The Fire Within, Eternal Flames Ignite!

It had been a rough couple of days for Kazue as she dealt with the loss of her brother, not to mention preparations for the Chuunin exams. But, she was an ANBU, and was trained extensively on dealing with her own emotions. This wasn't to say that she didn't feel an enormous weight upon her heart at the loss of her brother, but that she and others in ANBU were better able to deal with the pain of loss and put their energy to a more effective task. She decided that today she would practice with the new abilities granted by her eyes. She had done some digging and asked her father about it a lot and he said, while it was an amazing tool to have, it was a double edged sword. For now, at least.

Apparently, in her Left eye, she held the flames of Amaterasu. These were black flames that could supposedly burn anything, even water, to nothing. Not even ash. The flames would burn for seven days and seven nights if not put out by the user, according to clan lore anyways. She also read that her right eye had a couple of potential abilities she may unlock given time. She may get the Tsukuyomi, which is the ultimate Genjutsu. Or, she could get the ability to control the Amaterasu to an amazing degree.

1/10 (Amaterasu)

Today was the best day she could think of to take on this task, so she got out of bed to prepare herself. She put on her normal clothes, and strapped her bandanna to her head. Her hair was in its high pony tail as always. She slipped out her door and headed towards the Clan head's house, her childhood home. Walking through these halls was nostalgic, and brought back happy, yet at the same time painful memories of her childhood with Kileos. She made her way to a strange marking on the wall in a hallway, activating her sharingan and placing her hand on the wall, she would channel a burst of chakra through it and it would slide back and then to the side to reveal a passageway.

Walking down the narrow stair case, she would make it to the bottom, where the Naka shrine was hidden. Activating her Mangekyou Sharingan she would begin to read the Naka shrine, and recite to herself what it said. It covered the usage of the eye and the drawbacks, as well as how to fix them. She would need to know all of this before she began her training.

2/10

So, the Mangekyou Sharingan granted the user an even greater enhancement to perception and clarity than even the Sharingan gave, along with a deeper understanding of any ninjutsu, taijutsu or genjutsu seen. It also granted the user up to three unique abilities. While some of these abilities are rather common, it seems that usually, these abilities appear based on the user and their personality. Common, or known abilities are Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi, used by Okami Uchiha, the Nidaime Chowakage. Kamui, utilized by her father, Kosuke Uchiha, before he lost his eyes. Both of these ninja were also able to summon the form of Susano'o to aid them in battle.

From what she could read about Susano'o, it is only available to those who have mastered the use of both of their unique abilities. She knew that she had the Amaterasu in her left eye, but was still unsure what her right eye would develop. It would seem that she was on the path to getting the Tsukuyomi, an incredibly powerful genjutsu, but as the tablet read, everyone was different.

3/10

The tablet also covered the blindness caused by using the Mangekyou Sharingan. Apparently, each usage of any technique, causes some blindness. As well as sustaining any technique will also cause some blindness. Hell, even activating and maintaining the eye itself causes some blindness. But, one could not argue the usefulness of the eye, regardless of its draw backs. Her main concern for the moment would be to figure out how to summon the flames of Amaterasu.

According to clan legends, the black flames of Amaterasu are nigh unquenchable. They can burn for seven days, and seven nights. They can burn earth, lightning, wind, hell they can even burn water. The thing that she found to be the most amazing peice of lore is that these fires are so powerful, they can set OTHER fires ON FIRE. She honestly couldn't even fathom that, but she was excited to get to work with the training of the technique.

4/10

She felt like she had read enough on the history and the usage of the Mangekyou Sharingan and it was now time to begin working on summoning the flames forth. She made her way into the training ground portion of the Naka Shrine. She had heard a lot of the history of this place, such as it being the place that her grandparents had died, it being the place that her father awakened his Mangekyou Sharingan, and it being the place that her Great-Grandfather was killed by her father. It is also the most sacred and protected area in the clan compound and even one of the safest areas in the village itself. It had many seals and things that guarded it, but also seals that helped to make it a state of the art training facility.

