Naruto: I am Shisui

[DumDumDum]

Psychology professor Kanagawa Toru studied his new patient with careful attention. A young boy—barely sixteen in a couple of weeks, according to his file—sat with his hands clamped over his knees, his gaze fixed thoughtfully on an invisible point in space. Nakamori Hiroshi had come to him with a problem that was highly unusual, even given Professor Kanagawa's extensive clinical experience.

"Let us summarize what we've discussed so far, Hiroshi-kun. You are claiming that you live two separate lives, and you no longer know which one is real? When you fall asleep there, you experience this life as a strange dream, and vice versa. Is that correct?"

"Yes, Professor," the boy nodded. His dark, lively eyes watched Kanagawa with cautious intensity, harboring something the professor simply couldn't brush off. Nakamori Hiroshi genuinely believed what he was saying. Furthermore, that gaze belonged to an adult—someone seasoned by experience. A classic case of 'a child with old eyes.'

"This began two years ago, after the accident that claimed your parents' lives? You yourself were severely injured and experienced clinical death multiple times. Do you recall how your father and mother passed?"

"Yes, Professor." The patient focused on his own hands, specifically the wide bracelets concealing his wrists. "I saw it happen."

"Did you attempt to take your own life?" Kanagawa asked, scribbling a quick note next to the suicidal tendencies checkbox on his evaluation form.

"Yes. But…"

"But…?" His hesitation was more than eloquent.

"At first, I wanted to end things so that I could… well, so I could exclusively live that other life. It's quite interesting. When I woke up here, after living fourteen years there… it was extremely… painful. Because of that, I even awakened my—" The boy caught himself, shooting the professor a suspicious glance. Kanagawa pretended not to notice the slip of the tongue. "Anyway, it was severe stress. But I got used to it eventually. You could say I settled in. I became content with how things were. But recently, I learned something. That's actually why I decided to come to you."

"I see." Kanagawa mentally kicked himself; he had been so caught up in the psychological fascination of the case that he hadn't even asked what actually transpired in the boy's second life. "And what did you learn, Hiroshi-kun?"

"I think I'm going to die there soon. Something came to light… something very important." The boy thoughtfully coiled a lock of dark hair around his finger.

"What makes you so certain? Have you fallen ill?"

"No. I just figured out that… my second life is actually public knowledge," the patient exhaled, as if finally bracing himself to make the bizarre claim.

"Public knowledge?!" Kanagawa repeated, barely keeping his composure. He felt a flash of professional embarrassment; he was staring open-mouthed at the teenager in a distinctly unscientific manner. "How so?"

"Everyone in Japan knows about it," Hiroshi continued in that same pensive tone. "I was the only one entirely oblivious. I just didn't connect the facts or the overlapping names. Plus, people's faces look vastly different... But just a couple of weeks ago, I watched the scene of my own death. And I have to admit, it probably would have played out exactly like that, if I hadn't seen the aftermath and been entirely appalled by my own naïve stupidity."

"So," Kanagawa murmured, analyzing the data he'd just been handed, "your 'second self' exists in the past of the media that is available in our world?"

"I'm far from the main character. I simply didn't realize at first that it was actually a story about my life there," Hiroshi nodded. "I'm barely even in it. By the time the main story begins, I've already died."

"Tell me, Hiroshi-kun," Kanagawa leaned forward, suddenly anticipating something profoundly extraordinary, "what is your name in this second life?"

A thick silence settled over the room, broken only by the ticking of the wall clock—a sound that felt unnaturally loud in the suddenly electrified atmosphere of the office. The patient stayed quiet for a long time, boring into him with a piercing gaze that made Kanagawa instinctively flinch inward, his mind racing with a dozen fantastical theories.

"My name is Uchiha Shisui."