Chapitre 137: CH_4.37 (137)
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Takuma sighed deeply as he made himself home on the quality cushion of the seating inside the private room of a high-grade barbeque restaurant.
"Don't sigh like that; you're not an old man," said Ai, bumping his shoulder with hers. The seating was a circular couch with an in-built barbeque grill in the table in between; a pipe fell from the ceiling with a very silent suction that would suck any and all smoke from the barbecue. It was a very Korean-style barbeque restaurant.
"People say I'm an old soul," Takuma smiled.
"What people? You're like the most active person I know," Taro rebuked. He sat across from Takuma. "Old people don't go learning a hundred different things every month. Do those things actually stick in your mind?"
"I know, right?" Ai joined in. "I was surprised when he fixed the plumbing at our house. And I had no idea you could work a field radio, much less that you had an official certification for it."
"I didn't know a certification even existed," Taro commented.
Takuma didn't realize that he was considered a man with many skills and technologically savvy by his friends and peers. He simply claimed to be an old soul because he was literally older than all of them.
"You seem tired. The Police Force's keeping you busy?"
On Ai's other side sat Nenro, looking immaculate like a teen male model as ever. There was not a single moment outside of training and sparring where Nenro didn't look a hundred percent fresh and perfectly dressed, with not a single hair out of place. If Nenro had a course in the LRC (Learning Resource Center) on personal style, Takuma would've forked a real mission point to attend those lessons. Nenro gave them tips, and they helped, but he didn't look anywhere as good as him.
"I was given a small team to lead. It's not something I'm used to yet," said Takuma. He was much more comfortable on his own, and managing a team was a different skill set altogether.
"You're already in a supervising position?" Nenro looked surprised. "They must be very happy with you. That's very good, Takuma."
Takuma waved the compliment away. He didn't want to tell them it was only temporary, and if he failed, it would set him back quite a bit.
He looked at the last member of their friend group sitting beside him. Masaaki was intently tending to the meat on the charcoal with focus. It seemed the Akimichi company had rubbed on his friend. Out of all of them, Masaaki had changed the most. He had gone through a massive growth spurt; he had grown until he was at least a head taller than Takuma and Taro, who were previously the tallest among their group and had even filled out with his frame widening considerably. Masaaki wasn't putting on fat like a traditional Akimchi, but he was getting big in his own way.
"What about you, Masaaki? How are the Akimichi treating you?" asked Takuma. Out of everyone in the group, Masaaki was the one he worried about the most.
"Good," Masaaki didn't take his eyes off the grill. "I've started training for the Chunin Exam next year."
"Same for me as well," Nenro added.
Takuma was surprised by the sudden declarations from his two friends. It had been nineteen months since they had graduated from the academy. Genin Corp genin were mandated to serve thirty months in the Genin Corp. Takuma's graduation batch had eleven more months before they could apply for the Chunin Exam. Even though Takuma had exited Genin Corp, the Chunin Exam restriction still applied to him. His Police Force contract also had a similar stipulation, but that didn't matter as that would end before the Genin Corp restriction ended. All in all, he still had the same eleven months just like everyone else— but he could get promoted through a field promotion.
As for Nenro and Masaaki, they were technically still in the Genin Corp. Technically being the focus word. Masaaki was under the sponsorship of the Akimichi Clan, and his situation was vastly better than any of his peers in the Genin Corp. Nenro, on the other hand, no longer took D-rank missions as he was a go-to genin for a couple of Chunin Teams who only took C-rank missions. If either of them tried, they could easily get out of the Genin Corp.
They didn't do so because, despite all the negatives, Genin Corp had one unmatched advantage over other locations. That advantage was freedom. As long as a genin met their monthly mission quota, they were free to do whatever they liked. Nenro and Masaaki could easily fill the mission quota and were free to do anything in their considerable free time— according to them, they were free an average of fifteen days a month.
Even Ai and Taro had at least a week or ten days free every month.
Takuma, on the other hand, was working a full-time job in the Police Force with a fixed schedule.
