Chapter 20

Naruto looked up from his perch on the bridge, he stared, for a few seconds, at a spot on the bridge; drawing the attention of his teammates. Just as Sakura opened her mouth to say something, Kakashi appeared at the bridge in the exact spot Naruto was looking. Sakura's jaw dropped and Sasuke's jaw clenched.

"You're late Kakashi-sensei." Naruto stated. Kakashi looked down at Naruto, as Naruto's teammates started to get accustomed to his new tone of voice, and eyesmiled.

"Umm, I would have been on time but a black cat crossed my path and caused me to go around the village instead of coming straight here and on the way I saw a little old lady that needed help with her groceries." Kakashi said as the rest of his team simply looked at him like he was crazy.

"Well, let's go get our mission for the day instead of training first, I think changing it up a bit today would be nice." Kakashi said. Team 7 just nodded in agreement while Naruto and Sasuke stood up from their perspective stations, Naruto from the railing of the bridge and Sasuke from leaning on it. Sakura stood from watching Sasuke and the three fell in behind Kakashi as the jounin whipped out his orange book and began giggling perversely.

Naruto's eye twitched from his sensei's giggling but he ignored it as he began to think of what he had read about making genjutsu, something he was eager to start doing as he already had many ideas down on paper about some jutsu he wanted to try to make.

Genjutsu, opposed to Ninjutsu, are relatively easy to produce. Because of Ninjutsu's popularity, there have been many more shinobi that utilize that particular branch of the Shinobi arts; however, there have been relatively few, in comparison with the overall amount of, shinobi who were capable of creating their own new ninjutsu. Even with the minor amount of shinobi who utilized Genjutsu, almost all of them were capable of creating new Genjutsu. Now, if Genjutsu is much easier to create than Ninjutsu then why would Genjutsu have so many less techniques?

The reason for this is that with the hundreds of Shinobi that have attempted and perfected creating jutsu for the Ninjutsu branch of the shinobi arts, those techniques were passed on or copied through a variety of different means. Genjutsu, on the other hand, were harder to copy because many creators would layer their jutsu so that the target could never witness the Genjutsu being applied or used. Another suspected way in which Genjutsu were kept secret, were that many Genjutsu masters would never take on an apprentice for such a small amount of Shinobi actually prove to have an aptitude and a willingness to specialize in Genjutsu. As a result, there are few deocumented Genjutsu.

The main problem when creating Genjutsu would be getting the initial handsigns for the technique in the correct sequence. For a Genjutsu, handsigns are the crux upon which the technique is fated to succeed or fail. Much like Ninjutsu, should a single handsign be out of sequence, the Genjutsu will not activate or it may activate only to be something completely different from what the user had intended. This is because the handsigns arrange the flow of chakra that allow the Genjutsu to be molded. If the chakra flow is wrong, then one's jutsu will not come out as intended.

The process of creating Genjutsu is a relatively short process. The first step is to imagine the scenery or the attribute that you wish to utilize in your technique. Once you have the idea for the jutsu in mind, you should utilize the handsigns within a sequence that would accurately activate the technique. The best way of discovering the sequence for a technique would be to find a master of Genjutsu and ask them to help with their expertise in which handsigns to use. For Genjutsu, handsigns equate more to the reality and the illusion you are trying to cast than for the movement of your chakra. The handsigns do mold your chakra, but it also directs what type of Genjutsu may be used, one which affects the senses or simply fools the brain and not the body.

Upon finding the correct sequence of handsigns, the Genjutsu should be attempted on an opponent to ensure that the quality of the Genjutsu is where it should be. Should it be inferior, one should add handsigns shown later to stabilize the Illusion. Once this has been accomplished, you have created your own Genjutsu. A relatively simple process that is not nearly as dangerous as making ninjutsu, which have a tendency to implode upon themselves when used incorrectly or for creating chakra burns.

Naruto unconsciously smiled as he thought of how easy it should be to create a few of the Genjutsu he already wanted to make. He was bouncing around in his head with excitement at how soon he might be able to create one with Kurenai's assistance. As he walked, he remained oblivious to how his team had noticed his wide smile and had relaxed because of his loss of frigidness.

As they were coming up to the Hokage Tower, Naruto was brought out of his delusions of grandeur and noticed that he had started to smile. Almost instantly, his relaxed posture and smile disappeared behind his icy blue eyes and straightened back giving him the position of being at the ready. Just as quickly as his countenance changed, did the tension in the air surrounding Team seven return and again Kakashi shifted uncomfortably at how much they relied upon Naruto as their mood controller.

