Sinister Chakra

by williams5505

The night the Nine-Tails appeared, Madara led the attack, hoping to destroy the Leaf Village once and for all. However, the Fourth's jutsu sealed Madara and the demon into a newborn baby. Naruto, cursed with a chakra even more sinister than the Nine Tail's, will now challenge a rising Akatsuki under new leadership, and determine which path to justice he will take.

25. Overcoming Hopelessness

Sinister Chakra

Book 2: The Chunin Exams

Chapter 25: Overcoming Hopelessness

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Early Morning

The sun was just barely beginning to rise above the distant horizon as Naruto found himself seated in the middle of a secluded forest clearing several miles outside of the Hidden Leaf Village. He was currently wearing a light jacket over his usual Uchiha Clan shirt and a loose set of shorts. He carried none of his usual training gear with him. Left at home were his kunai, sealing scrolls, and other essential items that he would always bring with him on missions. Instead, all that he carried in his lap was a small brown pouch filled with several food pills.

After returning home from the Uchiha compound's secret meeting place last night, Madara had instructed Naruto to rise early the next morning with nothing but the food pills on his person.

"Not even some kunai?" Naruto had remembered asking his ancient captive. "What if I'm ambushed or something?"

The voice had simply chuckled darkly before responding. ~ "You won't want to have any weapons around you during this trial. Trust me." ~

Naruto had left before the sun had even risen early this morning with the clear goal set on his mind: he would unlock the Mangekyou Sharingan no matter what. The next time he returned to his apartment, it would be with a far greater set of eyes than he currently had. A set of eyes that he could use to protect his friends and protect the village.

The forest clearing had been chosen at random after Naruto had been traveling for around an hour away from the village. It was close enough to the Hidden Leaf that there would be no risk of enemy ninja present, but far enough in the secluded forest that he wouldn't be bothered by anyone. For better or worse, Naruto was alone.

~ "Most every sane Uchiha, who seriously considers unlocking the Mangekyou Sharingan, has tried this method first. After all, most anyone would desire to try any option possible before resorting to killing those closest to them. And like I stated before, almost all Uchiha who have tried to keep the Sharingan active for three days straight have failed. Myself included." ~

Naruto's eyes had actually opened in surprise when he heard Madara share this with him as he traveled to this remote location. Madara had tried this before and failed?

"How far did you make it?" he inquired, shuddering to think of completing a task that even the legendary Madara Uchiha could not.

~ "The first time I lasted about 24 hours. As the future Clan leader, I knew that failure was not an option for me, and that no matter what I would have to unlock the Mangekyou. My father had given me a deadline to unlock the Mangekyou in preparation for an upcoming battle with the surrounding Clans. I knew that if I couldn't keep the Sharingan active for three days I would have to kill my best friend. I tried multiple times and failed. The furthest I got was the week before the battle would take place. I made it two and a half days. I succumbed to the hallucinations. My will wasn't strong enough at the time." ~

This was something that Naruto had a hard time believing. "You had a strong enough will to kill your closest friend, but you still couldn't resist the hallucinations? What in the world are the visions like then?"

Another dark chuckle from the warlord. ~ "Words cannot do it justice. Shortly enough, you will find out yourself." ~

"Is that why we are doing it out in the middle of nowhere?" Naruto pressed, his nerves perhaps finally getting the better of him. "And why you told me not to bring weapons or food?"

~ "There have been Uchiha in the past who have unintentionally killed themselves during this trial with their own weapons. It is safest to do it unarmed. As for food… like I have said before, you will want to stay still to conserve as much energy and chakra and possible. However, there is another benefit. If you remain still, you will have an easier time dealing with the hallucinations. Imagine if you were walking through the village and suddenly believed that you were being attacked by ninja, and you started killing everyone around you, when in reality you're actually killing innocent citizens who see you as a raging madman. Or perhaps more simply, you could see yourself walking down a familiar hallway, but in truth you are actually about to walk off a cliff." ~

Naruto swallowed away his fear as he sat on the forest floor. He allowed the peaceful quiet of the nature around him to fill him with a calm sense of purpose. As long as he didn't move, he was safe. As long as he thought about his friends and his village, he would persevere.

"What if I draw a circle around myself?" he suddenly thought aloud, standing up in excitement. "That way, I'll know that as long as I stay in the circle, I'm safe! Everything else is an illusion!"

~ "That is something many have tried. So you draw a circle and convince yourself that you're safe. That just makes it far easier for you to give up in surprise when something steps inside that circle to kill you. Let me make this clear, Naruto. These won't be regular distant visions or hallucinations. This will be your Sharingan straining like it has never before; you will feel pain, and you will feel fear. And like many who have tried this method before, after you succumb to that pain and fear, you would rather kill your best friend than try again." ~

There was no point in delaying this anymore. He sat down on the grass and took in a deep breath. "I'm ready."

Without waiting for a response from Madara, Naruto pushed chakra into his eyes and activated the Sharingan. Like every time he activated his new bloodline limit, he saw the world with clarity anew. He took another deep breath to calm his nerves. He knew that nothing special would happen for the first many hours, but he still had to focus on lowering his heart rate and staying positive.

After the first hour passed, Naruto's impatience got the better of him. He hated sitting still. He was always one to be doing something; be it training or studying, he was always actively doing something engaging. Sitting here while doing nothing was something Shikamaru would be perfect at, but he was currently miserable despite only being an hour in.

~ "Perhaps this would be a good opportunity to teach you about bloodline limits and the importance of stillness. As I'm sure you've read in the past, the Uchiha Clan and the Senju Clan were about equal in power for as long as they existed. Now that you know about the existence of the Mangekyou Sharingan, how do you think any Clan was able to stand up to our might?" ~

What did this have to do with stillness? After a moment of deep thought, Naruto stumbled upon an interesting possibility. "Do the Senju also have their own version of the Mangekyou?" he asked aloud, not afraid of anyone hearing him out in the forest. "I know it obviously wouldn't be a Sharingan, but like a similar upgrade to their ability to combine elements or something?"

With their connection strengthened through his active Sharingan, Naruto felt a sense of approval and pride pass through to his mind from Madara. ~ "Good, very astute. You are correct; the Senju also have an incredible upgrade to their powers that is perhaps equivalent to the Sharingan's upgrade to the Mangekyou. Just like with us, there were few in their Clan who could actually activate the power and even fewer who could master it. Hashirama, the First Hokage, was one such master." ~

Naruto couldn't help but feel interested. "What's the power called?" he earnestly asked, thinking back to his own Senju friend. "Can Hinata-chan unlock it herself? Is it just as hard to unlock as the Mangekyou?"

~ "Their power is slightly different than ours, in that every single Uchiha has the potential to unlock the Mangekyou, but very few have the willpower to do so. For the Senju, only a few had the innate ability to unlock their upgrade, but of the small group that did, each one of them could fairly easily learn to do it. Their power is called Sage Mode." ~

Sage mode? He felt like he had actually heard about that before.

~ "Sage Mode is their unique ability to take chakra from the surrounding nature and infuse it into their bodies. This chakra is as powerful an enhancement to their physical chakra as the Mangekyou is to our spiritual chakra. Their speed, strength, and elemental jutsu prowess is increased to inhuman capabilities. As you know, the ultimate physical chakra of the Senju Clan allows them to combine elemental chakra as well as formulate complex jutsu with only a single hand-seal. Sage Mode eliminates the need for hand-seals entirely. Infused with the very energy of nature, they can punch through mountains, move as fast as the wind, and unleash their elemental chakra without even the need for a hand-seal. Only a Mangekyou-wielding Uchiha can possibly stand up to a Senju in Sage Mode. They can move faster than we can keep up with, use jutsu that we can't copy, and combine elements against us." ~

Naruto couldn't help but feel overwhelmed. If the Senju had such an awesome power like that, how could the Uchiha battle evenly against them? Just how powerful was the Mangkeyou Sharingan? And did Hinata have this ability?

~ "I obviously don't know more than the basics of the Senju bloodline from fighting and studying against them, just as they don't know the secrets of the Mangekyou. Both are Clan Secrets. However, I must add on one thing for clarification: before I said that only a few Senju are born with the innate ability to use Sage Mode. While that is true, technically anyone, even if they aren't Senju, can learn to use Sage Mode. That is where the importance of stillness comes in. First of all, the only way most people would ever be able to learn how to use Sage Mode is through a contract with a Summon. Many Summons live in holy places where one can better learn to draw in chakra from nature. Even then, there is the risk that you will die or turn to stone if you cannot do it properly. Perhaps more so, in order to activate this mode, you would need to stay completely still, sometimes as long as minutes which cannot be done in battle. Senju born with this innate ability can draw in Sage chakra in an instant.

Regarding Hinata, I was able to see that she evidently has this innate ability to draw in chakra from nature. She very clearly demonstrated it in both her fight against Orochimaru and later on in the preliminary fight against the other Hyuga. After being pushed against the wall in the preliminary fight, she remained still long enough to draw in a semblance of power, enough to be able to combine elements without hand-seals and temporarily overpower her opponent. She has the potential to master this ability in the future, which will eventually turn into Sage Mode." ~

Naruto couldn't help but feel an immense surge of pride in his best friend. She probably had no idea just how powerful she could become!

