Disclaimer: I own nothing. This is purely for entertainment purposes, and I am making no profit off of this.

What do you know? That one flower actually did represent the loss of will to push on in the face of cosmic nihilism.

This raises quite a few questions…

Anyways, what do I have left to integrate into my fighting style before I start throwing myself into repetitive training?

Well, there's still the Susanoo, which I haven't touched yet. I haven't really messed around with it, because my chakra reserves were nowhere near the amount necessary to form any stage of the Susanoo.

Now, however, I'm confident that I'll be able to manifest the ribcage at the very least.

My Sharingan activated, the three tomoe design spinning into the black pinwheels of the Mangekyou.

Susanoo

Ah, Jesus, fuck that hurt!

An ethereal collection of ribs, backed by a section of spin formed a protective shield around me. Blazing chakra filled in the air around the bones. My Susanoo was…

Really?

The rib cage was a pastel pink colour.

…

That's just the rib cage, right? The thing will darken when I manifest more of it, right? I'm hoping for a nice, scary, red Susanoo.

I dismissed my Susanoo. That thing, even though I had only manifested the first stage, the most basic Susanoo, had sucked away quite a bit of chakra. Around a tenth of my entire reserves, and I hadn't even kept the thing active for ten seconds. The thing hurt like nothing else too

Obviously, I would have to work on it. Maybe later, there are more pressing things to train with.

Before I even began training, I saw a flash of chakra out of the corner of my eye. I still had my Mangekyou on, and my eye flickered over. It was Shisui, coming out of a Shunshin. Perfect. I was meaning to talk to him eventually anyways.

"Ah, my apologies, Kyouki-san. I just noticed a rather large chakr-"

I put on polite smile number four, "Don't lie to me Shisui."

"... I'm sorry?"

"You saw. You knew. Don't pretend like you didn't know what was happening."

"Kyouki-san?"

"You saw it didn't you? That's what caught your attention."

"I'm not certain I know what you're referring-"

"The Susanoo, Shisui. The Susanoo."

Shisui reacted only slightly to the mention of the Susanoo. I wouldn't have caught his slight expression of surprise had my Mangekyou not been active.

"Ah, so you did know. You're one of the few people in this clan that can manifest it, after all. It would only make sense that sensing another would catch your attention."

"Ah, my apologies, Kyouki-san. I didn't mean-"

"Save your breath, Shisui. There are more important things we should be discussing."

Shisui was silent.

"The Kotoamatsukami, Shisui. You-"

Shisui's Sharingan activated and he immediately blurred into action. His Shunshin was… perfect. He certainly deserved his title as Shisui of the Shunshin. It was sealless, and faster than anything I've ever seen.

And it was mine now.

I still had my Sharingan active.

I do believe that mastering the Shunshin was on my list of things to do? I can check that one off the list.

Shisui held the tip of his sword at my throat. I noticed that there were multiple Shisuis, all of which were also pointing their swords at me.

"How did you find out?"

"Put that sword down, Shisui. We both know that you won't kill me. It's not in your nature. And don't you dare use that damn genjutsu on me. There are more important things you should be using it for."

Shisui narrowed his eyes and sheathed his sword. He looked at me expectantly.

"We have a clan to save."

Shisui was instantly more alert than he was before, if that was even possible. He was already rather on edge.

"The coup, is very much an issue. Only you can put an end to the bubbling discontent from the Uchiha."

Shisui stared at me. I could see a tiny bit of chakra shoot out from the forest and touch him. He turned to the direction that the chakra came from. A message probably.

He spoke up, "I have to leave. We will continue this discussion at a later date. Signal me with your Susanoo when you are available once more. If I am in the village, I will come."

I favoured him with a shallow nod, "Of course. For the clan, and the village."

"For the village, and the clan," He agreed. He Shunshin'd away.

There was a start. Things were in motion now.

"... and this one means happiness, and this one means quick recovery, and this one means friendship!" I showed off my new flower bouquet to Kurenai, having put together a better one after reading up on the symbolism of flowers.

Well, 'better' is a subjective term. I still think that my first bouquet, the one with all the flowers with depressing symbolisms, looked way cooler than this one. But, since flower arrangements and symbolisms were picky, weird, and strangely specific, the arrangement I made this time looked to be of a rather… poor aesthetic.

Maybe I'll just buy a premade bouquet instead of being cheap and trying to make my own.

"I didn't think you'd actually read up on flower symbolisms. Colour me impressed."

"I'm full of surprises."

Kurenai considered me for a moment, "Of course you are."

