ch 24. Izana's Mangekyō.

(Unedited)

Izana finished his small meeting with Naruto and went to search for Itachi. It had been a while since he saw him, the last time being the glimpse he saw when Shisui tried to commit suicide. Shortly after, Itachi had gone on a mission, probably to get some time to calm down and gather his thoughts while out of the village. He'd heard from Mikoto that Itachi had just returned from a mission and was supposed to be back. 

Izana firstly went to look at the training ground Itachi and Shisui always trained at. Itachi loved to train there, as it had been personally customized to his needs, and he might still go there to think of Shisui. When he found Itachi he would then think of if he should tell him Shisui was alive or not. It depended on what the situation was. So far, there was a lot unknown about the situation he found himself in. Who knew how deep the plot ran. Still, he would probably tell Itachi anyway. It was better to have an ally with the things that were going on.

Izana arrived at the training ground but didn't find Itachi. The training ground was empty except for the few training swords and targets. Broken targets were strewn around, having been left in the corner as if the user had been in a hurry. It didn't look as if someone had been there recently, so Izana went on with his search.

He looked everywhere, from the places he often visited to the places he visited least, but he still couldn't find him. Chances were that Itachi had been called back for another mission. And if he knew Itachi, those missions could often take weeks to be finished. Izana had no choice but wait for Itachi to come back to the residence.

Izana sighed and went to find Jiraiya. If he couldn't find Itachi, he might as well ask Jiraiya about the Chuunin exams and how that all worked. If he could gain any information and hints on how to prepare, he would gladly take it.

Arriving at the Hokage building, Izana quickly sensed Jiraiya's chakra and followed it to his location. It was, as expected, inside the Hokage's office. Izana knocked on the door and was soon let inside the office. From the shadows, Izana could feel the eyes of the Anbu on him, but he didn't show it. It was limited to just outside the office, so he needn't worry too much.

Jiraiya didn't seem to be talking about something important as both he and the Third were drinking tea and speaking casually. Seems like the teacher and student were catching up on missed time.

"Oh, Izana-kun. What brings you here?" The Thirds asked, cooling his tea down with a few breaths of air.

"Hello, Hokage-sama. I was looking for Jiraiya-sensei. It was concerning the Chuunin exams." Izana replied as he sat down beside Jiraiya. Jiraiya chuckled as he ruffled Izana's head, not expecting his young pupil to find him so soon. 

"I see. Has he already told you about it?" The Third said, taking short puffs from his pipe, his eyes glancing at Jiraiya.

"No, Hokage-sama. That's why I'm here."

"I see." The Third said.

"Ah, I might have forgotten. The Chuunin exams will start in two weeks. They are different with every exam, but they are mostly to see how adept you are with team work, knowledge and combat skills. You shouldn't have any problems with that. Concerning the team challenge, I guess you will be teamed up with other Chuunin who don't have a team or are short a member. You'll be notified about that shortly."

Jiraiya commented with a big smile on his face.

"I see, thank you for explaining, sensei." Izana said as he was sure to remember it.

"I also wanted to mention that I've spoken with Naruto about the kyuubi and made sure they got along well with each other." Izana said, dropping a bomb.

The pipe fell from the Thirds hands, while Jiraiya sprayed out the tea he had just taken a sip of.

"That was all, I'll be taking my leave." Before the Third could stop him, Izana had already body flickered out of the office, vanishing from their sight.

"He wasn't joking, right?" Jiraiya said, looking a bit troubled.

The Third grabbed his glass ball and searched for Naruto. He quickly found him, alone in the forest seemingly speaking to himself and laughing a bit.

"He was completely serious. To be safe, I'll make sure to let another Anbu keep a close eye on him. Though it doesn't look like the seal has weakened. Naruto appears to be completely fine." The Third said, exclaiming in relief.

"Maa, Izana knows what he's doing. If he thought Naruto was ready for it, then he probably was. He's steadily growing stronger that kid. If he thinks Naruto can handle it, then I have nothing to worry about." Jiraiya said, having completely regained his calm and the smile back on his face. There was complete faith in his student, as Jiraiya clapped in thigh excitedly. He couldn't help but boast about Izana in fervor.

The Third didn't doubt Jiraiya's trust in Izana and resumed in smoking his pipe.

.

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Izana arrived back at the Uchiha residence and notified his uncle and aunt about the Chuunin exam. Fugaku seemed very pleased with Izana's progress and suggested he trained with Izana before the exams started. If Izana needed someone to give him pointers and a sparring partner, he wouldn't shy away to give a hand.

Izana happily agreed as this was one of the few times he could spend with his uncle.

Izana went towards his room in a good mood.

Once there he lay down on the bed and went through a couple of books describing tactics and strategies on battles. He had to prepare as much as he could for the Chuunin exams. From what he had heard, which wasn't much, the exams were challenging and difficult. Some people even lost their lives during the exam. There was nothing more important than being ready for the unknown.