Just as they entered the wide expanse in front of the Hokage Tower, Naruto's head snapped to the right as he looked at a fellow entrance, his sensor ability picking up a chakra signature he was familiar with as it was not grey either, but a lighter blue than Kurenai's. He cocked his head to the side in confusion as he waited for the source of the chakra to emerge. The rest of his team had continued on for a few steps before realizing that Naruto was still standing in the middle of the wide expanse.

"Naruto!" Sakura called out to him, "Come on or we are going to be stuck capturing Tora the Cat again." Naruto shuddered and Sakura's face broke into a grin at affecting her less than emotional teammate for the first time in weeks before she realized Naruto still didn't move.

Kakashi himself almost spoke up when he too turned to where Naruto was looking and noticed that Team Ten had just entered the clearing. Naruto's icy blue eyes scanned over the group and locked with Shikamaru's own before Naruto's face broke into a small grin and he relaxed slightly, obviously waiting for something.

As Team Ten was walking, Naruto took the time to scrutinize Ino and Chouji since he hadn't before. "I should know my comrades if I need to imitate them in a Genjutsu too." Naruto thought to himself. So, he started with Ino. Her hair was a blonde much like his own but it didn't seem to shine as much as his. It was tied into a ponytail with one bang hanging over half her face concealing the right side of her face. Both of her light blue eyes locked onto Sakura and sparks seemed to fly between the rivals of love. Her nose was daintily small compared to the rest of her face and her jawline was rather feminine. Naruto felt a hint of pink rush to his face when he compared her to Sakura. Naruto blinked and the feeling was gone as he continued taking her attire in. On her arms, she wore warmers that went from mid-bicep to her wrists. Her dress was a two piece purple shirt with three metal rings on her left breast which led down to the medical tape wrapped midsection carrying on to her hips, upon which sat her skirt of the same purple leading down to her mid-thighs. On her feet, were the standard shinobi sandals.

Choji's brown hair stuck out in two tufts from his underwear-like Headband leading to two almost mouse-like ear looking pieces of hair. His eyes were slightly slanted but the only thing notable about them was they were a small and beady black color. His cheeks had swirls upon them, like most Akimichi. He had a white scarf tied around his neck which fell down to about his knees behind him. His shirt was cream colored with his clan emblem emblazoned on the middle of his chest with a lgith green jacket over it. His arms and legs were taped up with medical gauze and his feet were covered by the normal shinobi sandals. His dark grey shorts fell to his knees and, to finish his outfit, he wore earrings within his ears.

By this time, Team Ten had followed Shikamaru to where Naruto was standing and Naruto's own team was walking back towards them. "Yo, Shika." Naruto said in greeting.

"Troublesome Naruto." Shikamaru drawled out looking at the icyness within Naruto's eyes, having rarely seen it before.

Naruto turned to the rest of the team, "Nice to see you again, Ino-chan, Chouji." he said as he plastered a smile on his face that didn't look a bit fake to anyone but Shikamaru. "Asuma-san, how are you?" he added as he noted the smoking jounin in the back who smiled back at Naruto and nodded his head in answer.

Ino ignored Naruto in favor of glaring at Sakura and yelling out, "Good Morning Sasuke-kun!" before she seemed to materialize right next to him and Sakura started to bicker between the two of them over Sasuke. "It must have been so lonely being only with Forehead and Naruto. I am so sorry I am not on your team Sasuke-kun." Ino managed to get out before Naruto tuned her out.

Chouji, on the other hand, spoke through his munchs, "Heya Naruto, nice threads. (Munch Munch Munch) Sorry bout, (Munch) leaving so soon, (Munch) that training day but that match against Shikamaru was (Munch Munch) awesome. By the way, (Munch) Mom says come visit more often." he offered and Naruto's smile seemed to lose some frigidness as he nodded to Chouji. By this time, Kakashi and Asuma shared a look that was not missed by Shikamaru.

"Thanks Chouji, and tell your Mom I said thanks too okay?" Naruto asked nicely. Chouji nodded as Asuma spoke.

"What match with Shikamaru, Naruto?" he asked. Naruto and Shikamaru looked up.

"A Shogi match sensei, troublesome blonde managed to give me a good game." Shikamaru drawled out as he cast a bit of a glance at Naruto as he contined, ignoring Asuma's hacking cough from him inhaling too much of his cigarette in disbelief, "game today Naruto?" Shikamaru asked. Naruto thought for a moment, "Kurenai did agree that I should keep my new area of expertise a secret, so I can't walk her home and I will have some extra time. Why not?" Naruto nodded and Shikamaru's shoulders slumped as he regained his lazy posture.

"Well I think its time for grabbing our mission." Kakashi spoke as Sakura and Ino finally stopped glaring at each other and realized Sasuke was standing next to Kakashi along with the rest of their teams as they seemed to be all by themselves. The both of them shot one last glare at their rivals before rejoining their respective teams.