The Legacy of Shisui of the Body Flicker

Prologue – The Uchiha Massascre

June 16th. The night before the Uchiha coup d'état. Lord Fugaku had sent out emergency letters with the clan's fastest messenger hawks and called everyone in the clan back to the village to take part. Everyone was here and prepared for battle the next day at dawn – be it to participate or to defend themselves, their children, and the elderly when the battle spilled over the clan compound's oppressive walls. Weapons had been steadily bought and stockpiled for months now. It would be a bloodbath, one that neither Itachi nor fifteen year old Shisui himself could allow.

When he graduated from the Academy and put on his hitai-ate at six years old to go out and fight in the Third War, he'd been a naïve little kid. Images of bravery and glory and righteous victory in his mind. The enemies he fought were evil and threatened his clan and village's safety. It was simple, in his six year old mind. Us versus them. Good versus evil. But war had taught him quite suddenly, quite harshly, that there was no good or evil side in war. Everyone bled the same and everyone died with the same look of gaping horror. Not a single corpse on the battlefield was at peace. There is no justice in war.

Like his cousin Itachi, he'd hoped that someday there'd be a way to end all the fighting. Twelve year old Itachi had wanted to be Hokage someday. Now he'd never get the chance. The Uchiha name would be wiped from the face of the shinobi world tonight. Everyone – man, woman, elderly, children, babies, even Sasuke, Itachi, and himself were all going to die tonight. It was their orders, handed down from Lord Danzo. It was either this or civil war within the village. And once the village was in crisis, other nations would take advantage and attack.

He couldn't allow that to happen.

This is the right path.

He'd been telling himself this for days. Struggling with it and agonizing over it day and night. He'd completely stopped training, stopped showering, stopped eating, stopped leaving his house at all. Trying in vain to think of something, anything. Any other way. Anything but this.

Its either this or another world war.

He never imagined that he would be standing here on the power line pole, masking his chakra waiting for Sasuke to come home so he could kill him. He would spare Itachi that burden, at least. Itachi already had to kill his own parents. He didn't have any immediate family alive to kill tonight.

Poor Sasuke. He has no idea. None of them did.

Sasuke was just days away from mid-term summer vacation. Sasuke was staying late to practice his shurikenjutsu in preparation for end of first term finals. He had been so excited last time he saw him, chattering happily about summer plans. He was going to stay with his maternal grandparents for a week and they would take him out camping and foraging for edible plant life. It was just as much family bonding time as it was to help Sasuke get his summer homework assignments done.

Now he won't get to go.

Sasuke was late. He was probably panicking internally about being late to dinner. Lord Fugaku was always such a stickler for things like that. Sasuke was desperate to be noticed and acknowledged by his father. Their food was probably still sitting, half ready and boiling over in the kitchen, never to be eaten. Might even burn the house down depending on what state it was left in.

Then, he heard it. The sound of tiny, seven year old feet running, panicked, through the market at the front gates, stopping to stand and stare in horror the bodies of old Aunty Uruchi and Uncle Teyaki.

It hurt to have to kill them. I'm sorry, Aunty. Uncle.

They always greeted him happily on his way to and from school every morning and after every mission. The rice cracker shop had been in their family since the village was founded.

"Mom and dad…! Big brother!" Sasuke's thoughts instantly turned to his family and the boy took off, running past the bodies of dozens more Uchiha. Past the blood and mutilated bodies of his clan members. He didn't even think to grab a kunai or two from where they'd lodged themselves in the walls. Any thought of ninja training from school was gone from his mind, thinking only of the welfare of his family.

I'm sorry, Sasuke. Itachi already has enough of a burden to bear.

His own family was already dead. He had no parents or siblings or grandparents to kill tonight. Just one or two hundred nosy extended aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents. It was much simpler that way. Easier to leave relations at that than to bother keeping track of the actual family tree.

He body flickered in front of Sasuke, about a meter away.

"Shisui-san!" Sasuke cried out, terrified and confused and grasping at the first person who could help.

The little boy walked closer to his older cousin, seeking the comfort and protection his presence offered. "What's going on? Who would do this? Where's mom and dad and big brother?"