"And the Mangekyou?" he decided to ask, wanting to learn more about his own potential power. "How does the Mangekyou stand up to that power?"

~ "If Sage Mode gives the Senju the power of the earth through nature, then the Mangekyou Sharingan gives us the power of the heavens. Our oldest verbal legends have said that there were trials that either the Sage or our founding leaders went through when humans had a stronger connection with the ancient gods. As such, each power has been named after a specific 'trial' of a god believed to have originally given it. I don't know how much of that is true, but after seeing the witnessing the power of the Mangekyou, which is able even to overcome the might of the Tailed Beasts, I think that there may be some truth to it.

While every Uchiha has the potential to unlock the Mangekyou, not every Uchiha has the ability to master all of the Mangekyou's techniques. When an Uchiha first unlocks the new ability, they are granted one or two special powers. The powers unlocked are correlated with the method used to unlock the Mangekyou, though it is not absolute. For example, like I told you last night, there are generally 'evil' and 'pure' ways to unlock the Mangekyou. Evil ways generally involve sacrificing someone else, while pure ways generally involve sacrificing yourself. The 'evil' ways, which involve evoking a suicidal amount of pain usually through killing those you love most, unlock a certain set of powers. Some say that this is the original sacrifice the old gods demanded. Most who kill those closest to them will either unlock Amaterasu, the sun god's power, or Tsukuyomi, the moon god's. In certain cases, usually when the person they sacrifice is their spouse or child, they unlock the powers of Raijin, the demon-god of thunder, or Fujin, the demon-god of wind." ~

Naruto decided to interject before he fell too far behind. "When you say power of the gods, what does that actually mean?" he asked, having no idea what a godly power was. "What is the power of a moon god?"

He could tell Madara was annoyed for being interrupted, but the old Uchiha patriarch answered him anyway.

~ "Very well, I will explain them in detail as I go along then. Like I stated, more 'evil' ways of unlocking the eyes usually immediately give you destructive power. Unlocking the Sharingan with an 'evil' method will make it easier to unlock other 'evil' methods as well. Amaterasu, the sun god, grants the user the ability to destroy virtually anything with an all-consuming black fire. Tsukuyomi, the moon god, allows you to trap your victim in an inescapable genjutsu where you control their reality. If you kill them in their genjutsu, as long as they don't have the Sharingan, they will die in real life.

Raijin, the thunder-demon god, grants the power to inflict the greatest amount of pain conceivable on a person, controlled by you. The pain inflicted seemingly electrocutes every single nerve in a way indescribable for as long and intensely as you desire. You can easily put in enough chakra to cause them to die from their heart bursting, or leave them mentally unstable or comatose. Fujin, the wind-demon god, allows you to send forth a blade of wind that can slice through anything. The pulse is larger depending on how much chakra you put into it; same with the speed. It can be a vertical slice, horizontal, or anything in-between as long as you visualize it correctly. It will stop either at your command or depending on the target you selected.

All of the powers I've described so far can be easier to unlock if you gain the Mangekyou in an evil way. Along with other Mangekyou techniques, they obviously require your eyesight in a specific manner. Amaterasu and Fujin require you to simply pick out a point for the attack to be directed. Tsukuyomi and Raijin require direct eye contact in order to work." ~

Every one of those techniques sounded terrifying. He could see how they could be useful, but he couldn't imagine forcing someone to die from pain alone using Raijin or killing them in a dream world. It just seemed so alien to him.

~ "The pure ways that I know are extremely rare, and have only ever appeared in the Uchiha Clan history few times. The techniques usually unlocked by the method you are currently attempting are perhaps the most coveted of the entire Clan. One is Kotoamatsukami, the heavenly gods; the ability to enter into a person's mind. You can use your will to command them to do anything, as well as sift through their memories and read their very thoughts. As with all Mangekyou techniques, it has its limitations, but I hardly know what they are since there have been so few Uchiha ever to have them, and they are usually killed very quickly. The second is Omoikane, the deity of wisdom. This power grants the user the ability to look into the future, also an extremely coveted ability for a Clan. As you can imagine, most Uchiha who have ever unlocked either of these abilities are immediately targeted by enemy Clans because of how dangerous they are. Perhaps even worse, they are often targeted by other Uchiha due to fear, jealousy, or other reasons.

The other known powers from a 'pure' activation usually comes from someone who copies over a certain number of jutsu, probably around 2,000. As you know, most Uchiha only have one elemental chakra affinity, so mastering anything more than 100 techniques is already difficult. There have be few to ever achieve this, most have been those lucky enough to have been born with multiple chakra nature affinities. Only one technique has been known to generally unlock from this method, and it most often is Kamui, another term for a supernatural entity composed of spiritual chakra. This ability allows the user to gain control over a parallel dimension, from which they can travel to themselves and send others to. I've been lucky enough to meet an Uchiha with this very ability.

'Pure' ways can be better understood as ways to unlock the Mangekyou technique that don't require you to kill or sacrifice someone. Sometimes, Uchiha have been known to unlock 'Pure' techniques without having the Mangkeyou active for three days, or mastering 2,000 techniques. It's rare, but possible.

Finally, there are other Mangekyou techniques that can be unlocked, but only after having the Mangekyou. I'll explain those to you later, since you can't actually unlock them to begin with. As you might imagine, they are all incredibly powerful." ~

Naruto's mind was reeling. All of the pure methods seemed incredibly useful and powerful in their own way, if not a little confusing. "So which ones do you think I will unlock?" Naruto said after a moment of thought. "You said that it's not always a guarantee. Also, I feel like I've heard you mention Kotoamatsukami before… didn't you say that Shisui used a technique like that on Itachi?"

He could feel Madara's subtle hints of approval slip in through his mind. ~ "Yes, herein lies the difficult part of guessing which technique you will gain. You are correct; Shisui had unlocked Kotoamatsukami and commanded Itachi to kill the Uchiha Clan, as I told you when you woke up after the massacre. I obviously have no idea how he unlocked it, or when. I heavily doubt it, but it's possible he managed to pass the three day trial in secret in an effort to convince Itachi and the other members of his Clan to avoid conflict with Konoha. He may have even unlocked it to convince the council to change their ways. Or, he possibly unlocked it in his last battle with Itachi, and merely was lucky in gaining Kotoamatsukami since his eyes were already incredibly powerful in regards to deceptive genjutsu manipulation.

"Since Shisui had Itachi plant his eyes within you, there is a very high chance that you will unlock that technique first, especially since you are doing the trial of endurance as well. I had originally hoped you could activate the Mangekyou without doing the trial since Shisui already had the eyes, but the Mangekyou relies on both the user's eyes as well as your spiritual chakra. However, given that you have been absorbing my chakra since your birth, there is also a great chance that you may unlock an 'evil' technique, just because my spiritual chakra has unlocked all of the evil techniques. We will simply have to wait and see." ~

The next several hours passed without issue. Naruto occasionally sipped on water, and popped a food pill by the time the sun was beginning to set. He was a little dehydrated and hungry, and by the time he was able to see the moon in the night sky, he felt for the first time the fatigue of keeping his Sharingan activated for so long. While originally expecting to feel sleepy, he was anything but that. Naruto was wide awake.

Despite not being sleepy, he wanted to close and rest his eyes. He knew that he couldn't do that. The moment he did, he would probably lose focus and deactivate his Sharingan. As the night began to pass, he found himself blinking more than usual to try and focus his eyes on anything around him. Madara had mentioned that it would be better for them to stop talking, since he didn't want to confuse Naruto when he started hallucinating apparently.

That's when he was surprised when slowly but surely, he saw the image of none other than Madara walk in front of him, donned in the full Uchiha body armor that he had worn last time they met.

"Madara!" Naruto couldn't help but shout out, taking a moment to rub his eyes in confusion. "I don't… what's going on, is this an illusion already?"

Madara looked down at his own arms and hands, as if he was confused himself. "Hm," he hummed aloud, his voice as deep and clear as Naruto often heard it in his mind. "Perhaps the amount of spiritual chakra you are sending to your brain and eyes has allowed you to visualize our interactions. I'm still inside of your seal, but all of what you are seeing is being relayed to me through the Sharingan. This is a very… strange experience."

The ancient Uchiha took a step closer to him, but Naruto held out his hand and quickly shouted. "Don't come any closer! Until I have the Mangekyou, I'm not going to let anything get close to me."

Madara pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed irritably. "I thought I already explained this, you fool!" he chastised, though he decided to sit where he was in front of Naruto regardless. "Your hallucinations don't have to listen to you. If you think you're safe sitting there, you're wrong."

Despite rubbing his eyes again, Madara still appeared in front of him, as clear as the trees around him. Sunlight was just beginning to break above the forest canopy.

"Still, how can I know it's really you?" Naruto hesitantly asked, his mind already a sleep-deprived and stressed jumble.

Madara shrugged, indifferent. "I suppose you could ask me after this trial is over."

That seemed… reasonable. But what Madara had said before was finally starting to sink in. According to him, Naruto was going to actually experience pain in this trial, and now that he saw the crystal clear image of Madara sitting in front of him, suddenly, that idea of hallucinations attacking him seemed far more terrifying.

