A/N: Hello people! Explanation at the bottom. Please don't hurt me. I offer a one-shot as offering.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Harry Potter. They are owned by Masashi Kishimoto and J. K. Rowling respectively.

Pairings: Undecided? But this is a Shisui-centric fic, and I love him so. Therefore, you could see this as a pre-Shisui/femHarry story.

Ages: Shisui (16), Itachi (13), fem!Harry (12)

…

It was unnerving how quickly the world tilted on its axis.

One day he was dreading the fate of his clan, and the next he was left reeling at the news of the aftermath.

An aftermath that left the Uchiha somewhat intact, the instigators dead or imprisoned, and the rest of the village none the wiser about what happened right under their noses.

And he wasn't even there to witness it, seeing as he was stuck in a hospital bed recovering from hypothermia. (And you know, blood loss. For having his eyeballs manually pulled out of his sockets.)

Which was… okay? Not really a bad thing for Shisui. The aftermath he means, not the eyeballs thing.

That sucked.

Kami, he was insensate. They kept him doped with painkillers, nobody could blame him.

"Shimura Danzo shall be executed for his crimes. Most of his corruption shall not be made known throughout the village in order to prevent civil war. However, the clans with grievances against him shall have their price in blood." Itachi— safe, sane, whole, Itachi— smiled at his bedside, tired yet shoulders eased. "The rest of ROOT has been disbanded and integrated to ANBU as a whole. The… the children too young to serve as shinobi shall go through therapy." A pause. "You never told me there were many of them, Shisui."

Shisui stared at his hands, pale, wrapped in bandages, and jagged with scars. He blinked at them before turning back to Itachi, his vision clear and complete.

"Danzo never discussed the numbers of his little army to anyone. He was a paranoid fucker. His secrets had secrets." Shisui said, his words sounding faint and far away.

Itachi grimaced, conceding. "Mn. Inoichi-sama and Ibiki-san are having difficulty in extracting information from him and most of the senior ROOT members. The two elders are even kept in confinement. They are being held as Danzo's accomplices."

Good, Shisui wanted to say. But his tongue seemed to fail him today, and the room lapsed in silence as he tried to swallow the fact that he was alive. Alive and breathing. He closed his eyes and tried to forget the sensation of water filling his lungs, suffocating him of life, and he stilled, inhaling through his nose.

"Itachi?" he finally said, voice hoarse and scratchy.

"Hm?"

"What the fuck happened?"

…

Shisui leaned back in his hospital bed, phantom bruises still throbbing all over his body.

It had apparently been two months since he almost died of drowning. His recovery had been touch and go for a while. After having his eye ripped out bleeding, pausing to monologue at Itachi before flinging himself towards a river with rocky cliffs and jagged edges… well. The medics operating on him almost tore their hair out in frustration. It had been easier to look for body parts that didn't need to be healed.

And his eyes…

Shisui somehow had both his eyes back. Itachi most likely gave his left eye to the medics for them to return it to to his socket, but the fact that he also had his right eye back (and Shisui knew it was his eye, the shading was the same) meant that everything Itachi told him was real. Danzo really had been defeated. They never would've gotten their hands on his right eye if he had gotten away.

Shisui tentatively pressed a hand to his temple, awakening his Sharingan with a slight thrill of apprehension.

Immediately, the world sharpened. His mind rippled into the familiar sensation of overwhelming visual information although this time, he gritted his teeth when a lance of agonizing pain bludgeoned his head.

"Ow… fuck," he swore, shutting down his Sharingan.

"You shouldn't have done that." Itachi said blandly. "According to your surgeon, it may take your optic nerves a few weeks to adjust after the transplant."

"I would've appreciated the warning before I tried to activate my eyes." Shisui sniped back.

Itachi raised a brow. "How was I supposed to know you were going to test out your Sharingan?"

"Point," Shisui grumbled.

Itachi sighed, one of familiar long-suffering that Shisui had to crack a grin at. There was silence once more, Itachi patiently waiting for Shisui to process everything that had happened so far.

"Why didn't you stop me?" Shisui finally asked hoarsely, and Itachi reached for a pitcher of water and poured him a glass.

"You mean when you attempted to commit suicide?" Itachi's tone was milder than milk. "Because we were being watched. Or rather, I saw no possible outcome for me to take you to the village without alerting ROOT or Danzo."

"So you let me take a swim," Shisui said wryly, accepting the glass of water. Both of them ignored the tremor that went through his hand.

"I had faith in my teammates." Itachi said quietly, watching his cousin take a tentative sip of water. "I couldn't get to you without arousing suspicion but I knew my team could keep you alive."

"Your… ANBU team." Shisui said, and a flare of warmth appeared in Itachi's eyes as he nodded. "I see. So you went to them then. Good. That's good, Itachi."

