Interlude Chapter #7: Fuinjutsu Training

It was an average day for the citizens of Konoha, despite the weather turning for the cooler as Autumn started to pick up, the weather changed remarkably little as the trees were still in full bloom and it was still warm enough outside to wear a T-shirt .

(A/N: Mizuki and Co graduated in Spring, taking into account the odd five months worth of timeskips that I have added, that makes it roughly October, give or take a month)

In the forests on the outskirts of Konoha, two boys could be seen using brushes to delicately apply calligraphy onto canvices whilst also molding their chakra into the ink.

This duo was Obito and Mizuki, both of whom were currently practicing their Fuinjutsu under Minato Namikaze, a Fuinjutsu Genius and the future Fourth Hokage.

In the past month, Mizuki had continued to experience great hardships, although with them also came great successes and improvements.

Over the past month, Mizuki had conducted three more experiments alongside Orochimaru, all of which involved attempting to somehow artificially grant shinobi kekkei genkai they were not born with.

The experiments themselves were largely going successful, as they were able to find ways to streamline the surgery and make it quicker and more efficient.

And whilst they had not been fully successful yet, the most recent test subject was able to survive a full two days before passing, a major improvement.

Whilst these experiments were going on, Mizuki's mindset evolved as his previous views and convictions on getting stronger were fully solidified, even if he did end up as a monster.

Anko had also completed her first experiment with Orochimaru, much to Mizuki's relief, it was much less intensive than his as her job involved simply running the check ups on the test subjects such as checking for injuries or changes in their status and drawing blood.

Still, the experience clearly shook her as she saw the conditions that these subjects were forced to live in.

Mizuki had also progressed in his training even further.

His normal training regime involved creating three shadow clones to work on different tasks.

One would focus on learning and practicing elemental ninjutsu that he had been taught, mainly fire and earth style.

Although Mizuki did also do some research into wind style jutsu as they could make his fire style jutsu all the more powerful.

His second shadow clone would work on some Snake Style jutsu that had been taught to him by Hime, who he had since grown very close too.

Most of these jutsu involved Poison, although Mizuki's personal favourite was the one that allowed him to create a cloud of poisonous smoke.

(A/N: Think of the poison fog jutsu that Shizune used kind of)

The third shadow clone was easily the most important, as it focused on his Fuinjutsu training.

Unfortunately for Mizuki, creating Fuinjutsu and Juinjutsu like the curse mark were still far beyond him, although he was starting to see progress in this field.

Finally, Mizuki himself worked on his Taijutsu and strengthening his main body.

Whilst he was only still able to unlock up to the fourth gate, he was able to reach it much more easily.

Additionally, his base body strength had vastly improved, and whilst it was still a ways off from Guy's or even Lee's in the future when he is a genin, it is still superior to the vast majority of genin.

Immediately after he started doing his experiments, Mizuki also started his Fuinjutsu training under Minato alongside Obito roughly three afternoons a week.

Mizuki made the most of these times by focusing all of his shadow clones on learning the material given to him.

A strategy which pleasantly surprised Minato and one which Obito quickly replicated with his own shadow clones in order to also learn faster.

Overall, Obito's training speed was faster than Mizuki's on this front, as he had access to Minato more often and also had a larger chakra reserve which allowed for the creation of more clones and the ability to practice more frequently.

And whilst Mizuki's intelligence and overall learning ability were higher, it was not enough to bridge the gap between the two.

As they both already knew how to use the sealing and unsealing techniques, they were able to quickly move on to the next steps.

At first, they had both learned the carving seal, which despite it's seemingly uselessness in combat, could not be underestimated as it could be used to great effect by shinobi such as Jiraiya.

(A/N: Rip Jiraiya, his death was pretty sad for thirteen year old me)

After spending the past month learning how to use the finger carving seal and then how to modify the enclosing seal to make it smaller, the boys were ready to move on to developing new techniques.

(A/N: In the fourth Shinobi War, this technique could be seen applied to a large scroll, although Sasuke is seen using the technique via a tag, so the seal can be shrunk, and that is what Mizuki is learning how to do)

Currently, Mizuki and Obito were sitting underneath a large tree in the forest as they both worked on drawing different seals.

Currently, Mizuki was working on shortening the seal that he had recently learned in order to apply it in combat.

An effort which so far had been bearing fruit as although he had been working on the project for two weeks and was not fully ready yet, he was still able to make significant progress.

(A/N: No, I am not gonna tell you the seal that he is working on, that is gonna be a surprise for the chunin exams)

Mizuki and Obito continued to work on their seals over the course of the next few hour under the supervision of Minato, replacing old parts of the seals with new ones as they tested the results of their research and repeated, occasionally asking Minato for guidance in certain areas.

In what felt like the blink of an eye, the afternoon vanished as the sun began to set, bringing evening with it.

Seeing the time, the trio packed up their things and ended up heading towards Ichiraku, Minato's little way of treating them for their hard work.

Minato: "Good work today, eat up"

Mizuki: "Thanks"

Obito: "ITADAKIMASU"

And so, just like that, another day passed in Konoha as Mizuki and his friends got that much stronger, and the world gets that much closer to the greatest war it has ever seen as of yet.