"There is no easy way to unlock the Mangekyou," Madara stated with his arms crossed, having guessed Naruto's thoughts. "The Mangekyou Sharingan is often unlocked as a last resort to prevent the user from dying or falling into emotional ruin. Just like the Sharingan evolves to protect you from physical danger, the Mangekyou will evolve to protect you from emotional danger, in a way. You have to experience mental pain so great that you might otherwise die.

"For me, and for many Uchiha who unlocked the Mangekyou by killing someone close to them, the pain I felt after was certainly deadly. First came the shock of killing my closest friend. The shocking reality that we would never laugh together again. The crushing doubt that none of it was worth it. The fear that killing him hadn't even been enough, and that I had just murdered my closest friend for nothing. Then the terrifying thought that I had failed my family and Clan, and that my life wasn't worth living anymore and that I was better off dead than living with the pain. The Sharingan evolved for me moments before I took my own life, burning away the sword that I was plunging towards my own chest in the black fire of Amaterasu.

"You will experience nothing easier than what I did. The hallucinations will break you, as they are meant to. You will experience pain and suffering and loss to such an extent that your mind won't be able to handle it anymore. Only when you are seconds away from death will the Mangekyou save you, but you likely won't remember any of that as it happens."

Naruto's mouth felt drier than it had. "But as long as I keep my Sharingan activated, I can make it, right?"

Madara solemnly nodded.

---

Sasuke – Konoha

Sasuke rolled over and smacked his alarm off seconds before it even went off. After having to wake up this early so many mornings in a row had given him a keen sense of when he needed to get up before the alarm gave off its usual blast of noise. Within five minutes, he had brushed his teeth and gotten dressed, and was sitting in the kitchen eating a small breakfast. Training with Kakashi started early and ended around noon, so knowing that he wouldn't get a time to have breakfast later meant that he always ate something small before he left. He was prepared to do this every day of the next few weeks; whatever it took to come out on top of the Chunin Exams.

Knock knock!

He froze up when something new interrupted his half-asleep monotonous morning schedule. Was that a knock? On his door? No, probably just hearing things. He scooped in another bite and chewed in silence, paying extra attention to his surroundings now just in case it had actually been a knock on his door.

Knock knock!

It was definitely a knock on his door. With a confused sigh, he pushed back from his table and walked over to his apartment entrance, a half-eaten bread roll still in his hand. Who could be bothering him so early in morning? The only person he could think of would be Naruto. But Naruto had a spare key to his apartment and usually just strolled in after knocking once. However, the blonde brat had been ditching the morning trainings as of late, so he might be up to something tricky. He activated his Sharingan just in case.

When he finally reached the door and opened it, he was surprised to find Guren standing in front of him with her hand up ready to knock again. Even though he was the one who was surprised, she was the one who gasped when she looked at him. Maybe it was the whole 'you look like the spitting image of the person who killed my parents and ruined my life' thing. That was probably hard for her to get over, but he still wished she could just move on.

"Guren?" he asked, his brain rapidly trying to wake up and determine why she was here so early. He suddenly remembered his offer for them to train together the other day. "Oh. You're here to train?"

She nodded. "Yeah. Um. Good morning…Sasuke."

She was fidgeting with her hands, which caused him to look down at them curiously. It looked like she was no longer wearing a cast. He wondered if her arm had completely healed. Although he was the one who had broken it originally, he felt happy that she was good to go again. She was currently wearing a green and purple tunic kept tight with a belt around her waist, and some skin tight shorts beneath it. Her strange blue hair was pulled back in a short pony-tail.

"Good morning," he casually responded, waving at her with his bread roll. "Come on in, I'm still eating breakfast and we have a couple of minutes to spare before we have to leave. Oh, and tell your buddies that they can come in too if they want."

At this, her eyes fully shot open in surprise. "Buddies? What buddies?"

He cocked up an eye brow in confusion and slowly took another bite of bread. He lazily pointed his finger out the door and to the nearby rooftop where he could see the chakra presences of two people hiding behind some sort of air conditioning unit.

Perhaps she could now sense them as well, because she immediately turned around and put her hands on her hips, shouting out. "Come out! I know you're following me!"

Sasuke watched in amusement as Kimimaro and Utakata both jumped out from behind cover and leapt across the rooftops to land in the hallway he and Guren were currently standing in.

"Are you guys planning on training with us too?" Sasuke asked before Guren could say anything. "I only agreed to train with Guren because she isn't competing. I'm probably going to fight you guys in the finals, so there's no way I'm going to let you see my training secrets."

Guren stepped in before they could even answer. "What are you two doing following me here?!" she asked incredulously, her apparent rage getting the better of her. "I can't believe you didn't believe me you… you…asshole!"

She was pointedly looking at Utakata when she shouted that last part, which caused him hold up his hands in defense. "Hey, Kimimaro-sama and I both followed you, so why are you only yelling at me?"

Sasuke hardly knew anything about how Akatsuki ran their strange ninja organization, but Guren had shared before with him that Kimimaro was her boss, somehow. Despite them both competing in the Chunin Exams, which confused him to no end.

"Calm down you two," Kimimaro decided to mediate, his usual smile on his face. He and Utakata weren't wearing their usual Akatsuki getups, instead donning regular looking shirts and shorts. "Guren, Utakata and I were just looking out for your well-being. You've been acting strange recently, and when you told us this morning that you were leaving to go train with a friend…"

Guren's face suddenly began to heat up and she looked toward Sasuke in silent embarrassment. Why would she be embarrassed about any of this?

"I know for a fact that you don't have any friends in Ame, and I know that there's no way in hell you've made any friends here," Utakata explained after a moment of silence. "So I made a bet with Kimimaro-sama that you were definitely lying. He thought that you weren't, so we came here to confirm it."

He turned to look at Sasuke with a stern look on his face. "All you have to do is confirm or deny it, Uchiha-san," he grimly said. "I've got a lot riding on this. Are you friends with Guren?"

All three of the Akatsuki turned to look at him with an intensely serious aura about them. Guren looked like she wanted to strike out at anyone at any given moment. Utakata looked like he was confident he was about to make a lot of money, and Kimimaro looked like he was about to lose it. They probably figured that since Guren had tried to kill him in the past few weeks, there was no chance they could be friends.

He mustered up the most serious and straight face he could. "As of the last few days, Guren and I are friends… with benefits. We're dating."

Their intense looks immediately turned to ones of morbid shock and disbelief. Despite loving the shock on Guren's face, Sasuke remained vigilant in not even cracking the smallest of smiles. Kimimaro was the first to break the awkward silence.

"Congratulations, Guren!" he said with a genuine smile on his face. "I'm glad you found someone."

Utakata was less than happy. "I don't believe it for a second. No one would date Guren!"

Guren's look of embarrassment and anger passed from Sasuke to Kimimaro, and finally settled on Utakata. Perhaps deciding that he was the most appropriate person to vent it on, she quickly spun and kicked out at Utakata with ferocious speed and power. Either because he was really reactive, or because he was expecting something like this from Guren, the brown-haired bubble master was able to bring up his arms in defense just in time. While he was pushed back a good distance, his relaxed aura immediately disappeared and was replaced by one full of rage.

"Classic Guren, always lashing out in anger," he taunted, walking forward with a sinister look in his eye. "This is why I don't believe you. And don't give out what you can't take!" He spun himself to perform his own roundhouse kick, ready to strike back in what appeared to be a common duel between the two of them.

Sasuke decided to step in and block the attack before Guren could even react. He grabbed on to Utakata's foot with ease, able to effortlessly track it with his Sharingan. He casually pushed it back and let Utakata stare at him in confusion.

"I'm not going to stand here and let you attack my girlfriend in front of me," he coolly said, his hair slightly blowing in the morning breeze as he took another bite out of his bread. "Let me guess; you're jealous of her because you can't get a girlfriend for yourself?"

Utakata's jaw dropped and the white-haired Kimimaro burst out laughing at his teammate's expense. Sasuke felt Guren slowly walk up next to him, and he fully expected the game to end with him somehow getting punched in place of Utakata. To his complete surprise, she ended up linking her arm with his and giving Utakata a smugly pointed look.

"Stop being jealous Utakata," she chided, deciding to play along with his act. "I've just spent so much time around weak incompetence like you that I couldn't help but fall for the first guy our age who was stronger than me. Ignore him Sasuke, he's probably just really lonely."

Utakata looked like he had been punched in the gut. Strangely enough, Kimimaro had taken offense as well. "Hey, what about me?" he asked with a sense of playfulness. "You couldn't spare any love for the guy who picked you to be his partner?"

Guren shrugged and leaned her head into Sasuke's arm. "You're my boss. It doesn't count."

Sasuke and Guren kept up the strange act until Utakata and Kimimaro eventually left, with the former actually close to tears. They were probably tears of anger from being humiliated and losing some money to Kimimaro, but it still caused Guren to giggle uncontrollably when they went into his apartment together.

"You can let go of my arm, you know," Sasuke eventually mentioned as he finally finished off his roll with his free hand. "Unless you were serious about the dating thing."

She stopped laughing and snapped away from him, her face actually beginning to flush again in embarrassment. "It was just too easy of a way to get back at Utakata," she eventually defended herself. "He's always calling me a friendless, angry loner who no one would date."

Sasuke couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at her in silence. He could completely understand why someone would think that about her... because it was mostly true. Without having the time to pry into her violent relationship with her teammate, Sasuke quickly gathered up his tools and stuffed another piece of bread in his mouth before heading out the door with Guren close behind. He was excited to see what Kakashi had in store for him today, especially because he had another training partner to spar with.

