[Practice]

As the day soon turned night, Sasuke found himself outside Kusagakure.

Using the Mayfly technique, he soon managed to enter Kusagakure with little to no effort.

He then used what he had learned from his Anbu training to reduce his presence, as he stuck to the shadows whilst activating the Presence Concealment and Silent Footsteps Jutsu.

Sasuke then attempted to use his perception to try and detect the chakra signatures within the village.

His perception can only cover a diameter of 100m, which though much larger than before wasn't able to directly cover the village and made him have to constantly shuttle about the village with the Mayfly technique.

'Found it!'

After some time had passed, Sasuke managed to find a chakra signature that exceeded the average Jonin yet seemed distinctly different from all the other signatures he had ever perceived- this one seemed to radiate a vast amount of vitality.

This signature was not unique it was also isolated to the outskirts of the village and seemed to inhabit a small residence over there.

Sasuke honestly couldn't imagine a small ninja village like Kusagakure placing an individual with such large chakra over there if it wasn't the person he was looking for.

As he made his way into the house he soon found himself outside the room where the chakra signature was coming from.

Upon entering the room, he saw a small figure curled up on the bed. 

The figure was a young girl with red hair and red eyes, it was Sasuke's target- Karin Uzumaki.

"Who... Who are you?"

The girl on the bed asked, obviously worried by Sasuke's presence there as her words were tinged with both fear and sadness at her bleak future.

As he was about to reply, Sasuke's eyes caught the several scars that marred the young girl's arms.

Before he even realised it his Sharingan activated, menacingly glowing in the dark as it stared at the scars.

*Sigh*

'I knew about his from the anime but still...'

However, he realised that he shouldn't cause a commotion here and 'gently' put Karin to sleep with his Sharingan.

He then tossed her over his shoulder as he made his way over to where the leader of Kusagakure was.

As he arrived by the bed of the leader, he swiftly slapped him on the face to wake him up.

When the man awoke groggy and confused, Sasuke grabbed his face and forced him to look into his Mangekyou.

The man's eyes which had dilated with fear initially soon took on a dazed look.

It didn't take long for the man to collapse back onto the bed, as Sasuke promptly left the residence.

'Okay. With this, I'll get him to convince the people here that Karin died due to chakra exhaustion.

Will this work?

Probably not.

But honestly, they will either believe him or think that he hid Karin for his personal use.

Neither of which will involve the clearly unrelated Sasuke Uchiha.'

For a normal Kage, this would be rather difficult to pull off even for the current Sasuke.

The main reason he could do this is mainly due to how weak Kusagakure is, even their village leader was merely an Elite Jonin- not exactly someone who can ignore a Mangekyou Genjutsu in a sneak attack.

After rewriting the poor man's memory, Sasuke quickly began to head out of the village. 

When he was previously mapping out the village with his perception in conjunction with the Mayfly technique, he memorised the locations of all the guard's chakra signatures.

Which meant he could rather openly leave the village through a blindspot in its security, with Karin hoisted over his shoulder.

As he left Kusagakure, he made his way all the back to camp where Luna was waiting for him.

Upon seeing Sasuke, Luna quickly got up from the floor and began rapidly wagging her tail in place- happy that he had returned.

However, this joy didn't last until she saw him carrying Karin on his back.

'Master who is she?

A new pet?

Do you want to replace me...?'

As received these words in his mind, Sasuke's forehead creased as he looked at his wolf in a new light.

The wolf in question plopped back down onto the ground, her ears drooping down as her once energetic tail found itself motionless behind her.

"I've never realised how unique your thought process is...

And no.

She isn't a pet and she isn't going to replace you."

Hearing his words the she-wolf jumped back onto her feet as she once again began prancing about with her ears and tail back to normal.

Sasuke shook his head as he proceeded to enter his tent to lay Karin down and then he left the tent to talk to Luna outside.

"Try to keep watch of the camp, you don't need to worry about her waking up for now. She'll wake up in the early morning. I need to head out and practice some of my new abilities."

It didn't take long for Sasuke to find himself at a clearing far away from the camp.

