Tortured Uchiha [CURRENTLY EDITING]

二九

E Y E    F O R   A N   E Y E

       I sat in Sakura's room, shielded by shadows cast by Kakashi's shoulder. I dared to remove my mask. She'd healed my arm exceptionally. However, upon seeing my face, she gasped. 

       "Would it be possible for you to transplant an eye?" I asked.

         "T–transplant?" she swallowed.

           I nodded.

        "Well...I–I've never done something like this before," Sakura murmured. "But I can try."

         I inhaled a deep breath and bit down on my right thumb. I made the necessary hand signs for the summoning jutsu and the black sealing pattern extended across the tatami mats.

        Kuragari burst from the cloud of smoke and fluttered onto my shoulder, "You called?"

         "It's time," I said.

         "So this is why you didn't destroy it," Kuragari commented with a chirp.

          "Destroy what?" Naruto scratched his blonde locks.

      Kuragari beat his wings against my shoulder and landed on the floor, hopping about. His plume ruffled on his back as Kuragari regurgitated Shisui's eye that I stole from Danzo. Kuragari opened his beak and the eye was poised carefully on his tongue. I held open my hand for Shisui's Mangekyou and it dropped into my palm.

       I had to make a decision. I could either replenish my blind eye and regain my vision in both eyes, or obtain the Eternal Mangekyou in my left eye with no consequence of losing my sight. Something inside of me urged that I wouldn't go blind again, I wouldn't have a chance to.

        "Shall we...shall we begin?" Sakura pried open my socket.

         "Hn," I grunted.

* * *

      To greet us at the large boulder was more Konohagakure Nin that claimed to be allies of Kakashi. I had no qualms and kept my distance, no doubt one of the Akatsuki's limitless resources told Pein that I'd double-crossed them―I couldn't risk putting Kakashi and Naruto in danger, not again.

     The seal placed on the stone corresponded with four other seals around the valley and to disarm the tag to reach Gaara, the others would have to be destroyed. 

        "So where are the other four?" Naruto asked.

      One of the Hyuga clan members, Neji, unleashed the Byakugan to seek out the other seals. I hadn't told Kakashi that I knew the exact placements of the tags, but with a Hyuga on their team, there was no need. I leaned back against the red arch above on the lake surface and watched the novice Hyuga put his ocular prowess  to good use.

        The first tag was on top of a rock north-west of the hideout, the second was on the trunk of a tree on the south-east of the boulder, another was south-west in the centre of a grove whereas the last was on a rock wall on the north-west of the valley.

       "Right! We'll use these radios," Gai pulled out a set of ear pieces. "While we take Neji's directions, we can keep in communication. Say, are you going to come help us out Shinkoshoku Toge?"

      I turned my head from the sky where Itachi's crow, Kuchibashi, circled overhead like a prowling vulture. Behind my mask, my mismatched Mangekyou pattern lit up the darkness between the eye slits but Gai didn't notice.