---

Hinata

Despite having a lonely day yesterday, Hinata couldn't help but smile as she stepped outside of the hospital doors and felt the wonderful rays of sunshine and listened to the beautiful sounds of nature around her. She always loved being outside. And now that she had finally been released from the hospital, she was no longer confined to a single, small, cramped hospital room.

Her smile faltered when she thought about what she was going to do now. She didn't know why Naruto hadn't stopped by to visit her yesterday, and she had been eagerly awaiting him and his visit with Make Out Paradise on her lap, ready to read. Had he been too uncomfortable from reading the book together? No, he was laughing through most of it! Had he been embarrassed from kissing her nose before he had left? That didn't make sense either, since he was the one who started it!

Was he regretting asking her out on a date? She had been pressuring him fairly strongly to do just that; maybe he had done so out of pressure and immediately regretted it!

She took a deep breath to try and calm her nerves. Naruto-kun had promised her a date, and she would have it! There was no backing down now, and if he did want to cancel it, he would have to say it to her face-to-face! And she wouldn't take 'no' for an answer.

With a little more confidence in herself, she decided to head directly over to Naruto's apartment and share the good news of her release. However, after taking a couple steps, she quickly stopped with a gasp. She couldn't go on a date looking like this! She had to shower first, and put on something nice, and make sure her hair wasn't a mess!

Spinning around in the other direction, the Senju warrior sprinted off to go to her own home to make sure she was prepared to see her love interest again. Anyone who saw her would probably not understand the crazy smile she had on her face, but she couldn't help the feeling of love that was pumping through her whole body. She felt amazing. Her face was beginning to flush just thinking about him. It felt like she was walking on a cloud… this was going to be the best day ever!

---

Naruto

The young, blond Uchiha couldn't help but groan in despair as Hinata began to walk toward him in the forest clearing. He could tell that this was going to be the worst day ever. A day and a half had barely passed since he started this trial, and the hallucinations were starting to come as clear as ever, along with the casual strain of maintaining a proper chakra flow to his head. He just hoped that the visions wouldn't start turning painful just yet.

"Hey, Naruto-kun!" Hinata-chan called out to him, her voice as soft and beautiful as it always was. Was it actually possible that she was the real one? Had she come out here looking for him?

Madara, the ancient warlord who was still sitting next to him, grunted his disapproval. "Naruto," he sharply spat out, arms crossed with an impassive glare on his face. "She's not real. You must assume that nothing is real from this point onwards. Even I am suspect."

Hinata didn't seem disturbed at the claim that she wasn't real. She approached Naruto, and despite him holding up his hand to tell her to stay back, she quickly slid next to him with a giggle and sat down on the grassy floor. "Whaddya up to?"

He sighed in both annoyance and exhaustion, taking a moment to rub his ever-hurting eyes. "Hinata-chan, please," he begged, his voice feeling a little coarse after having been silent for a number of hours. "Don't talk to me now. I know you're an illusion. You're going to make this hard on me."

She pouted her usual pout and used her pearly eyes to her advantage. "Why are you being mean to me? Don't you know how sad I've been alone in the hospital? I've already cried, thinking about how you've abandoned me with no explanation."

Naruto mentally cursed. He had forgotten to go and tell Hinata-chan about his plans before he left. He had just been so focused on the task at hand that visiting the hospital before he left never even occurred to him. Hinata would probably be sitting alone for three days straight wondering why he wasn't coming to see her. Or worse, she would get released from the hospital and think that he was actively trying to avoid her!

With a quiet sigh, Hinata leaned her head against his shoulder. "It's okay, Naruto-kun," she said with just a hint of sadness in her voice. "I'll support you in whatever way I can. I won't say anything, just please let me stay with you."

A pang of guilt jolted through his heart as she started rubbing his back while she leaned against him. Madara had been right so far about these illusions; she looked like Hinata, sounded like her, and despite knowing that he was sitting alone in the middle of the forest, he could perfectly feel her gentle hand rubbing his back. He wanted to tell her to go away again, but after being alone for so long, her being here made him feel really, really good. That, and his shoulders and back were really stiff from sitting for so long. The temptation to lie down was incredible, but he knew the moment he did he would pass out and all of this would have been for nothing.

He sat in peaceful silence for several minutes, listening to the quiet rustling of the wind in the trees and the steady breath of Hinata leaning against him. Madara, pessimistic as Naruto always viewed him, of course decided to ruin the first peace he had felt all day by muttering his own dark warning.

"Most Uchiha struggle reaching this point because of chakra limitations," he said, still seated immobile where he had been. "You've done well to make it thus far. But it has only been because of the chakra you've stolen from me all your life. I assure you that the final day will not be as easy. And remember: three days is an estimate, not a truth. You must keep the Sharingan active until you've achieved the Mangekyou. Almost all of your true power has been given to you on a platter since birth, Naruto. This time, if you wish to grow strong, you will have to earn it yourself."

Naruto chose to ignore him, which if he remembered correctly, was Madara's own recommendation. He understood that the following day would probably be the worst in his life, but he chose to try and enjoy the quiet calm he felt now with the fake but comforting presence of his closet friend.

---

Sasuke – Evening

Training with Kakashi had gone from dawn to dusk, for the most part. The sun was getting close to the horizon when his masked sensei had finally called it a day, and he and Guren were left exhausted and sweaty, albeit proud of their hard work. Training was always tough. But it came with the wonderful sense of satisfaction from knowing that he was just a little bit stronger, just a little bit closer to facing Itachi. Oddly enough, Guren shared that exact same sentiment. They were both avengers, after all, and Itachi was their target.

When they had finished, Sasuke had been lucky enough to catch Guren's stomach giving out the loudest growling he had ever actually heard. To his amusement and her horror, of course. But after laughing at her for a solid few seconds, he shook his head and asked,

"Hold on, did you not have breakfast?"

She stuck her chin up proudly and looked off to the side, probably to hide her mortification. "It didn't know the training would last so long! You could've told me it would go past lunch, you know."

He flinched, realizing that it was true. He probably should've told her to eat breakfast beforehand or pack some sort of small lunch. Well, if it was partly his fault for leaving her so hungry, he might as well offer to get her some food.

"Do you want to go grab some dinner with me then?" he casually asked as they walked away from the training grounds together. He rubbed a hand through his hair while he wondered where they could eat. "I could treat you to another restaurant downtown if you'd like."

She turned to look at him with surprise on her face. "Really? You'd treat me out to eat again?"

"Yeah, of course," he replied with an honest smile. "I had fun today training with someone new. Thanks for taking the risk by accepting my offer. And I also enjoyed the last date we went on anyway."

He could tell that she wanted to go on screaming 'It wasn't a date!' like she was prone to do. Luckily, she actually replied at a reasonable volume. "I don't recall ever accepting to go on a date with you," she said with firm conviction. "And just because we go eating together doesn't make it a date."

He rolled his eyes. "Well then consider me a gentleman," he stated with a flourish of his hand. "Maybe the other day was different, all things considering. But tonight, I'm offering to take you out to dinner and pay for you in order to spend some more time with you. That's a date. So do you want to go or not?"

About an hour later, Sasuke had returned home to shower and get dressed. Despite her face flushing in either anger or embarrassment – he still couldn't accurately tell which it was every time – she had agreed to go on a dinner date with him. She had claimed it was because she was really hungry and she would get to rub it in Utakata's face, but he knew enough about women to know that wasn't the full truth. He couldn't help but wonder how many girls in this village would kill in order to get the chance for him to ask them out on a date, but with Guren, it was like running up a waterfall. The reason why he even wanted to go on a date with someone so reluctant wasn't entirely clear to him. But he couldn't deny wanting to. Something about her reluctance to his charm made him want to make her swoon for him all the greater. As if only to confirm his incredible abilities.

And because she was kind of pretty.

It didn't take more than another half hour of waiting before he heard a knock on his door. "Come in; door's open!" he called out, putting on his nicer watch and making sure that his hair looked good one last time. Hell, who was he kidding? He probably looked better than anyone else in the village the moment he stepped out of bed; anything more was overkill.

Guren walked into his main entrance – after taking off her sandals of course – with a somewhat nervous look on her face. He gave her his signature smile and waved her over.

"Glad you made it," he said as he made his last minute adjustments and walked over to his kitchen table. He looked her up and down and his smile grew a little wider. "You look really nice. What took you so long?"

She flushed a little at his casual compliment and broke eye contact. Clearly, she wasn't used to receiving compliments like that. But it was true; she was wearing a feminine, green shirt with a plain but comfortable-looking knee-length skirt, and she looked good in it.

"I had to make sure that I wasn't followed," she claimed, crossing her arms and being told she took a long time. "Utakata is the type of guy who wouldn't believe that we are dating even after this morning, so he might have tried to tail me."

Sasuke arched an eyebrow. "So you're saying that he's the type of guy who's usually right about his gut feeling?"

"Are we going or not?" she impatiently asked, ignoring his response entirely. Utakata was technically correct in doubting that they were dating, after all. "There's something really important that I want to talk with you about."

This piqued his interest. Something really important? There were only two things that he could consider being really important between them: Itachi, and their friendship. He hoped it was about Itachi, but knowing that she had absolutely no social experience, she may have taken this morning's jokes as something more serious than he had intended.

