Today would be the first day we would ever be taught the art of genjutsu. I never really thought about it before, but apparently, it is not the easiest of the three big ones: taijutsu, ninjutsu, and genjutsu. I guess we had to have the experience in the first two, at least, knowledge-wise, to get the third one, but I was intrigued. Fake realities? Twisted perceptions? The art of lying directly into someone's brain. Wicked... And I should be at least okay-ish with it, thanks to my eyes. But it was never really showcased how it really works.
Maybe this was the field where I would be even better than Minato, because as far as I could tell, he was never really a genjutsu user. He was more of a ninjutsu specialist if anything. Huh... thinking about it, maybe genjutsu was my time to shine. I do have my Sharingan plus a pretty modern brain, with knowledge about how some jutsus should play out... So, it should be an excellent combination. Well… normally. Except today's instructor was Mika Hyūga... which did dampen my excitement for this class.
Ugh... I didn't like the fact that it was her. Miss "Hostility." Or Miss "Let me trap a bunch of children in a sensory loop because I have personal issues." Miss "I glare at Uchiha children the same way cats glare at cucumbers." Not to mention, when she walked into the room, her face was as if that same cat also bit into that damned cucumber... Great. Fantastic. I'm definitely getting murdered today, probably slowly. Hmph... Not that I will go down without a fight.
"Sit," she said, voice flat as an iron pan, looking at those students who weren't at their seats yet. "Today," she began, clasping her hands behind her back, "you will learn the most delicate of shinobi arts: genjutsu." Looking at her, her Byakugan wasn't activated, but it felt like she was staring straight through my skull. Probably counting my neurons out of spite, or I was simply paranoid. Maybe both... "Genjutsu," she continued, "does not physically alter the world. It alters the perception of the mind, shaping its interpretation of what it sees, smells, or, all things considered, feels. At its heart, it is simply… misdirection. Illusion. Deception. All things that a proper shinobi must use to accomplish their mission." Then, glaring at me again for a moment, she added, "Those without discipline," her gaze sliding off me, only to then look at Sayuri, Naoto, and finally, Minato, "often fall prey to it."
Hah... Fuck you. Just as I thought that, Minato's elbow lightly bumped mine, probably catching the grimace on my face and sending a subtle sign for please don't provoke the demoness. Okay, okay... I will behave. Outwardly... Because I am mature. Internally, though? Yeah, still, fuck you. As I was thinking about that, making myself feel better, she lifted a piece of chalk and wrote across the board, with elegant, massive letters:
THE THREE PILLARS OF GENJUTSU:
- Perception Manipulation
- Chakra Interference
- Neural Lag Induction
Huh? We never got those in the anime... or manga... Cool, I think.
"When one casts genjutsu," Mika continued, "the aim is not to overpower the target. That's amateurish, and a brute-force approach like that won't work; this is not about having more chakra or producing greater ninjutsu because of it. Genjutsu is to bypass their conscious understanding and replace reality with your own design."
"Wel..." Sayuri whispered to me, "That's actually poetic…"
"No poetry in here, Yamanaka-san!" Mika snapped at her without turning to look at her, "This is all about technique and control."
Sayuri nearly swallowed her own tongue, being shouted at like that. On the other hand, Minato reached for a scroll, already copying down everything word for word, being the perfect student.
As for me... I activated my Sharingan behind my eyelids, for just a flicker between blinks, feeling the chakra pathways behind my eyes, long enough to observe the subtle shifts in the teacher's chakra. She noticed... Of course, she noticed.
"You, Uchiha," she said suddenly, eyes landing on me with no hesitation, "stand."
I stood, with an exaggerated sigh, not masking my opinion about her at all.
"You will assist me in demonstrating a basic genjutsu. I heard you are good at them, so you will help me demonstrate for the others."
"I have experience in breaking them, yes." I smiled, while I could tell that Minato tensed up a little, while Sayuri began mouthing "oh no oh no oh no," repeatedly.
If she expected me to cower… sorry, wrong Uchiha. Wrong reincarnated kid, too. Wrong guy entirely, really. Fuck you, fuck your problem with me, and fuck you, just in general. While thinking it over, I stepped forward before everyone else, to the center of the primary podium, while the other students leaned forward, wanting to see what would happen next. Scanning the group, even Naoto looked mildly interested, not to mention the idiots I hurt... They were expecting a payback, delivered by their new, favorite teacher. Hmph... we will see about that.
"Genjutsu: Kori Shinchū no Jutsu," she announced as she formed the hand seals and used them without any warning, clapping loudly at the end.
Ah... So, are we doing the same thing again, hm? Somehow, this time around, being aware of the genjutsu being cast on me... I saw the classroom stretch ahead of me, the walls elongate, and the ceiling seemed impossibly high. Looking at the others, my classmates blurred, their shapes melting like wet ink, becoming nothing more than vague shapes... little smudges.
As I said... I now have the experience to break it. My eyes were designed to notice this type of low-level trickery. Let's end this quickly. As I activated it, the smudges quickly cleared out, the stretched classroom began to shrink and become colorful as my single tomoe spun into place. Of course, the illusion didn't break immediately as my 'dear sensei' was still keeping it up... So, instead of shattering, it shifted.
