Warning: These interludes are going to contain a fuckton of exposition. I'm sorry. It's either canon, my interpretation of canon, or headcanon that I'll be sticking to for plot reasons so don't dm me.

Training Montage #6: Brand New High Risk Superpowers


In the distance, the sun rose over some mountain or another, reflecting off a nearby lake. Fresh dew was on the ground, wind whistled through some trees, a river ran through the terrain.

An artist could stare at a view like this for hours, mesmerised by the beauty of nature.

"This is boring as shit." Remarked Uzumaki Naruto.

"Oh I agree." Jiraiya of the Sannin responded, walking up behind him. "But that makes it perfect."

The two were saddled up with camping gear; or at least Jiraiya was. Naruto had dumped all his on shadow clones not two hours after leaving Konoha and didn't seem to have changed policy anytime in the following two weeks. "Perfect? Perfect how?"

"Perfect because, other than us, there is not another human being in the surrounding four hundred miles." Jiraiya explained. "Which means you're probably not going to accidentally kill anyone."

"Uh..."

Jiraiya dumped his gear onto one of the clones, which it grumbled at but allowed.

"Naruto we are on a training trip. A three-to-four year timeskip ridden training trip. Which means we have two main objectives. Number one; get your base form strong enough that the Akatsuki don't all stomp you immediately. Number two-" He fished a coin out of his pocket. "Heads is sage mode, tails is tailed beast." He flipped the coin. It came up tails. "Alright. Number two is teaching you how to use your bijuu."

"You rigged that coin toss, didn't you." Naruto deadpanned. Then he caught up with what had been said. "Wait, use my bijuu? Are you insane?"

"You're lucky." Jiraiya explained. "Because your seal is so damn good you've had very limited contact with the Nine-tails except in emergencies. But most of the other jinchurikki have had to find a compromise of some kind with their tenants. The Ichibi protected Gaara and gave him power, in exchange for Gaara brutally murdering people to entertain it."

Naruto gaped. "Wait, Gaara did what-"

"He seems better now, it's cool." Jiraiya dismissed. "A better example is B."

"Like the stripy insect?"

"Like the letter. He's the eight-tails' jinchurikki, the second most powerful, and he lives in Lightning country. B and his bijuu have a frankly astounding level of co-operation, presumably because the Hachibi is known to be the most passive of the bijuu. Except maybe the Sanbi, who by all accounts is a massive pussy. Not to be confused with the Nibi, who is literally a massive pussy."

"You've lost me." Naruto confessed.

"The nine tails is a threat." Jiraiya summarised. "It's a murderer. From all records it's the most vicious and confrontational of all the nine. But it's also the strongest. And if you can get through to it, it might be your biggest combat asset."

"You want me to talk to it. And ask it to help me fight." Naruto shook his head rapidly. "Nuh-uh. Remember that time it almost made me kill people? Or that other time it also made me kill people?"

"Remember that time it helped you summon two of the strongest toads so you could fight Gaara?" Jiraiya retorted.

"It tried to kill Gaara."

"And you stopped it. I'm not sure if it's the seal or pure willpower, but you've got more control over it than any nine-tails jinchurikki I've ever heard of. Even your mother."

"So you want me to, what, make a deal with it?" Naruto wrinkled his nose.

"I want you to open communication." Jiraiya pacified. "It's already proven its willing to help you if you're going to die, so it may be willing to provide power a little more reliably. And if it won't, well, there's nobody who'll die in a crazy bijuu rampage except me."

"Reassuring."

"Now you're starting to sound like Sasuke."

"Eugh!" Naruto shuddered. "Fine then. I'm sure there's no way this can go wrong..."


In the distance, the sun rose over a nearby mountain, dappling through the gaps between the leaves. It was long miles from Konoha; and Itachi had set ten shadow clones on watch around the surrounding ten kilometres.

"Whatever this is it had better be good." Sasuke said, coming to a stop in the clearing his brother indicated.

"It's good." Itachi replied. "Or, well, it's not good, but it merits the effort."

He walked up to a tree. With a blur, there was only half a tree left. "I need to teach you about the ultimate weapon in an Uchiha's arsenal. The strongest, and the costliest, in more ways than one." He sat down on the stump, looking at his younger brother. All traces of the playful jokester were gone; Itachi's eyes were dark and hard. "If I may. Before you went to fight Kimimaro, you saw something, didn't you? Something that hurt?"

Sasuke nodded, slowly. "Kidomaru, the spider guy? He said that the mind awakening pills worked by killing the one who took them, and nine times out of ten they don't come back. I watched Hinata take one and collapse."