They had ended up walking downtown together and finding a restaurant that still had some open seating inside despite the massive crowds the Chunin Exams brought in. Walking to his seat, Sasuke saw several ninja donning headbands from every major ninja village, and some minor ones too. Even though only the Sand and Leaf Village – and Akatsuki – were taking part in the finals, ninja from other villages used the excuse to visit Konoha, watch the fights and enjoy the massive festivals.

It didn't take long until they had ordered their food and found each other seated across from one another, staring in silence. Sasuke eventually sighed, knowing that Guren didn't have that much experience in this.

"So, now that we are officially going on dates together, do you want to start going out for real?" he plainly asked as if it were the easiest thing in the world. For him, it really was. "Do you want to be my girlfriend? I think we can work out the long-distance relationship. Distance makes the heart grow fonder, or so they say."

He couldn't help but think back to Sakura. They had started off their relationship just fine; he didn't necessarily think that she was amazing in any way, but he figured he might as well give dating a try. But just her trying to see him every day got in the way of his training schedule. Her priorities did not line up with his. Maybe a long-distance relationship would end up being the best option for him now anyway, at least until he killed Itachi and started to rebuild the Uchiha Clan.

Guren blushed at his direct questions, and looked away from piercing gaze. "Wh-what?" she asked incredulously, checking around to make sure that no one had heard him. "You can't just ask me out like that!"

Oh, so now she knew everything about social relationships? "Why not?" he asked, showing no deterrence in his confidence or charismatic persona. "I just did."

"We hardly even know each other!" she continued, keeping her voice low enough to not bother anyone around them, even though the restaurant was loud enough with the busy customers. "And I'm in the Akatsuki! We could never see each other."

He shrugged, not caring about the distance. "So? Does the Amekage have rules about dating or something? Plus, I'm busy with training, and you're busy with training. Maybe writing letters to each other and visiting once a month or so will be enough for us. I'm not asking you to move in with me or anything."

She seemed conflicted with herself, but to his amusement, she still hadn't said 'no' yet. "But we haven't even been friends for a week yet! Do you… do you even, you know… love me?"

He rolled his eyes and did his best to keep himself from snorting. "Dating is not all about love, Guren," he decided to educate her, being the master of romance himself. "Agreeing to date someone is not agreeing to marry them. Maybe we'll fall in love. Maybe we won't. It's not the end of the world. I had actually just broken up with a girl I had been with for a while right before I met you the other night. Breaking up sucks, but you can't keep yourself from experiencing the joys in life just because you might end up hurt. You have to take risks.

I took a risk in dating Sakura – the girl I just broke up with. It was fun while it lasted, but it didn't end up working out. I'm still glad I took the risk though! I took a risk in asking you out just now. Maybe you'll reject me. Who cares? I thought dating you would be fun so why not ask? Maybe you'll say 'yes' and it ends up that we hate each other. At least we tried. You remember my best friend Naruto? The other Uchiha with the crazy blonde hair? He and our other teammate have been in love with each other as long as I've known them, but they haven't done anything about it because they're both too scared to take the first step. Every month that goes by now is a month where they could've been dating, but they're missing out for no other reason than fear. I'm not like that. If you reject me and don't want to be my friend, I'll move on."

Guren had been soaking in every word of his, but he could tell that she wasn't the risk taker that he was. She really had no good reason not to date him. He was good looking, kind, talented, had an incredible bloodline, and the list goes on. Unless she didn't like guys. Wait. Did she not like guys?

"I'm sorry," she eventually cut in before he could ask her about which way she leaned. "Not everyone is as quick or fearless as you, Sasuke. I know I'm not. If I fall in love with someone and it doesn't work out… I don't think I would be able to recover as easily as you."

He shrugged again. "You never know until you try. And you'll never fall in love until you try either. You can't 'love' someone just by thinking they are good-looking or nice from afar. I'm pretty sure that's just infatuation. Love isn't an emotion, as far as I know. Hate and infatuation are emotions. You can still love someone, even if in that current moment, you hate their guts. You probably won't know if you love someone until after you get angry at them at some point, since love outlasts hate and anger. You don't date someone because you love them, in my opinion, you date them to find out if you can grow to love them."

She seemed to understand what he was saying. The waiter came back and dropped off the tea that they had both ordered when they first arrived. He grabbed his cup after thanking the waiter and took a careful sip after blowing on it.

"Do you think you could love me, then?" she quietly asked again, looking at him nervously. He could barely hear her over the crowd. "Why?"

He had the distinct feeling that her heart was in his hands, and that he could either crush it or capture it forever with his response. Despite the incredible temptation to woo her with empty romantic words of nonexistent dedication, he decided to settle on honesty.

"I'm not entirely sure," he carefully responded, setting the cup down. "But I think you have the potential. Which is why I want to date you for real. You're pretty, incredibly talented and motivated, and understand my dreams better than any other girl I've ever met. My number one goal right now is to get stronger in order to face Itachi. But if along the way, I end up falling in love with someone like you, that's great. I need to find someone to rebuild the Uchiha Clan with, after all."

She flushed again, and he was reminded that she could in fact look pretty cute when she wasn't actively trying to kill him. A cute girl who was dedicated to training was most of what he looked for in a girl anyways.

"I'm sorry," she apologized again, after taking a nervous sip from her own cup. "Everything you've said makes sense, but I don't think I'm ready to date anyone right now. You're honestly the first friend I've ever had, and I appreciate everything you've done for me in the past few days. But I've spent my whole life isolating myself from others, and it just feels impossible to completely let that up now. I'd have to one to go to for advice. And I'd lose my only friend if we ended up hating each other! I know that probably doesn't make sense to you… but I'm not ready to date just yet."

Sasuke shrugged again. He had just claimed that getting rejected didn't matter, and yet this was the first time he had actually gotten rejected by a girl. "Man, you're something else," he mused aloud, giving her a genuine smile. "I don't know many girls who would turn me down like that. I'm pretty famous here, you know. And did I mention that I'm ridiculously wealthy after inheriting half of the Uchiha Clan's fortune? I could buy this restaurant without having to worry about hurting my wallet."

He finally got a giggle out of her, diffusing some tension that may have been building up. "Oh, you're rich?!" she exclaimed, feigning shock. "That changes everything! Marry me now, Sasuke Uchiha!"

"I should've started with that, damn it," he laughed along, shaking his head in mock frustration. "That's what I'll do next time."

For better or worse, she stopped laughing after his comment. "Next time?" she asked, scrunching her eyebrows together in confusion. "What does that mean?"

"You can't just reserve Sasuke Uchiha until you make up your mind," Sasuke elaborated, somewhat pleased to see her not as ambivalent as she made herself to be. "I offered my good looks, fortune, and care to you, and you rejected me. On to the next girl. I've got a Clan to rebuild, you know."

Despite only being half-serious in his comment, Guren's countenance took a downward spiral and she seemed to withdraw back to herself. Not his fault. He wasn't going to feel bad about the girl who had just rejected him, after all. Lucky for him, a different waitress came over with their orders of food, and placed it down in front of them. They were both starving, and didn't hesitate to immediately dig in.

The food was delicious. Seeing how in a matter of minutes Guren had just demolished most of her plate, he could tell that she was clearly enjoying it too. Even though she was happily eating, he could tell that there was still something bothering her, and clearly it wasn't his romantic advances. He couldn't help but wonder if it had something to do with Itachi, or possibly even the Akatsuki.

"So what did you want to talk with me about?" he decided to ask her when she was just finishing with a bite of food. "What's bothering you – apart from attractive and wealthy men asking you out on dates?"

His mentioning of the potential issue was apparently enough for her to lose her appetite, since her face suddenly soured and she subconsciously pushed the plate a little bit away from her. She didn't even react to his joke. He remained patiently silent while he waited for her to have the courage to start; he wasn't about to start the guessing game on something he had no idea about.

"It's about Itachi," she stated, looking at him with both concern and anger hidden deep inside. Despite having originally guessed that it might be about Itachi, Sasuke couldn't help but clench his fists and notice the increase in his heart rate at the mention of his murderous brother. What did she know?

"Itachi Uchiha is part of Akatsuki now."

He couldn't help but widen his eyes in surprise. Itachi was part of Akatsuki? The same organization that Orochimaru had apparently joined, and Guren was a part of? He couldn't help but lean back into his chair as his head spun through the revelation. Finding Itachi was no longer a part of his mission. He knew that Akatsuki was an organization that ninja of all backgrounds felt to in order to start a new life despite their past. The Amekage offered redemption to renegades. He had considered the possibility that Itachi might want to do the same, but he didn't think any organization would want him. How could the Amekage hire a ninja who betrayed and murdered his own Clan? Who would trust someone like that? Who could trust someone so powerful?

"I should start from the beginning," Guren quickly jumped in, keeping her voice low. With the roar of the people around them, there was no way anyone could overhear them. "I know that Orochimaru-sama attacked you in the Chunin Exams. If you didn't already guess, he used to be a part of Akatsuki. He was a Commander, the highest rank one can attain in Akatsuki, in charge of thousands. He betrayed the Amekage's trust by infiltrating the Chunin Exams and attacking your team, but he also visited me in the forest after you took my scroll.