By no means was this the norm, but his four friends were all competent shinobi and had managed to reach such a stage in their careers. Moreover, they shared resources, helped each other, and made each other's life easier in the Genin Corp.
"You two also preparing for Chunin Exams?" Takuma turned to Ai and Taro.
Ai shook her head. "A rank promotion isn't in my plans for at least a couple more years. I'm preparing for the Medic Corp examinations eight months from now. If I pass it, I will join iryo-nin training the day my thirty months end." She looked at Taro. "Mister Oishi is helping me prepare every Saturday."
Takuma knew about Ai's desire to be an iryo-nin and how Mister Oishi, Taro's dad, an iryo-nin, had offered his help to Ai. But Takuma didn't know Ai was working with him so regularly. He felt guilty not knowing such an important thing.
"If you want to consult with a genin kunoichi iryo-nin, tell me I will introduce you to her," said Takuma.
"Someone in the Police Force?" asked Ai.
"No, she's my primary doctor," Takuma answered, "but if you want to talk to a chunin kunoichi iryo-nin, I can introduce you to her as well. I know her well, she's my boss."
"An Uchiha?"
"Uchiha Kano," said Takuma.
"I will think about it," said Ai.
Taro's dad was excellent help, but he was a man. Even if it was one meeting, Ai could get a lot of help from women in the field. One word from Ai and he would set those meetings as soon as possible.
Everyone looked at Taro, who had already begun eating the meat Masaaki was serving him. He noticed them looking at him. There was a silence as he chewed and swallowed the meat before speaking,
"I'm going to transfer to the Leaf Analysis Division in a couple of months."
Takuma looked at his other friends, and they seemed as surprised as he did, which meant they were hearing this for the first time, and he wasn't the only one in the unknown.
Before the group could flood Taro with questions, he raised his hands and silenced them.
"I didn't want to be an iryo-nin," Taro looked at Ai, "no offense, but it looks like a shit ton of work…"
"It is," she shrugged.
"… and I don't want to do whatever my mom does in the T&I Division. I mean, they don't have the best reputation when they have torture in the name," said Taro.
Even though Takuma was suspended for the week while Taro's mom was working with the Police Force on his request and didn't personally witness her work, he was told that she was very proficient in "Enhanced Interrogation Technique"— which was just a nice cover word for the use of advanced systematic torture to get the information with any means possible. She wasn't permitted to use the entire breadth of her skills as most of it wasn't suitable for the level of case and the charges being pressed against the people— but Arisu told him that the screams were still horrible and it still took some time to clean the blood from the rooms.
He wasn't going to talk about Taro about her mom and how she specialized in torture, regardless of if he knew it or not.
"What do they do in the Analysis Division?" Masaaki asked.
"Analyze information from our networks to recognize threats and mitigate risk. Or as mom said: the Analysis Division finds the threats and then sends people to whack 'em before they become a problem," said Taro. "You guys are always singing the praise of how incredibly smart and frighteningly intelligent I am, so I thought it would be the perfect job for me. I'm not that good at using my fists to protect the village, but I guess I can do a better job with my brain."
Taro was the weakest fighter in the group. And he didn't take any steps to change or improve his combat ability. They had tried to pull Taro into training, but he did the bare minimum. There was only so much they could push him.
"I'm a bad singer," started Takuma.
"I don't sing at all," Ai joined in.
"Vocals aren't my strong suit, but I can play the harmonica," Nenro followed.
"You're weak, Taro. It's good that you have a good brain in your head," Masaaki didn't pick up the ongoing joke but did reply in his own straightforward way.
"Have your laughs, but one day, I'm going to find a threat, and you guys will have to go take care of it like pawns doing my bidding," Taro scoffed. He then turned to Takuma, "I remember I wanted to ask you something."
"Yeah, sure. What is it?" said Takuma.
"I heard the Police Force is going to hire again this year. Are they?"
