(Book the First) Crimson Light in the Uchiha

True Strength

Rin's POV

I can't move. It isn't like not moving because you're weak, it'a like millions of iron bands trapping you in one position. Every strand of muscle hurts and my head is pounding. I can't remember anything at all.

Suddenly a face with snake-like eyes flashed up and I remember pain in my right wrist. The forest... My fight...

"Sasuke!" I scream and I bolt up. Something touches my forehead and surprisingly, I just fall back. My eyes open one by one and I see a boy with short black hair. He's making a hand seal with his left hand and his other hand is touching my forehead. I try to move, but I can't, so I stare at this boy for a while in dead silence.

"Easy there, Rin." The boy grins and I frown.

"Who are you?" I blurt out all of a sudden.

"I'm your eldest brother's best friend Uchiha Shisui."

I widen my eyes and Shisui slowly takes his finger off my forehead. "Onii-san's...best friend?"

"Yeah, I never got to meet you, eh, Rin?" says Shisui casually, "Are you feeling okay?"

I...don't know.

I look around me and I jerk in surprise. There are words everywhere. Literally. It was like an intricate web of words all over the place. On the ground, on the walls, on my bed... And they all seemed I be leading each other towards my neck and forehead. I cautiously touched my cheeks.

"Do I have words on my face?"

Shisui laughed, "Only on the side of your head, don't worry, we wouldn't want to ruin your face."

I glow, but then I frown, I'm supposed to be dead in the forest. I remember telling Ama to help me kill those two...why was I in a room? Why was I with a Konoha ninja?

Shisui's POV

Rin looks around perplexed so I decided to intrude her thoughts. "We found you in the forest with Sasuke-kun," I offered, "he just has a fever and he is staying at home. You are however, severely injured so we dropped you off to the hospital. It's been three days. Itachi can't always back off from his missions so I came here to watch over you so that he wouldn't be worried. Sasuke will visit once he's able to."

"Is Nii-san okay?" Rin whispers and I smile.

"He sleeps most of the time, but yes, he's really exhausted. I heard that Itachi sparred with him for a long time."

Rin looks down, and from her expression I can tell she is trying really hard not to show any emotion, "I'm glad he's okay and not dead or something. I couldn't-" Rin falls back into her pillows and she raises an arm to cover her face. Her little body starts shaking and I can see tears rolling down her cheeks. "In the end, I had to use someone else's power. I'm really useless... Sasuke could of died-"

"And he would of died sooner if you hadn't protected him," I say kindly, "you did great Rin."

Rin shakes her head, "How much did Onii-san tell you?" she whispers.

I pause, "Everything." And a third of it, Rin hardly knew about.

~Shisui's Flashback

Third Person's POV

Itachi walked out of the hospital a few hours after Rin had tried to kill him. He looked around and startled to go down the street when he was intercepted by Shisui.

"How is your sister, Itachi?" Shisui called cheerfully but his smile faltered when he saw his best friend's expression. "Whoa... Are you okay?"

Itachi continued to stare for a moment before giving a small shake before proceeding down the dusty street. Shisui caught up with Itachi and persisted. "What happened?"