"Brother, why are we going so far to learn? It has already been 5 hours," Kaida asked. He and Itachi had been following Shisui for the past three hours out of Kumogakure.
Though they were still in the Land of Lightning for now, it was very far from Kumogakure.
"There are reasons, Kaida. Wait until we reach the location Jiraiya-sama has told us about. When we get there, we will begin the training," Shisui said.
"Okay, bro," Kaida replied.
After one more hour, they reached a rugged mountain range filled with barren mountains, with no greenery at all. This might have been the reason there was no human settlement or movement in the nearby area, completely deserted.
"Okay, this area is perfect for us to start," Shisui said.
"Brother, are you going to teach us some forbidden jutsu or something?" Kaida asked, seeing how much attention Shisui was paying to security.
"No, but something almost at that level. Do you guys know what the biggest weakness of the Sharingan is, specifically its genjutsu?" Shisui asked.
"We have to look into the eyes of the enemy. And with our Sharingan being so famous, other ninjas have developed techniques to avoid looking into our eyes while fighting, making most of our genjutsu useless," Itachi said.
"But that doesn't mean they've completely countered the Sharingan. Genjutsu is just a part of the Sharingan's power, not all of it," Shisui replied.
"But still, what do you think we Uchiha did after others developed a way to counter our genjutsu by avoiding eye contact?" Shisui asked.
"We focused on other powers of the Sharingan and developed better kenjutsu and taijutsu to go along with the heightened reflexes and perception of the Sharingan," Kaida said, as he had firsthand experience with how deadly Uchiha kenjutsu was when used with the Sharingan.
"Yes, but there was something else as well," Shisui said as he activated his 3-tomoe Sharingan. Kaida and Itachi instinctively looked down.
But Shisui pointed his finger at both of them, and suddenly they saw many snakes emerging from the ground and pouncing toward them. Both activated their Sharingan, ready to counter-attack, when the snakes suddenly vanished.
"How?" Kaida asked in a shocked voice.
"Ephemeral Genjutsu?" Itachi asked, seeing Shisui's finger pointing toward him and Kaida.
When Kaida noticed that, he looked toward Itachi all of a sudden.
'This is the genjutsu he used against Naruto, by just pointing his finger at him,' Kaida thought, remembering the scene from the anime he watched on repeat.
"Yes, Ephemeral Genjutsu—the result of research and dedication by many Uchiha who wanted to eliminate the only weakness of the Sharingan.
Here, you project all of your yin chakra from your hand with the help of your Sharingan, maintaining a specific chakra pathway, and then guide that chakra toward the enemy, placing them under genjutsu," Shisui said, pride evident in his voice. Even though he loved his village, he still cared for his own clan. Like every other Uchiha, he was also very proud of his lineage.
"Then why don't we just use that instead of relying on eye contact?" Kaida asked, a little confused.
"There are some downsides as well. The first is the strain it puts on the Sharingan. A normal Uchiha with a 2-tomoe Sharingan can't even perform this. You need at least 3 tomoe, and even then, you can only do it at most twice a day; otherwise, you risk damaging your eyes.
The second weakness is distance. Projecting chakra out makes it highly volatile, and the farther it has to travel, the weaker it gets. Even Fugaku-sama could only use this within a range of 150 meters with his 3-tomoe Sharingan, and he's currently the best at it," Shisui explained.
"So we're going to learn this genjutsu in just two weeks? Is that possible?" Kaida asked, as it sounded difficult.
"I don't know, and we'll never know unless we try. So, what are you waiting for? Let's start," Shisui said with a smile.
"So, what do we have to do?" Kaida asked.
"Don't resist," Shisui said as he once again activated his Sharingan, but this time, it was the Mangekyo Sharingan. As Shisui had instructed, Kaida and Itachi didn't resist when Shisui placed them under genjutsu once again. Both of them appeared in a white room.
"What is this?" Kaida asked.
"A learning room. The first step to mastering this genjutsu is knowing how to rotate your chakra inside your body before using the Sharingan to project it out. As you can see, we have these types of chakra pathways in our bodies…" As Itachi spoke, the wall behind him changed, and a human-shaped image appeared, showing the various chakra pathways. Shisui continued.
"You have to move your chakra along this particular path," he said, as the pathway lit up in red, and then an arrow appeared, showing where to start, where to pause, and how fast to move.
"This is so f**cking cool!" Kaida said.
"Language, brother. Mom will get angry if she ever hears you saying stuff like this. Now, pay attention," Shisui chuckled and continued.
After the initial explanation, Kaida and Itachi asked some questions, which Shisui explained calmly. Both Kaida and Itachi were very focused on learning, making sure to understand and remember all the details completely, forgetting about time in the process.
"Guys, we're going to exit now. It's getting difficult for me to maintain it," Shisui said.
"Okay, brother," Kaida replied, and Itachi nodded. When they opened their eyes again, it was already nighttime outside.
"We've been inside the genjutsu for so long. Brother, are you alright?" Kaida asked, knowing how dangerous it was to use the Sharingan for this long, especially the Mangekyo Sharingan.
"Yeah, I'm just out of chakra. You guys can start practicing or take some rest, while I'm going to have a quick nap," Shisui said, then used a hand sign to create a small cave in the mountain.
"Here, brother," Kaida said, using his shadow clone to make a bed for Shisui.
"Thanks," Shisui said and went to sleep.
"So, what do you want to do now? Rest or train?" Kaida asked.
"Of course, training. But you can rest if you want," Itachi said.
"Huh? Why would I? I'm also going to train," Kaida said.
---
*Meanwhile...*
Away from the village, Deidara had secluded himself in a remote section of the valley, far from the others. For a long time, he was praised as a genius in Iwagakure, a village that valued talent. Deidara was in his own league there.
But now, for the first time in his life, he was feeling humiliated, and he wanted nothing more than to crush the source of this feeling. That's why he was doing something he hadn't done in a long time: training.
"Let's see if this works or not," Deidara said, taking out some clay from his pocket while chewing it in the mouths on his hands.
"Since Earth chakra can control weight and Lightning chakra can be used to repel things, this should be possible," he said to himself, spewing out a bird-like figure from his hand/mouth.
With a speed visible to the naked eye, the bird grew large enough for Deidara to sit on it. Then, he manipulated the Earth chakra to reduce the weight of both himself and the bird as much as he could, and used the Lightning part of his kekkei genkai to form a repulsion to lift them into the air.
"Yes!" he shouted as his bird lifted off the ground as if flying. But before he could do anything else, his control wavered a little, and he fell to the ground. Yet, instead of disappointment, there was a smile on his face.
"This time," Deidara muttered to himself, "I'll blast that smug kid into oblivion. Art is an explosion!"
The bird flew once again and struck a mountain, blowing it to smithereens.