Bonus Chapters every 300 Power Stones
"Normal Dialogue"
'Inner thoughts'
[Year X787]
~ With Shisui ~
After the laughter and celebration subsided, Shisui took a deep breath, knowing the mont had co. He'd been postponing this conversation for weeks, searching for the perfect ti that never seed to arrive. Looking at their tired but happy faces, he realized there would never be an ideal mont to break the news.
"It's ti for to go," he said, his voice deliberately steady as he watched their expressions shift from post-victory satisfaction to sudden, sharp attention.
Six simple words, yet they carried enough weight to transform the atmosphere instantly. The air between them seed to thicken, the rays of sunshine suddenly less warm against their skin. A bird called in the distance, the sound intrusive in the new silence that had fallen over their small group.
Ultear's reaction was subtle—a slight stiffening of her posture, a barely perceptible narrowing of her eyes as she processed his statent. She had always been the more pragmatic of the two, and Shisui could see that while the news affected her, she had likely been expecting it. Perhaps she had even noticed his restlessness growing over the past few weeks, the way his gaze increasingly drifted toward the horizon during their training sessions.
redy's reaction, by contrast, held nothing back. The smile froze on her face, crumbling slowly into an expression of disbelief that transitioned rapidly toward distress. Her green eyes widened, filling with confusion that quickly gave way to the beginning of tears.
"What do you an?" she asked, her voice unnaturally high. "Go where? For how long?"
Ultear placed a hand on redy's shoulder, a gesture ant to provide comfort but also restraint. "redy," she said quietly, her tone carrying a gentle warning.
But redy shrugged off Ultear's hand, taking a step toward Shisui. "We just passed your test," she continued, as if this achievent should sohow change his plans. "We were supposed to celebrate tonight. You promised to show us that fire cooking technique—"
"redy," Ultear tried again, more firmly this ti.
The pink-haired woman fell silent, but her body language spoke volus—shoulders hunched forward, hands curled into loose fists at her sides, bottom lip caught between her teeth in the way Shisui had co to recognize preceded tears she was fighting to contain.
The silence stretched between them, uncomfortable in its intensity. A soft sniffle from redy finally broke it, her head hanging low as she stared at the ground.
"Do you have to?" she asked, her voice so small and vulnerable that it seed to co from the girl she had been rather than the woman she had beco under his training.
The question hit Shisui with unexpected force. In another life, in his original world, he had been accustod to clean breaks—missions completed, teams disbanded, farewells brief and professional, friends dying. And although each Konoha Shinobi could rely on one another, this was different. The bond that had ford between them was not sothing he had planned for, especially the way redy had attached herself to him, seeking his approval.
He moved toward her, bending down to her eye level. "rry-chan," he said, using the nickna he had given her months ago during a particularly difficult training session when her determination had impressed him. The na had stuck, becoming a sign of the fondness he tried not to show too openly.
"Can you look at ?" he asked, his voice gentler than Ultear had ever heard it. redy remained motionless, her pink hair falling forward to hide her face. Shisui waited, patient in this as he was in all things. After nearly two full minutes of silence, redy finally looked up, one hand hastily wiping at the dampness on her cheeks.
"The past year," Shisui began, choosing his words carefully, "has given more joy than I've experienced in a very long ti." It was the truth, though not the whole truth. How could he explain to her that the peace he'd found in their company was sothing he had never expected to experience again after the tragedies of his past life? Of the choices he had to make, the people he had to kill? That teaching them had sohow healed parts of himself he hadn't realized were broken?
"I am a wanderer," he continued, the explanation one he had used before when they asked about his history. "That's my nature. I need to keep exploring, to keep moving."
"But we could co with you," redy interrupted, her voice gaining strength as she latched onto this solution. "Both of us. We could keep training while we travel, and we could help people along the way—like we do now. We could continue atoning while seeing new places with you."
Shisui concealed his reaction to her suggestion, though the idea wasn't entirely unappealing. In another circumstance, perhaps it might have worked. But the rumors he'd been hearing troubled him deeply. His shadow clone had heard stories of a demon with strange abilities that controlled its victims, reports of entire villages falling under its influence, before ultimately dissappearing. The descriptions reminded him too much of a certain branch of Shinobi Arta from his world, raising concerns he couldn't ignore.
He had decided weeks ago to investigate alone. If the threat was as dangerous as he suspected, he couldn't risk exposing redy and Ultear to it. They had grown trendously under his guidance, but so dangers were beyond even accomplished mages.
Moreover, although he no longer felt the strain of using his Mangekyo, he still could not determine whether that ant anything good. On one hand, the being could have very easily gifted him the rumoured Eternal Mangekyo, as had been stated in the Uchiha Tablet. But on the other, he may simply just not feel the strain, but the risk of going blind still remained. Whichever of the two it was, Shisui did not know.
"This isn't goodbye," Shisui said instead, deflecting her suggestion. "It's just... see you later."
As he spoke, he allowed chakra to flow to his eyes, the familiar sensation as they shifted from dark to crimson with the distinctive three-tomoe pattern of his Sharingan. redy's eyes widened slightly at the transformation, knowing what would co next.