I could see both realities at once by now. I stood in the fake room
and the real room beneath it, as if Mika-sensei's genjutsu was painted over the real world in thin, cracking layers. Was she the mother of Sai? Naah... She is too ugly for that. Anyway, I was about to do something when she spoke to me.
"Uchiha Renjiro," she said calmly, her voice echoing in the illusion, as if I were in a cave, "describe your surroundings."
A trap question... If I answered wrong, she could claim I failed... If I answered truthfully, she'd feel challenged... Too bad. I like a challenge.
"The room is… normal," I said with a smile, "The illusion is good, but your chakra is too tightly wrapped around me... It shimmers when I blink." I added, looking directly into her eyes with my activated Sharingan.
Heh... A ripple ran across her face, which was barely a twitch, but I saw it. Mhm... What a great feeling... Yum. Give me more, because round one is mine!
"You claim to see through it?" she asked, her voice much cooler now. Heh, get angry... please. Do so. I can only win in this scenario, and you can only lose.
"I do," I said, shrugging my shoulders.
"Then prove it."
She increased chakra output... doubling the illusion's layers. Wait... Didn't you just give a big speech about this not being about that? Are you a hypocrite? While smirking, watching how the room twisted, the floors bending into a circular spiral under me, how the ground tilted sideways, disorientingly trying to shift my balance... I just exhaled, focused on my eyes, and let the tomoe spin faster... And I broke her genjutsu, dispelling the jutsu, returning the classroom to how it should be.
"Sooo..." I asked, walking over to the teacher's table, simply sitting up on it, reaching for the apple there, and smugly biting into it, swinging my legs like I was on the playground. "What's next?"
"Get your bottom down from there in this instance!" She snapped at me like a boiling kettle.
"Sure." I kept smiling, taking another bite, ignoring her enraged look, munching as loudly as humanly possible, not breaking eye contact, simply deactivating my Sharingan before finally blinking. This was my victory dance... and you will watch it, you hag.
"You will be reported... now back to your seat!"
"Ooookay." I nodded, still eating my apple, heading back to my chair, and Minato just shook his head, leaning over at once.
"You overdid it."
"I know," I whispered back, "I just hate her. To the bone..."
"If you ask me," Sayuri also leaned in from the other side, "That was satisfying... Soooo.... Satisfying!"
"Happy to provide," I chuckled, watching her grin at me, her face flushed.
Luckily, at least she was professional enough, or refused to make her clan look petty... So I wasn't ejected from the class, and I returned the courtesy by stopping eating the apple.
"Next," she said after recollecting herself, "you will learn to cast basic genjutsu. But understand this," she began writing on the board, probably forgoing all the lessons she wanted to demonstrate through me. "Genjutsu is not merely an illusion, and its true purpose is control. You influence a target's senses, disrupt their coordination, weaken reactions, or create phantom pain. There are multiple application methods, relying on the different senses, be it sight, smell, taste, hearing, touch, and the list goes on!"
She listed them all, saying that the ones seen by sight are the most frequent, followed by genjutsu techniques based on hearing or smell, and sometimes even simply by flashes of light in someone's periphery, without actually looking at it. I see, I see... Well, more than literally. She then put up the same genjutsu's hand signs she used on me, explaining a bit more about how it is designed to trap or delay people from reaching their target... Good luck with it ever working on me.
"Pair up," she ordered in the end, "Your task for now will be to simply disrupt your partner's perception for one second. Just one. Anything longer is considered a sure, passing grade."
Of course, Minato immediately turned towards me.
"Oh?" I smirked. "You picking me because you like a challenge?"
"I'm picking you because you know how to counter it. That way, I can know which parts of it are weak and make sure I can use them to the best of my abilities."
"Touché."
"Maniacs..." Sayuri mumbled, already pairing up with Naoto, not even thinking about asking me to have a go at it.
Shaking my head, Minato and I kneeled opposite each other, first, trying out the hand signs before he looked at me again.
"Ready?" Minato asked.
"Go for it."
He inhaled, forming the seals, and for one flicker of a moment, the floor beneath me rippled like water, but it wasn't as consistent as it should be.
"Oh," I said, still impressed. "That was smooth."
"It didn't last long enough," he muttered, disappointed, furrowing his brows.
"You're not even ten." I chuckled as he just glanced at me, his grimace finally visible.
"You aren't either." He sighed.
"I'm cheating." I giggled, "My turn, don't worry, I'm not using my eyes."
With that, I leaned forward and formed the seals myself, and I could feel how my chakra extended forward, but I didn't aim to overwhelm him. I suddenly felt more than just my chakra, sensing Minato's mind, which was very well organized, with every part logically connected... So, I tried to influence those logical points, adding some of my own, without turning it into chaos, because he could then break out of it... I think.
I immediately noticed Minato's eyes widen, and for half a second, he saw two of me. I think I got too excited and couldn't control it, because he blinked, broke the effect, and exhaled sharply the moment things went back to normal.
"That…" he said, rubbing his forehead, "felt different."
"Bad different?"
"No, not really," He said, "But scary... I only noticed the change when you loosened your attention."
"You are scary," I grunted, smiling at him, "Well... let's give it a try again. I am intending to nail this part. It is time that I am finally not only your match in something... but at least better than you are!"
"Heh," He smiled, straightening his back, "Don't hold back then."