My seal 'watch' flared. That meant that it was around two in the afternoon. Time to go train.

I stood up a waved goodbye to Kurenai, "See you tomorrow."

I headed to the training grounds. Just because my sensei was currently in the hospital didn't mean that I could just skip my training.

I arrived in the Training Ground Nineteen.

Let's play with that Shunshin, yeah?

I recalled the memory from last night, Shisui's absolutely flawless Shunshin. I activated my Sharingan. I moulded my chakra in exactly the same way that-

Woah!

I flew across the clearing at a ridiculous speed. Despite having only used the Shunshin for a fraction of a second, the sheer speed of the thing was ridiculous, especially using Shisui's ridiculously fast version. Even with the Mangekyou Sharingan active, I could barely even perceive my movement at this speed.

I would have to get used to Shisui's Shunshin. This sort of speed required a deeper understanding of the movements, as well as experience and instincts to along with it. I couldn't just rely on the Mangekyou to cheese the Shunshin with this one.

Well, I could, sort of, but not nearly to the extent that I had with the normal Shunshin.

With this Shunshin, I could also use a sword, and really all forms of weaponry effectively. Without the need to use hand seals, my hands were free to hold whichever weapons I wished.

I sent a bunshin to the other end of the clearing. Just a normal, genjutsu one. I drew a straight sword, a chokuto. Gathering my chakra, I performed the Shunshin and rocketed across the clearing. I was aiming for where the clone's heart would have been had they been a real person.

I missed, shooting way off to the side of the clone, crashing into a tree on the far end of the clearing. I shakily stood back up and dusted myself off. My hand glowed green with the Mystic Palm as I began to fix tiny cuts and bruises.

I've got a lot of work to do.

I Shunshin'd around for the rest of the afternoon, only stopping when the sun set. Not because it was getting dark, but because my chakra levels were beginning to dip.

My Shunshin still wasn't perfect, not quite like Shisui's. It would require probably weeks of further refinement and practise to even pose a challenge to Shisui. But it was a start, and a damn good one.

I spent the next week or so training with the Shunshin and my various weapons, both training with them separately, and using the weapons in tandem with the Shunshin.

I noticed while training that the amount of chakra that my Mangekyou drained was significantly less than what it was before. I hardly noticed a strain anymore with the Sharingan. I guess that the Eternal Mangekyou implant made things more efficient.

I wouldn't keep the thing active all the time, really, just to fit in. But on missions, it couldn't hurt to keep it active for at least most of the time.

I'm not sure why I'd need any other jutsu, once I got the Shunshin down. For most cases, at least. The Shunshin was just so broken, at least at Shisui's level. Once I got everything down, which would just require more training and experience with the jutsu, and basically be able to win nearly every fight.

It would just take some practise.

Actually, a lot more practise than I had first realised. I hadn't quite appreciated the amount of work that Shisui put into his Shunshin. It would take much longer than 'a few weeks of practise' in order to even come close to Shisui's level. I hadn't even added the afterimage clone part of the thing, and it was already difficult.

Speaking of Shisui, I was planning on meeting him again.

I stood in a different training ground than I had been in when I met with Shisui the first time. I figured that it would at least help in not being detected if we met in a different clearing each time.

I looked up. The moon and stars shone brightly in Konoha's unpolluted sky. The lack of industrial progress had made for a clear and beautiful night sky. As an Uchiha, the moon held a deeper meaning for me than most people. Pretty much family, those guys were.

I turned my focus back to the clearing.

My Sharingan activated and span into pinwheels.

Susanoo.

The ridiculous pink rib cage formed a barrier around me. My Sharingan caught a flicker of chakra, and I turned to my left. Shisui stared at me. He was more confident this time. I had caught him off guard the last time we met. Now, we were on more even footing.

"You know, instead of having this convoluted system of signalling we could just have, I don't know, talked to each other? Normally?"

"If we were seen speaking to each other, then if one of us were caught conspiring against the clan, there might be the suspicion that the other is in as well."

"Yeah, but I mean, isn't there any better way of signalling?"

"The Susanoo has a powerful and easily recognisable chakra signature, that only I would recognise. And you, I suppose, if you had any chakra sensing jutsu."

"Hn," I gave him the Uchiha grunt.

Shisui was silent for a moment, considering his words.

After an almost uncomfortably long silence, he spoke, "How did you know?"

I cocked my head at him.

"The coup. You're far too young to be sitting in on the counsels. And my Mangekyou, Kotoamatsukami. How?"

I cocked my head at him. I paused for dramatic effect.

"There is, Shisui, a realm outside of the plane in which we exist."

