

Shisui had fucked up big time. He regretted having subdued Danzo with just a genjutsu – he should've unalived the power-hungry warmonger and damned the consequences before Danzo's agent had managed to poison him. Even if his Hokage had executed him for unalive-ing one of their village's elders, Shisui could at least perish with the knowledge that he had done the right thing. The true mark of a shinobi was to be a protector who preserves peace from within its shadow. What Shisui had done, or not done, was give Danzo more power.

He couldn't hold the despairing sob from escaping his lips, nor the frustrated tears that fell and mingled with the blood on his face. It was an ugly sight, no doubt, as his body trembled with repress emotions. However, he could still prevent the situation from worsening.

He didn't want to do this if he had other options to fall to, and even his self-preservation instincts were rebelling for him to stop. But more than anything, he didn't want Danzo to have free reign of Kotoamatsukami. Both eyes meant unlimited uses for someone not him, which could mean a devastating and bleak future for his beloved village. Shisui was, first and foremost, a shinobi of Konoha. He never doubted his devotion and loyalty for his village, and he would do more than just blind himself. Once, already, he had resolved to give his life to his village. A second time wouldn't matter.

This time, however, he must be thorough and leave none of his DNA behind.

As a veteran shinobi, he had seen some really fucked up shit during the Third Shinobi World War. What he had learned during his service was that those in the Uchiha clan were precious materials to many shinobi villages, dead or alive. As a child soldier, he had been prepared to die before reaching double digits. However, there was a lingering fear that his corpse would be defiled if it fell into the hands of his enemies (coughKumocough). Because of this, Shisui had spared most of his injured days camping in the jounin section of the village's library, researching and understanding 2 seals that would alleviate his worries whilst simultaneously giving him an advantage if captured.