He read for a few hour but soon had to stop when his eyes, that still had a slight pain during the day, began to ache even more. It felt like they were burning. Izana groaned in pain as he pressed his palms firmly against his eyes.

"It hurts!" Izana groaned, muffling his voice in the sheets of his bed.

[Your eyes are done developing. It's the final stages. Once they stop hurting, your Mangekyo will be ready. It shouldn't take more than a minute.] Ryuujin commented, as chakra was beginning to converse in Izana's eyes. From Ryuujin's point of view, it was a mesmerizing, ethereal sight to see chakra move like that.

Izana nodded and kept his voice down as he waited for the pain to stop. Like Ryuujin had promised, the pain stopped within a minute. They still throbbed a little, but that too was beginning to fade. Feeling a bit dizzy, Izana slowly got up from the bed and blindly searched his way to the bathroom.

Once the throbbing was gone, a cool and refreshing feeling remained. Izana slowly opened his eyes and looked in the mirror. Staring back at him was an intricate pattern in his crimson red eyes.

It were three black bars streching outward from an enlargened pupil. The middle of the pupil had a wide empty space, as the red iris seemed to glow in the dark.

(A/N: Izana's Mangekyo, picature here)

Izana pulled his lower eyelid a bit down to look closer at the design. He had heard about the Mangekyo from Shisui and Ryuujin. He had really hoped it would look decent. He was really satisfied with how they looked. It was simple yet refined.

When he focussed of which abillities he'd got, he was a bit confused. That couldn't be it, right?

If it really was those powers, how would he use it?

Izana looked at his reflection in the mirror, a bit lost on how he could train his occular powers.

[Well, it was to be expected it would become that.] Ryuujin said as he could feel what Izana was thinking.

"I mean, how am I going to train in that?" Izana said.

One eye had to power to affect anything he looked at. Thanks to the poison he had absorbed, everything he looked at would melt away throught the power of corrosion or would be petrified, depending on what kind of result he wanted them to be.

The power of the other eye should be Regeneration, though he had no idea how to test it out. He wasn't planning to injure himself. What if he was wrong and it didn't heal?

[Just test it out. You could always visit the hospital and say you got it from training. Otherwise you could use your Yang release on yourself, though it would hurt a lot as you will be activating the cells individually with high amounts of chakra. You choose.] Ryuujin said as he too really wanted to find out what Izana's occular powers were.

"The I'll first try the corrosion powers, though not here." Izana said as he quickly left his bedroom and went towards his yard. He sensed no one around and activated his Mangekyō. He looked at a rock and directed his intent at it, willing it to be doused in a lot of acid.

As soon as he imagined it, the rock sizzled and visibly melted away at a high pace. Izana widened his eyes at the scene, as not even a trace remained from the rock except for a slightly melted ground and a pungent smell in the air.

[Nice offensive output. you could cause major damage to the enemy with that. They can't even treat it well, as if you don't want it to stop, it won't. Only way to stop it would be to cut of the skin where it hit or seal it away.] Ryuujin said as he was satisfied with the results.

"Next."

Izana grabbed a kunai from his weapon pouch and decisively made a cut on his hand. The blood flowed out like dam broke, but before it could even land on the ground, it seemed to trace back its steps and flowed back into his arm. The gash visibly mended itself.

[What about bigger injuries?] Ryuujin said as he was really curious to how far this Regeneration would work.

Izana took a deep breath and steadied his trembling hand. He was about to do something really stupid. Hopefully his Regeneration would work as he thought it would, otherwise he really needed to run to the hospital.

Izana slashed down the kunai and cut of the top of his pinky finger. Izana firmly gnashed his teeth as he held in his scream. It f*cking hurt! His fingertip fell to the ground and blood gushed out like a fountain. Before Izana could curse his luck and scold himself for stupid thoughts, the finger disintegrated and the finger was back on his hand, as if nothing had happened.

[Wow, you really are an idiot. Never thought you would cut of your own finger] Ryuujin said, a bit horrified. It seems Izana could be rather harsh on himself if he wanted to.

[At least we know now that you can regrow body parts. Don't get used to the regeneration though. It's bad to get used to it and start to rely on it. It might fail in desperate situations.] Ryuujin said, as they weren't sure what the limits were yet.

"I know. I won't become reliable on it." Izana said as he still looked at his hand in wonder. There wasn't even a speck of blood on the kunai.

[Good. Now deactivate your Mangekyo, you don't want others to know you have it. It should be your trump card for difficuly enemies. Just look at Shisui, once others knew what his magekyo could do, he was targeted for it.] Ryuujin spoke offhandely, a hint of caution in his voice.

Izana shuddered, yet a single thought couldn't help but pop up in his mind. They could both already imagine Danzo as his limbs were slowly getting eaten away by the corrosion.

"I wonder when the opportunity comes. I hope it's just a matter of time." Izana murmured as a sly and slightly evil look appeared on his face. It disappeared imediately when he was called by Mikoto to have dinner. All that could be seen on his face was a happy smile, though the malicious glimmer was still seen in his eyes.

Harsh indeed, to himself... and his enemies.