Official summary: In an act of classic Uchiha Melodrama, Uchiha Shisui leaps to his death... only to be thwarted when he wakes up, chained up and in a dungeon, with a splitting pain in his left hand.
Or, the one where Shisui finds himself in Thedas in the aftermath of the failed Conclave and the canon is politely excused from the room ("politely"). Found on Archive of Our Own here
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The spoilers for both Naruto and Dragon Age remain unmarked!
This fanfic contains the examples of following tropes:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Cassandra's reaction to Shisui getting accidentally drunk on plum liquor.
- Affectionate Nickname: Varric is in a fine form, quickly dubbing Shisui "Fluffy" and "kid".
- An Arm and a Leg: To stop an assassin from teleporting away with Alexius, Shisui cuts off the man's arm since she was holding onto it and the boy had no time to stop her spell.
- Assassin Outclassin': Zig-zagged. A group of Tevinters tries to kill Shisui and the squad, and Arl's family in their sleep during their stay in Redcliffe — several of them end up captured and some are killed. However, the entire thing was a diversion while other assassins killed the Venatori prisoners and retrieved Alexius. Shisui was too late to save the prisoners but he manages to prevent Alexius' escape, while several mages and guards protected Felix.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Alexius' confiscated staff. Its base is an ironwood staff from the time of Arlathan, with enough useful enchantments and Lyrium runes put on top that Shisui describes it as two fireworks shops that were set off and the resulting explosions slapped together into something roughly staff-shaped. This also makes it too powerful to properly control for most people and the
Word of God confirms that it's not very magically stable either. - Awesomeness by Analysis:
- What really showcases Shisui's skill and experience as shinobi is that he's perfectly capable of pulling it off unconsciously and with minimal data, and get mostly correct conclusions within his limited understanding of Thedas.
- Similarly, Leliana, Varric and Josephine are able to deduce a fair amount of information about Shisui just from the things he's done and said, and from his equipment.
- Solas manages to figure several things about Sharingan simply from observing what Shisui is doing with it and how he reacts.
- Back from the Dead: Shisui might be this. Might. He's not sure if he actually died after jumping off the waterfall, since he doesn't remember anything between then and waking up in a cell in Haven.
- Bavarian Fire Drill: The party manages to get into locked up Redcliffe through a combination of a very subtle genjutsu and acting like they belong there.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: The former slaves decide to join the Inquisition after Shisui freed them.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Shisui is a perfectly polite and always cheerful teenager. He's also an S-rank shinobi with a kill-count and skills to match, and not hesitant to use those skills on people who anger him.
- Big Eater: Shisui. He usually eats two or three servings at mealtimes if he can get them.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The letters that Shisui brought back from the Bad Future.
- Alexius' time amulet — Shisui has one from the Bad Future and another one he got in the Present.
- Commonality Connection: Shisui and Leliana instantly recognize each other as fellow assassins/spies allowing them to understand each other even before Shisui learns the local language.
- Conditioned to Accept Horror: Downplayed, but it's made pretty clear that a shinobi life has left Shisui with a skewed perspective on what is considered normal.
- Continuity Nod: Various events of the Dragon Age setting are alluded to by characters. Of course, Shisui tends to miss the references.
- Varric thinks that he was once very wrong about a mage.
- Leliana's adventures with Warden Surana are mentioned, as well as their visit to Redcliffe.
- Likewise, Connor Guerrin mentions meeting Morrigan once.
- Contrived Coincidence: A random landslide clears a wide swath of a mountain forest, allowing the entire squad to cut it clear to Lake Calenhad and Redcliffe, getting there just before Alexius makes his move to get into the city. Lampshades by several people.
- Culture Clash: Explored.
- By shinobi standards, Shisui is an adult and has been for some years now. By Thedas standards, he's still a kid and most of Inquisition is not okay with some of the things they deduced about him — such as his likely specialisation as an assassin.
- On the other hand, Shisui is still too young to legally drink alcohol back home, but in Thedas it would be allowed.
- While summoning and jutsu that use blood are not common in the Elemental Nations, they aren't unknown either and nobody cares if you use them. In Thedas, those are considered Black Magic outside of Tevinter and even there they have a bad reputation.
- The general outlook on powers is also completely different, with Shisui considering chakra to be a fact of life. In Thedas, Fade-magic is considered a curse by the Orlesian Chantry, treated with wariness by the Dalish and flaunted in Tevinter. And they don't consider Lyrium and the powers it gives to be another type of magic at all.
- Thedas has all around problems with Fantastic Racism, which Shisui finds weird — what is a point of discriminating based on looks or magic when shinobi have a wide range of phenotypes and powers between all the clans.
