Lest you fade here all alone

Chapter 3: Ghostly guardian

The moment they touched the ground after an impromptu teleportation and Shisui felt the stranger's arms around him withdrew, he leaped away. Whoever helped him didn't try to prevent him from gaining a distance between them. The teen twisted his body mid-air and landed in a crouch facing the unknown.

He didn't have time to look at the man before, not to mention that his vision was still a bit blurry after inhaling the poisonous gas. It wasn't lethal – Danzo told him this much – simply used to weaken and disorientate so that they could subdue him.

Shisui couldn't quite suppress the shudder from the thought of what exactly he had been saved from.

"You don't seem too steady on your feet and I can sense your chakra being unnaturally chaotic."

The young ninja finally looked at his unexpected savor and his eyes widened, irises alight with the red of the Sharingan. He scanned the stranger up and down, taking in every detail of his appearance and body language. It was no henge or genjutsu, he could tell.

The blond tilted his head to the side, his blue eyes watching the teen with a startling sharpness. "Should I be concerned and bring you to the hospital?"

Shisui stared, his mind stuck on comparing this man to the Yondaime Hokage. They were different, and at the same time – very alike. "You... Who are you?" he finally asked.

"Name's Rei." A smirk crossed the blond's face. "Ah. You're old enough to remember my brother, I presume."

"Brother. The Yondaime?"

"Yeah," Rei confirmed. "But that's beside the point. The hospital?"

The teen shook his head and stood up with a sigh. He allowed a bit of tension drain from his shoulders, but kept vigilant, not dropping his guard completely yet. "Thank you for your assistance," he said, offering a small bow.

"Think nothing of that, it was merely a coincidence," Rei waved him off with an easy grin. "I'm glad though. You seem like a good kid." He crossed his arms, expression growing serious. "You know, that old lunatic won't leave you alone until he takes what he wants."

Shisui furrowed his brow. "Yes," he replied quietly.

With the Root involved, everything got so much complicated. Danzo had the power and notoriety to do anything to stop him from using Kotoamatsukami on the Uchiha clan to stop the coup. The old bastard planned to sacrifice their clan from the very start.

Shisui gritted his teeth. One of his hands drifted to rest over his eye – the eye that monster almost stole from him. He could not let that despicable man stop him. He would find a way to preserve the peace and let Itachi stay with his family.

"Hey, you're not gonna rip them out, are you?"

Shaken out of his pondering, the teen's attention snapped back at the blond stranger who had this odd expression of absolute disgust, severe disapproval, and intense displeasure plastered on his face.

"Because that's just gross, kid. And I don't want your eyeballs, so better keep them for yourself."

Rei sounded genuinely annoyed, bordering on being angry, for reasons Shisui couldn't even imagine. Not that he had planned to do what the man assumed, but the latter's open resentment towards eye stealing somehow calmed him down.

The realization that he felt surprisingly at ease in this unfamiliar ninja's presence startled Shisui. So strange. It was the same feeling of unexplained security that always settled upon him whenever he had been in near proximity of the Yondaime Hokage.

A small smile curled on the teen's lips. Brother, huh.

Rei watched the smile, eyes narrowed in suspicion, ready to jump into action at any given moment. One could never know with the Uchiha type. Suddenly, he groaned, raking fingers through his own hair. "Look, I'll keep Danzo off your back," he stated. "He's really not a threat, merely a nuisance."