I walked towards him slowly. The Mangekyou, already active from performing the Susanoo to signal Shisui, span in their sockets and flared.

Funayurei

Water began to stream in from all sides. Alarmed, Shisui activated his Sharingan.

Funayurei was an unbreakable genjutsu though, like all Mangekyou genjutsu were, so his Sharingan couldn't pierce through the illusionary water.

Jubokko

I had spread dandelion seeds all around the clearing before Shisui had arrived. Normally a multitude of any kind of seed would arouse suspicion, especially for someone like Shisui, who'd notice them right away.

But, it was around that time of year where the fucking things were everywhere. So, a bit more seeds in one spot would hardly make anyone alarmed.

The yellow dandelions began to poke through the surface of the water, their heads swaying violently in an imaginary wind.

Shisui's Sharingan swiveled wildly in their sockets, trying to take everything in and evaluate whether or not they were a threat.

Shisui's eyes narrowed at me, "I'm not sure what genjutsu this is, but release me."

Interesting. He found out. It was rather obvious, after all. But since genjutsu that were specific to the Mangekyou, like Tsukuyomi, Dodomeki, and indeed, Funayurei, were unbreakable save for very specific circumstances, there was nothing he could do about it. And, there was no way that he could prove it either.

"This isn't a genjutsu, Shisui. It's a piece of the fractured reality that we live in," A lie, but I like screwing with people, and it'll be a reasonable explanation for my knowledge of the future.

"What?"

"Do you know what lurks in the depths of these waters, Shisui?"

Shisui knelt in the shallow water that I had summoned, "There is nothing. This water is far to shallow for anything to inhabit it."

I cocked my head at him.

And the water raised.

Shisui's eyes widened as the water that fooled even his Sharingan rose higher, encasing his lower body in fake, icy cold water.

That's what I like about Funayurei compared to Dodomeki. It was complete with both touch and sound, so that people would be able to feel the icy cold of Funayurei, and hear the lapping of its waves.

The grew the dandelions further. Their stems grew far thicker than any ordinary dandelion could become, and they twisted and grew around one another, forming treelike structures that dripped with the waters of Funayurei.

I jumped onto one of the flowers, grown far out of proportion with Jubokko, and gestured at Shisui to follow me. He hesitated for a moment, but followed. I sat down comfortably on the flower, Shisui slowly doing the same.

I waved my hand for dramatic effect, and the floor of water that we had been standing in suddenly swirled into a chaotic whirlpool.

"When one dives into the shadowy trenches of this flooded world, there are eldritch secrets to be discovered," My voice was hardly more than a raspy whisper at this point, "Never forget, Shisui, that some things were not meant for mortal eyes to see, or mortal ears to hear."

Man, I love unbreakable genjutsu.

"It was there, in the abyss, that I saw the threads of my fate. It was there, in the infinite depths of this accursed ocean, that I saw your fate, and the entire clan's."

I turned and looked right at Shisui, "We must change it."

Then, all of the dandelions wilted, crumpling, and dumped us back onto into the water, which was shallow once more. The water became more and more shallow, until it seemed to seep back into the ground. We had returned to the clearing.

"But I can't do it alone. My mortal body is weak, and I cannot change the course of fate by myself."

I reached my out to Shisui.

"Will you help me?"

Shisui's eyes span in a frenzy of movement, trying to make sense of what they had just witnessed. It wasn't a genjutsu, the 'infallible' Sharingan could see through it, after all. So when one has eliminated the impossible…

Shisui's hand gripped mine, "Of course."

A/N: And there's that! I think there's no issue with Shisui being fooled by Kyouki. I think.

The genjutsu that I've introduced with Kyouki's Mangekyou have the same mechanic as Itachi's Tsukuyomi, only being able to be broken by someone of the same blood. As Kyouki's parents both died, that means that his Mangekyou genjutsu are effectively unbreakable. So yeah…

Fritosaurio: Character pov will have to wait, I'm afraid. I couldn't find a place for it here. Rest assured however! There'll be an interlude from another character's point of view… sometime later.

Some Guy In An Ambulance: Thanks for pointing out that issue with Kyouki's everlasting stamina. I didn't actually mean for him to do everything in one go like that, so I went back and made a little adjustment.

Guest: Kyouki only used his Mangekyou abilities sparingly in the past, and it takes quite a bit of constant usage in order to actually go fully blind, which is why he hadn't noticed a significant deterioration in eyesight.

CorruptedDrake: Sorry about that. I went back and fixed it to make it more clear that the flowers grew from the seeds. Thanks for pointing it out.