- Even the nobility is different. Thedosian Houses resemble their European counterparts, with small numbers and members either in political offices, managing the estate, being sent to clergy or sold in marriage alliances. On the other hand, the shinobi noble clans can have several hundred members, with people working all manner of crafts and jobs so that the clan is self-sufficient, and their presence at the court is minimal outside of official functions.
- Cutting the Knot:
- Instead of looking for the key to Alexius' magically upgraded doors, Shisui just collapses the wall next to it since that wasn't upgraded.
- Instead of trying to stop a teleportation spell as it goes off, Shisui decides to cut off Alexius' arm and let the assassin escape with it, leaving the Magister behind.
- A Day in the Limelight: While most of the chapters are from Shisui's pov, few of them are show us perspectives of other characters.
- Didn't See That Coming: It's even in the title!
- Solas did not expect the teenaged rogue-mage to have enough skill and power to completely outmaneuvre him in the Fade. He ends up trapped in Shisui's dream until the shinobi allows him to leave.
- Alexius didn't expect to meet the Herald of Andraste at Redcliffe or that he would be a teenager. He also didn't expect to see Shisui and Solas again after he time-yeeted them. And he definitely didn't expect Shisui to immediately throw him into Tsukuyomi after getting back to the present.
- Didn't Think This Through: So, Solas. Here you have a young-but-obviously-skilled mage-rogue of unknown power and training, who doesn't speak the language and probably doesn't share any of your cultural sensibilities. Why exactly did you think it's a good idea to go snooping through his dreams?
- Don't Call Me "Sir": Shisui doesn't like being called "Herald of Andraste" or "Lord Uchiha" or any combination thereof.
- Dramatic Irony:
- When Solas sees Cassandra drawing on her Seeker powers so much she glows, he muses that she looks like one of the spirit-touched.
- Several times Shisui thinks that Itachi surely will find a way to save the clan and stop Danzou.
- Dream Weaver: Thedas has them, though most people consider them a legend at this point. Also, Shisui discovers that his genjutsu skills mesh surprisingly well with the Fade, kinda making him a Dreamer-by-training.
- Driving Question: How did Shisui end up in Thedas, who restored his eyes and why?
- Dungeon Bypass:
- Shisui's ability to walk on walls allows the squad to quickly make their way through the mines and reach the Breach.
- Instead of following the long and winding road to the Hinterlands, Shisui decides to just cut clear down the mountain and straight to Lake Calenhad.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Naturally happens to due characters making assumptions based on what they themselves know.
- Shisui thinks that elves and dwarves are just human but from clans with a particular look, at least until Varric explains it to him.
- People from Thedas reading the bingo book assume the Hyuga clan suffers from widespread blindness courtesy of their Prophet Eyes.
- People see Shisui's eyes turn red and naturally think he's possessed, since Thedas doesn't know about bloodlimits.
- Alexius thinks that Shisui is a blood mage masquerading as a rogue, due to the scars the boy has on his hands from handling weapons and the fact he was able to counter the mind-spells Alexius tried to place on people during the negotiations.
- Subverted with the assumption that Shisui is a noble. While the Uchiha are a noble clan, the assumption is based partially on the quality of his clothes, which are a result of modern technology used in their production — something that wouldn't be obvious since Thedas is somewhere between middle ages and renaissance in terms of development.
- Exact Words:
- Shisui tells Arl Teagan that Alexius tried to kill Solas and him, as a prelude to taking over the Arldom. He also completely skipped the entire time-travel thing.
- When Shisui has to quickly explain Sharingan, he says it's a magic that lets him see in the dark and it's not a result of possession. All true, while mentioning absolutely nothing about bloodlimits or Sharingan's other abilities.
- As per canon, Solas does it whenever the Breach, the Mark or the Orb come up in the conversation. Shisui decides not call him out on this. For now.
- Excuse Me While I Multitask: Shisui has a very civil conversation about the recent events with Solas, within his own dream, while simultaneously defending himself from a Despair demon that tried to infiltrate his mind. Solas even notes that if Shisui didn't tell him what was happening, he wouldn't even know as there weren't any tells.
- Experienced Protagonist: Shisui Uchiha is an S-rank shinobi with nearly a decade of field experience and all the skills to match. And his squad is similarly experienced.
- Fantastic Racism:
- Present in Thedas against pretty much everyone that's not a vanilla human. Something that greatly puzzles Shisui due to him being used to the wide variety of phenotypes that shinobi sport.
