“Im not going to ask for help unless I really have to.”

And Kouji spends the next few days very distracted, going over his past life memories of the manga and kids at school talking about the anime. He will tell Naruto he is fine if asked.

And then at recess one day he walks up to sasuke. “Hello Sasuke, It is really really really important I talk to Shisui Uchiha, your older brother knows him right?.” And Kouji is looking around super nervous and paranoid as he does it.

"Uh, yeah? He's my cousin. He's busy a lot though, but he might be home... Why?"

“I need to tell him something super super important, I will be in your debt as a ninja if you bring me to him its that important.” Does a low bow to sasuke to convey extra importance!.

"Huh? That's really not necessary!" He waves his hands. "Big brother will know where he is even if I don't. Do you wanna come home with me after class today?"

“Yes please, Thank you Sasuke.” And Kouji goes back to sit with Naruto at lunch like usual. He will be fidgety and anxious all day until the end of school.

Sasuke comes to find him after school. "Hi Kouji! Ready to go?"

“Yes sasuke.” Shouldering his schoolbag and looking very serious, trying not to freak out and back out of trying to fix the uchiha massacre.

And Kouji will follow Sasuke to the uchiha compound, them still having a compound and being segregated was another strike against the hokage in his eyes. 

Sasuke doesn't seem to think anything's weird with his family living pretty far from the rest of the village. He says hi to a few of his relatives as he runs down the main street, Kouji in tow, then darts past the main house and to a much smaller one a few streets down, more secluded in the cool woods. "This is Shisui's house!" Sasuke explains. "If he's not here we'll go find big brother."

“Thanks for bringing me.” And trying to contain a tremble he knocks on the door, he knows Shisui is very loyal to konoha maybe this will backfire horribly.

There's a shout of "One minute!"

After a short pause, the door opens, revealing a guy in his late teens, who doesn't actually look that much like Sasuke other than coloration. He leans against the door frame, says, "Hey you two. What's up?"

“Uhmm sorry sasuke could you leave? I kind of need to talk to Shisui alone...its kind of a big important secret.” And Kouji bows to Shisui looking not much like a 7 year old at all with his serious determined look on his face.

“I need to tell you something very important, any operational security you can think of to stop this from getting out would be appreciated, you should probably just put me under genjutsu so nobody else can hear it also.”

"...Sasuke, why don't you go bother Itachi, okay? Tell him I said he needs to spend some time with you, captain's orders."

After a roll of his eyes and a concerned glance at Kouji, the kid obeys.

Shisui then gestures Kouji in, says, "Safer to talk in here. Got some privacy seals up - don't mention stuff's secret outside, okay?"

“Thank you for taking me seriously...and I think I could play it off as just a 7 year old being silly and wanting to play ninja if anyone asks...” Coming inside behind Shisui, oh by all the powers that exist he hopes this doesnt backfire. But at least he isn’t being blown off like he worried.

"I was out fighting at your age. Kids these days are a bit sillier than they used to be, but... Well, it's believable something's up."

And his eyes will spin red, and his gaze meets Kouji's, and then they're elsewhere, on the banks of a river. It feels real, certainly, but Shisui says, "Okay, we're in the genjutsu now."

“I...dont really know where to start...I...Know things, things that havent happened yet and things that already happened...you dont even need to believe any of it just as long as you are more wary in the future...” Shifting nervously and wringing his hands, Shisui could do anything to him in this genjutsu, he doesnt know how to dispell it yet, this was a lot of trust to put on a stranger.

”I guess i will just list the most important things first...Obito Uchiha lives and is masquerading as Madara. Madara is dead. Danzo is helping Sannin Orochimaru do Kinjutsu experiments on people from the village, Danzo will kill and take one of your mangekyo sharingan. Itachi will wipe out the Uchiha living in the village under orders of Danzo because he sees no other way to stop the coup, and yes I know about the coup planning.” He flinches when he says that because of the possible implications.

“I swear I am not a root agent! I couldn’t tell you about Danzo if i was! I-if you have to torture me to believe me I accept that but please dont?.”

"Hey, kid, breathe, okay? I'm not going to hurt you." He puts a hand on Kouji's shoulder. "That's... A lot, and a lot of it's important." He sighs. "Well, your knowledge base indicates a lot, and pre- and post-cognition isn't out of the realm of possible. I guess - filling me in on what you know that's already happened is better, since I can confirm that more easily."

Kouji takes a few deep breathes and tries to stop imagining being carted off to interrogation and torture. “I uhhh saw all this on the night of the ninetails attack so I’m not actually sure wether some of this is future knowledge or stuff that’s already happened by now...” Making a maybe believable excuse for his manga knowledge.

He collects his thoughts and tries to map out a rough timeline, it really sucks that the manga wasnt very clear on all this.

”If Orochimaru hasn’t been kicked out of the village yet then he is doing experiments on villagers right now with the help of root bringing him victims, If danzo has his arm all bandaged he has the cloned tissue of first hokage Harashima as an arm, it can do wood release.

He might already have sharingan planted into his arm that let him do a jutsu that lets him become immaterial for ten seconds when “killed” effectively granting him extra lives, or he might have gotten those eyes after the uchiha massacre.

