"Hm?"
Suguru heard a rustle above his head. Upon looking up, he spotted a boy with dark hair and a pair of Sharingan shining brightly in the twilight.
Ah, he recognized him. It was Uchiha Shisui in the flesh.
***
"...A child?"
Surprised, Shisui paused. He was supposed to return to his family's compound to cast the Kotoamatsukami on Uchiha Fugaku. However, he was also having doubts concerning that.
Danzo's words were echoing in his mind. There would always be those who would suspect the Uchiha. Even more so when his Kotoamatsukami was put into play.
To encounter a child right after his eyes were almost stolen put him on edge.
Shisui looked at the child.
The child looked back.
On top of that, the child's gaze felt familiar.
"You..." Shisui opened his lips to speak.
The child continued to stare at him with an unwavering gaze.
Seeing this, Shisui frowned. Something about the child felt off, yet he couldn't place a finger on it. Was it the sudden encounter? Was it the eerie innocence? Was it the way he looked at him as if he was a tasty slab of meat?
"It's dangerous here at night..." Despite his screaming instincts, Shisui couldn't leave such a young boy alone in such a remote part of the village. "Where are your parents?"
"..."
There was no answer. The child just kept staring. His silver eyes seemed to hide something — a beastly hunger beneath their gleam, imperceptible to anyone else.
Shisui wanted to stay and help what could be a lost child, but he was at a crossroads. The poison that had paralyzed him in front of Danzo was slowly spreading. An antidote would be few and far between.
If he could cast Kotoamatsukami on Fugaku before he died, that would be for the best. He could destroy his eyes and disappear, succumbing to the poison.
'I should meet with Itachi first. He should be nearby.'
Just then,
"Heuk!" A muscle spasm made Shisui choke.
The paralysis was spreading. No... it had already spread long ago. Shisui had somehow powered on despite it.
Shisui fell from the branch that he stood on, landing badly on his back. The thud sounded sickening, but the physique of a strong shinobi wasn't fragile.
"Ack—"
With gritted teeth, Shisui tried to grab control of his weakening body. However, there was nothing he could do.
He was destined to die.
With what he had left of his energy, he flickered away. He could no longer pay attention to the curious child.
***
"Shisui of the Body Flicker indeed," Suguru thought before running in the same direction as Shisui. He chased after the weakened and dying Uchiha from a distance away.
Suguru's eyes flashed with devious desire as he activated his Kaisugan.
He watched as Shisui found Itachi, and they both moved towards a cliff. Suguru followed after while using a roundabout route. Instead of hiding in the trees, he climbed to the bottom of the cliff.
'At times like these, I do wish I had learned the proper chakra control,' Suguru cursed as he wasn't a full-fledged shinobi capable of walking on walls yet. He kept cursing until he reached the bottom where the river was flowing.
He began laying out a few wires, hidden in the water.
While Shisui talked to Itachi, he gave his best friend not one, but both of his eyes. Suguru was surprised that Shisui inevitably reached a similar conclusion as in the original.
'I do wonder why...'
Suguru thought that saving Shisui was enough to change much of the future. However, it seemed like Shisui's mental state should've been his target. The knowledge that Shisui and every Uchiha would always be suspected despite his good intentions was likely suffocating.
Shisui had lost hope in his and Itachi's plan to stop the coup.
Suguru lamented at that reality. '...Even I would feel uneasy about the looming threat of the Kotoamatsukami,'
Therefore, as long as Shisui was alive, and the Kotoamatsukami was in existence, everyone would suspect everyone. There would be no allies.
Shisui would then be the primary suspect for any sudden changes in behavior. Any change of heart would instantly be tied to him.
'Which leads us back to Itachi,'
Suguru leaned his back on the rocky wall, keeping his feet on a precarious ledge, inches away from the water's surface.
'With both Shisui's eyes, will Itachi still massacre his clan? Or will he claw more desperately for the peace he so desires?'
Suguru was excited to see where this would go.
***
In the darkness of the night, illuminated only by moonlight, a shadow fell from a cliff.
"Shisui!" A sorrow-filled plea that fell on deaf ears.
The shadow continued to descend. Empty eye sockets seemed to stare into the night sky. The water would be its resting place.
"Shisui..."
Itachi cried tears of blood. The tomoe of his Sharingan spiraled into a different shape. They turned into a dark and heavy shuriken pattern.
Itachi's eyes evolved into the Mangekyou Sharingan.
***
At the bottom of the cliff, Suguru pulled on the wires he had set up. Drawn taut, the wires cut through the air and fished a person out of the waters.
Shisui was no longer conscious and on his last breaths.
'In the original, it was said that Shisui had somehow destroyed any traces of his body. It was enough to stop even Kabuto from reviving him...'
Suguru was intrigued at how he planned to do that. After all, Shisui had one foot in the grave, and there was nothing nearby that could be of use to him.
'Well, I won't be able to get any answers now.'
Involving himself in this manner meant that those secrets would forever stay secret. It was a necessary sacrifice for what he was about to do next.
'Although I can't use Living Corpse Assimilation because of the deadly poison still in Shisui's body and the time restraints, there's something else I need to test.'
Suguru put his hands together and took inspiration from the Hiruko of the future.
[Bird]
'All I need is a single seal... Dark Release: Inhaling Maw,'