Throughout their training, Shisui had managed to synchronize his Chakra to resonate with Ethernano, thereby allowing him to finally use Genjutsu. Instead of the Genjutsu ssing with the mind of the target through Chakra, the Genjutsu would target the Ethernano container directly, which by ans still unknown to him, would allow his Genjutsu to work. He suspected that there was more to the Ethernano containers than what most people knew or believed.
Before redy could respond, Shisui had caught her gaze directly, channeling his chakra into a gentle but effective genjutsu. Her expression went slack, eyelids fluttering before closing completely as she slumped forward. Shisui caught her body carefully, easing her down to lie peacefully on the grass. Her breathing deepened into the rhythm of sleep, face relaxing as consciousness slipped away.
"You know," Ultear spoke from behind him, her voice level but carrying a hint of admonishnt, "the next ti we cross paths, she is going to be very crossed with you."
Shisui couldn't help the small chuckle that escaped him as he arranged redy more comfortably.
"Yes," he agreed, "that's a likely situation." He stood, turning to face Ultear fully. "But where I'm going, she just isn't ready."
He glanced down at redy's sleeping form, a brief flicker of sothing like regret crossing his features. "Neither of you are."
They regarded each other in silence for a mont. Of all the relationships that had ford during their year together, theirs was perhaps the most unexpected—not the familial bond he shared with redy, nor the ntor-student dynamic that colored most of their interactions, but sothing more like equals who had co to respect each other's strengths.
They had started as cautious adversaries, then reluctant allies, before finally settling into sothing that could genuinely be called friendship. Ultear had been the harder one to reach, her trust more difficult to earn than redy's open enthusiasm. She had watched him with wary eyes for months, analyzing his teachings, questioning his thods, keeping emotional distance even as she followed his instructions.
But sowhere along the way—perhaps during those rare quiet evenings when they discussed strategy while redy slept, or during the grueling training sessions where he pushed her to her absolute limits—the walls had begun to co down. Not completely—Ultear would likely never be completely unguarded with anyone except redy—but enough that a genuine bond had ford.
Shisui understood her reservation better than most. They were similar in many ways—both accustod to keeping parts of themselves hidden, both carrying histories marked by difficult choices and painful losses, both burdened with responsibilities they hadn't asked for but couldn't abandon.
"Take care of her," he said, nodding toward redy's sleeping form. The words were unnecessary—Ultear had been protecting redy long before he entered their lives—but they served as bridge between what needed to be said and what could not.
Ultear nodded once, accepting the obvious statent for what it was—an opening to their farewell. "I always have."
Shisui extended his hand toward her, the gesture formal and composed—a warrior's goodbye between respected equals. It seed appropriate for their relationship, acknowledging the professional foundation on which their connection had been built.
Ultear looked at his outstretched hand with an expression that might have been amusent if not for the subtle sadness in her eyes. With deliberate slowness, she raised her own hand—only to slap his aside before stepping forward and pulling him into a firm embrace.
"Idiot," she murmured, her voice muffled against his shoulder. "After a year, you think we're still at handshakes?"
The unexpected gesture caught Shisui off-guard, his arms hanging awkwardly at his sides for a mont before carefully returning the embrace. Ultear was not soone who initiated physical contact casually—even with redy, her displays of affection tended to be restrained, more often expressed through protective actions than outward demonstrations. This willing vulnerability was her own way of acknowledging what their ti together had ant.
"You be safe out there, alright?" Ultear said, tightening the hug slightly. "If not for yourself, then do it for redy."
The request carried weight beyond its simple wording. redy's attachnt to him was obvious to anyone who spent more than five minutes in their company.
Shisui returned the embrace with equal pressure, a silent promise in the gesture. "I'll do my best," he said, the simple words carrying more certainty than elaborate assurances would have.
They remained like that for a mont longer, neither eager to break this rare connection. Ultear was the first to step back, her expression composed once more, though sothing in her eyes remained softer than usual. The montary vulnerability was already tucked away, replaced by the normal resilience that had gotten her through far worse situations than a friend's departure.
Shisui took a step back as well, creating distance that felt suddenly necessary. He turned his gaze toward redy one last ti, taking in her peaceful expression, so different from the determined focus she wore during training or the bright enthusiasm that animated her features when she mastered a new technique.
"Till our paths cross again, redy," he said, the goodbye ant for ears that couldn't hear it, before looking back at Ultear. "Ultear."
With a final nod that sohow conveyed both closure and continuation, he gathered his chakra. In the blink of an eye, he vanished from his spot, leaving only a slight disturbance in the air and a few displaced blades of grass to mark where he had stood a heartbeat earlier.
Ultear shook her head and chuckled despite the heaviness in her chest. "Even in goodbye, you're still a show-off," she said to the empty space where he had been, a reluctant smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.
She turned toward redy, knowing the conversation that awaited when the younger woman woke would not be an easy one. redy had never handled loss well—not surprising, given how her life had begun with tragic abandonnt. But they would get through it together, as they had everything else.
And sowhere out there, Shisui would be following his own path, facing whatever danger had prompted his departure. Ultear didn't doubt their paths would intersect again—people with their particular talents and troubles tended to find each other in this world, whether by chance or design.
Until then, she would continue the work they had started, applying what he had taught them, protecting what mattered most.
That, she thought as she moved to sit beside redy's sleeping form, was perhaps the most valuable lesson he had given them—not the combat techniques or physical training, but the reminder that strength existed to protect sothing worth saving.
~ End of Chapter 17 ~
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