"First thing I should do is test out my Susanoo..."

Sasuke hadn't tried out his Susanoo before as he was worried about its effects on his Mangekyou, but due to his absorption of those White Zetsu clones- his Mangekyou deterioration is no longer that much of a concern.

However, he still would want to avoid using his unique Mangekyou abilities needlessly as he remembers the warning he received along with his powers.

Excessive use of the ability may lead to many unpredictable consequences, and he most certainly didn't want to personally find out what is considered 'excessive use' of the ability.

He activated his Mangekyou and watched in awe as a silver-white ribcage suddenly manifested itself, encasing him within.

"Silver?"

Sasuke didn't expect that his Susanoo would be such a unique colour but it's not like he was complaining. 

"Hmmm. I'm still only Stage 1, let's see if I can go any further..."

His Susanoo suddenly began to grow into a large skeleton, it then began to slowly gain 'flesh' as the bones of his Susanoo slowly became less visible until they could no longer be seen.

As Sasuke pushed his Susanoo to Stage 2, his eyes though feeling a slight discomfort were still fine for the most part.

Soon his Susanoo had armour placed on him as two strange blobs began to manifest on it.

These blobs soon morphed into two weapons and information regarding them poured into Sasuke's mind.

Murakumo Blade and Honoo Arashi Bow

The former was a Totsuka blade, similar to Itachi. However, Itachi's blade was based on the Ame no Ohabari whilst Sasuke's seemed to be based on the Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi.

It was a huge ethereal sword that once swung could create devastating gusts of wind and release lightning from its slashes- which when in contact with the target would induce paralysis. Leaving the foe helpless and vulnerable.

The latter seemed to be based on the Ikuyumiya in shape, but instead of lightning, its powers centred around fire. It could conjure arrows of flame, when they penetrate an enemy the flames will not only burn them but the arrow has the special property of dispersing chakra.

Thus an enemy impaled by the arrow will have their chakra flow disrupted, the arrow can even be used to disperse Ninjutsu due to its properties. 

As Sasuke familiarised himself with knowledge of his new weapons, he attempted to progress to the 3rd Stage Susanoo. But was met with failure.

"It seems that I need to be more proficient with it."

He muttered as he dispelled his Susanoo and he began to think about the second thing he wanted to try out here.

Sasuke soon closed his eyes and began to focus, he soon crouched down and placed his palm on the floor.

Slowly small flowers began to grow around the ground where Sasuke placed his palms, the surrounding grass also began to glow with a new vibrancy.

"Doesn't seem too powerful right now, does it..."

Depression tinged Sasuke's words as he watched his masterpiece.

However, he was well aware of the fact he merely needed to practise more with this ability and Sasuke didn't even worry about his lack of Wood-style Jutsu.

His memory from the anime was more than enough for him to remember various Wood-style Jutsu he could attempt to recreate.

But he also understood that this was merely a way for him to vary his Jutsu arsenal, he didn't want to overly rely on his Wood style like seemingly everyone else in this world.

A certain meme from his past life appeared in his mind as he thought about how overly used Wood style and Hashirama cells:

'Me, who has been diagnosed with a terminal illness

Kishimoto: Have you tried Hashirama cells?'

A wry smile appeared on his face as he thought about it, the internet from his memory as Ren was most certainly rather 'colourful'.

Though on a more serious note, Sasuke's fighting style revolves around his unique flames and his lack of need for hand seals.

It focuses on constant movement coupled with devastating attacks.

Wood style for him is merely another way to target the Tailed Beasts or restrain Jinchuuriki if required.

Nevertheless, it didn't mean Wood style was useless to Sasuke.

No.

That simply couldn't be further from the truth.

The third thing he wanted to practise today relies heavily on using Wood style as a reference of sorts.

He first summoned a single shadow clone and made it stand a fair distance away from himself after he had given it some instructions.

Sasuke then watched on as his shadow clone off in the distance stretched out both his palms.

One palm glowed with blue flames whilst the other began to have arcs of red lightning dancing around it...