Chapter 68 – Reversal
Genjutsu works by controlling the target’s brain by applying your chakra around their brain chakra network.
That means…
“I just realized something, can you try another genjutsu on me?”
“Sure.”
I didn’t find it because I wasn’t looking for it and it was still something I hadn’t practiced until now…
As the Kurenai in front of me dissolved into flower petals, my attention was focused inward, on my own chakra network.
Usually, to break a Genjutsu the theoretical theory is to try to flare our chakra, oscillating it abruptly in an attempt to break the connection the enemy’s chakra has placed onto the user's chakra network.
But that means our chakra is connected.
I am connected to Kurenai’s chakra network while under a genjutsu.I can feel it... a foreign chakra flowing from my eyes into my brain, it feels… like green and nature.
And since it's a foreign chakra and I’m in contact with it, I can control it.
I stop the flow of chakra and instantly Kurenai reappears in my vision, not having moved a single step but having crouched and looking intently at my pants, searching for something.
I try to follow back the chakra flow but Kurenai quickly realizes something is wrong, gets up, and stares back at my face before breaking the connection.
“What were you doing?”
It seems she didn’t realize I had stopped her Genjutsu before trying to control the chakra in the connection and thinks I didn’t see her.I’ll just come clean about this ability...
“I felt I could sense your chakra connected to me and tried to control it.”
“Why do you need help against genjutsu even?”
“Sorry, I didn’t realize this talent until recently and how I could just control the foreign genjutsu's chakra.”
“Jeez, just how absurd are you… if we train that you can master an even more advanced technique than my [Genjutsu: Flower Petal Escape].”
“How would that work?”
“The way mine works is through I infiltrate my chakra through the connection established by the enemy jutsu, then apply a subtle Genjutsu of my own which breaks the link while leaving them under the lingering illusion that I’m gone from their sight”
“So in my case?”
“Yes, you don’t even need to infiltrate the connection, you can take full control of it if anyone is brave enough to attempt and channel a Genjutsu on you.“How about this, for now, we’re going to train your illusions to make them more natural while we think of a way for you to apply genjutsu from a distance.“Later we can work on your reversal Genjutsu.”
For the rest of the day, Kurenai walks me through the basics of the senses and how to improve the realism of my illusion.
A couple of tips she shares are also of vital importance and reflect situations I’d seen but hadn’t realized the reason behind them.
The most important rule of Genjutsu is that it’s a lot easier to apply when the target isn’t expecting it and thus more alert to their senses.
But going from this basic rule we get that the best way to keep the target unaware is to show them what they want to see or are expecting to see.
So long as they think things are normal they are less aware and doubt less individual section of the illusion.
For example, If I place a target into a genjutsu and immediately rob them of their vision, they will immediately go alert, attempt to flare their chakra and they won’t believe anything else they see as you’ve just proven you can control their vision.
If instead you let the rest of the surroundings stay the same but only change the appearance of something as it enters the vision, they are likely to accept it as being what just entered their vision normally.
Kurenai also takes advantage of this in her more offensive Genjutsu, she lets the enemy think they can see and hear normally by creating a visual illusion of their surroundings and then bounding them in the illusion of vines while simulating the feeling of their touch.
The enemy thinks they are in reality bound by vines and try to get out physically when in reality they are on the floor helplessly in a genjutsu-induced coma.
Sensor-type ninjas, able to feel the flow of chakra are extremely hard to put under genjutsu as we can feel when chakra is trying to interfere with us or in our surroundings, unless they very expertly can disguise their illusions in the background chakra existing all around us.
I spend the rest of the morning working on my genjutsu, keeping most of the illusion the same in Kurenai's senses and trying to change only small details.
After that, I leave for training once more with Inoichi.
Seeing his blond hair reminds me of Ino, she’s been gone for a while now, apparently, her team went on a mission followed by a teambuilding boot camp away from Konoha so she’ll be gone until a few days before the exams, a little after when Sakura and Hinata scheduled to return.
After finishing my training with Kurenai for the day I left a shadow clone trailing her.
Shadow clones are amazing, somehow they also copy realistic constructs of any gear we have and many of a ninja’s powers, including Kekkei Genkai’s such as my Byakugan.
Thus my surveillance of Kurenai is utterly undetectable as how can she possibly suspect a random person 3 streets away from her location keeping track of her?
I had taken a gander at the Hyuga compound because I was curious and found that their Byakugan was noticeable when active due to the increased chakra flow around their eyes, unlike me and Hinata.
There aren’t any Hyuga peeping around me but even if there were they would only be able to see the second Mizukage with almost Jonin chakra-level relaxing on a bench while reading Jiraiya’s first work, [The Tales Of a Gutsy Shinobi].
As for the results of my surveillance… just a dud today, Kurenai only went shopping and did some housecleaning in her flat.
I paid attention and couldn’t find any sex toys but they could have just been hidden in a scroll. Kurenai has dozens of scrolls on her and in the house but I can’t look within them, not even with a Byakugan to confirm their content.
It is also possible to block a Byakugan’s vision with certain rare materials as well but I don’t notice any place where my vision is being impaired.