Chapitre 141: CH_4.41 (141)

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———

"What will we be learning today?" asked Takuma as he took his genjutsu notebook from his backpack.

It had been two weeks since Takuma's first lesson with Mikoto at her home, and in just that short time, Takuma felt like he had learned more about genjutsu than he had known before. That knowledge in no way helped him create genjutsu or improve his ability to cast genjutsu he knew, but by no means was that knowledge useless. He could feel how the building blocks Mikoto was imparting him would one day be of tremendous use as he explored the world of genjutsu.

"Have you ever asked yourself why people don't question themselves in the face of the impossible?" asked Mikoto. A plate of light refreshments sat between them as usual.

"What might you mean?" Takuma returned.

"There are genjutsu which can be created through realistic practical means, but most genjutsu often lie in the category which can't be created or are near impossible to exist. So, my question to you is, why do we believe the truly bizarre we are made to experience while under the influence of a genjutsu?" Mikoto continued, "Why can a person see their long-dead loved one appear in front of them and wholeheartedly believe it to be true— and experience the full force of emotions without doubting that the sight in front of them is false?"

Takuma was left speechless in the face of Mikoto's question. He had no answer for it; he didn't even have a guess. In fact, Takuma had never questioned how genjutsu worked. Before he learned Genjutsu: Mist Servant Jutsu, the question was never in his orbit, and after he learned it, he simply accepted a genjutsu working as a fact. He was sure there was no explanation in any of the five genjutsu scrolls he currently possessed.

Takuma wondered why he had never questioned it. Was it because ever since Yuhi Kame had trapped him in a genjutsu which brought out genuine fear in him until he naturally slipped out that he accepted it as a universal truth?

"I didn't know, ma'am." Takuma's curiosity peaked, and he hung onto the next words Mikoto spoke.

"Until three decades, we didn't have the answer as to how genjutsu actually worked. The creation of jutsu, be it ninjutsu or genjutsu, was such a long time ago that much of the knowledge had been lost through the passage of time. We knew that certain series of hand seals and molding chakra in peculiar ways would create genjutsu, and the knowledge of creating different effects was more than plenty— but we didn't know how genjutsu actually interacted with the brain and mind to cause the intended results."

Takuma nodded. Chakra and jutsu weren't completely understood fields. Just like any scientific field, they too were studied every day by specialists and academics who devoted their lives to understanding the mystic force which made the impossible possible. It could be said that the study of chakra was still in its infancy, used only as a weapon because the researchers were shinobi, and the topics of research were funded by shinobi, making the research topics very biased towards militaristic uses. The only field with applications beyond warfare was iryo-jutsu which anyone could enjoy.

Takuma was sure one day, the secrets of chakra would be unlocked to a level where it would leak into normal lives. As for when that time would come, he didn't know— if the nature of this world didn't change, perhaps he wouldn't see it in his lifetime. The thought made him feel sorry for the world.

Mikoto continued, "However, four decades ago, we developed the technology which allowed us to inspect the brain." It was the invention of the MRI. "One of the experiments conducted in those early days was to study how the brain reacted under the influence of genjutsu…."

"Oh!" Takuma felt excited learning about knowing such a piece of history.

"…. the study resulted in us learning nothing."

"Oh…"

"It was a decade after the initial study that one of the researchers noticed how the scans of the brain of someone under genjutsu looked similar to those of people suffering from mental diseases like schizophrenia," Mikoto smiled. "We simply didn't have enough data when the initial study was conducted, but after a decade of studying all types of people, enough was recorded that previously asked unanswered questions gained answers."

Takuma released a breath he didn't know he was holding and subconsciously sat up straighter. He was not a naturally curious person who asked questions, but learning new and interesting things was always a welcoming experience.

But then he focused on Mikoto's words and realized what she had just revealed.

"I-Is there a chance of developing a mental condition because of genjutsu," Takuma asked with trepidation. Neither did he want to get a mental disease, nor did he want to subject anyone to one.

Mikoto laughed as she hid her mouth behind her hand. She laughed for a good few seconds before calming down. "You don't have to worry about that. A few studies have been done, and a correlation hasn't been found yet."

Takuma breathed a sigh of relief.

"To put it crudely, genjutsu alters the brain's functionality to something similar to mental diseases, but unlike mental diseases, the user has much more control and freedom. The brain is so disrupted that it loses touch with reality and begins accepting everything you throw at it, just like how an unstable mind accepts hallucinations as reality."

Mikoto took a pause and picked up her teacup. Knowing she had stopped for him, Takuma wrote everything he had not yet.

"What about when the target realizes they're in a genjutsu?" asked Takuma.