For once, Shisui couldn't come up with a fake answer. Lying and making light of everything usually came easy to him.

"I'm sorry, Sasuke-kun."

In one motion, he drew a kunai and slashed his throat open across the jugular.

Sasuke tried to call out to him. "Shi-!"

Blood sprayed all over his already blood-stained ANBU uniform. The unsuspecting seven year old crumpled the ground and quickly bled out, his eyes wide with horror and disbelief. He didn't even have time to process what had happened before he was dead.

Moments passed. The unsettling, stifling silence of the Uchiha compound felt suffocating.

Sasuke was dead. Aunty Uruchi and Uncle Teyaki were dead. Their granddaughter and her newborn baby girl were both dead. Everyone was dead. And he did it. He killed them. Him and Itachi killed everyone. All hundred and fifty members of the Uchiha clan, down to the last baby.

Tears welled up in his eyes as the reality of the world around him sank in, with the last person dead. Angrily, desperately, he rubbed them away. Oh come on, ANBU don't cry. The mission's not over yet!

He sniffled and choked back a sob as his legs gave out from exhaustion and he sank the ground. "I'm sorry…I'm so fucking sorry…!"

He stopped trying not to cry like a three-year-old and slammed a fist into the dirt, frustrated. Loathing himself. "I was supposed to save you all!"

He'd tried to shield Itachi from all of this. Him and his cousin, despite their age, were the most gifted fighters the clan had to offer so the village had used them to spy on the clan as double agents for years now. All the while, the clan itself was using them to spy on the village higher-ups. Neither side was willing to talk face to face or compromise.

All the spying never did anyone any good! It just made all the tension worse…now look. They're all dead. Everyone. I killed my own family. I just killed my own fucking family.

Then, he heard someone leap down a meter or so behind him and heard the crunching of boots as Itachi walked up to him.

"It is finished." Itachi said, his voice forcibly formal and thick with emotion.

He turned around and it didn't surprise him in the slightest that Itachi had awakened the mangekyo sharingan. It was the second to last stage of the sharingan, awakened by the pain of feeling responsible for the witnessed death of one of the people closest to you. Being ordered to kill your own parents would certainly fit that bill.

Just like how his own arrogance and jealousy made him responsible for the deaths of his sensei and genin teammates shortly after the Third War ended on a B-rank border patrol mission gone wrong.

As Itachi walked up to him, the tears his little brother had been trying to keep from falling spilled over and his cousin was silently crying again. "Its over, Shisui. I'm sorry Shisui. I'm so sorry-"

"Don't worry about it! Its okay. I forgave you a long time ago."

He put a comforting hand on his brother's shoulders and pulled him in for a hug.

Their argument about how Itachi had wanted to set up Sasuke as the lone survivor and avenger was long forgotten. Right now they were just two crying teenagers, pawns in other people's quarrels. It shouldn't have had to end like this. Where did he go wrong?

He hugged his little brother tight, cherishing the moment. They'd be dead in another few minutes.

"I love you, Itachi. You've always been the little brother I never had, to me." He began.

He had thought for a long time about what his final words to his brother would be. There was so much he wanted to say. So much he wanted to apologize for. Before he died on his own sword like he deserved for failing everyone like this and dragging Itachi down with him.

"When we first met, you were just a six year old kid skipping class to practice shurikenjutsu cause practice in class was too easy. I was a real mess back then, you know?" he sniffled, pulling away from Itachi to look him in the eye. Itachi had to know how much he meant to him before he had to kill him.

"I was still a genin, but because of the conflict with Kumogakure was still ongoing and the Kyuubi attack on the village a year prior, we were being sent on missions way above our experience level. My team was sent to the border to patrol and gather intel, cause there'd been reports of Kumo-nin in the area. But it went wrong, so wrong, and everyone died. And I never forgave myself for it. Why did I deserve to live? Some jealous little shit like me. Then, I met you! I knew who you were, of course, you're Lord Fugaku's son the heir of the clan. But I'd never really taken the time to watch you train much less talk to you. I can't tell you how happy it made me to have you around, Itachi. Tagging along with me to train. Taking you out for dango after a mission and listening to all your stories about chasing lost cats with your unmotivated, slacker teammates. It gave me a purpose."

