38 No pain, no gain

"I think you may be right, Kurama... That's what I'll do. Thanks for helping out earlier." Dix said with a resigning sigh as he mostly stabilized.

"Of course its right, I was the one to say it! Now hurry along kid, your crisis brought on something else too, something that might cheer you up. Don't panic right away though, just wait patiently."

Dix had seriously no idea what Kurama was talking about, so he just bid his farewell and proceeded out of the chamber. His body disappeared from the cage, but actually he didn't go anywhere, just forcibly resurfaced his consciousness. Now in his new body he wanted to look around how much time has passed, but what he saw was shocking.

He didn't see anything. He could only feel Yami licking his face and hear her whimpering.

His first thought was that in his fit of madness he accidentally damaged his sharingans. That would be nothing short of disastrous. But then he remember Kurama's words, and hurried to calm his already crumbling nerves. He didn't know what to do, but patiently waiting is not his style, so he summoned a clone to see whats up with his eyes. He had an inkling that there was something up with his sharingans, so he summoned a clone without those. The clone appeared, then a sudden gasp was heard.

"The sharingans' tomoes are rapidly circling in the eyes! Hurry, disable the transformation technique!" the clone said and dispersed fast so he can convey the experience back to Dix. It was an accurate description. He quickly did as the clone instructed then summon another one to see whats happening, then gave Yami some patting and tried to calm her down with a few gentle words.

"I know what this looks like! The sharignans are probably evolving! See, just as I said, the series' explanation that you have to see someone you love die is bullshit! Great news!" came the report, as Dix couldn't see anything himself.

This was quite intriguing, as Dix thought the eyes will evolve much later, but it seems like when he went trough his crisis he left every seal near his eyes open and without care, so the eyes were able to suck away a lot of his chakra, both transformed and non-transformed.

Suddenly a stinging pain in his eyes sent shivers down his whole body. He instinctively closed his eyes, at which the clone shouted out:

"Hey! Don't close them, I want to see the transformation!"

"Shut up... It hurts like all hell, you'll feel it soon." came the answer.

"Yeah I know, or at least I can imagine, but try to keep them open!" the clone said and Dix wanted to see it too, so he tried to force it open. By the time he managed to do that the eyes' new layout and even a new color was already in place. The clone quickly summoned another one himself.

"Holy shit, you see that too, or am I the defective one?!" the clone cried pointing at Dix's eyes, with which he himself still couldn't see.

"Yeah, I see it too, stop shouting... This is most interesting. If I were to make an educated guess the sharingans' Uchiha intent fused with our natural chakra, which has the regenerating ability and strength of the Uzumaki inheritance. Wait... We are the reincarnation of Asura. That means we have Asura's chakra, while at the same time we have Inda's sharingan... This never occurred to me before!" the clone said, with a steadily rising voice.

"Holy shit, you are right! We might be able to unlock the Rinnegan later on!!! DAAAAMN"

"Guys, shut up, that might be true, but its way off into the future, if that even happens. We aren't Senjus, so the chances aren't THAT good. Now tell me ,what the fuck is going on with my eye?! I still can't see shit!" came Dix's retort. He was getting annoyed over his own clones, that are basically the same as him. Funny thing.

"Hehe, calm down, big shot. Your eyes' layout is normal in their uniqueness. But there is something else too... As I said our chakra probably merged with the Uchiha's in some way, so the sharingans turned to blue." Dix couldn't believe it. The clones knew he wouldn't, so the 'oldest' dispersed itself to show him what it looked like. And it really was blue (A/N: I post a picture on discord so you can see his Mangekyo Sharingan I envisioned).

This was really great. But Dix was still blind. He tried to scan the eyes with his inner-vision, but didn't find much to start off with, so he couldn't do anything else but simply wait, same as Kurama said. In a few minutes, as he kept blinking his eyesight soon started clearing up. It took almost a whole hour for his eyes to return to normal... Or more like to the new normal. Dix was able to see even more, even better and with probably better kinetic and dynamic vision. He will have to try it out soon. Also he will have to check out the new skills.

But not right there and then. He promised Kurama and himself that he takes a break. Now, even though the crisis almost killed him again, but he got the Mangekyo Sharingan in exchange. But he never wanted to experience that hell again. The simple thought made him shudder.

He will also have to leave the Flying Thunder God Technique for a later day.