She made her way to the center of the room and placed her hand on a seal in the floor and a single training dummy rose to greet her. It was a typical straw and hide dummy used to practice weapons or some taijutsu or ninjutsu. It had a bucket on its head along with a wooden shield and a wooden sword in its hand. She would sit down around ten meters from it and activate her Mangekyou. It was time to get to work.

5/10

She had been staring at the training dummy for well over five minutes now and had yet to see a single black ember for her troubles. She let out a frustrated grunt as she focused harder on the training dummy. Her mind slowly began to wander back to the moment she gained these eyes. 

'Kileos burst out of the building. She could see beads of sweat and blood running down his face. He was obviously not only shaken up, but had suffered great mental and physical trauma. They made eye contact, at that moment, Kazue was taken to the ground by her adversary. It happened so fast after that, but she remembers it with perfect detail, as clear as day. The missing ninja appeared in front of her brother with his hand coated in chakra. He plunged the blade through his heart. Their eyes were still locked, Kazue watched the light fade from her brother's eyes as he died.

She blamed herself for his untimely demise, if she had just been faster, or stronger, or hadn't gotten distracted, he might still be alive. But, he wasn't alive. Not anymore. So she had to focus on the here and now, make herself stronger for his sake. Be the ninja he never got the chance to be.

6/10

With a renewed sense of determination, Kazue stared at the training dummy with all of her might. She stared at it so forcefully, one would half expect it to fall over and die. That is exactly what she wanted to happen, but she also wanted it to be on fire. Not just any fire either, but black fire to be specific. She was so focused on creating the fire, that she had no other thoughts on her mind. She wasn't thinking about the time that was passing while she was down here, she wasn't thinking about the things she could be doing instead, no, she was purely thinking about the fire that she would be creating in mere moments if she had her way.

She was still staring, with a very comical expression on her face as she attempted to will the dummy to catch aflame. It had been nearly an hour since she had began and it was starting to wear on her. She needed to figure this technique out and fast. She realized that using the Amaterasu the first time had required her to feel an intense, burning rage and hatred. So she would try to implement those feelings into the training and try to feel angry and to hate the training dummy with an intense passion

7/10

It seemed that it was very difficult to develop a burning passion for hating an inanimate object. She needed to stare harder, but also get angrier. So, she, ingeniously, decided to remind herself of all of her past failures and project the resulting frustration onto the training dummy that was simply staring her down waiting for her to make a move. She let out a growl of anger at the sheer audacity this Dummy had to make fun of her, HER! Currently one of the strongest and most well known Kunoichi in the village! It was actually very irksome to her to have some two bit dummy thinking it was good enough to simply stare at her when she was trying her hardest to make it a victim of spontaneous combustion!

She continued to harden her steely gaze at the thing. Most normal people would have killed themselves by the sheer intensity and killing intent sent within the gaze itself, but this training dummy was no ordinary person, no, it was made of wood and had no soul, thus, it could feel no fear. This would be its downfall.

8/10

She continued to stare, allowing the hatred and anger she had been repressing for so long to boil over. She allowed all of her pent up emotions to spill out, her grief from losing her teammates all those years ago, her grief and guilt she felt at the loss of her brother recently, how she felt that she would never be strong enough. It was all spilling into the fore front of her mind and she felt as though she was about to explode. She almost did as she released a powerful blast of chakra and her left eye began to bleed.

As the blood formed and fell down her face as a stream of red tears, the dummy would be set alight in black flames. She had done it! But, her burst in chakra had also summoned forth countless other clones of said dummy. Only the ones closest to the original were also on fire, but that didn't matter at the moment, she was just happy to have succeeded in creating the fire.

9/10

Kazue was relieved, happy even, that she had managed to use the technique. But, she felt that she could go even farther with practice. She could currently set anything she focused her vision on, on fire with no warning, but she felt that she could also learn to control this fire. She focused, and actually remembered to apply her own chakra to it this time. She focused and focused, tried and tried, but nothing changed. She could feel her right eye itching though, perhaps that was significant? She had no idea.

She would continue to look around her at the dummies that were burning, or the ones not burning. Those that were burning had almost been reduced to ashes, but they were still on their way. She needed to figure out why her eye was itching, it was getting rather annoying. She would wipe the blood from under her left eye and then focus chakra into her right eye, just for curiosities sake.