He had talked to Nenro and others about how they felt at the point of realization, but unlike his experience of complete, instant detachment, their testimonials were different; according to them, they were still very much under the thrall of the genjutsu, and it took the effort to muster the intention to break the genjutsu. Nenro had specifically pointed out that the amount of effort required to break away depended upon the user's skill level and that if someone was skilled, they could potentially pull the target back into complete thrall after they realized they were under a genjutsu.

"Brain and chakra are complex things beyond human understanding. The brain will try to correct itself, and if gaining control over another's chakra was so easy, genjutsu would be everyone's weapon of choice," said Mikoto. "There are internal and external factors out of your control, which can all lead to the target breaking free. The only way to reliably retain control is to have a strong one from the get-go."

Takuma scratched his head with the pencil. "Then what are the main criteria for a strong genjutsu— its ability to maintain control over the target or affect the target the most? What's considered the strongest genjutsu?"

Mikoto put her teacup down. "You're still looking at genjutsu as if it's ninjutsu. It is not. I have told you this before. While judging a genjutsu, you don't judge the jutsu but the shinobi behind it. Let's take your Mist Servant Jutsu as an example; can you change the connection component from visual to auditory?"

Takuma, of course, couldn't.

"A true user could make that happen. A genjutsu is just a build-it-yourself jutsu that can be adapted according to the requirements of the moment. Why put in the effort and chakra to create a long-lasting connection when you only need the genjutsu to last for a few seconds— similarly, why cast a 'strong' torturing genjutsu when you only wish to detain the target and don't wish to harm them? It's all about managing effort and chakra."

"How long would it take me to become a true genjutsu user, as you put it?" asked Takuma.

"That depends entirely upon. The faster you learn, the faster you'll be able to achieve the goal," Mikoto shrugged. "As to answer your previous question. The strongest genjutsu— as I said, I'll look at the person behind it. What's the quality of the strongest genjutsu shinobi? It's personal preference, and others will give you different answers, but the strongest user would be the one to hold a target in a genjutsu even after informing the target they were in a genjutsu."

Takuma was baffled. How could that be possible? Any person who knew they were in the genjutsu would immediately break it. "Has there ever been any such shinobi?" he asked.

"The Second Mizukage, Hōzuki Gengetsu," said Mikoto with an undertone of respect. "It was said that with the help of his summon, a giant clam, he could cast a genjutsu so strong that even after informing his targets they were in a genjutsu, they would be helpless to break out of it. He could play with a hundred shinobi simultaneously without breaking a sweat."

If it was true, then Takuma could see the Second Mizukage as the contender for the strongest genjutsu user, but he knew two people who he thought held a stronger claim as the strongest genjutsu users. Both were from the same clan as his teacher in front of him, and one was her son.

Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Shisui. The former with his Tsukuyomi and the latter with his genjutsu, of which he couldn't recall the name, only that it was 'Inception' on steroids.

Takuma glanced at Mikoto's onyx eyes. Those eyes were absurdly strong weapons, but what was scarier was that they could become even stronger. So strong that they had made Itachi and Shisui contenders to possessors of the strongest genjutsu. But the most terrifying part was that with the right extremely rare circumstances, the eyes could become even stronger.

He shook his head. It was useless thinking about those two monsters. He didn't know when Shisui gained his Mangekyo Sharingan and if he had it now. As for Itachi, as Shisui was still alive, he didn't have access to his Mangekyo Sharingan.

"A question to you, Takuma. What, according to you, would be considered the strongest genjutsu?" asked Mikoto.

Takuma contemplated the question for a moment. "My answer might change if I give it more thought. But at this moment, a genjutsu that the target wouldn't want to leave is the strongest genjutsu," he said.

"… A genjutsu the target won't want to leave?" Mikoto looked stunned.

"Life can be tough, ma'am. For many, it's miserable. What if a genjutsu gives you everything you desire— a happy life with zero problems? I would bet everything I own that you would find plenty of people who wouldn't want to get out of something like that."

He looked outside. Due to the time of day and the building structure, he couldn't see the sun shining. But he could imagine a moon— a full blood red moon with nine black tomoe on its surface.

"A genjutsu that gives people the life of their dreams."

Takuma closed his eyes, and the faces of his family flashed before his eyes. He wondered if, in ten or twenty or thirty years from now, he could remember their faces, voices, the memories with them… the thought scared him to the core.

If given the choice… he didn't know if he would be able to refuse.

He didn't think his resolve was that strong.

He didn't think his resolve would ever get that strong.

———

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Chapitre 142: CH_4.42 (142)

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———

Located several dozen kilometers outside the "official" border of the Hidden Leaf village, a sizable landlocked lake had become the center of the ecosystem for many species living in the surrounding area. The lake wasn't a natural waterbody and was made by accident by the Second Hokage Senju Tobirama during experimentation with Water Release ninjutsu, which had altered the landscape permanently.

