Bonus Chapters every 100 Power Stones
"Normal Dialogue"
'Inner thoughts'
[Year X790]
~ With Shisui ~
"Nothing here either," Shisui sighed, lowering his hand from the rocky outcropping he'd been examining.
The stone surface showed no traces of magical residue, no hidden passages, no ancient markings. Just more natural mountain formation, weathered by centuries of wind and rain into unremarkable shapes.
'Six months…'
Shisui had spent the last half a year on intensive training combined with careless exploration of every accessible area within the Mountain Zone, and he had precious little to show for his investigative efforts. Not that the training had been wasted time, far from it. But the mission Warrod had assigned him was supposed to be an investigation, and investigations typically yielded discoveries.
His approach hadn't been particularly conventional, he had to admit. Rather than mapping out grid patterns or following predetermined routes, Shisui had allowed his training needs to guide his exploration.
When he wanted to work on his lightning techniques, he'd seek out high peaks. When his taijutsu required improvement, he'd find rocky terrain that would challenge his footing and balance. This wandering style meant he'd covered significant ground, but not always in the most efficient manner for uncovering secrets.
Even so, over the course of six months, he was confident he'd thoroughly explored every major region within the Mountain Zone. The outer ranges, the middle peaks, the hidden valleys tucked between towering stone walls. He'd investigated caves that looked promising from a distance but contained nothing more than pebbles and stones. He'd even climbed to remote plateaus that might have held ancient structures but supported only hardy mountain vegetation.
Nature, nature, and more nature. That's all he'd found in his wanderings.
The wildlife here was also typical for high altitude environments. Mountain goats with thick coats picked their way across impossible slopes. Eagles soared between the peaks, hunting for prey in the valleys below.
'How are there even animals living in this mountain zone?' He thought as he caught a glimpse of a rabbit hopping by. Even so, Shisui preferred to ignore this question as he knew he would not get an answer anytime soon.
Everything was exactly as one would expect from an uninhabited mountain range, with no signs of magical interference or ancient civilizations.
Which left only one location unexplored. The dead valley at the Mountain Zone's heart, where he believed the ruins of Mildian lay hidden behind whatever force had created that lifeless wasteland.
Shisui gathered his chakra and vanished in a flicker of movement. The continuous use of the Body Flicker technique carried him across miles of mountain terrain in seconds, a journey that would have taken hours reduced to mere moments. When he reappeared, it was at the familiar overlook that provided the best view of the central valley.
The dead zone spread before him exactly as he remembered it. The sharp boundary between life and death, marked by that unnatural line where mountain vegetation simply stopped existing. Beyond it, the blackened earth and skeletal trees that spoke of some ancient catastrophe. And at the valley's centre, the impressive ruins that had to be all that remained of the legendary city of Mildian.
Standing just a few feet from the border where the dead valley began, Shisui allowed himself to appreciate how much he'd changed.
When he'd first discovered this ominous valley six months ago, every survival instinct in his body had screamed warnings about approaching it. The overwhelming sense of wrongness, the complete absence of life, the way even his Sharingan had recoiled from whatever energies permeated that place. He'd been forced to retreat, acknowledging that he wasn't ready to face whatever lay beyond that threshold.
But now? Those same instincts remained quiet. The primal fear that had once overwhelmed his rational mind was simply gone, replaced by his confidence in his abilities as he was now.
Six months of intensive training had transformed him in ways that went far beyond simple power increases.
Most notably, his mastery over the Body Flicker technique had reached levels he'd never thought possible. The speed and control he now possessed with that technique rivalled even the legendary abilities of the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze. In terms of raw application, Shisui could move with the same devastating effectiveness that had made the Yellow Flash famous throughout the Elemental Nations.
Of course, he was honest enough to acknowledge the limitations of his improvement. Minato's Flying Thunder God was true teleportation, allowing instantaneous travel between marked locations regardless of distance. The Body Flicker, no matter how perfectly mastered, remained an enhancement of natural movement speed. In terms of utility and tactical flexibility, the Fourth Hokage's technique still held advantages that Shisui's version couldn't match.
But the gap had narrowed considerably. Where once there had been a vast chasm between his abilities and those of legendary shinobi, now there was merely a meaningful difference. That progress alone made the six months of pure isolation worthwhile.
More intriguing were the discoveries he'd made regarding his Mangekyo Sharingan during this intensive training period. Months of unrestricted use, pushing the dojutsu to its absolute limits without concern for observers or consequences, had revealed capabilities he'd never suspected. Changes that suggested his eyes had evolved beyond their original state, possibly achieving something that should have been impossible without the sacrifice of a blood relative.
These multiple new developments had convinced him that he now possessed the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, or at least a variation of it.
First, and perhaps most immediately noticeable, was the dramatic improvement in his chakra control and consumption when his Mangekyo was active. The difference was so noticeable that it felt like operating on an entirely different dojutsu.
During his battle against Khathros, Shisui had been forced to deactivate his Sharingan while using his "Lightning Style: Thunderdome" jutsu.
The yin-nature chakra that flowed through his Sharingan had interfered with his control over this particular jutsu, resulting in dangerous instabilities that had backfired catastrophically during the creation of his original jutsu. At the time, he'd attributed the problem to his relative inexperience with combining advanced dojutsu abilities and elemental manipulation.
Now, with his evolved Mangekyo active, that limitation had completely disappeared.
The improved control was so precise that he could maintain his enhanced perception while channelling lightning chakra with perfect stability. Not only could he use the original Thunderdome technique without any interference, but the enhanced control allowed him to create variations of the jutsu that would have been impossible before. Focused electrical arcs instead of wide-area effects, curved trajectories that followed his visual targeting, even delayed activation that let him set traps with lightning-based attacks.
The versatility this improvement offered was staggering. Every technique in his arsenal could potentially be refined or adapted through the enhanced control his Mangekyo now provided.
Second, despite months of reckless and intensive use of both his Mangekyo Sharingan and his Susanoo, he felt none of the strain that should have accumulated from such extended activation. The legends and historical records from the Uchiha Tablet were clear about the costs of overusing these abilities.
Progressive vision loss, intense pain, and eventual blindness were the inevitable consequences of pushing the Mangekyo beyond its limits.
Yet after half a year of training that regularly pushed those supposed limits, his vision remained perfect. If anything, his eyesight had improved during this period. The absence of pain was equally remarkable. Where other recorded Uchiha had reported increasingly severe headaches and ocular distress from extended Mangekyo use, Shisui experienced nothing more than the mild fatigue that came from any intensive training session.
This complete lack of degradation strongly suggested that his eyes had evolved beyond the normal limitations that plagued other Mangekyo users. Only one explanation from Uchiha lore matched these symptoms, though it should have been impossible to achieve under his circumstances.
But it was the third discovery that provided the most compelling evidence for his theory. While examining his abilities with the careful attention that months of solitary training allowed, Shisui had realized that he no longer possessed Kotoamatsukami in his left eye.
~ End of Chapter 60 ~
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Power Stones: 145. Bonus Chapter secured for tomorrow!