10/10 (Claiming Amaterasu)

Upon focusing her chakra to her right eye, Kazue would find that the flames she had created with her left eye seemedbto react. They became more akin to spikes than normal flames. It was interesting to say the least. She then focused on trying to make it do something else, when suddenly all of the fire vanished without a trace. So it seemed she could also cancel the jutsu, which meant in turn, given proper training she could possibly control the flames to a very high degree.

It would of course take a lot of practice and hard training, but she would do her best to get it downm she also needed to work on actually controlling the flames. So, she summoned forth more just on the ground with her left eye and then focused her right eye to form them into spikes. It was a slow process, but she knew it needed to he done if she were to master these eyes.

1/5 (Blaze Release: Kagutsuchi)

She could form spikes and even control the flames to move along the ground. She needed to work on getting them to move at a decent speed though, otherwise this ability was pointless. She worked on forming a few different flames all while trying to move them about in complex patterns to hone not only her control of the flames, but also her ability to use multiple flames in conjunction. She was currently able to move two of the separate flames, although they only moved half as fast as she was able to move at her base speed. She needed them to move faster, at least as fast as she could move in order to make it worth while.

She had ideas on ways she could make this technique branch into many useful sub techniques. She could use her innate ability to control the flames to catch opponents off guard as while Amaterasu was relatively well known as a Sharingan ability, it was not ever heard of that it could be controlled at such a degree. She knew she could use this to catch this off guard any number of opponents, and with this technique thats all it would take.

2/5

This ability was possibly more versatile than the Tsukuyomi she had been hoping for would have been as it gave an insane amount of control over the flames created by Amaterasu which is the first technique he was given. She knew that she might can use this to more advantage than the Kamui that made her father famous. She would make the flames rise from the ground and hover as little black fire balls. It was obvious though that it was putting heavy strain on her eye, as it was bleeding pretty heavily.

Wiping her eyes, but keeping them focused on her task, she would make the fire balls begin to move in alternating figure eight patterns, moving each at a varying speed. She was finally getting the fastest one to a speed that was much closer to her maximum speed, but that wouldn't be enough for some shinobi she had head of in legends and even rumors of todays time.

3/5

Kazue had been in that closed off training ground for a few hours now and had actually started to make progress with her technique. She could now control as many flames as she wanted to create and move them all at her maximum speed. She had also learned she could coat her body in the flames of Amaterasu to act as the ultimate offense and a deterrent to taijutsu attacks. Sure, one could hit her, but they would also be setting themselves on fire with the eternal flames. This technique was proving itself to be more and more useful as her training progressed. She could only imagine the possibilities she would unlock by continuing to train and improve not only herself on the whole, but also her usage of the techniques she has access to.

Summoning forth another fifty training dummies she would run through the attack pattern she had been practicing the last little bit to make sure she had it right. Creating the Flames of Amaterasu with her left eye, she would then control them onto each of her fists using her right eye. She then proceeded to run among the training dummies, punching one every now and then, setting it ablaze. Once she was done, she had marked twenty five of the fifty, she then caused spikes to erupt from them catching the remaining dummies on fire.

4/5

It was now time to really put her ocular abilities to the test by putting the training room on full attack mode. It was in this mode that any Uchiha trained to gain experience in real combat scenarios. The scenarios pitted you against a shadow clone of a randomized ninja who was created using the various complicated seals throughout the room. She was now facing ten of them, they were scaled to match the strength of the one who summoned them, so she was facing ten shinobi roughly her strength. They, however, only could rely on taijutsu. She would quickly dispatch two of them with a glance, catching them on fire with Amaterasu. She would then coat her arms in the eternal flames.

Rushing forwards, she would punch one, dispelling it, then touch another one, using it to kill the two beside it with Amaterasu spikes. She only had five left. Sending a blast of the black fire from her hands towards two that had seemed to want to flank her while she set one ahead of her on fire with regular Amaterasu. She was now facing the last two of the clones. She sent a blast of Amaterasu towards one, the caused it to split in two, hitting both of them. She had made tremendous progress with these techniques and as such she would conclude her training for the day.

