Summary: "You're as bad as your brother."
Pairings: None
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

"Yo."

In sixteen years of life Uchiha Sasuke had become acquainted with the reality that the world was a strange place with many strange things contained there within. The sound of that voice, however, topped everything strange he could think of.

Itachi's eyes burned within Sasuke's eye sockets and Sasuke, startled by the new voice, fumbled at the bandages secured over his eyes. It had been long enough that they could be removed safely, and the instinct within Sasuke to be wary of anything unusual would have made him remove the bandages even if he hadn't been ready.

When he took the bandages from around his new eyes, Sasuke saw exactly what he had hoped he wouldn't see.

Half-cloaked in darkness as he was, arms folded across his chest, Shisui frowned critically at his young cousin. "Sasuke, I'm gonna go ahead and point out the painfully obvious. Those eyes sure as Hell are not yours." He squinted, frown deepening. "They're… Itachi's?" The revulsion in Shisui's voice made Sasuke bristle. "Well I gotta hand it to you Itachi," Shisui mumbled. "You manage to be a bloody martyr even from beyond the grave."

Sasuke scowled. Time to cut to the chase. "Shisui, what are you doing here?"

A raucous laugh followed and Shisui became something more similar to the light-hearted Shisui Sasuke had known. "What, no tearful hugs? No crying and laughing and dancing? Not even a 'Hey, cousin, you've been dead for nigh on eight years now. How in the Hell did your condition suddenly reverse itself?'?"

Sasuke didn't answer.

When he was eight, the then sixteen-year-old Shisui had seemed so very big and grown-up. Now, things were a bit different.

Shisui to Sasuke's eyes was still very tall—he was nearly six feet tall and if he'd lived to adulthood Sasuke had no doubt he would have gotten taller than that.

As for being grown-up though, well… Sasuke was now the same age as Shisui had been when he died, and "grown-up" wasn't exactly the word Sasuke would use to describe him. If anything, something about Shisui reminded Sasuke of Naruto. Maybe it was the lopsided, too-wide quality of that grin or the roguish gleam in his wide dark eyes. Shisui didn't look like much of an adult even with his hollow cheeks. He grinned too widely and his eyes sparkled entirely too much; his build was too lanky to be that of a proper adult. He didn't even look like that much of an Uchiha, what with all that coarse curly hair and that habit of smiling so much.

"Hey Sasuke, are you listening?" Sasuke's continued silence led to Shisui whistling and stepping forward to wave a hand in front of his face; Sasuke was treated to a close-up view of the calluses on Shisui's palm and the scars knotted on one of his knuckles and criss-crossing his palm and fingers. "Sheesh, are you even awake?"

Sasuke grabbing his wrist told Shisui all he needed to know on that subject. Sasuke had to frown though. He hadn't been expecting Shisui to be solid; he'd thought his hand would just pass straight through him.

Shisui straightened and adopted an absurdly reminiscent expression. "Sasuke, d'you remember when you broke your ankle back when you were six? Itachi was away on a mission so that just left me for you to stalk everywhere I went. You fell out of a tree while I was practicing sword strokes and I had to carry you back home. It was the middle of summer, hot as the bowels of Hell and you were screaming so hard that this one old bat thought I was kidnapping you and called the police on us. I'll never forget your dad's face."

"Shisui?" Sasuke asked curtly once again. "What are you doing here?"

The taller boy tilted his head to one side, his thick curls falling over his eyes. "I could ask you the same thing, Sasuke. Me, I'm either a ghost or just a figment of your imagination brought on by your sad, strange little overworked mind. But you, you don't have that excuse. Just what are you doing here?"

That was simple; Sasuke smirked. "It should be obvious, cousin. I'm avenging you."

A sharp frown marred the thin line of Shisui's mouth. Eyebrows rose. "You're… avenging me?" Shisui asked uncertainly, behaving as though he wasn't sure he'd heard correctly.

Sasuke nodded, and Shisui grimaced. "My God," he muttered. "Of all the…" Within a second, Shisui's face shifted from uncertain to… Sasuke couldn't quite identify this new face. It looked alien to Itachi's transplanted eyes. "So… You want revenge… And for that, you've gone to Madara?" Shisui's tone was dubious, no, downright disbelieving.

Naturally, Sasuke was offended by that. I'm doing this for you. The least you could do is show some gratitude. "Yes, I am," he answered, a distinct hard edge entering his voice. "Are the Uchiha not avengers as a whole? Do we not perpetually seek retribution for the wrongs done to us by Konohagakure no Sato?"

To this, Shisui could only snort. "'Revenge'. Oh, God, how often have I heard that word thrown around by our deluded family? Yeah. Sasuke, here's the thing. Revenge is all fine and well up to a certain point, and the members of our clan tend to take that line and tear it into little pieces. Real glad to see you didn't just get the infamous duck-butt hair of the brother of our esteemed—" Shisui's voice dripped sarcasm at 'esteemed' "—patriarch."

Sasuke snarled, bristling. "How can you say that? We have been wronged so many times! Konoha ordered our extermination! There is no other way to make things right!"

With that, Shisui's demeanor changed again. His sucked in a deep breath and swallowed hard. "You're just like him."

No need to ask who "him" was.

"You're as bad as your brother," Shisui said quietly. "He never listened to me either, and that's how we all got to where we are today. It's like talking to a corpse: neither of you ever listen and half the time you act like I'm not even there." His brow drew up, lines of desperation creasing his face. "Sasuke, this isn't the only way out. This isn't the only possible end of the road for you. There are other ways. Listen to me, there are other ways. Prove to me you're smarter than your brother and just listen to me."

Sasuke looked away. It was easier on his eyes to stare into the cool darkness than to look at Shisui's face.

Shisui's hand was as heavy as lead on Sasuke's shoulder and his voice was tired, dull. "Fine. Don't listen. After all, why should you?" An exceptional spike of bitterness came at that. "You've traded reason for darkness. You don't need me. Why should you listen?

"Bye, Sasuke. You won't be seeing me again."

After that, silence.

When Sasuke swung his head around to where Shisui had been, there was only empty space and shadow.

Just the way Sasuke had wanted it all along.