"I thought so." Itachi held out his hands and gave one resounding clap. "I'd like to congratulate you on exploiting the jammiest loophole in dojutsu history."

Sasuke blinked. "Uh...the what?"

"The Uchiha's eye is an eye of pain." Itachi extrapolated. "The Sharingan can be developed through practice, but it grows fastest and strongest through suffering; the kind of suffering that would make you cry. Literally, we believe. But what you have, and what I have, is something that extols an even heavier price."

His eyes swirled, and again took on that strange pattern. "The kaleidoscope copy wheel eye; the Mangekyo Sharingan."


In the distance, the sun was probably rising over something or other, but Hinata couldn't tell because she was underground.

"The what Byakugan?" She asked Orochimaru.

"I imagine this is going to require a bit of exposition." The snake sannin leaned backwards. "What do you know about the sage of six paths?"

"Incredibly powerful ninja legend." Hinata recalled. "Created the nine bijuu, progenitor of ninjutsu, probably doesn't exist."

"Ah, but he probably does." Orochimaru grinned. "And the brother he supposedly has is also probably real. Have you ever heard of the diverging bloodlines theory?"

"No."

"Didn't think so, I came up with it. The theory goes that all bloodline limits of all kinds are caused by the diluted and varied genetics of the sage and his brother. Distant familial relations, going back hundreds or thousands of years. The strongest or purest bloodline descended from the sage is the Uchiha's, and perhaps the Senju's. And the strongest descendants of the sage's brother are the Hyuuga. In fact, I think you and poor Kimimaro may have a common ancestor if you look back far enough."

"Is there any evidence?" Hinata asked, dubiously.

"Some." Orochimaru replied. "But I also have a theory that most of the sage's descendants live on the moon, so take what I say with a grain of salt. The point is that the Sharingan and Byakugan are linked more closely than you might imagine. Both ocular bloodlines, both with power sets designed specifically to counter each other...and both with the ability to evolve. Improve. This is no theory; your much beloved cousin also has access to it. He nearly killed me with it, in fact, and while he was very reticent about it during our joint time at the Akatsuki, I have gleaned some information from him."

"It's that powerful?"

"Exceedingly so."

"And I can unlock it?"

Orochimaru grinned. "I certainly hope so my dear."

Hinata nodded. "Tell me everything you know."


They chose a certain valley as the location to make first contact. Naruto attempted to make a traditional meditation pose, but eventually got uncomfortable, gave up, and wound up slouched against a boulder. Jiraiya had moved out of sight to 'give him space to think', though Naruto had a sneaking suspicion it was more like retreating to minimum safe distance.

Sighing, he closed his eyes.

He had made out to Jiraiya as one of his excuses that he had no idea how to contact the nine tails, but in reality he knew damn well how to access the chakra. It was like...a coiled red ball of energy, right in his gut, behind the seal that Jiraiya had shown him. Sometimes it was quiet, sometimes it broiled like it was trying to burst out of him, but it was always there, just at the edge of his attention.

And it terrified him.

Every time he let it out, it was like opening floodgates that were incredibly difficult to close up again. He had channelled its power as intended once, when he had summoned Gamahiro and Gamaken, and even then it had hardly even made a dent in the amount available to him. It had felt like he could have summoned the whole of mount Myoboku if he'd wanted to.

And now Jiraiya wanted him to make friends with the thing.

Great.

Flinching a little, he reached out with his chakra for the ball of power...and gave it a little nudge.

There was a flash, and his trousers were wet.

"Eurgh!" He jumped up, shuddering on reflex, before realising he was not outside in the glade anymore.

A steady trickle of water ran in an aqueduct along the floor, which he quickly hopped out of, but everything else was made out of stone brick. It was lit yellow, dimly, with no real visible light source, and in front of him it stretched out for an indeterminate distance. It looked like a sewer. It smelled like a sewer.

"This place is nasty." He remarked, wrinkling his nose up at it.

That was when he heard a dark, ominous chuckling from behind him. "You agree? Strange. It's your mind, after all."

Naruto gulped, and turned around. Thick red columns bisected the tunnel in that direction. Far enough apart that he could fit between them with no issue, with a sticky note that had 'lock' scribbled on it pasted onto the central pillar.

Something big stirred behind the bars.

Naruto slowly edged forwards. "Look, if someone had put me in charge of interior design, this place would look way cooler. I'm talking lava, cliffs, floating waterfalls, ramen shops."

"You are in charge of interior design." The voice replied, boredly. "You just haven't bothered. A sewer in your mindscape is a big indicator of mental neglect."

"Yeah well if anyone had-" Naruto paused. "Hey! You're insulting me!"

It started laughing again.

