[fic] Thicker Than Water
You know those Shisui-centric fics I keep mentioning? This is the first part of one of them. I have such bad writer's block with the rest of it but hopefully I'll manage to finish it soon.
Title: Thicker Than Water
Characters: Shisui
Genre: Angst
Rating: K+
Summary: AU. Shisui picks up after Itachi again.
Shisui stands, head bowed (he will not kneel to them), in front of Danzo and the elders (the Hokage is not here). There is an odd lack of surprise on their faces and something worrying in Danzo's eye. It is not an audience because that implies it is an official meeting, something it can never be.
He says, "I will do the mission."
They study him, frowns wrinkling their faces more than usual. It is obvious what they are thinking. They are thinking that you are the reason why we do not have Itachi here, Itachi who we can trust, but they will not say that because it does not work that way. Instead, they will doubt him openly as is only natural.
"How do we know that we can trust you to perform it?"
And they do. People are so very predictable if only you can figure out the patterns. (Shisui is very good at this.) What they mean is that everyone knows that he is a loyal member of the clan, someone who would perform any mission for it and this mission is the very opposite of that. But they do not realise who he was before that (is still?). (In memory, there is a child who calls him brother.) Would they care if they did? He doubts it, they are too consumed by the village for that. (Like Itachi, a small part of him says before he squashes it. Itachi was not like them.) He does not voice what he is thinking. He says...
"You don't but you won't get a better offer."
It's not entirely true, of course, and they all know it. There are alternatives, there always are, but what is really needed is a scapegoat and for that, Shisui is the best option.
He waits while they look at each other or rather the two elders look at Danzo and isn't that an useful indication of the power structure, he thinks. There is some quick conferring, the kind done with eyes and meaningful glances, not voices and words layered with implication. (Shisui used to have whole conversations like that with Itachi before...) Finally Danzo nods.
They give him a scroll with a dead man's name on it. They see no point in changing it. (Later he will do so, delicately, carefully, because he cannot bear that name to be associated with the scroll's contents in any way.) He is to follow the instructions to the letter. He agrees (word games are his favourite) and leaves then because it would not do to be under suspicion now when he's come so far.
Title: Thicker Than Water
Characters: Shisui
Genre: Angst
Rating: K+
Summary: AU. Shisui picks up after Itachi again.
Shisui stands, head bowed (he will not kneel to them), in front of Danzo and the elders (the Hokage is not here). There is an odd lack of surprise on their faces and something worrying in Danzo's eye. It is not an audience because that implies it is an official meeting, something it can never be.
He says, "I will do the mission."
They study him, frowns wrinkling their faces more than usual. It is obvious what they are thinking. They are thinking that you are the reason why we do not have Itachi here, Itachi who we can trust, but they will not say that because it does not work that way. Instead, they will doubt him openly as is only natural.
"How do we know that we can trust you to perform it?"
And they do. People are so very predictable if only you can figure out the patterns. (Shisui is very good at this.) What they mean is that everyone knows that he is a loyal member of the clan, someone who would perform any mission for it and this mission is the very opposite of that. But they do not realise who he was before that (is still?). (In memory, there is a child who calls him brother.) Would they care if they did? He doubts it, they are too consumed by the village for that. (Like Itachi, a small part of him says before he squashes it. Itachi was not like them.) He does not voice what he is thinking. He says...
"You don't but you won't get a better offer."
It's not entirely true, of course, and they all know it. There are alternatives, there always are, but what is really needed is a scapegoat and for that, Shisui is the best option.
He waits while they look at each other or rather the two elders look at Danzo and isn't that an useful indication of the power structure, he thinks. There is some quick conferring, the kind done with eyes and meaningful glances, not voices and words layered with implication. (Shisui used to have whole conversations like that with Itachi before...) Finally Danzo nods.
They give him a scroll with a dead man's name on it. They see no point in changing it. (Later he will do so, delicately, carefully, because he cannot bear that name to be associated with the scroll's contents in any way.) He is to follow the instructions to the letter. He agrees (word games are his favourite) and leaves then because it would not do to be under suspicion now when he's come so far.