Takuma nodded as he ate yakitori off a skewer. "Yeah, I think they're going to open the process in a couple months. But this time, they're taking a lesser number, and the process will have some extra steps. The competition's going to be tough. I feel I lucked out," Takuma chuckled as he ate more. The food was good, and Masaaki was absolutely goated on the grill.
"I have this friend who wants to get into the Police Force. He wants to meet someone in the Police Force to know more about what it will be like. I told him about you," said Taro.
Before Takuma could speak, others spoke up.
"Actually, I have a few friends who are interested as well," said Ai.
"I also have a couple of guys who are thinking about the Police Force," Nenro said.
Takuma looked at his three friends and pursed his lips. "Guys, it'd be tough. I mean, I can't introduce this many people to an Uchiha. Kano is going to shut me down. I have an Uchiha, a genin, on my new team, but I don't think we are close enough for me to bother him like this. You guys will have more success asking Fuma Arisu; if you three remember her from basic training, she would be able to hook you guys up with some Uchiha. I will ask her for you, don't worry."
"Takuma," Ai spoke up. "They don't want to talk to an Uchiha. They want to talk to you."
Takuma's chopstick holding meat stopped midway between his mouth and plate.
"Me?" he asked, wondering if he had misheard Ai. "Why do they want to meet me?""Because you were in the same position as them. They want to talk to someone like them, someone who went through the process, got into a really high-up position right off the bat, and is now apparently leading a new team with an Uchiha on it," said Ai. "If it were you, who would you like to meet: someone who got in because of their clan or someone like you who worked hard to get in?"
"Me."
"Yeah, so will you meet them?" she asked.
"Sure."
That day Takuma realized he was a success story.
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———
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The link is in the synopsis!
Chapitre 138: CH_4.38 (138)
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreón @
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The link is also in the synopsis
———
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The genjutsu lessons continued as usual. Neither Takuma nor Mikoto bought up the Ring part of his life, which was how Takuma preferred it. While he would've liked to create a close relationship with "Jonin" "Uchiha" Mikoto, Takuma was fine as long as he got genjutsu lessons out of it, which was the reward he asked for.
"Did you have a chance to look at the scrolls?" asked Mikoto.
"I did," he replied. Mikoto had given Takuma three days to look at the scrolls. Both of them realized that Takuma had a full-time job and thus took it into consideration while issuing her deadlines.
Takuma hadn't been able to do anything the day Fugaku informed him that the Commander-in-Chief and some higher-ups were aware of his Ring identity. The next day, he went to Chunin Yakumi and Setsuna to talk with them about the new revelation. While Yakumi was displeased and ended their talk with: "The results of your team better be good," Setsuna straightforwardly said he didn't care. He didn't have the authority to meet Jonin Uchiha Sayuri, the Head of Organized Crime, with no notice and had to schedule a meeting— her secretary had returned to him the next day saying that she knew Takuma wanted to talk about and there was no need.
With that matter bearing down on his mind during the day, Takuma had to pull an all-nighter to read the scrolls. The four D-rank genjutsu were reasonably diverse; clearly, Mikoto wanted to use the four genjutsu as a basis for further studies by using them as examples. The four genjutsu were:
Genjutsu: Flower Hill— a furious tornado of flower petals would cover the target, lasting a maximum of a few seconds, completely obscuring their view in all directions.
Genjutsu: Bell Sound Clone— the target's head would fill with overwhelming bell sounds with a light paralysis effect while they saw rudimentary clones would appear in front of them.
Genjutsu: Haze— the target's vision of the entire area turned hazy and blurry; the more the target looked around, the higher haze and blur would be, potentially having a nauseating effect.
Genjutsu: Poisonous Stomach Hell— the target would feel a sudden and acute onset of cramping, nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea. It was a simplified downgrade of a C-rank jutsu, which had more bodily effects with higher intensity.
"And what did you learn in regard to the connection component?" asked Mikoto.
"Flower Hill is a smell-based genjutsu, Bell Sound Clone is sound-based, Haze is touch-based, and Poisonous Stomach Hell is taste-based," said Takuma. "I have some questions regarding these."
"Correct on all four. Go for the questions."