There was a loud booming noise, and two large, red, furred claws gripped two of the bars. "Well, glad to see the standards for my jinchurikki have dropped over time. Insulted, but glad."

Two red eyes appeared, as its face came into view. "After all, that should make it easier to take over and kill you."

"Kyuubi." Naruto responded, as if there was any doubt.

"Kit." Grinned the nine tails fox. "So good to finally meet you."

"...Well you're kinda bland."

"You...what?"

Naruto squinted up at his face. "I mean, like, you're literally just a fox with nine tails. That's it. Shukaku was way cooler."

"What? No way! Shukaku is a punk bitch!" Kyuubi snarled.

"Yeah but he's got those cool blue tattoos everywhere and he's, like, made of sand which is cool."

"Giant foxes are way cooler than sand tanooki!"

"Well you're red, which is cool, and I guess you've got those black markings on your face, but that's, like, it. Jiraiya says the two tails is made of blue fire, and that's awesome, but what have you got? Fur."

"Matatabi's not even hot!"

"Ooh, steamy inter-bijuu attractions, hmm?" Naruto hopped closer. "Come on then, who's the prettiest tailed beast? Gimme a top nine."

"I'm the prettiest-" The fox froze. Looked down at him. "You're mocking me, aren't you."

"And you've just shown me that you are not, in fact, a soulless remorseless killing machine." Naruto beamed. "That should make this way easier."

Kyuubi glared down at him. "...Yeah we're done here."

There was a jolt, and Naruto found himself back in the clearing again. He grinned. "Hey, uncle pervert! You will not believe what just happened!"


"So it does have a name." Sasuke continued to stare into Itachi's eyes. "What do you mean 'heavier price'?"

"It's part of why I didn't want you to go to any of the other clan members with this." His older brother explained. "In order to evolve the Sharingan into the Mangekyo, you must witness someone you care about die, and believe yourself responsible. For me, that was Uchiha Shisui. For you, it seems, that was Hyuuga Hinata."

"That's...awful." Sasuke shuddered. "But why shouldn't I take it to the rest of the clan? Surely they wouldn't hate it that much that I cared about Hinata?"

"Because we are both anomalies in the system." Itachi responded. "We both developed our eyes by accident. The clan believes that attaining the Mangekyo is a deliberate act; and there is only one way to bring it about deliberately."

"They think you have to kill someone you love?" Sasuke was horrified. "That's...oh. They think you killed Shisui." Itachi nodded. "Alright, I see why it should be a secret. Wait, do any of the others-"

"If there are any Uchiha alive with the Mangekyo, I don't know about them." Itachi answered. "Before the wars, the murdering of brothers, sisters and spouses was painfully common, apparently. But those outsiders in the know hunted them down specifically, knowing their power. Nowadays the knowledge of the Mangekyo is hidden, and the practice is forbidden."

"So...what does it do?" Sasuke couldn't help but ask. "For it to require that much...it's got to be something-"

"Broken." Itachi agreed. "Busted. God tier. OP. If it gets out that you have this you're going to be somewhere on the front page of the bingo book. Allow me to demonstrate." He kicked himself up and turned around to face the stump. "Amaterasu."

With very little pomp or ceremony, the stump set on fire. Black flames covered the entire thing, quickly consuming it and leaving nothing but ash.

"Is this what you did to Kimimaro?" Itachi checked.

Sasuke nodded, mutely.

"This is Amaterasu. The pinnacle of fire release. It allows you to immediately set fire to anything in your focal point; no charge up time, no travel time. The black fire will catch and burn almost anything, and will keep burning on the anything's remains for a full week unless you dispel it. You can theoretically miss if you can't keep track of the anything you're targeting, but, well,"

"I have the Sharingan, which basically lets me see in slow motion." Sasuke finished. Kami above that's broken. "You burned your chair."

There was a flicker, and the stump was back to normal, Itachi sitting back down.

It took Sasuke another second to catch it. "That was a genjutsu?"

"I will not use my powers so trivially, for reasons I'll explain later. One of my eyes holds Amaterasu, but my second holds Tsukiyomi. It is a genjutsu that requires actual eye contact, and it allows me to cause any illusion of any complexity for two seconds. I can make those two seconds be perceived for up to seventy two hours by the victim. There is no way to escape it once it has been cast, that I know of, though it's possible someone else with the Mangekyo could resist it. I don't believe I need to demonstrate that one."

"Do I have it?" Sasuke asked, trying not to drool.

"Perhaps." Itachi looked down. "I don't have all the answers. Mangekyo powers are similar between close family members, but not identical. You may have something different, but don't worry, all the other abilities I know of are similarly ridiculous. Of course, once you have unlocked the power in each of your eyes, you get the Susanno."