He looked around, and saw that its already almost evening, the sun was barely hanging on the edge of the horizon. He will have to get home soon. He remembered that he was knocked out at a bit before noon. Then he also realized something...

*FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK*

Yes, it was pretty bad for him.

*Its a school day! And I was knocked out during school time! That means my clone dispersed when I lost consciousness! GOD FU...*

At that second he heard shouts from the woods. He could also see movement deep in the woods, way farther than he was ever able to see. He saw that ninjas with Konoha-uniform were searching for something. He understood they were probably looking for him. He quickly tried to conceal his sharingan, which retracted with a simple thought into his original blue eyes he always had, but this time without the transformation jutsu running.

"Well that's convenient..."

His eyesight rapidly deteriorated as his new sharingans retracted, or more like his vision returned to normal. He saw the ninjas closing on him so he decided to intercept them before they find his camp. He left behind a clone to take Yami away somewhere else. He didn't want the ninjas to mistake her as a wild wolf and kill her. Right after that he jumped up the trees and rapidly moved to receive his guests. Everyone landed together on a small clearing, with a bit of distance between Dix and the squad of four ninjas, who were led by Kakashi Hatake himself. It wasn't an overstatement to say he was the best tracker ninja in the whole village, so its not surprising that he was the one to find him. He opened the conversation with an annoyed look and tone.

"What the hell happened to you, kid? Nobody knew you can use the Shadow Clone Technique, and 'you' suddenly disappeared from class. Iruka was scared out of his skin and rushed to Lord Hokage to report with a pale face, fearing the worst. His panic spread like a wildfire and tracking squads were assembled right away. So what happened?"

"Uh... Kakashi sensei. I'm sorry, but it seems like it was a false alarm. I was practicing my incomplete rasengan and it blew up into my face when I tried a new way to stabilize it. I'm extremely sorry! It seems like I wasted the time of many people. I am going to take responsibility." he said looked at the ground with a shameful and anxious face.

Seeing the kid was repenting Kakashi eased up a bit. Then he glanced at his torn clothes and open wounds on his skin. Some were still oozing a bit of blood.

"You must've messed up quite a bit, your rasengan did this to you?" he asked with a bit easier voice.

"Yes, sensei. I believe so, at least. I was knocked unconscious almost right away, I woke up around 10 minutes ago. I am quite alright though. " he answered. The wounds themselves were a bit odd, but Kakashi had no reason to doubt the kid. Still, he mentally noted his impressions.

"Okay, at least you are all right. Lets get you to the hospital."

"Yes, sensei. Thank you."

He was quickly escorted to a hospital and was treated quite fast, as none of his injuries were deep. The Third soon stepped in to check on Dix.

"When I heard you had a clone-substitute in school that dispersed on its own I had feared the worst. I gave you your father's jutsu not long ago, and I thought there was a grave accident. So what really happened?" he asked Dix as soon as he caught sight of him.

"Don't worry, Uncle Hiruzen, its just that I pushed my limits a bit and I wasn't careful enough when I overstepped them. I had a great idea this morning about the Flying Thunder God Technique's first step, the formula. I am able to use it, so the idea turned out to work properly. That's why, even though I usually want to attend school, this morning I decided to send my clone instead. About the accident... I was quite tired by the time I finished with the formula, but I still wanted to practice the rasengan a bit. It seems like I was too tired to keep my focus and it blew up in my face. That knocked me unconscious." Dix said with varying tones. First he pretended to be happy to 'share his breakthrough', then he was apologetic about his misstep.

The Third 'noticed' this, and eased up, even started laughing.

"Haha, my son, so you are all right. Its normal that you want to know your limits..." he said with an amused demeanor, but the his smile withered and he looked as serious as possible as he looked into Dix's eyes and continued.

"But be absolutely sure you properly find your limits before attempting teleportation by the Flying Thunder God Technique. It can easily kill you. Do not take chances. I hope you can understand this." he said

Dix just nodded, upon which the still standing Third said his farewells before turning around and leaving.

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A/N:

I decided to put the discord's link and other important information here. This way maybe more people will get the memos :D

I'll use the Author's Thoughts section to give a bit of extra explanation if necessary.

You find the official discord for the novel here: https://discord.gg/XCEDp7H9tA

Thanks for the read, I'd appreciate if you were to leave your thoughts in the comments and donate some stones.

Cheers! :D