Initially, the area was destroyed and deemed too dangerous and unusable for any productive purposes, but in the following decades, the forces of nature assimilated the area, and a rich population of wildlife took it as their home. Since then, the area surrounding the lake was deemed as a wildlife reserve with near zero human activity.

At least, that was what everyone thought. Only a select amount of people actually knew that the supposed wildlife reserve was an operational site for the Hidden Leaf's ROOT. The site was the closest to the Hidden Leaf except for the one in the village itself, but the wildlife reserve site was the busiest due to it being the main training site for operatives and was currently the main office of the ROOT's leader Shimura Danzo.

On the lakeshore, a roofed pavilion stood. Under the roof, Danzo sat facing the lake, silently gazing at the serene scenery. The structure had no security against wildlife, but not a single animal approached despite it being so near the lake, which was the primary water source for all.

A masked shinobi fully covered in dark gray appeared just outside the pavilion with masterful stealth like a ghost incarnate. The figure kneeled and waited in silence. If it was a normal person, they wouldn't be aware of the robed shinobi's presence.

Danzo hummed from his throat, and the shinobi stood up to enter the pavilion arriving at his side.

"The parties at the northwestern border have agreed to sit at a negotiation table," said the robbed ROOT operative. "They're planning to send the message to the other side in a few days."

Danzo glanced down at his hands resting on his thigh. He asked, "Do we believe they'll reach a common ground?"

"… According to sources, the pressure from the skirmishes is slowly becoming unbearable on Steam and the entire country; they want to end so they can continue on with their national affairs as normal. Due to Hidden Leaf's help, their efforts are being felt the most currently, and they wish to use their momentum as the leverage before they run out of it."

Danzo turned his head to a place on the lakeshore to see a deer step out of the woods to drink at the lake. He observed the deer's cautious approach for a moment until it dipped his head to drink water.

He returned to the robbed figure and asked, "What if we provide them with the weapons and supplies they need? Perhaps even aid them by lending a couple of our experts for a few weeks. Will they still go to the negotiation table?"

"It's a temporary extension at best. If we extend the offer, they'll soon become completely dependent upon us…. Which isn't a problem in itself, but eventually, it will undoubtedly turn into diminishing returns."

Danzo had to agree. Since last year, the Land of Hot Water's Hidden Steam and the Land of Frost's Hidden Frost were engaged in a continuous series of skirmishes at the two nation's shared border.

It all started when the Land of Frost, traditionally the Land of Fire's ally, began strengthening its trade and political ties with the Land of Lightning. It wasn't a problem at the start, but the increased closeness between the two nations extended to the Hidden Frost and the Hidden Cloud.

The Hidden Frost was a Tier-II shinobi village (The Great Shinobi Villages being Tier-I villages), usually suitable for a nation similarly sized to the Land of Frost. Historically, the Hidden Frost hadn't been able to fulfill their nation's request— and thus, had to bring in external help. Due to being allies, whatever request the Hidden Frost couldn't fulfill, they passed them to Hidden Leaf. While not official, the partnership was all but exclusive. That relationship changed when Hidden Frost opened their unfulfilled request to the Hidden Cloud, reducing the Hidden Leaf's share.

Naturally, the Hidden Leaf didn't take the news positively, but they couldn't do anything to dissuade Hidden Frost from giving business to the Hidden Cloud because it was one of the terms in the deal between the Land of Frost and the Land of Lightning.

The Hidden Leaf, the only option in the Land of Frost, now had competition in the Hidden Cloud. Having competition meant that the Hidden Leaf now had to match or beat the competitive rates issued by the Hidden Cloud. In the present, it wasn't a problem as the Hidden Leaf had spent years building an image in the minds of the Land of Frost populace, but it was only a matter of time before they would slowly lose a portion of the market share to an equally competent alternative. It was a huge change in (and loss of) revenue— and the business that came from the Land of Frost was not something the Hidden Leaf could shrug off.

However, in the end, it was only a natural result of the change in the market, and the Hidden Leaf could still take steps to keep the new player in Hidden Cloud down.

The problems began when the Hidden Frost suddenly began attacking border territories of the Land of Hot Waters.

Something to know about the Land of Hot Waters was that they were a country that was immensely popular as a tourist destination. The country relied immensely on its tourism industry, and any sort of conflict was a huge blow to its economy as it caused tourists not to choose the country. Another thing to be aware of was that despite being larger than the Land of Frost, its shinobi village, the Hidden Steam, was merely a Tier-III shinobi organization. Like the country where it resided, the Hidden Steam had strong inclinations towards pacifism. After years of reluctantly offering combat-related services, the Hidden Steam officially transitioned away from the typical shinobi missions; it prided itself as the "village that has forgotten wars." The village's shinobi now worked almost exclusively within the Land of Hot Water's borders, keeping the roads safe for tourists and performing odd-jobs for the many small settlements around the country.