"You may not remember, but back then you told me that your brother Itachi killed your Clan, and probably my parents. Orochimaru confirmed that, and told me that Itachi would probably be replacing him in Akatsuki. It wasn't until after the Exams that I confirmed the truth. Kimimaro-sama was called back to Ame in order to be present for the swearing in of Itachi as the Sixth Commander of Akatsuki, replacing Orochimaru."

Sasuke remained silent, not sure of how to respond. He thought it was strange that Kimimaro had to be present for the swearing in of a Commander, but he wisely decided not to push his luck and ask her. Instead he continued to wait and see if Guren had anything more to add. After a long minute of waiting, she took a deep breath and continued.

"That's a part of the reason why I had decided to take my life," she quietly said, her voice both full of anger and hopelessness. "Itachi is currently a part of the organization that I work for, and he is ranked above me. He can issue me any direct order that he wishes to, and he is under the protection of the Amekage. Even if I ever grow strong enough to face Itachi in battle, doing so would mean that the Amekage himself would kill me. Each Commander wears a special ring that can communicate directly with the Amekage… if Itachi felt that his life was actually in danger, the Amekage could immediately respond and come to his defense. What's worse, the Amekage has the ability to enter people's minds. If he somehow finds out that I have plans to kill Itachi, he'll kill me for treason before I even have a chance. There's just no hope for me anymore."

She finished her sentence with tears welling in her eyes. Sasuke couldn't help but feel a sense of dread wash over himself in turn. If Itachi was a part of Akatuski, and apparently a 'Commander' at that, then attacking him would be like an act of war. The Leaf Village wouldn't support him. Even if he grew strong enough to slay Itachi one day, he would now have to risk starting the next Great Ninja War by doing so. Akatsuki could respond by destroying the Leaf Village; how many more Clans would die just so that Sasuke could get his revenge? Holy crap.

"That's not good," is all he managed to respond with, deeply exhaling though the tension didn't leave him in the slightest. He looked back up to her with worry on his face. "You're still a part of Akatsuki though. What are you going to do now?"

That was clearly the golden question that she had tried to answer the night he saved her. She probably didn't have an answer, but he couldn't help but at least ask her to see what she was thinking.

"I don't know," she admitted, her voice cracking and revealing just how hard she was struggling to keep her emotions in. "At this point, I could even be killed for treason just by telling you everything that I just did. If I share my intent to kill Itachi with my teammates, they might report me to the Amekage. I had no one to turn to for help. But now I have you."

He closed his eyes for a moment to do his best to get his own emotions in check. He needed to think about this clearly and calmly, and do his best to support her as a friend. Before responding to her, he reached out his hand and grabbed onto hers, giving it a small squeeze.

"We'll figure something out," he stated with a weak but truthful smile. "This really sucks. I know you probably feel hopeless right now, but I know we can figure something out. You're not in this alone anymore. We're in this together."

Despite a lone tear breaking free and falling down the side of Guren's face, she managed to smile back at him with genuine appreciation. She squeezed his hand back. After her taking the risk of even telling him all of this, he knew that he had to show his support and make sure that she knew that he was here for her. They only had a few short weeks here in the Leaf Village before she returned to Ame; they had to figure out what they could do about all this before the exams ended.

---

The Next Morning

The sun never rose for Naruto Uchiha on the third morning of his trial. If it wasn't for the watch on his wrist, he wouldn't have any idea what time it was at all… or so he thought. The last time he checked his watch, it was slowing down so quickly that he was sure that it had stopped working entirely, so he threw it away in the forest in frustration. The last he remembered, the sun had set last night with a crimson sky, and in the numerous hours since then, the sky had only seemed to become even redder. What's worse was that the clouds were all sailing by overhead so fast that it seemed like he was looking at a time-lapse.

This wasn't his world anymore, he knew that. He was stuck in whatever illusion his brain and eyes were casting on him.

At least he no longer felt the urge to sleep. Fall over unconscious, maybe. He was anything but tired though; his heart was racing and he felt himself sweating, shaking slightly, and out of breath. It felt very similar to the feeling of muscle failure when he was on his last few push-ups before he collapsed. More than anything else, he wanted to cut off his dwindling flow of chakra to his brain and deactivate the Sharingan, but he knew he couldn't. For the first time so far, he was actually starting to feel genuine fear. But he had made it this far.

Madara was nowhere to be seen. Hinata had vanished at some point in the night as well. He was alone in this haunted forest, with the blood red sky above him and the clouds flying by like-

"Hey there, little brother!"

His heart lurched at the familiar voice. Turning with dread, he looked behind and found none other than Shisui Uchiha, his dead older brother, leaning against a tree with a smile on his face. Please… not this.

Shisui shimmered out of existence and appeared right in front of him, as fast as he had been in life. "What's wrong, Naruto?" he asked with sincere care in his voice. "You don't look so good."

Blood was running down Shisui's closed and empty eyelids. How could he forget? Shisui's Sharingan had been implanted in Naruto, after all.

"How have my eyes been holding up for you?" he decided to ask in a friendly manner, even though Naruto had turned away from him in horror and disgust. "You finally have a Sharingan… Congratulations, Naruto! You were always a true Uchiha in my mind, but this makes it official, I guess!"

Suddenly, Naruto found himself tied to a log, the very same one at the training grounds he and his team had spent so many hours perfecting their skills at. No longer was he in the forest clearing that he had been sitting in for the last two days, and he wasn't alone either. Looking to his left and right, Naruto was shocked to find that both Sasuke and Hinata were tied to the logs beside him, both of them gagged and blindfolded.

"Naruto, there's something very important I need to tell you," Shisui stated, ignoring his bound teammates and kneeling down in front of him. He placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "I think that this is a trap, Naruto. I think that Madara is lying to you about how to unlock the Mangekyou. He's weakening your body, and letting all of his spiritual chakra flow into your brain. He's planning on taking over you for good, Naruto. He's not locked behind bars the same way the Nine-Tails is… I think he's planning something nefarious. You need to cut off the flow now. Deactivate my Sharingan before it's too late!"

Naruto couldn't help the tears fall down his face as he choked back a sob. Seeing his brother now, after so long, was tearing his heart apart. He knew that this was an illusion. He knew it was entirely fake. He knew his mind would do anything to convince him to deactivate it. But it still felt like his heart was being ripped out of his chest all the same.

"You need to trust me, Naruto!" Shisui pleaded, gripping onto his shoulder even tighter. "Madara is evil! He's using you! Why would he do anything for your gain? He's been trapped inside you for years and he wants nothing more than to escape with the Nine-Tails, and you're letting him do just that! You need to deactivate your Sharingan before it's too late."

Deciding that it was too painful to look at Shisui's bloody face, Naruto turned his head and closed his eyes, if only for a moment. He had to resist. Shisui was dead, and Naruto had decided to trust Madara. Even if what Shisui was saying made sense, he didn't trust his sleep deprived and hallucinating mind to try and think hard about it. He had told himself that he would stick this out no matter what, and that's what he was going to do!

"That's exactly what Madara would tell you to do!" Shisui pleaded with him, urgency and fear in his voice. "His ultimate goal is to escape. What other goal does any prisoner have? Every little thing he tells you has to ultimately lead to his plan of escape. He could've lied about any small detail along the way! What if having your Sharingan active for this long will actually destroy your brain, and allow Madara to take over forever? He would tell you anything in order to-"

Schlnk!

Shisui's voice was immediately cut short and Naruto felt a spray of hot liquid cover his face. He opened his eyes and turned to look forward in confusion, and to his horror, a bloody katana was sticking out of Shisui's chest, inches away from Naruto's face. With that same disgusting sound, the blade retracted and Shisui was kicked away to the side. Standing behind him was none other than Itachi, eyes cold and murderous.

"Madara lies," Itachi told him as he flicked the blood off of his blade, as if killing Shisui was an everyday chore for him. "Lying by omission. You're going to voluntarily die here in this world you've created. You're going to stay trapped in this hell forever while Madara uses your body for his purposes. Such are his lies. You have no idea what the truth is. You don't really even know what happened the night you gained the Sharingan, do you?"

Just ignore him, just ignore him!

"You think that I killed the Clan all by myself, having been pressured by the Elders of the village and put under genjutsu by Shisui. That's not the full truth. You might have been unconscious when it happened, but your eyes saw everything. Your Sharingan saw what really happened. The real truth has been buried in the back of your mind this entire time."

Suddenly, Naruto was standing in front of the Uchiha Clan Compound beside Itachi. The sky was still red and the clouds were now black, zooming by at an even faster speed than before. He knew for sure that he was in a terrible vision of the past because there was still an Uchiha guard at the Clan entrance. Against his will, he walked forward with Itachi into the Clan. The guard fell over and died when Itachi looked at him, and Naruto couldn't help but finally scream out in frustration.

"No! Stop this, please! Why are you showing me this?"

Was he going to live through Itachi going in the compound and murdering the Clan? Was he going to have to watch Itachi slaughter every single person? To his surprise, as soon as he walked through the gate, he jumped up high into the air, high enough where he could see the entirety of his beautiful home, and…

His heart was overcome by the intense and burning feeling of hatred.

"Amaterasu!"