- On a more personal note, Solas is prejudiced against non-mages due to them being even more divorced from the Fade (and for him, less real) than mages of modern Thedas. Though, at least he's not showing it with his actions or (probably) doing it counciously.
- Fish out of Water: Shisui. Something he even lampshades.
- Forced into Their Sunday Best: Shisui is quite dismayed to learn his sojourn at Val Royaux will involve formal court outfit, and decides to accentuate his youth and foreign blood as much as he can to gain some wiggle room.
- Foreshadowing: Shisui brings from the Bad Future information about earthquakes plaguing Thedas.
- For Want Of A Nail: Word of God is that they will definitely be doing this since Shisui is that much of an Outside-Context Problem and unlikely to follow the canon choices. Though, it's not really obvious right now due to the story still being in the early stages.
- First of all, Shisui immediately pegs Solas as more dangerous than he wants to appear and his Sharingan allows him to notice that Solas' chakra is the same as the one in the Breach and the Anchor. And he doesn't waste time confronting the elf about this, too.
- Secondly, when Solas tries to snoop in his mind during a dream, Shisui traps him there using his genjutsu training and could have easily killed him, but decided otherwise in the end. Though, he still used the opportunity to steal quite a lot of knowledge from Solas' mind.
- Another big nail comes in when the squad decides to take a short-cut down a mountain and ends up in Redcliffe right before Alexius makes his move. As a result it's Solas who ends up in the future alongside Shisui, and the prisoners include not only members of Inquisition but also Dorian and Iron Bull. And Shisui brings back much more of actionable intel than what the Herald got in canon.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: The subtitle of Chapter 9 is "And now for something different". Fittingly, it's from Leliana's perspective and deals with what was happening in Haven after Shisui's squad left for Hinterlands.
- Godzilla Threshold: The entire Redcliffe Arc is this twice over. First, Shisui keeps his Sharingan on the entire time he's in the Bad Future, both to manage his reaction to the raw Fade and because he already got blindsided by Alexius. And after getting back to the present, he immediately uses Tsukuyomi on Alexius.
- Good Is Not Soft: It can't be if it wants to survive in Thedas. Especially noticeable with Leliana and Shisui, who have no problem with assassinations and torture of their opponents if it proves necessary.
- Heroic Lineage: Non-human version. Tobi the mabari pup is a descendant of the mabari that accompanied Warden Surana during the Blight.
- I Thought Everyone Could Do That:
- Several things and abilities that Shisui takes for granted, such as sealing, water walking and summoning contracts, are completely unknown in Thedas.
- On the flip side, things like Lyrium, healing potions or even non-human races aren't known in the Elemental Nations.
- Just a Kid: How people tend to treat Shisui due to his age — something which annoys him greatly, since a shinobi is considered a legal adult no matter their age but his allies underestimate him. Still Exploited by him when dealing with his enemies.
- Kleptomaniac Hero: Shisui. From pickpocketing random people on the road to stealing anything not nailed down in Bad Future!Redcliffe, he will do it all to get a new shiny. He blames the Crow Contract for it.
- Long-Lost Relative: Elanna and Mahannon Lavellan suspect Shisui from being the by-blow of their drifter uncle immediately after laying eyes upon him. A blood test actually confirms the relationship, with them sharing at least one common ancestor eight generations ago.
- Mercy Kill:
- How Shisui thinks about killing demons near the rifts — they were basically torn apart by the rifts and stitched back together like a zombie, and there's nothing left of the original personality.
- Several were given to the prisoners found in the Dark Future.
- Mugging the Monster:
- Solas should have thought twice about invading dreams of an unknown mage. Luckily for him, Shisui let him off with a warning.
- The group of bandits hiding near Haven could have chosen a better target than a squad composed of a Seeker, an Evanuris, a shinobi and Varric.
- Alexius thought that the two mages he threw through time were only an elf hedge mage and a teenaged apostate blood mage. Cue Shisui tearing through the entire forces of Bad Future!Alexius, culminating in him getting back to the present Sharingan-blazing and dumping the man into Tsukuyomi.
- Mundane Solution: How Shisui decides to deal with the problem of spirits being dragged through rifts and the subsequent demons? Why, he writes them a note and throws it into Fade. Sure enough, the spirits organise a guard on any rift opened so that none of them is accidentally pulled through.
- Mundane Utility:
- Shisui frequently used Fire jutsu to heat food or drink.
- Barriers can be used it keep people dry in rain.
- Shisui uses his Sharingan to write quickly and cleanly in a very small font due to having a limited amount of space available. Also, he often uses it to memorize reports.
- No-Sell:
- Solas can easily shrug off most genjutsu and blood magic.