Shisui knew that Itachi took solace within his ANBU team. He didn't know how it happened but he had been glad for his cousin, happy that comfort came to him even if it was from the most unlikely source, and he could still remember the wave of relief that washed through him when Itachi quietly told him that he could trust his teammates with his life.

For Itachi to find people to trust within the most terrifying unit of Konoha's military—a unit of unrepentant murderers and emotionless assassins—was unexpected, but Shisui would take the small miracle as it is. Itachi had no one to trust within the clan except for Shisui. He couldn't even trust his own mother, and while Shisui was old enough to handle the pressure the clan was whipping him with, Itachi was eleven when he entered ANBU. He was a fucking ANBU Captain at thirteen. It may have been a point of pride for the clan elders, but Shisui almost threw up when he heard.

He was a kid. Shisui may be able to decapitate heads casually and sleep it off the next day but at least he had a childhood. Shisui killed his first man at eleven, not fucking five like Itachi. He entered ANBU later than Itachi. Fuck, Shisui knew he was cracked in the edges but he was forever waiting for the day Itachi shattered. Because clearly, no one ever prioritized Itachi's welfare and there was no one they could trust within the clan or the village.

But for some insane, convoluted reason, his ANBU team—fucking ANBU of all people, managed to keep him from falling apart.

The same ANBU team who Itachi trusted enough with the details of the Uchiha affair, who had been working in the background trying to salvage what could be saved.

"So your teammate took me out of the river? Who?" Shisui said, running a hand through unkempt hair. He had to have it cut soon, it was getting too long.

"Owl did." Itachi said, averting his eyes. Shisui frowned at the lack of information but before he could wring Itachi for more, he felt a chakra flare outside his hospital room, one that Itachi responded to by flaring his own chakra and standing up from his chair.

The door opened and Shisui was poleaxed at the appearance of a slight figure who quickly closed the door and darted next to his bedside.

Shisui stared. It was a girl, pale-faced and wearing an all-black attire, a wakizashi strapped to her back. She was short too, probably barely reaching his shoulders.

"I signaled for you to wait for me outside." Itachi said, kneading his temple as he glanced at the newcomer. His didn't sound upset. More like resigned.

The unknown girl snorted and shook her head, strands of black hair untangling from the bun on her nape. "Are you having a laugh? It's absolute pandemonium out there. Half of the clan heads are trying to stop Senju Tsunade from decking the Hokage while the other half's goading her to punch him flying to Iwa. And neither you nor sensei are there to back me up. You can't pay me to deal with that hogwash, not for all the silver sickles in the world."

"Not even for gold galleons?" Itachi said, a soft smile suddenly appearing on his face.

A grin. "Not even then."

There was an inside joke there, one Shisui rolled around his head but got nothing from. Also, he was perturbed by how relaxed Itachi seemed to be in a girl's company. The only female presence he tolerated was his mother. Shisui was half-sure Itachi got the hives every time a girl entered his personal space. Even Izumi was treated within arm's length.

The girl turned to him with a raised brow. "So. You're Shisui. Tell me, are you settling for poetic irony? You must be a pretty dramatic person, flinging yourself to a watery death just to make a point of your name."

Shisui's mind went blank. "Who is this tiny."

"Nara Shikayuri." Itachi introduced, sounding slightly amused. Which, to Itachi, translated as to him being vastly entertained.

"Nara—" Shisui's mouth snapped shut and he looked at her closely. "You're the Jounin Commander's daughter."

"Brilliant deduction." The girl said, hazel eyes assessing as she sat down. There were flecks of green in her irises, and the jagged lightning scar on her forehead stood out pale against the cream of her skin. She looked young. She was young. If he remembered correctly, she was even younger than Itachi.

But she held herself with the lethal grace and confidence of a seasoned veteran. Shisui knew several shinobi with the same bearing; poised, half-relaxed, in position to angle and attack at the slightest provocation yet maintaining a cool, detached air.

"You're ANBU." Shisui said, eyes widening as his mind swiftly connected the dots. From her familiarity with Itachi, to the way she carried herself, to the clearance she had to enter his room. "Itachi's teammate."

This time, the girl's lips curved into a genuine smile. "Yes. I herd that lump of trouble you call a cousin. Mighty quick of you to figure it out, I guess Tachi wasn't kidding about you being cleverer than him. Not so clever though, if you let a power-hungry cripple get the best of you."

"That power-hungry cripple had an army of brainwashed assassins." Itachi pointed out. "And he was difficult to defeat."

"And so he was. Gave my dad and Uncle Chouza a workout, he did."

Bewildered, Shisui turned to his cousin for a semblance of sanity. Because fuck if he was out of the loop about everything.

"Shikayuri has been instrumental in bringing Danzo to justice." Itachi said in his none-elaborative, totally evasive way. Shisui wanted to hit him if he wasn't practically strapped to his bed and had the current strength of a civilian geriatric grandmother.