5/5 (Claiming Blaze Release: Kagutsuchi)

[The Next Day]

Kazue had arisen early to begin training up her ultimate defense. Apparently, those who mastered the usage of both techniques granted by their Mangekyou Sharingan had the ability to manifest the avatar of Susano'o. Regardless of who you were, this was not something to be taken lightly, Susano'o was said to be able to tower over mountains and take on Bijuu. So, she needed to train this form in a safe place, one that no one would be able to find her at. So, she made her way to the Naka Shrine again. She knew that it was the one place that had the most advanced training ground that she had access to.

Making her way towards the training ground, she would stop at the Uchiha burial grounds. She knelt by her brothers grave and allowed a single tear to fall from her eye. "Nii-chan, I will not let you die in vain. I will live out the best life in your honor. I will show you how great you could have been." Nodding her head in resolution, she would make her way to the Naka Shrine.

1/10 (Susano'o)

Entering into the house of the Clan head, she would find the hidden door and make her way inside. It was interesting to say the least, that only a few days ago, she only came here to do light reading or to immerse herself in some intense training to better hone her skills, but now she was here to delve into something new entirely. With her Amaterasu and Kagutsuchi combo, she was most certainly formidable in close range, and long range combat. Those were her ultimate offense. But, today, she had come to learn how to use her ultimate defense.

The Susano'o was apparently the most powerful and versatile technique the Uchiha clan had ever unlocked and was only usable by those who had two fully awakened Mangekyou Sharingan. It was the ability to summon an avatar of a massive beast that was able to stand its ground against Bijuu and almost any technique. It brought out the users strength and durability to entirely new levels.

2/10

It also seemed that it had the ability to form weapons, though these weapons seemed to differ from user to user. It also appeared that the appearance of the Susano'o differed from user to user. She knew also that any member of the Uchiha clan who awakened their other two Mangekyou powers could also awaken Susano'o. She needed to make sure that she had access to the technique to protect her village and those she cared about. She needed this power in order to guard herself and to empower her defense as her offense was already boosted.

She focused her eyes and activated her Mangekyou Sharingan. It was obvious that this training would be intense, but she knew she needed to get it done and the sooner the better. Focusing on the power she could feel growing within her, she focused as much chakra as she could to both eyes at once and suddenly an ethereal rib cage began to form around her.

3/10

It was white in color, but it seemed to be glowing and flickering with ethereal flames. She could feel that there was a lot of strain on her eyes though and too much sustained usage wouldn't be good for her. She needed to work on her control of the technique now. Pushing more chakra into it it slowly grew a little bit until the skeletal form actually made the torso of a humanoid skeleton. It was still only a white glowing skeleton but that was something. She also noticed that the arms were moved by her mind, no need to do crazy arm movements from inside of her very large, imposing shield.

She practiced a bit of the moving and tried to do a few basic katas with the form. IT would definitely take some getting used to, but she was sure she could do it. This was apparently the first level of the Susano'o she had read about. While it offered the least amount of protection, it also was the easiest to use, and arguably the most versatile of the stages.

4/10

It, in her opinion was the most versatile because she had heard that it could be partially manifested to summon an arm t use with the rib cage as a quickly formed defense, or a surprise offensive attack as the arm was still strong. It seemed though that this use required more concentration and control at the moment as she couldn't quite get it to form yet. She continued to struggle with it until she finally made it appear. It was half of the rib cage and a single arm sticking out of it. The usage of the arm was the same as it had been when she had the full skeleton out, but it was summoned quickly.

She continued to unsommon and then resummon the arm, and then the entire skeletal form. It was imperative that she get this part under good control before moving on to the more difficult stages of this training. She was able to focus a lot of her chakra into maintaining the rib cage and after further testing, her Amaterasu was compatible with this technique as well. this was good, as it allowed her to use it in conjunction with the Susano'o and to activate her Taijutsu deterrent while in this form.