- Similarly, Shisui is completely unaffected by blood magic and can disrupt spells on other people, too.
- Downplayed with Alexius and other Tevinters, who initially might be influenced with genjutsu but their passive defenses would eventually shrug it off.
- Oh, Crap!: Several.
- Solas has several while Shisui traps him in his dream.
- Future!Alexius has one when Shisui completely bypasses his reinforced doors by bringing down the wall. And another one from the Present!Alexius, when he and Solas get back to the present.
- Outside-Context Problem: Shisui to the entirety of Thedas. Nobody is quite sure what to make of him, his abilities and motives, or what he might do next. Of course, it also makes him an excellent Outside-Context Solution to many problems.
- Precious Puppy: In Redcliffe, Shisui gets adopted by a mabari puppy — named Tobi, for the Nidaime. Word of God is that it was done solely because they were disappointed the Herald couldn't have a mabari in the third game.
- Required Secondary Powers: Having a Sharingan turned on allows the Uchiha to not blink.
- Running Gag:
- People thinking Shisui is possessed after seeing his Sharingan.
- Shisui forgetting to spare an enemy for an interrogation.
- People questioning Shisui about blood magic and him replying he has no idea what they're talking about.
- Sitcom Archnemesis: The Hyuuga and the Uchiha have those vibes, going by Shisui's internal narration.
- Slept Through the Apocalypse: Downplayed. Felix wakes up after his seizure attack and immediately warns Shisui and Teagan that his father is planning to kill them for the Elder One — only to be informed that Alexius already tried, has failed and is currently lying comatose in the dungeons.
- Smug Snake: Silus Novus, a Venatori agent in Alexius' retinue, manages to establish himself as one in couple of sentences. Too bad for him, he ran into Shisui Uchiha.
- Spanner in the Works: Shisui ends up being even a bigger one than a canon Inquisitor. By using a shortcut down a mountain and straight to Redcliffe, he manages to get there before Alexius — completely foiling the Magister's original plan to take over the city for Corypheus.
- The Spook: Solas. Something which Leliana finds very suspicious.
- Spotting the Thread:
- Shisui notices that Solas is a bit too natural at bodyguarding to not have a considerable experience at it.
- Valerie, one of the mages at Redcliffe, notices that Solas is not what he appears to be after he effortlessly handles Alexius' confiscated staff that gave problems to all but the most powerful Enchanters in the city.
- Stealth Expert: All the rogue-types are this to lesser or greater extent, but Shisui stands head-and-shoulders above them in skill. Chapter 5 shows him casually scouting inside an inn full of people without being spotted even once.
- Stepford Smiler: Do not let Shisui's cheerful and bratty behaviour fool you, he's repressing a heck of trauma over his potential demise in his birth dimension, him being currently stranded away from his family, and the duties piled upon his shoulders by another world. Solas disapproves his refusal to face these feelings, only for Shisui to argue he cannot break down when he has problems to fix.
- Summon Magic: Shisui still has his Contract with the Crows. Of course, Thedas considers summoning to be Blood Magic and thus punishable with death everywhere outside Tevinter. Not that anyone actually explained it to him, yet.
- There Is Only One Bed: Subverted. There is enough space in Haven's Chantry for everyone to have their own room but Leliana and Josephine still sometimes share a bed because it's that damn cold. At one point they consider moving in with Minaeve since she sleeps right next to the kitchens, which is the warmest room in the building.
- Tranquil Fury: Shisui's reaction to learning that Tevinter practices slavery by meeting Alexius' slaves brought to Redcliffe is to keep a perfectly polite facade, while projecting enough Killing Intent that Solas is convinced everyone is going to die.
- Underestimating Badassery: Absolutely everyone does it to Shisui, both because he's a teenager and because they have no idea what a shinobi is capable of.
- Uneven Hybrid: The Uchiha human clan and the Lavellan Dalish clan did interbreed around ten and eight generations ago, but the high level of inbreeding means it's hard to conclude how much elf blood Shisui has inherited.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Bad Future!Leliana gives Shisui one for trying to keep watch on Solas on his own. She outright orders him to tell her present-self about his suspicions as soon as he's back in Haven.
- Shisui gives Solas a vicious one when he learns how the elf planned to have the Orb unlocked. If he ever learns that Solas' patsy was supposed to be Corypheus, his reaction will probably be just as explosive.
- Your Normal Is Our Taboo: Summoning and using your own blood for jutsu is considered pretty normal for the Elemental Nations, and Shisui has no problems with doing both. In Thedas, only Tevinter actually allows for them and it's still badly viewed.
