Returning to the battlefield

The next day, most of his wounds had been healed and he was combat ready. Although he could stay and just train his physical body, but that was not the quickest option. The best was life and death battles that will make him overcome his limits.

So, as soon he received a fresh set of armour, he left the camp and went towards the battlefield. He went alone as he didn't want to burden others and only when he was alone would he truly feel that he was in a precarious situation.

Heading towards the woods, Mukuro jumped onto the trees and started manoeuvring between them yet kept his vigilance. He tried to decrease his presence as much as he could while he looked for enemy shinobi. The Uchiha clan's main enemy, the Senju clan was known for their mastery of a variety of techniques. Some would be extraordinary sensors while some would have mastered a certain element. Some Senju would have focused one just one element while other more than one. Some may have a mastery of seals, basically it was very rare to encounter Senju that had mastered the same things.

The Uchiha clan was known for the visual prowess, the Sharingan. One of the strongest clans alongside the Senju, they were more inclined to the fire element. This showed how powerful the Sharingan was and Mukuro had awakened it at the age of seven. The only other person he could think of was Uchiha Itachi, but he still wasn't born yet.

Mukuro had trouble remembering everything from the anime, so he was just working with what he could do. Before the incident, he was still a talented Uchiha that had more chakra than the others his age. Now with the two souls combining caused him to have an imbalance with his spiritual energy and physical energy. Having more than double his previous spiritual energy, caused his physical energy to lag behind tremendously. It was best for him to find a balance with the two, this would allow his chakra to increase and decrease the strain his body would feel. Increasing his physical energy meant strengthening his body, this would allow him to withstand any future upgrades of his sharingan.

Another thing he wanted was a summon so it would be possible for him to learn sage mode. He didn't know if he had any talent for it but, remembering the show, only the sage of the six paths and Uchiha Sasuke were shown to be able to utilise nature energy while being wielders of the Sharingan. Yet, he couldn't find an Uchiha that used sage jutsu.

For now, that was thrown to the back of his mind as his Sharingan picked on a few sources of chakra ahead. He kept his sharingan activated since the start, to try and increase how long he could keep it activated and search for targets. There were three shinobi patrolling the area up ahead. They wore a green armour that had the Senju clan symbol on their shoulder pads.

Slowly creeping up on them, Mukuro waited for the three to give a slight opening.

The three seemed to not have a sensory ninja upon them as they vigilantly looked around. One of them was a young teenager while the other two seemed to be young adults. All of them had vigilant yet experienced eyes of people who have gone through war. This meant that there probably won't be an opening this soon.

Still Mukuro thought that this would be a good way to train his patience. Time passed as Mukuro followed them until they encountered group of shinobi in front of them. The vigilance in their eyes didn't lessen, but rather increased as the clan emblem they saw on the opposite party was of the Hagoromo clan.

"Senju."

"Hagoromo."

Mukuro thought this was the perfect opportunity when he saw the enemy shinobi concentrate on the other group. Making the hand seals Snake → Ram → Monkey → Boar → Horse → Tiger, he internally shouted,

'Fire Release, Great Fireball Technique!'

Sucking in a deep breath of air, he forcefully blew outwards, causing a rather large fireball to leave his mouth as he jumped down from the trees. The three Senju clansmen were caught by surprise but quickly reacted by dodging to the side. Knowing that one would be left alone, he saw that one had jumped to the left and shot towards him. His movement was nigh instantaneous as he appeared in front of the enemy. Making himself eye level, he caused the opponent to look into his sharingan,

'Genjutsu, Sharingan'

A blank look immediately surfaced on the teenage Senju as Mukuro quickly chopped his head off with his naginata. Mukuro had a talent for illusions since young. The dispersing fireball showed the result on the other end as a scream left one of the Senju with rage filling eyes. It seems that the person he killed was close but showing emotions in the battle of shinobi meant death. Out of impulse he threw himself at Mukuro who replied by throwing his shurikens. These shurikens were specially thrown as one was hiding another. So, while the Senju deflected the first, the hidden second one found his throat.

As he collapsed, resignation was present on his face as the light left his eyes. Those of the Hagoromo clan looked at this spectacle with wide open eyes as they just saw a kid take down a teenager and adult with relative ease.

Mukuro looked around only to see that the third one had escaped. He had created a mist before leaving but Mukuro was still able to see the direction he went off to. The mist was most likely for the Hagoromo clansmen. Looking up, he also saw a bird leaving the area with a message attached to his leg and knew that even if he killed the third one, the message about him would have already made its way to their main HQ.

Slowing his breathing down, he looked at the members of the Hagoromo clan, nodded and flickered away. Apart from illusions, Mukuro's training was based on speed and agility. His preferred weapon was a naginata, meaning that although it had a longer reach, it was a slower weapon to wield. Despite training in other ninja tools, he liked the feel on the naginata the most. It was the perfect for multiple enemies.

With that, Mukuro returned to hunting down enemy shinobi while a large bounty was put on his head with the status of HVT on him.

Months flew by as Mukuro trained his body and fought on the battlefield. Training up to collapsing allowed him to strengthen his body and tiring his body out while fighting alongside countless Life and Death battles caused him to increase his physical energy which in turn caused his chakra to increase.

Chakra was created due to the combination of the two, so as his physical energy would increase and came closer to his spiritual energy it also meant that his chakra would also increase. Physical energy was collected from each and every one of the body's cells through training. Spiritual energy was derived from the mind's consciousness.

So, as his sharingan had awakened, his physical energy had also increased, due to the upgrade in his eyes which caused his chakra to increase. However, his main body hadn't had any sort of strengthening which caused it to strain itself in holding his chakra.

Apart from training his body, Mukuro also trained his chakra control and his sharingan. For chakra control, he tried to decrease the amount of hand signals he needed to do a jutsu. Also, he got some training from medical ninjas as they needed higher chakra control. Things like tree walking and walking on water were long accomplished before the incident.

He also trained in splitting his mind. This time putting a leaf on each hand and making them rotate in opposite directions. This actually helped him control his chakra and strengthen his chakra coils as he would do this exercise until he completely emptied his reserves. Splitting his mind would allow to him to do two different hand signs at once when he learned to do single handed signs.

For his sharingan, he would use it as much he could during battles until he could feel the strain in his eyes. He would also approach other Uchihas to get their experience and techniques. The adults didn't hold back when teaching or answering Mukuro's questions as knowledge was key in the battlefield and one couldn't have too many skills. However, he was urged to train towards what he was strongest at.

He would meditate from time to time which slightly increased his spiritual energy and also sped up the process of his chakra returning and would then train his body. After he collapsed, he would train his jutsus. As an Uchiha, one is not considered an adult until they mastered the technique,

"Fire release, Great fireball technique!"

Although, Mukuro had used the technique before he would still train in it as it was an Uchiha's signature move. Doing the hand seals, a large fireball left Mukuro's mouth. It had spent a considerable amount of his chakra meaning that he couldn't do it often. Although he was still seven years old, him, alongside his two brothers were considered the most talented Uchiha of the younger generation. His elder brother had shown leadership qualities, while he had already awakened his sharingan and the youngest Izuna didn't fall far behind as the three were already ahead of peers their age, able to fight the adults.

This didn't mean that they were protected, this meant that they entered the battlefield earlier than the others and left it alive.

Madara had also started to make frequent visits to a nearby river which told Mukuro that Madara had met Hashirama. Mukuro had also returned to the battlefield after his injuries had healed but would rarely leave for them as he was more concentrated for training. There was no chakra testing paper that tested his affinities, but he found it easier to use fire and lightning jutsus alongside illusion techniques.