The Hidden Steam wasn't nearly equipped to face an assault from the Hidden Frost and, after a while, lost some of the Land of Hot Water's border territory to the Land of Frost.

The Land of Hot Waters had to turn to the Land of Fire for help. The Daimyos of the two nations met and conversed, and after their diplomatic talks, Fire Daimyo decreed the Hidden Leaf to aid the Land of Hot Waters. The Hidden Leaf were getting paid for their services and thus had no problem sending their shinobi for the war effort.

And while it wasn't known to the public, the leaders knew Hidden Cloud backed Hidden Frost.

But now, the Land of Hot Waters didn't think the war was worth the effort as it was hurting the country more than anticipated and wanted to settle the conflict by offering trade concessions to the Land of Frost. They had even asked the Fire Daimyo to act as the enforcer for the peace agreement, who had agreed. If the deal was inked, then if Land of Frost broke the agreement, the Fire Daimyo would pull back aid and roll back trade relationships with Land of Frost which would hurt the smaller cold, snow-covered country a lot— Land of Frost imported a lot of their food from the Land of Fire.

"And Lord Hokage seems to be in agreement with the course of action," Danzo commented. According to Hiruzen, if the Hidden Steam itself didn't want to fight, then Hidden Leaf had no reason to be on foreign land, fighting in a conflict that was not theirs.

However, Danzo knew what was truly going on.

Hidden Frost was simply a puppet. The true creator of the "war" was Hidden Cloud, who wanted to break the connection between the Land of Frost and the Land of Fire, so the Land of Lightning could step in and take the Land of Fire's place.

If the negotiations went through, then the Land of Fire would be put in an "adversarial" position against the Land of Frost. It would be like the Land of Fire was saying: "Do as we say, or else…."

The Land of Frost, of course, couldn't afford that. Not only was the Land of Fire their paramount trade partner. But that was only until they found someone to replace the Land of Fire— and they just would happen to have a perfect, willing party in the Land of Lightning and the Hidden Cloud. They would completely replace the Land of Fire and Hidden Leaf until the Land of Frost didn't have to worry about offending the Land of Fire.

And the Land of Fire and the Hidden Leaf couldn't do anything about the situation. They couldn't go and be like: "Be friends with us, or we will burn you to the ground."

That wasn't Hiruzen's style, thought Danzo— if it was him, he could've done things differently.

Alas, Danzo wasn't the Hokage.

If the Land of Frost were lost to the Land of Lightning, then the Hidden Cloud would be able to extend its military line closer to the Land of Fire by an entire nation. Moreover, the Land of Hot Waters with the Hidden Steam was worse than a sieve.

If the dynamic changed, the Land of Lightning would be closer to the Land of Fire than ever.

That was something Danzo couldn't let happen.

"It seems it's time to use the investment we made earlier," said Danzo, gazing at the robbed figure. "Where are the survivors of the Land of Frost incident right now?"

The figure stayed silent for a moment before answering. "Chunin Umino Iruka is an academy teacher. Genin Aburame Susumu is out of the village for clan purposes. Genin Takuma is currently serving in the Leaf Military Police Force."

Danzo hummed. He had lost a clan member in the Land of Frost incident. He knew lives would be lost, or else the investment would've been a failure— but he had expected his clan members to survive. It was a true pity.

"Who was the one to identify that there was a party other than the Land of Frost among the attackers," asked Danzo. They had planted clues for the survivors to come to that conclusion— it was good that someone had picked it up. If they had missed it, the ROOT would have had to implement the backup, which was so much more difficult to pull off.

"Genin Takuma."

Danzo hummed. "It's time," he said. "Prepare the new intel report..."

The official investigation had only been able to find out that the other party was Hidden Cloud because of the equipment that had been recovered, but the report Danzo was about to give was going to have the names of the shinobi, the higher-ups who had ordered the attack in both Hidden Cloud and Hidden Frost— all of it backed-up by official documents…. All of it was manipulated by ROOT as an investment.

He was going to keep the Hidden Leaf in the war. For the sake of the safety of the village and nation.

"Yes, sir," said the robbed figure and disappeared the next moment.

Danzo stood up from his seat, ready to leave. He looked to the place where the deer had been drinking water.

The deer had been long gone.

Standing in its place was a black-clothed figure with long hair growing to the back.

— the figure wore an orange mask.

This wasn't a ROOT operative.

Danzo went on alert because none of his hidden guards had moved. They hadn't alerted him or come out of the shadows to protect him. He could sense them around him, but he didn't know if they hadn't noticed the figure or if they had been taken out.

The figure turned toward Danzo, who noticed that the mask only had one eye hole.

And then he saw the red glow through the eye hole.

———

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