"Soo.. how did you end up here?"
Sayuri looked up at itachi and frowned,
"Well.. I had a really, really.. reeeaaallyy bad headache and I passed out.. a-and.. Uhhh yeah."
Itachi squinted his eyes at his niece who was currently resting her head on his lap as he braided her hair, they both decided to take a break beforefinding a way to get her back to her real body.
"Are you hiding something?"
"well- uhm! uh! I dunno! Don't ask me anything!"
Itachi sighed, seeing how frantic she was.. he could tell something bad had probably happened to her before she came here.. guessing from her reaction when he first called out to her.
"It's ok Sayuri, you can tell me when you feel comfortable, i will never force you to say it."
"mhm ok!" she smiled thankfull to have him,
He returned her smile before going back to braiding her hair as she dozed off.
He looked up upon hearing footsteps, his eyes landing on an old lady with pky blue hair that seems to fade grayand white probably due to old age.
She looked short and thin, as she slowly made her way over to the two of them.
Itaci kept his guard up, he could tell that this old lady meant no harm but he couldn't take risks with his little niece around.
The old lady gave a warm smile before happily saying,
"Why hello there dear! are you perhaps dead too?? Oh my! both of you look awfully young to be dead!"
Itachi didn't reply to her question and asked,
"Who are you?"
The old lady frowned at his harsh tone, muttering about how disrespectful kids were these days.. she then began to rant about how obedient she had to be back in her days.
Itachi deadpanned, OK now he was sure that she wasn't a threat.
"I apologize for my rudeness, I'm Itachi. Who are you?"
The old lady started to giggle, as if she wasn't just cursing at him a few seconds before.
"I'm ------ Haruno! Who may that little girl be?"
Itachi smiled at sayuri before saying,
"This is Sayuri, my niece."
The elderly smiled at the sleeping child who looked so much like her grandaughter,
"Say.. Is her mother's name Sakura.. by any chance..??" she asked hopefully,
Itachi looked surprised before nodding (Its not hard to guess, he'd met sakura before and im sure he knows that they're both on the same team.. pink and one of her eye is green so yeah- he's literally a genuis im sure he'd figure out easily.) , making the older women rather happy,
that was before the color drained from her face as their surrounding came into her mind,
"Wait... No, this can't be good! Is she alive by any chance?!" she whisperyelled frantically,
Itachi frowned before saying, "Yes, is something wrong Mrs, Haruto?"
"It's 'Haruno' you bi- dear.."
"Oh, sorry..."
The old lady gave him a judging look before going back to their previous topic,
"Oh dear! This place is called Shiryō-Rei, she must have passed Shi-yami to come here! Oh god! I didn't think the Kokoro blood would still be found in them.. Two generations have passed afterall!"
"Uh.. I don't understand."
She sighed,
"Well, your in for a long story dear.."
"I'm her great grandmother, from the Kokoro clan, you might not know about us.. even in my days we had barely more than 5 to 6 members..
I wanted nothing to do with those monsters and ran away when my father forced me to marry and bare kids.
You see, the soul of a kids in our clan who between the age of 5 to 7 would be put in a pit of dark nothingness called Shi-yami where they have to watch their loved ones get tortured and die before them for 168 hours to test their mental strenght as well as their physical strenght which will be tested by slowly destroying their real body."
Itachi's eye widened at this new found information.. so that's why she was so scared when she first say him..
He softly caressed the sleeping girls cheek, Poor girl.. she had to spend a week in that hellhole.. she'd still a child afterall she must be aching to see her family alive and safe.
The lady sighed sadly before continuing,
"The child Who survives both the phycial and mental pain at such a young age would be allowed to meet their dead ancestors and relatives to get advice on how to control their new found powers and let their soul get used to the dead ones so it's be easy to contact them whenever needed.
Usually even if you finish Shi-yami, if an ancestors sees that your not worthy of this power, they will destroy the child soul leaving their body to be nothing but a shell."
After surviving both mentally, phycally and getting the acknowledgement of their ancestors.. The child shall be named prodigy and awarded with the power of the Kokoro."
"Basically, Mind control in one eye, they can make you stop breathing in command if they want to.. it's an award for surviving Shi-Yami.
"And in the other eye is the power awarded for surviving Shiryō-Rei, they can mess around with a living person's soul, break it, torture it control the soul's mind into giving any information! You get the memo! they can do whatever the hell they want if they could just keep themselves alive for a week here!!"
"But it all started with the individual experiancing an agonizing headache as a sign of warning, if they could go through that without passing out for atleast 5 minutes then they get to start this hell test."
The old lady breathed heavily as she finished her speech..
Itachi sighed, "Is there any ways to get Sayuri out of here..?"
She thought for a second, thinking of how she survived this place.
"How long has she been here?"
"For about 3 hours i think.."
"She has to spend a total of 10 hours here, time runs fast in Shiryō-Rei so it's probably only been 30min in real life."
Itachi noticed Sayuri muttering incoherent words while whining in her sleep, he didn't think much until he saw the tears,
Slowly he picked her up and she instinctually wrapped her arms around his neck while laying her chin on his shoulder.
He slowly pat her back as she started to go back into a deep and peaceful sleep, no longer hearing her mother and sisters screams of nightmare.
Itachi's gaze met the elderly womens as he said,
"Is there any wasy to get her out of here sooner?"
Her eyes saddened,
"Child, i could tell that you and her and close.. you might never meet her again.. Don't you wish to spend the atleast the next 7 hours while it lasts..?"
The uchiha smiled sadly,
"She cried about how much she missed her mother, as much as i want to be selfish.. I can't have her wait longer to reunite with her family.. I'm just a dead man, my wishes don't matter."
"Well, I can force her soul out, I don't know if it will work.. It's been years since i used it."
"Please give it a try."
"I will."
Itachi slowly tapped the little girls back, whispering her name softly to wake her up without startling her too much.
The tiny pinknette slowly fluttered her eyes open, as he gently placed her on the ground.
"Sayuri, This is-
He gestured toward the old lady,
------ Haruno."
The elderly offered a kind smile,
"She's your great grandmother."
"ohhh." The little pinknette looked at her curiously,
Suddenly Itachi grabbed her shoulder making her turn to face him,
He placed his hand on her head and said,
"We've found a way to send you back to where you belong Sayuri. I just wanted to let you know something before I send you off."
His grin turned sadder and sadder,
" you wanted to know how I met your dad right?"
"I'm Itachi Uchiha, Your uncle."
Sayuri gasped,
'i knew it!'
"Uncle!?"