"The whaaaaaaaoh. Oh."

The fact that this was probably an illusion was the only thing that stopped Sasuke running away.

Itachi stood wreathed in a gigantic, glowing, orange skeleton.

"He who has the ability to help by all means." Itachi translated. "This is one of the few things that can block Amaterasu, though since it's transparent Tsukiyomi can hit you through it. It's a nigh impenetrable armour with multiple stages of evolution and increasing strength as you practice with it. And yes, you can cast other jutsu from inside of it."

"Put it away, please." Sasuke said, looking up at the skeleton's head. It seemed to be glaring at him.

Then there was a blur, and it vanished.

"If I may." Sasuke started, unsure how to phrase it, "How come the Uchiha haven't already, you know, taken over the entire world?"

"The Mangekyo cannot be used without consequence." Itachi explained. "And this is the part you must know before taking these abilities out into combat. Your use of them is limited. Every time you cast a Mangekyo technique your eyes are permanently damaged. Each use will bring you closer and closer to blindness, and once blind, all use of the Sharingan will be lost to you. It's worse if you use them multiple times in succession, even worse if you combine different powers together. Also they're all incredibly chakra intensive and hurt like a bitch."

"How many uses do I have?" Sasuke asked, worried.

"My uses of each technique are in the high single digits." Itachi replied, after some thought. "I have already noticed significant deterioration."

"Fuck." Sasuke summarised.

"Fuck." Itachi agreed.

Some levity returned to the clearing, and Sasuke allowed himself to relax. "So what now?"

"Now I train you." Itachi hopped back off the stump. "We try to unlock whatever's in your other eye. We practice Amaterasu until you're certain you can bring it out reliably. We try and get you access to the Susanno, and then you stop using them all until you're genuinely about to die." He paused, then walked up and put a hand on Sasuke's shoulder. "This ability will allow you to contend with some of the most dangerous individuals in the ninja world. But if you start punching above your weight just because you have a panic button you're going to get yourself killed. Please, try not to do anything...stupid."

Sasuke looked up at him and nodded, solemnly. "I won't."

"Great. Now say that without your fingers crossed."

"Ugh, fine. I'll try."


"First." Orochimaru said. "From my contacts in Konoha. I know that through killing a loved one, the Sharingan can be evolved into the Mangekyo Sharingan. This gives it greater ocular strength, two unique abilities that vary from person to person, and a powerful new form, the use of which gradually harms the user. It is possessed by my contact, one other I don't think I'll share, and Uchiha Itachi."

Second. From my time knowing Neji. He possesses an evolved form of the Byakugan he calls the Gokei.

Third. From you." He smiled at Hinata. "I don't suppose you know anything about his arsenal that I don't?"

She nodded, slowly. "Neji came into Konoha looking for Naruto a month or so ago, and got into a fight with Itachi. He used something called the Kokosora to put Itachi in a coma. He did something with white armour that let him resist one of Itachi's attacks, and he had something called the Hiragekoma that let him access the Hyuuga vaults, and remove Sasuke's cursemark."

"He removed my-" Orochimaru stopped, and breathed in. "Well, that makes sense. He claimed he had an easy method of separating a jinchurikki from their bijuu. We may be talking about the same power."

"So, two powers and a stronger form." Hinata understood. "I see the links. Do you think I'll also have to kill a loved one? Because I'm quite low on options for that."

"Possibly, but I doubt it." Decided Orochimaru. "The Byakugan is like the yin to the Sharingan's yang. If anything, your activation method is probably the opposite."

"So..." To spare an enemy? "What?"

"I don't know. But for that, you have me." Orochimaru told her. "I'm a scientist, dear. If there are chemical reasons behind the change, and you're willing to provide a few harmless samples, then I should be able to find it. From there will we get our answers. And hopefully, you can get the power yourself."

"Training and a dojutsu improvement?" Hinata smiled. "And all you want out of it is my service?"

"Oh I think I'll be quite satisfied." The snake replied, unsubtlely. "Now then. I imagine you need some sleep? I'll have Kabuto pick you a room. Though I imagine we'll have to move soon, given several of my soldiers that know about this base have been captured..."


Yeet.

Exams are a fucking nightmare and I've only had 2 this week. I had one Ffriday and I literally had no idea about half the course until Wednesday morning. Cramming may be bad, but it's necessary when you're taking four subjects with little to no overlap.

Our three heroes get a bit of an intro to the new skills they're going to spend this timeskip working on. In the next few chapters, though, you can expect segments from Haku, Gaara, etc.