"So, Flower Hill. It's smell-based genjutsu, but there needs to be a smell that can be used as the "carrier" of chakra. Does that mean I will always need to carry a smoke bomb with a scent to be able to use the genjutsu? Isn't that a big restriction? I mean, you don't need anything for a visual-based genjutsu like Mist Servant Jutsu."
"Not all five senses were made equal. Some of them are simply easier to use," said Mikoto with a small smile. "Your comment of visual-based genjutsu not needing any aid is incorrect. The light entering the eye is the carrier, and well, light is ever-present. The "carrier" is the user themselves because the target is focusing on them. But it also presents a restriction— you can't use visual-based genjutsu from hiding or when the target doesn't have sufficient focus on the user. It's well-researched that the difficulty rockets when the user is standing in the peripheral vision when compared to then standing in front of them."
"It's easy to get attention in a battle," said Takuma.
"It is," Mikoto said with a soft shrug. "As I said, not all senses are made equal. However, you're underestimating Flower Hill and other olfactory genjutsu. You don't require a smoke bomb. You can simply use perfumes, colognes, gels, and balms with distinct scents, which you can wear all day long, and once a target registers the scent, which they will once you get close enough, you can build a connection through that scent. If you're indoors, you can use incense and candles and cast a genjutsu from hiding without ever facing them directly.
"Of course, there are restrictions on what scents you can use. It can't be something they're so used to that won't work, but it can't also be too distinct, which sets off a target's alarms. Balance and care are needed. An expert olfactory genjutsu user can juggle the variables to make their genjutsu work with a high success rate."
Takuma repeatedly nodded as Mikoto explained and noted down her words. This is what he was looking for. The thought of applying a puff of cologne as he entered a battle or a party and using that scent to cast genjutsu on the enemy or target was an exciting prospect.
"My next question is about Haze," Takuma continued with his question. "As I was reading the scroll, the text strongly recommended targeting the neck or forehead as the point of contact for establishing the connection. From a practical standpoint, those are some difficult targets. No fighter is going to tilt their head up and give access to their neck, and the head is perhaps the most protected part of the body, not to mention that a lot of people wear their forehead protector… well, on their forehead— doesn't this make this genjutsu useless?"
Mikoto laughed; Her laugh was pretty and melodic. She said, "The touch receptors in our skin are not uniformly distributed. Skin with hair on it is much less receptive— torso, legs, hands, and the head— and most of the time, all of that is covered with clothes. The neck, forehand, and the front side of your hand are the most receptive as they lack hair. For shinobi, hands will be mostly covered in calluses, making them an undesirable location. It is true that the majority of shinobi cover their foreheads. Leaving the neck as the best position."
"You can't say touch-based genjutsu has any advantage in the field," said Takuma.
"I agree that touch-based genjutsu doesn't have much use in combat. But during sex, touch-based genjutsu is always the choice."
Takuma was stunned speechless. Even with both his lives combined, he would only be in his mid-twenties; not to mention, Takuma was currently going through full-bloom puberty, and Uchiha Mikoto was a stunning woman. Moreover, Takuma wasn't expecting the topic of sex to be part of his genjutsu lesson. If he wasn't as busy as he was, thinking about sex would be a good chunk of his day.
"Ma'am?"
"You need to widen your mind, Takuma. Combat isn't the only place where jutsu are used. Shinobi specializing in seduction and sexual espionage are one of the premier experts in genjutsu, and they use touch-based genjutsu extensively during sex. People let their guard down when they're in bed— and well, genital areas are much more sensitive than the neck and forehead."
"… T-That sounds about right."
"It is right," Mikoto seemed to be having fun seeing Takuma's reaction. "Next."
Takuma cleared his throat and quickly noted everything down, but before asking his next question, he asked, "So, Haze is useless in battle?"
"As it is right now, yes, Haze is useless in battle."
Takuma frowned, "What do you mean?"
"Leave it for now. We will discuss it later in a future lesson."
Takuma wanted to know right now because he really liked the potential of Haze in combat and really wanted to get it working, but he let it go. He noted Mikoto's comment and moved to his next question.