He gave a sloppy, wet grin at the memories. What he wouldn't give to go back and time and treat Itachi to his favorite food in the whole wide world, dango, and listen to him complain about his latest D-rank mission again. Itachi didn't realize it but he'd always been a little arrogant.

"Gods, Itachi. I'm so sorry. For everything. I just need you to know how much having you around as my stand-in little brother meant to me. I honestly don't think I would have lived without you."

Itachi nodded and wiped away his tears, looking solemnly at Shisui. "Thank you, Shisui. You understood me better than my own family did. You taught me so much and you've always been there for me. I'm sorry I couldn't do anything to help you or to stop all of this."

The twelve year old looked at his feet, remorseful, crying silently again. His father and the Hokage and the elders had all put so much pressure on him. Its why he'd tried to shoulder as much of it as he could and shield him from more stress and pain.

"Hey, no. Don't pull that look, it's not your fault. I promise!"

If anything, its mine. I was made ANBU in name only so I could be free to move as needed and investigate the clan.

He sighed. We're running out of time.

He was in so much pain as it was. Even with his body flicker technique and the element of surprise, he'd taken a lot of hits and lost a good amount of blood taking down his half of the Uchiha clan.

"Alright, Itachi." He said, placing a hesitant hand on his sword. "We gotta finish this before the ANBU get here."

Itachi nodded. "Do it, Shisui. I'd rather die like this by an Uchiha's hand than get killed by some random hunter-nin."

I know. You desperately want to be judged and punished for this.

Shisui nodded and before he could second guess himself, he brought the sword down and straight through his little brother's heart and back out again and then slashed his throat open.

Then, without even bothering to flick the blood off the blade, he stabbed himself in the gut straight through. He gasped and staggered and it burned and his legs gave out beneath him before he could even force the blade up and out and rip his stomach open.

Fuck. What kind of a wimp can't even commit ritual suicide properly?!

Desperate, he pulled at his chakra and carefully directed it to the fuinjutsu on his chest and activated it. He'd put it there during the period of conflict with Kirigakure just in case, cause it was better to go out like that by sealing your body away into nothingness than to let yourself be caught by the enemy, interrogated, and have your clan's special ability studied by enemy medic-nin.

It was a nice, efficient, quiet way to die when you didn't want to catch your comrades in the act of the more common, easier suicide explosion fuinjutsu. And Shisui wasn't good at fuinjutsu, or writing in kanji, but he wasn't about to risk his comrades during war.

Forbidden Sealing Art: Secret Coffin Jutsu!

Quickly, like flames licking across his bruised and torn up body, the broken kanji permanently put on his body with chakra-infused ink activated and moved, burning across his body.

Just as he started to hear the ANBU closing in, his vision faded into darkness and he knew nothing.

Finally. I'm so fucking sorry everyone.

Author's Note: I got bored with canon so I took a few liberties! Here is my canon for this fanfic! It explains the inconsistencies!

Itachi has Amaterasu and Shisui has Tsukuyomi. Shisui doesn't have the game-breaking, 10-year-recharge Kotoamatsukami. Itachi doesn't get 2 mangekyo techniques and Shisui doesn't get what may as well be a god-tier mangekyo technique.

This means Danzo never tried to steal Shisui's sharingan to steal said god-tier move. This also means the Uchiha Massacre happened earlier, because Shisui's death pushed it back a year and 10 days. No I don't remember where I read that…just that it was in the manga somewhere…

I much rather like to write Danzo as an asshole who works with Orochimaru for the – twisted – good of the village long term.

Also, about Danzo's arm. It's a normal arm. Not an arm grown from the cells of a man whose been dead in canon for like forty years with stolen sharingan implanted in it. It just seemed like such an unexplainable leap in technology for a society that still uses birds to send messages.

I've been slowly starting to read the manga from the beginning and the Itachi Shinden novels and they gave me ideas. Up until now, I've read bits and pieces here and there that's it. Also, I know people get mad about deviating from canon, but Kishimoto had to write this as a weekly manga right? He was crunched for time with a deadline and had to make it up as he went. So there's a lot of things I find to be complete BS as far as plot devices go – like how Obito even survived being crushed by the rock.