"By the way, Akane-chan. There's something I need to tell you." Kana said while they were having lunch together.
"Yes?"
"We need to go back to the hidden rain. The hokage wants us to become leaf shinobi but we can't just accept her offer arbitrarily, even though I want to stay with you very much. So we have to return to the rain."
"I know about that. He told me, and he said that he would somehow convince the rain's leader." Akane said, pointing at Kenshin.
Kana's brows furrowed in confusion as she looked at Kenshin who had a strange confident look in his eyes.
"Ken-chan? But how? You know how he is. He'd rather let us die than risk another village getting our knowledge about the rain."
"You don't need to worry about that, Mom. I got this." Kenshin said with a confident smirk.
"If you say so. But don't say I didn't warn you." Kana shrugged, but she still had an uneasy feeling about it, especially Kenshin's left eye, which seemed to feel different. Not to mention the fact that he hadn't visited her even once yesterday.
'Looks like she isn't convinced. But I don't blame her. Although neither of them know that I have the single most powerful genjutsu in existence in my possession right now.' Kenshin thought as he focused on his food.
[Two days ago]
Kenshin was standing in Akane's apartment, holding Shisui's eye in his hand, contemplating on which eye to replace with it.
"I don't think I'll need my left eye since I can just use kotoamatsukami on Nagato. It should work since while the body is Yahiko's, the mind is still Nagato's. But my left eye can't be used to convince him, nor can it be used enough times for this to work."
"Not to mention that I might need my right eye in case of an emergency. Now, I should probably stop wasting time."
Kenshin took a deep breath and with a swift motion, took out his right eye without damaging it. He inserted Shisui's eye in place of it and used medical ninjutstu to reconnect the nerve and muscles.
"This hurts like hell! But I guess after adjusting to it, I should be able to turn it off since I'm a half Uchiha." He murmured, before sealing his left eye into a storage seal.
"This way, this eye with stay intact and fresh for when I put it back in."
He bandaged his left eye and went to bed. While the pain was severe, it gradually went away after a few hours and exhaustion claimed him.
[Back to the present day]
"By the way mom, when will you be leaving?" Akane asked Kana after they had finished lunch.
"Probably in a couple of days. I still need a bit more time to recover before I can go on such a long journey." Kana replied.
"Can I come with you?"
"Uhhh, well..... I'm not sure if that's possible."
"What? Why not?"
"Well, the hidden rain isn't like the leaf, they don't treat outsiders too nicely."
Kenshin overhead their conversation and interrupted. "I don't think it'll be a problem as long as she doesn't actually enter the village itself. We live outside the village so if she stays there with us, it should be fine."
But Kana didn't seem convinced. "I understand what you're saying but you know how 'he' is. I don't think he'll take it nicely."
"In that case I'm fine with just staying here. I don't want to cause you unnecessary trouble." Akane agreed with Kana because while she wanted to be with them, this wasn't the time for that. The rain village wasn't somewhere she could just waltz in with them.
"I'm sorry Akane-chan." Kana gave Akane a hug to console her.
"Nah it's fine. I'm not a child. These past few days were more than what I could've asked for." Akane said with a warm smile. But she felt something different about Kenshin. His eyes felt different from before. 'I guess I'll ask him when we're alone.' She thought, glancing at Kenshin.
'Well, it's all going to be just fine. With Shisui's eye, I shouldn't have any problem with persuading Pain. The only issue is if this is absolute or not. Because if I remember correctly, the one Itachi had was capable of rewriting the Kabuto's control over him while with this one, that samurai leader, what was his name again? Anyways, that guy came out of Danzo's control when he realized he was under a genjutsu. But that just might be Danzo's inefficiency with the genjutsu.' Kenshin thought, his left eye twitching involuntarily. It wasn't completely acclimated to his body which resulted in it twitching frequently.
'In any case, I have to gamble on this one because my left eye is more suitable for interrogation and not persuasion.'
"By the way I have to go back to the hospital now. They let me out to get some fresh air but I have to stay there until the day we leave for the rain village. So I'll be going now." Kana said before getting up to leave.
"I'll walk you there." Kenshin followed her.
After he came back, Akane suddenly approached him and grabbed his face. "What did you do? Your left eye looks different. It's a slightly different shade of black, unlike your right eye."
"What... I... I didn't... Okay fine! This is just in case the rain doesn't allow give us up to the leaf. It's Shisui's eye. If I use this, I can be certain about coming here for good."
"You!... Why?! What about your left eye? Can't you use that?"
"I understand that you feel like this is disrespectful to Shisui's memory but it's the best option right now. My left eye is more suitable for gathering information and it's usage is very limited. You need to understand, this is to get our family together again. If this goes well, we'll be together for good."
Akane nodded, understanding his intentions. Kenshin hugged her tightly, and Akane wrapped her arms around him as well.
"What about your left eye? Where is it?" She whispered.
"I kept it inside a storage seal. I'm not very good at sealing jutsu but this should keep it fresh for as long as necessary."
Everyone, thanks for your support with the previous chapter. I have exams so I'm sorry for not uploading for a long time. But I have a small break now so I'll try to upload regularly. So, as always, please give me your power stones if you want to support me and let me know if you have any helpful suggestions/criticisms.