If Akatsuki are well known then find out wether its leader Yahiko is dead or not, Danzo has or will have betrayed Akatsuki to have Yahiko killed by teaming up with Hanzo from Ame. If it hasn’t happened yet it should be stopped, the grief of losing Yahiko turns Nagato mad and he has the Rinnegan eyes of the real Madara.

Oh Oh Oh! The hidden mist kage is controlled by Obito posing as Madara by now I am pretty sure. Don’t go fight Obito he has space time jutsu and has Harashima cells making him stronger.

Obito as Madara caused the ninetales attack and killed the Fourth hokage that is how tough he is.

Naruto is the son of the fourth Hokage and is the ninetails vessel, that one isn’t that useful since it’s not hard to figure out, Root has an agent about my age that can bring to life whatever he draws? I can’t think of that many things I couldn’t have found out in other ways from the past that proves my claim.”

Saying all that was a huge relief, that should be enough to make Shisui at least wary enough to not be killed by Danzo, maybe he can prevent an awful lot of bad future paths right here even if he does get taken to interogation. It will have been worth it, The world will have a much better chance against Kaguya now. He didnt actually mention Kaguya because that might be too much to believe.

Well this is a shitstorm. Still, better to have intel.

"I'll confirm as much of that as I can - but some of it I'll need to act quickly on." He drags a hand down his face. "Actually, of things you couldn't have known without precognition or mind reading - do you know what my plan for dealing with the coup originally was?"

“Oh Oh I know that one too! You were going to use your mangekyo sharingan that can mind control or do perfect genjutsu? Its not clear, but you were going to control the Uchiha elders into not doing the coup, your power to do that is why Danzo wants to steal your eyes, he only gets one by the way Itachi gets the other and uses it to save Sasuke.”

He thinks for a bit about wether the risks are worth bringing Itachi into this conspiracy. “I think it’s safe to tell Itachi this? He only wipes out the Uchiha under Danzos orders and threats of Danzo hurting Sasuke and Obito pretending to be Madara offering to help him influencing him, and I think grief from losing you actually you are very important to him I think, The future knowledge only involved stuff I could see and hear no mental intrusion but it sure looked like he cared about you alot.”

...It's really not good that Itachi would get so upset over him dying that he could be backed into one of those spirals the kid gets into... And yeah it's totally believable Itachi'd get panicked and do something irreversible in his panic. The kid's not even twelve yet. He's allowed to be a bit of an idiot, except their planet kind of sucks.

Itachi also probably would have a panic attack if Shisui told him all this but Shisui knows how to manage those, so.

"I'll do a first pass check myself, but, yeah, I'd agree. If I get killed before I can loop him in - you approaching him might be my best dead man's switch. Though be a bit more subtle, okay?"

“I didn’t know what to do! Ive known all this since I was 6 months old and perfectly aware since then! Being an academy student was the first hope someone would take me seriously and I fully expected someone to find out I knew something I shouldn’t and drag me to interrogation and torture, I’m a bit desperate okay? And I’m 7 and I have to balance being a kid so nobody gets suspicious and preparing for the future and I can see so so many people dying in the future its just...alot to deal with.”

Takes a few deep breaths, this was the first time he had told anyone anything close to the truth and how he felt.

”How should I contact itachi just in case? And besides your death we have a few years on a lot of other problems so don’t rush things?...you are a fulcrum for a lot of future events you just need to not die, seriously dont die if you die the future sucks because of how your eyes and the grief your death causes are used.

Sasuke cannot grow up as the only member of his clan in this future. Itll stop so many bad things from happening.”

"I can take over a lot here - can't promise not to ever die, especially if someone like Danzo's after me, but I'll set up as many contingencies as I can."

"For contacting Itachi... There's a safe house he and I use sometimes, I'll give you access, and he'll know if you enter. That's probably best, reduces chances of information being intercepted like with a dead drop."

“Genjutsu is scary but you have no idea how relieved I am it enables mind to mind secure information transfer, I’d never have contacted you if I had to say any of this out loud. So I should go to the safehouse only if you die? How would I even know they might not tell the village for a while.”

Kouji thinks about anything he might have missed.

”If it’s not too difficult, getting Naruto access to the shadow clone technique is a good future outcome, not neccesary but it helps, also uhh....this might be more unbelievable but...Sasuke is the reincarnation of Indra son of the sage of six paths? As was Madara? You could confirm this maybe if anyone was familiar with Madara or Indra’s chakra signature? Naruto is the reincarnation of Asura the other son, so most of this is just preventing events that hurt them, also a whole clan being wiped out offends my personal moral sensibilities irrelevant to wether it helps the future.”

Hoping he hasn’t strained Shisui’s incredulity too far.

"I'll set up check-ins; if I miss the next one by more than a week with no indication, go to the safehouse."

"Usually people's past lives don't play a big role? Is it likely to come up in the future?"

“Not for like...10 years, maybe later if we can stop some events happening, but eventually yes it will be critical to have the legacy of Indra and Asura on our side, Sasuke is going to make Madara at his height of power look like a genin, or at least he was going to.”

One thing to look forward to in the future, stomping Kaguya into the dirt and saving the world.