5/10

She now felt that she was ready to begin working towards the second stage of the jutsu. She knew that it would require more chakra to bring forth and then stabilize, so she took a moment to draw her chakra inwards and focus it there. She needed to be at her top game in order to complete this training. Breathing out, she would allow the skeletal first form of the technique to blaze forth. It was an imposing sight, seeing the ghostly skeleton leering at you. But, she knew that its aggressive appearance would only serve to excite some opponents, so she needed to be ready to face them with more than just scary ghost bones.

Pushing more chakra into the technique she felt something begin to happen. At first, it was just an itch, but then it became an almost unbearable burning pain behind her eyes. She knew she was spewing blood from her eyes as she continued to pump more and more chakra intot he technique. It wouldn't be long now before she started to see some form of progress. She had been at it for nearly three hours already.

6/10

Pushing more and more chakra into the technique, she could feel the pain intensify. It was almost enough to make her quit, if she were to be honest with herself. But as soon as she started to deactivate the technique, she saw an image of her brother smiling at her with that goofy grin. She then gave a powerful yell before sending a burst of chakra through the jutsu to cause muscles and tendons and then skin to form. It was amazing really, to feel so much stronger with just a little added chakra, but that's exactly what she felt.

The technique had increased her strength exponentially and she could physically feel the difference. She of course didn't move, but the massive beast she was riding in did. It waved its arms and slammed them on the ground causing something of an earthquake. It was an amazing feeling to have so much raw strength at your fingertips, and she hadn't even activated the weapon yet.

7/10

Focusing her chakra, Kazue was able to push more than she had been. This caused a blade made from chakra to form in her right hand. It was a long, ethereal white blade that looked to be immensely sharp on the cutting side, but jagged on the opposite side. It was also very light feeling to her, but upon slamming it into the ground, she found that it was indeed much heavier than it felt. It left a deep gash in the training field that was slowly being mended by the different seals around the area. She felt so good about the amount of progress she was making, she wanted to keep going.

Swinging the sword in different directions, Kazue was working to get the hand of its use. She needed to make sure she had the right control, to avoid collateral damage. She only wanted to kill and break things that she actually meant to kill or break. She needed to focus more on precision with a form like this, as it had a high potential for a large radius of destruction. She knew she would need to keep this in mind whenever she needed to use this in combat, as she was somewhat likely to have either innocents or allies by her side or in the immediate vicinity.

8/10

Pushing more chakra into the technique, she could feel it had a bot more potential for growth. This was obviously the room for the third and final stage of Susano'o, the complete avatar. This room was large enough to hold a Bijuu, so she assumed it would hold this full form. She pushed more chakra into it, yet nothing happened. Pushing more and more, but still nothing. She finally gave a shout of outrage, pushing as much chakra as she could manage out. This caused her to begin to rise from the ground. She could feel her strength increasing even further as she rose until she was nearly at the ceiling of the room.

She was placed in a crystal atop the head of the great Susano'o. Her Susano'o was pure white with a tengu like beak. Its eyes shone a bright red through the blackness left by its mask, almost alluding to the Sharingan. Its mouth was horrifying, showing off a row of apparently razor sharp teeth, it was very intimidating to look at, not to include its massive size. On its back, it had two white wings that had hand like claws at their joint. In its arms it held two swords. One was a larger version of the original chakra sword, now held by its left hand. Its right hand now held a sword that was solid black, powered by an orb of Amaterasu held in the right hand.

9/10

She had officially done it. She had learned the Susano'o technique. She knew that she had a long ways to go and much more in battle experience to gain before she considered herself a master of the technique, but learning it was a task in and of itself. She was proud and was excited to see what she could do with her new abilities. First, she would focus on shrinking her size within the third stage to the same size her other two stages had been. This took practice, but she was eventually able to get it down. She also thought about creating a technique that made this armor more compact, to be used just around her body. Well, that was a project for another day.

It was time for her to head out and begin preparations for the Chuunin Exams. She had been told that she would be acting as a proctor, as such, she needed to memorize the rules and the contestants names, faces and village information. She would also need to sit through the boring ANBU security briefings that covered what to do in the village in the presence of foreign shinobi and diplomats. Apparently all of the leaders of the world would be there soon, so she needed to be at the top of her Game.

10/10 (Claiming Susano'o)