"She's ANBU." He said to his cousin again, as if trying to reaffirm the statement. And for good measure, he turned to her disbelievingly. "You're ANBU?"

"You must've hit your head pretty hard if you're asking the same question over and over. Yes, I'm ANBU. Owl, in fact." Shikayuri said, smirking at the way he blanched.

"You got me out of the Naka river?"

"Like a bird clawing a herring out of the water." Shikayuri said, lips twitching. "Granted, the herring was sinking to its death so it wasn't much clawing as it was dragging it to the riverbank. By the way, you're heavy. Cut down on sweets."

Shisui didn't know what to say to that, so he stared at her with his mouth half-agape.

"You broke him." Itachi said, chuckling faintly. Shisui turned to him in amazement. Itachi never laughed.

"Wait a minute," Shisui stilled in dawning realization. "Nara Shikayuri. You're… you're Itachi's fiancée. Fuck, you're Shikaku-sama's kid. You're barely thirteen. Why are you part of the Black Ops? Why the hell is your fiancée part of the Black Ops, Itachi?"

Shikayuri's face shuttered, eyes going half-mast. "Itachi doesn't speak for me. And that's a pretty private question, you know."

Shisui winced at the level of her glare. "I just thought that the Jounin Commander's the type of father that would've dragged you away from a shinobi career. Not… not…"

Not force her into the shinobi life. ANBU was as dark and deep you can get, there's no escaping the mask once it's accepted. And here Shisui thought the Nara clan head was a decent father—

"Oh, he tried. But my mother can be very convincing." Shikayuri said, smiling with a lot of teeth. There was a scar below her collarbone, trailing beneath her shirt. It looked like a stab wound.

Shisui felt sick again.

"He's not questioning your competency, Yuri." Itachi quietly said from the sideline. "Shisui has a… what do you call it? Ah yes, 'a bleeding heart'. He's very kind."

And wasn't that a stellar commendation from Itachi. Practically a declaration of familial love. Shisui wanted to weep on his shoulder.

"Oh." Shikayuri's face cleared. "So he's just concerned. For me."

"Yes." Itachi inclined his head.

With that said, Shikayuri abruptly shot a warm smile at Shisui, reaching out to pat his head. Shisui could only sit there with wide eyes, unnerved and more than confused at her bi-polar attitude.

"That's fine, then." She said primly, getting up to leave the room. "Well! It was really nice to finally meet you, Shisui. This has been a burden off my shoulders. Tachi, I expect you to valiantly shield me from all the questions the clan heads are going to throw at me tomorrow. I'll nip sensei out of his apartment somehow; I bet he's going to burrow his head under all that porn of his, hoping we all go away."

Itachi nodded in affirmation and she waved at them cheerfully, shutting the door quietly behind her.

There was silence again. Shisui blinked once, twice, before turning to his cousin.

"What the fuck was that?"

Itachi looked unperturbed at his almost hysterical tone. In fact, he looked calculating. "She's fond of you."

Wait, what?

"I thought she was going to stab my neck with her sword." Shisui deadpanned. "Is that how she shows how fond she is of people?"

"You still have your neck." Itachi said drily. "And I know her. She likes you."

"Oh."

Shisui stared at the spot where she sat, idly remembering how pretty her sudden smile looked, how her eyes lit up as she patted his head. He blinked and shoved that thought away, reminding himself that she was thirteen. And was his cousin's fiancee. He never went for someone that young, never poached someone else's girl. And fuck, she was Nara Shikaku's daughter. He was not allowed to forget that fact.

Shisui shuddered. No way was he risking his life for a girl, no matter how pretty or graceful or powerful she looked-

Ooookay. He was going to stop right there.

And so he turning to his cousin with a smarmy smirk on his face, leaving all thoughts of Nara Shikayuri behind him with considerable effort.

Although...

"She calls you Tachi?"

...

A/N: Aaaand cut. Boy, was this fun to write. Hello people. *dodges rotten tomatoes* Okay, okay, I'm sorry! I am admittedly having trouble with writing the next chapter of Towards the Sun. But I WILL labor on because I resolved to write and post at least once a month. If not my old stories then a new one. This is obviously a new one, but I'd appreciate it if you tell me what you think of this. And also, what you think you want to see for TtS. Give me ideas, inspiration might strike me.

This story was born because I don't know what to do with Shisui and Itachi and the Uchiha massacre for TtS. I'm still undecided up till now, you know. And Itachi and Shikayuri's engagement in this fic is a political one, for all those crying 'but, Ellie! Why are Itachi and fem!Harry engaged? This is a Shisui fic!' (like my sister did), so they're not (necessarily) in a relationship. I don't know. You draw up the conclusions.

I wanted this story longer and not just a one-shot but I have my hands full with three other stories I have to update, so we'll see. In the future maybe.

So see you next month? Or maybe next week, hopefully.

Read and review!

Memory out.