The perimeter of the entire compound immediately burst into black flames. The flames rose high into the sky; the heat was so intense that he wasn't surprised when some nearby houses actually lighted in a normal yellow fire. This technique… this was a Mangekyou technique that Madara had explained to him just recently. So why in the world did he just manage to use it on his own Clan? And did this explain the scorch marks surrounding the Compound in its ruin even now?

By the time he landed, numerous screams were already breaking out in the distant streets as the Uchiha Clan woke up in the dead of night to find their own Compound under attack. It was much like how he imagined it had happened, except he was directly in the middle of it!

He walked up to a late-night restaurant that was still full of people drinking and eating despite the late hour. They must have been drunk enough not to have heard or cared about the commotion going on. Naruto had never entered it himself and never actually got a chance to see what it was like after the massacre either. When he returned numerous times after the fact, this was one of the many places that was completely crushed beyond recognition. He had no idea what jutsu Itachi had-

Just like before, a strange sense of hatred rose up from within his chest.

"Susanoo!"

The word rang true in his mind. He unleashed his energy and was surprised to find crimson chakra pouring out around him, creating something monstrous. In just a second, giant bones were growing around his body, a giant ribcage clothed in his crimson chakra, and massive skeletal arm much like Kimimaro's own creation was growing tall and fast, its clenched fist as large as a house and-

BAM!

Without him even moving, the massive skeletal abomination slammed its first down into the restaurant in front of him, instantly killing the dozens of unaware people who were inside of it. All Naruto could do was let out a choked sob in horror. When the crimson fist lifted, he was presented with the horrible image of the demolished place, which looked exactly as it did in Naruto's memory. Itachi was nowhere to be seen. It was him who had just done this. No, that didn't make any sense!

He turned and saw numerous Uchiha ninja and police in the streets, screaming in horror and weaving familiar hand-seals.

"Traitor!" one of them shouted out at him, above the roar of the crowds filling the street. It looked like Kenichi-san, the shop owner who had sold him his very own Uchiha-brand shirt! "We trusted you, Naruto!"

His words pierced Naruto's chest. Finishing his hand-seals, the old man spat a decent-sized fireball at him that brushed over the chakra-covered skeletal creature surrounding him like a gentle breeze. Naruto watched his own hand swing to the side, immediately followed by the skeletal arm sweeping across the street and crushing the dozens of ninjas who were swarming to attack him. Kenichi-san was slammed into a building before dropping to the ground, bloody and lifeless.

"Pitiful ants," the words escaped Naruto's mouth, though the voice sounded foreign to his own ears. "The Clan that I once led to greatness has withered away into these pathetic creatures who die without a challenge. Drinking in the middle of the night while unaware of an attack on the compound! Hundreds of years ago, I would have already been confronted by a dozen Clan Elders who would have all summoned the Susanoo, and countless others hurling black flames at me or slicing through the wind. Disgraceful."

That sounded less like his own voice, and more like Madara's. He sprinted forward, burning alive all who stood before him, crushing those who avoided him, decimating the young and old, the friends he once knew, all who looked at him with eyes full of broken trust and anger. This was a nightmare, this was a nightmare, this couldn't be true, this had to be a nightmare!

"Do you see now?"

Naruto screamed and jolted his head up. He was tied to the log again in the training field, with Sasuke and Hinata tied beside him. Instead of Itachi standing over him, it was strangely Jiraiya-sama, with a look of disgust on his face. He knew it had all been a vision, but he couldn't help but quickly lower his head and sob his heart out.

"Your father died sealing Madara within you to protect the village," Jiraiya said before spitting to the side in contempt. "And you've let him take over your body multiple times. This is why I've tried to seal him away from you. He's used you to kill the Uchiha, and he'll use you to kill everyone else in the Village. It would be far better for the safety of Konoha for me to simply kill you and extract the Nine-Tails."

Shaking his head vigorously, Naruto couldn't work around his sobs to even cry out for help or forgiveness. All he could do was watch as Jiraiya took out a kunai and prepared to throw it down at him. This couldn't be happening. This was all just a dream, right? He wouldn't actually feel pain, and when he was hurt, he would just wake up from the vision right? Pain was always a sure way to escape genjutsu after all, and-

Thunk!

Naruto stared down in horror as he heard the thrown kunai break through his sternum and bury itself in his chest. A wave of pain so unbearable and indescribable immediately followed, that it was all he could do to scream out in pain. Nothing but gasps for air came out next; the kunai must've gone straight into a lung which was now filling with blood. He thought back to his Academy ninja training on how to heal a chest wound such as his, but his arms were tied behind his back. And the pain… he felt like his heart was about to explode!

"Help… me!" he tried to mouth as blood ended up filling up his mouth. When he looked up, he saw Itachi standing in front of him once again. Even worse, there were two clones of Itachi standing in front of Sasuke and Hinata, who were still gagged and tied to the logs beside him. All three of Itachi were holding long katanas, pointed down directly at the captured.

He heard the muffled screams of his teammates and he looked in dulled horror to see they had been stabbed. He knew he was next. At this point, he just wanted to die. He just wanted it all to be over, for him to wake up in bed and for everything to be-

Hn! He grunted as ice cold metal slowly slide into his gut. He knew that he was dying, but it didn't feel nearly as satisfying as he thought it would be. There was no sweet release of death. Just pain, and pain and pain, and-

"Hey there, little brother!"

He blinked again and Shisui was standing before him, with the same casual smile that he had been wearing before. The blood dripping down from his older brother's eyes seemed just as fresh as it had been a short time ago. He looked to his left and right and saw that Sasuke and Hinata were nowhere to be seen. Looking down at his own body, Naruto noticed that all of the mortal wounds he had just received were also gone.

"You see, little brother," Shisui continued, unaware or uncaring that he had been killed by Itachi moments ago, "Madara always lies. It may be true that you can unlock the Mangekyou by keeping your Sharingan active for as long as possible, but he forgot to include an important little detail. There are two obvious outcomes of this whole debacle; one is that you deactivate the Sharingan prematurely and end all of this. The other is that your eyes evolve into the Mangekyou in order to overcome the turmoil of the visions. Madara didn't mention the third. If your eyes aren't strong enough to overcome this illusion, and you refuse to deactivate the Sharingan, you will die."

Shisui was replaced by Sasuke and Hinata, both looking down at him with obvious resentment in their eyes.

"You're going to die here, Naruto," Sasuke coldly declared, his arms crossed and a scowl on his face. "You'll either give up, or you'll die. Of course, there's always the possibility that Madara will take control again when you are at your final state of weakness. You remember what happened before, when Madara took over, don't you?"

The scenery rapidly changed once again, but this time Naruto found himself standing outdoors on a hard floor, mist in the air around him. Looking around, he saw that he was surrounded by a dozen mirrors of ice. Hinata lay on the ground beside him, unconscious but clearly injured. Sasuke lay injured on the ground a short distance away as well.

"Naruto!" his friend shouted out to him, tears of pain and relief falling down his face. "Watch out for the mirrors, she can teleport from one to another, but she can't attack you directly unless she-"

Naruto attention was brought forward to the familiar enemy standing before him; Haku, the ninja he met in the Land of Waves. He didn't have any doubts now, this must have been when he had let Madara take over his body in order to save his friends at the bridge.

"You should've killed me," he heard Madara speak through him, his voice sounding dark and alien to his ears. "Your mission ends here."

He remembered that Haku had a bloodline limit that allowed her to combine wind and water chakra to form ice ninjutsu, which she apparently was trying to use against him in this very moment. Naruto had no idea how this fight would turn out; he had been unconscious after all. He was suddenly worried that he would have to experience the pain of multiple needles impaling him when-

"Fujin!"

Madara uttered the word through his lips and Naruto felt his eyes pulse with hatred and chakra, focused on Haku. The air around him began to shimmer for a moment before a barely visible pulse was sent toward Haku with incredible speed. The ice ninja tried to avoid the attack, but to no avail. The pulse cut cleanly through her shoulder, instantly cutting off her arm. She fell to the ground screaming in pain. Though to her credit she used her free hand to try and seal the wound to stop the alarming amount of blood that was spurting out.

Sasuke began shouting something at him, but the words barely reached Naruto as he walked forward to finish off the enemy. He knew the words that sat on his lips, the words that he was sure Madara was about to use through him. Raijin, the Mangekyou technique that would make someone experience the most extreme amounts of pain possible. He felt disgusting. However, before he could reach Haku, he found himself tied to the log in the training grounds once again.

"You're a monster, Naruto," Sasuke told him, holding a katana of his own now. "You know that deep down, you aren't seeking these powers to protect anyone. They're used to kill. If you achieve the malevolent powers, it will only be because you've earned them. It won't be the evil inside you anymore that gives you strength; you will be the evil monster, not Madara or the Nine-Tails."

With that said, Sasuke thrust the katana into Naruto before he had a chance to say anything in his defense. He wouldn't have had much to say though. At this point, he almost felt like his death would be well deserved. That didn't do anything to stop the pain of course. As Sasuke sliced open his stomach and he watched his guts spill out onto the forest floor, he couldn't actually think of anything else but the pain he was experience.

"Please… help me, anyone!"

---

Later

Help never came. For what felt like eternity, Naruto sat tied to the log while he relived himself killing off his Clan, killing villagers, killing his friends, all combined with him being killed in turn. He had literally watched the sun rise and fall dozens of times, so he knew that if this trial took actually took 3 days it didn't matter since time was irrelevant in this hell. Hell was the perfect word to describe this place, and since he has been here, he's felt misery, pain, suffering, anguish, sadness, and loneliness.