"I'm confused with Poisonous Stomach Hell— actually, with all taste-based genjutsu. Do they require the target to ingest a hallucinatory agent like a drug or something?" he asked.
"No, no, no. Please, don't confuse those two; they're different," Mikoto waved her hand in emphasis. "Genjutsu, which use taste as a connection component, require the target to eat something infused with your chakra. Your chakra needs to interact with the taste buds in their tongue for you to gain control of their chakra flow. The more chakra comes in contact with their tongue, the faster and stronger genjutsu works. As you would notice, taste-based genjutsu also doesn't have any presence on the battlefield, but it shines in other places. It's surprising how people check for poison, but they don't check for the presence of chakra in food and drinks."
"And drugs?" asked Takuma as he made notes.
"Drugs affect the brain and its functioning, which makes people much more suspectable to outside influence. Genjutsu becomes an extremely potent weapon when the target is not in their right mind. It doesn't need even need to be some rare drug— alcohol inebriation is enough for genjutsu to work better."
That made sense. Takuma made his notes and thought about how well his Mist Servant Jutsu worked on someone high on weed. He almost wanted to test the before and after— and who knows, he might actually conduct that experiment.
"Any questions on the Bell Sound Clone?" asked Mikoto.
"I'm sure the answer is in the scroll," Takuma hadn't read the text in its entirety; there was a lot more to read for every genjutsu, "but the scroll said to create the bell sound every five to seven seconds to maintain the genjutsu."
Bell Sound Clone required the user to produce a bell ring even after the genjutsu was successfully in place. And unlike Flower Hill, he couldn't apply a cologne and call it a day, he needed to continue ringing the bell every few seconds, which got in the way.
"If you don't repeat the bell, the genjutsu will weaken, and the chance of the target realizing they're in a genjutsu will rise. I understand where you're coming from, but every jutsu has its use," Mikoto answered patiently. "Combat often happens between groups. Imagine you trapping an opponent in a genjutsu while your teammate takes them out with zero danger. That's where genjutsu like Bell Sound Clone comes into play. Of course, not all auditory genjutsu requires recurring sound production, but it's a common trait because it allows the user to keep the genjutsu's hold on the target strong. Experts with high skill in auditory genjutsu are able to use their voice to cast genjutsu, which is extremely dangerous. You can close your eyes, but can you block all sounds when shinobi are able to modulate their voices?"
"I know how to modulate my voice," said Takuma, and his voice came out as highly distorted; it was the voice he used as Tobi. He could also increase the amplitude and pitch it up and down, and while he couldn't perfectly mimic someone's voice, he just needed practice to reach that level.
"Auditory genjutsu is an option you can explore," Mikoto said, and her voice sounded different. She sounded like another woman.
"Isn't that the anchor from the radio station?" Takuma asked.
Mikoto nodded with a smile.
She was more skilled at it than him.
"So, it's clear that Uchiha Clan specializes in visual genjutsu. I mean, with those eyes, it'd be illogical not to," Takuma looked at Mikoto, who nodded understandably. "But what about Yuhi Clan? They're dubbed as Hidden Leaf's premier genjutsu clan. Do they specialize in anything?"
"Hmm… as far as I understand, Yuhi Clan doesn't specialize in one connection component as a clan. But individual clan members do tend to specialize in one sense as it's naturally difficult to juggle multiple, and specialization provides a higher return on investment. If you look a little deeper, genjutsu users in the village follow trends— if a popular genjutsu user makes their name using auditory genjutsu, novice genjutsu users would look at them and get influenced. But I'd suggest that you don't fall into that and carefully research and use genjutsu to find what suits you."
Takuma had no idea which direction he would go, but he had five genjutsu, one from each sense, and an excellent teacher to guide him. He wasn't in a hurry, and eventually, he knew he would figure it out.
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———
Chat with me and the rest of the community on our DISCORD server.
The link is in the synopsis!
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
200+ Classement
Power Stone 
109 Power
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