He's always been alone though. From the orphanage, he had been alone and unwanted. They kicked him out on the streets for him to live like a rat. Then, once he finally had a family and a Clan to call his own, they were taken away from him. He was alone once again. And here he sat, facing torture and inevitable death. He would die alone.

But for the first time, Naruto was now actually beginning to feel a new emotion that was rising up from the dark recess of his mind. Anger.

"Do you see now?" Itachi explained, his face as emotionless as it had always been. "There is no end to this test apart from your death. You can try again as many times as you wish, but the result will always be the same. It is hopeless, and you have no one to help you now."

Even as the katana slid inside of Naruto for millionth time, he was beginning to feel tired and angry. Tired of this whole charade. Angry at Itachi and all of his friends for killing him so many times. Angry at himself for not being able to escape. Angry at his friends for not coming to help him. Angry at Madara for thinking that he was ready for this in the first place. If this was his mind, why couldn't he control it? Why couldn't he fight back?

He had no chakra left. Even though he was tied to a log, he knew that he didn't even have the strength in his arms and legs to stand up. But in the end, there was nothing to fight back against. This was all just in his mind. This was his reality. There was no hope. Any hope that his friends or Madara would come to help him died days ago, weeks ago. All he had left was his hatred. More than the pain, more than the sadness, more than the loneliness, Naruto was beginning to feel a dark sense of hatred seep up from his very core and into his mind.

"You've no one to hate but yourself, Naruto," Itachi chided him, pulling the katana out of his gut. "You can end this in an instant. Just deactivate the-"

"Enough, Itachi."

After spending the countless days within this bleak place feeling nothing but hopelessness, the hatred within him was a refreshing sense of emotion, like an oasis in the desert. More than anything, he wanted to hold onto it for dear life. Finally, he had found something that could overpower the pain!

Itachi stabbed him again, this time directly in his chest, and Naruto felt the hatred inside of him explode. The blood that splatted over the blade was tinged with black, and he couldn't help but smile at the reassurance that it brought him. The visions and the pain may be fake, but his hatred was real.

Looking down at the black and red mix of his blood reminded him of a truth that he knew since he had been here, but actively tried to ignore and forget. When he entered the Uchiha Compound in his visions – controlled by Madara – each time he reached deep within himself and his chakra to unleash Amaterasu around the entire compound. The hatred and power he felt then through Madara… it was the very same hatred that was pumping out of his dying heart this very moment.

He reached within himself and unleashed his anger at Itachi, the man who had killed him countless times with this very katana. The blood that pumped out of his chest became darker and darker, until it was almost entirely black. He was almost there. He could feel his wrath growing and growing.

As if Itachi could sense something different inside of him, he quickly pulled the blade out and sliced it cleaning through his neck. Naruto enjoyed the millisecond of freedom as his head flew off his body, but in an instant the moment had passed and he was tied to log once again.

His wounds had reset. Itachi had reset. The scene had reset. But he still felt the dark power coursing inside of him. If he could just find a way to connect that with his chakra…

Itachi walked in front of him and pulled out his katana, preparing to kill him once again. "Are you ready to die?" the murderer asked him, as if Naruto's answer might sway his actions one way or another. "No more pointless visions. I'm going to kill you over and over again until you cease to exist."

At that moment, Naruto finally made the connection inside of him, the hatred in his heart intersecting with the flow of chakra to his brain. He felt a new sense of power come from his hatred, and even if he risked killing himself for real from expending the last of his chakra, he would rather end his life than sit here and be tortured for eternity anyways. If the end wasn't in sight, then he would end it himself!

And he really, really, really wanted to see Itachi and everyone suffer.

"I'm not ready to die," Naruto coldly stated, taking all of the dark energy from his heart and forcing it into his eyes. "Itachi, I want you to die."

This was his world. This was his mind. His suffering had come to an end. All of his willpower was focused into his words, into his command, and he stared down Itachi with such hatred that the murderer's katana froze mid-swing. His head and yes were burning and his heart felt like it would burst again, but he continued to push his will into Itachi.

"You. Will. Die."

Naruto's iron-will took control. This was his world, after all! With every ounce of his being and hatred, he willed Itachi to turn the blade around against his own chest. With a final push of chakra, Itachi plunged the blade into his own heart before falling over to the side.

Overwhelmed with newfound energy, Naruto broke free from the ropes holding him to the log and couldn't help but laugh from the raw sense of joy he felt from seeing his tormentor finally dead before him. He was so happy that he actually felt tears of joy running down his face, but when he reached up to wipe them away, he was surprised to find that it was blood instead. Perhaps he had cried so much already that all that was left from him to cry was his own blood.

He felt himself surrounded, and he turned to see all of his so-called friends, and all of the Uchiha Clan, and numerous Leaf villagers encircling him with hatred in their eyes.

"You're a demon!" Hinata called out to him, her Byakugan activated with a kunai in her hand. "I thought I loved you, but you're nothing but evil!"

"You killed the Uchiha!" Sasuke shouted out next, his own Sharingan activated and hands flying through seals. "I thought you were my friend?"

Pitiful. Their hatred was weak compared to his. The darkness inside of him had settled down a little since he ordered Itachi's death, but he reached down into it again to rekindle the flames. Yes, he was a demon! Yes, he killed the Uchiha! But he wasn't going to die here against the log like a helpless fool. He was going to survive. He was going to escape. And when all hope, love and friendship had failed him, it was finally his hatred that had come to his rescue!

He looked up at the red sky above him and suddenly knew that he had the power to burn everything to ground. All he had to do was reach inside to his hatred and unleash it through his eyes, and everything would burn.

Naruto took one last moment to look forward at his friends, family and neighbors to see if he had the will to actually kill them. He expected to feel a moment of hesitation or remorse, but found nothing of the sort. Even as Hinata charged forward and thrust her kunai toward his heart, he found that he finally saw this world with true clarity for the first time.

He had no friends. He had no Clan. He had no Village.

He grabbed her wrist before the kunai could pierce him. With a cruel smile, he looked at her and saw a reflection of himself in her pearly eyes. No longer where there three tomoe in each of his eyes, but instead a strange spiral pattern of black and red seemed to have replaced them. He was a monster indeed. Reaching deep inside to pull from his hatred, he tried to replicate the same chakra pattern the he had felt Madara use through him before.

Everything would burn.

"Amaterasu!" he shouted with finality, his eyes focused on his closest friend. As he willed it, Hinata exploded into black flames, his hatred turned into a fiery reality. Everything was fake, but his hatred and iron will were real! He turned his eyes toward everyone else and unleashed the same dark power, instantly engulfing the hundreds around him in dark fire.

He didn't stop there. The grass, the trees, the sky, the world… this illusion would burn!

---

The Forest

Naruto blinked and opened his eyes to found himself sitting in the middle of the same forest clearing he had initially started the trial in all those days ago. He looked up and couldn't help but cry in relief when he saw that the sky was blue once again, and the clouds that sat in it were just as white as they always have been. The rays of sun that broke through the canopy filled his body with warmth. Of course, when he raised an arm to wipe away the tears from his aching eyes he found that they were blood red.

He had passed the trial. Or rather, he had surpassed the trial by using his eyes to will through the illusions that plagued him. Perhaps that had been the whole point all along. He could tell that he was currently looking through a new set of eyes; the same powerful hatred from before was pulsing to his eyes from his very soul. Though he was no longer in an illusion, he knew that he could bend this world to his will, just like he had with Itachi. He knew that he could unleash his hatred and burn anything he laid his eyes on, just like he had with everyone else.

Confident that he had seen through and destroyed the illusion, Naruto at long last cut the flow of spiritual chakra to his eyes. Reaching out to Madara could wait. Surprisingly, the immense sense of anger and hatred seemed to extinguish itself with his chakra, leaving him feeling absolutely empty.

With a shaky hand, he reached into his pouch and pulled out a food pill before popping it into his mouth. He swallowed it with a chug of water. Satisfied that he wouldn't die of malnutrition, he collapsed to the side and felt himself rapidly falling unconscious. The last thought he had before blacking out was a bitter realization. He had sworn that he would never kill Hinata or Sasuke in order to gain the Mangekyou Sharingan, but in the end that's exactly what he had been willing to do. He knew why he had been able to use Amaterasu, an 'evil' power. Illusion or real, he realized that in his state of utter hatred he would've been willing to kill anyone in order to escape that prison.

---

End

A/N:

Thanks for reading! Naruto finally has the Mangekyou now, and he definitely earned it. The Mangekyou by nature is rooted in hatred and pain; I'll have Madara explain that a little more in the next chapter. It's not a simple tool, but something that can actually change Naruto for the worse if he doesn't learn how to control his newfound hatred.

A special thank you to Line464d (link in my profile) for helping me out a ton with proofreading. I'm still amazed at how much stuff she finds, even when I reread the finished chapter before sending it for edits. Just know that this version of the chapter has like 50 less typos then the one I would've posted without her help.

Please leave a review and let me know what you thought about the chapter and how the story is turning out so far! I appreciate all the reviews for the last chapter; they helped motivate me to write this one.

Have a good day,

-williams5505