Chapter 87

*Shisui's POV*

"Are we the first team to arrive? There's no one else here." Tsugumi exclaimed as we arrived at the Kurama Clan's compound and just like she said, I couldn't sense anyone around us

"We did come thirty minutes early, though I expected the other teams to already be around as well since being late will disqualify them..." I thought since it was too risky to arrive even five minutes earlier, even more when not a single participant knew how the Kurama Clan's compound was arranged

"Look, there's a sign here!" Yukimi exclaimed as she pointed toward a wooden sign east from us, right in the middle of the road

Reading what was written in it from afar, I deduced that it was temporarily set here to guide us as I said "It's written that all participants of the second stage have to go to the Eastern Illusionary Mansion beyond the forest before it begins."

"That may explain why we didn't see anyone, quick, let's go!" Tsugumi suggested before jogging away, making me sigh before following her as I motioned for Yukimi to follow her as well before we lose sight of each other

"Be careful before entering the forest, who knows if they have settled an illusion there." I declared as I stayed careful and activated my Sharingan just in case

Amongst the many Clan of Konoha, the Kurama Clan was a bit more special since they were intentionally less known and famous, they even preferred to erase the memory of those who saw their true Genjutsu being used if they are not supposed to know about it.

As such, most participants would only know them as a 'talented in Genjutsu' Clan, while only the Konoha Council and those truly knowledgable about Konoha knew of their true potential.

"We should stay close to each other then." Yukimi suggested as Tsugumi slowed down and agreed as well

While I didn't notice any changes after entering the forest, I couldn't help but have a bad feeling about the second stage...

After a while of running at a moderate speed, it felt like we would never reach the mansion and decided to pick up the pace, but even then, we kept on running without seeing the end.

"We fell into a Genjutsu, didn't we? Or this forest is bigger than those used for animal conservation or exams." Tsugumi said as she was annoyed to run in the same direction for what seemed like twenty minutes

"We may have, but I didn't notice when..." I replied as I couldn't pinpoint the moment it happened since I was careful from the beginning

"Let's mark the tree to see if we are going around in circles." Yukimi suggested, to which Tsugumi decided to make a bright red flower sprout before it started to release a lot of pollen

"There, since there is no wind today we will know from quite a large area if we pass around here again." Tsugumi explained as the pollen was being released and spread around the forest which should warn her when we get near

"Let's move again." I said before the three of us continued to move east with an even better pace since we only had ten minutes left

Unexpectedly, we finally arrived in front of what seemed to be a giant mansion taken over by the surrounding vegetation, as if it was abandoned for years.

"Finally! We just needed to be faster, or maybe we were slowed down without realizing it?" Tsugumi exclaimed and was potentially spot on

'Maybe they wanted to eliminate those that aren't prepared enough to arrive on time... And the possibility of being slowed down as a way to do so is quite plausible' I thought before saying "Let's go inside, the last thing I want is to be scolded for failing the exam."

Opening the door which made some creaking noises, we ended up hearing a woman's voice saying "Oh? Another team made it in time, good, good!"

Looking around, I noticed that Teams 5, 10, and 12 already arrived, and eight teams were still missing with less than three minutes left.

"Hey, you guys are finally here!" I heard Gai shout as he approached us so I took the opportunity to ask "Is there no one else besides the twelves of us?"

"We were the first to arrive and as far as I know there's no more team here." Gai explained as he looked over all the other Genin around us

"Now that I think about it, I'm almost certain to have seen Kakashi's team when we were on our way, but we lost them." Gai told me while I heard the examiner mumble "How come only four teams passed through my trial, I didn't make it so hard..." with a hint of worry in her voice

"Well, it doesn't matter, I would have been warned if something was wrong." the examiner then exclaimed before clapping her hands, making everyone turn towards her

"I will now start expla-" "Uroko-sama, there's a problem!" a wounded man shouted as he slammed the door open and interrupted the examiner

"What happened?" Uroko asked as she started to move towards the injured shinobi who replied "W-We found one of the participating Team killed-" but another strange voice exclaimed "I knew you would be useful and bring me here." before a sword pierced the injured man, splattering blood everywhere as he fell lifeless on the ground

"S-Shisui-nii, I don't think that was part of our test?" Tsugumi asked as everyone in the room prepared themselves by taking a defensive stance while the examiner shouted "Everyone, leave the mansion RIGHT NOW." before preparing a Ninjutsu as the unknown figure started to chuckle

Unfortunately, before anyone could react to the examiner's words, we saw the figure vanish from its spot before hearing a slashing sound as it reappeared near the examiner and attacked her from behind.

"It will be easier for me if you died, your Genjutsu is extremely annoying to deal with..." the figure said as it slashed down on the examiner who blocked the hit in extremis but was caught off guard by a sudden powerful fireball coming from the unknown person's mouth

The figure then took the opportunity and used its sword to cut the head of the examiner before looking at me, finally revealing its facial features.

The intruder had fair skin, long black hair, and eyes of the same color, but what was even more surprising was how half of her face was pitch black, and one eye yellow.

'It can't be...' I thought as I recognized the face in front of me, I couldn't be wrong but I didn't want it to be true, not right now

"It's been a while, Shisui, it's the first time I come to see you with this body, isn't it? Well, it doesn't matter..." the figure who was without a doubt Black Zetsu exclaimed before vanishing again "Because I know that you aren't on my side anymore." Black Zetsu added as I heard Tsugumi yelp before getting caught by him

Not even an instant after, roots grew from the ground and started to grab everyone around but me, preventing them from fleeing while he kept Tsugumi within his grasp.

"Did you really think that I wouldn't notice my Genjutsu wear off of you? And here I thought that the Hokage was smart, but to overlook such a thing..." Black Zetsu said as he tightened his grip on Tsugumi

"What do you want?" I asked as I was still afraid of what to do since he had both my mother's body and Tsugumi with him

There's no way Yuichi would leave Tsugumi in such a difficult situation, even then, I know that he put a few defensive seals on her if that happened but... I don't know how to deal with this situation.

"I want Yuichi to give me all the chakra he gathered, willingly or not, I know that you have a Genjutsu even stronger than your mother's, he would never expect you to use it on him..." he first explained and threatened me by crushing one of Tsugumi's arm which made her scream from the pain

'Something's off... There's no way he could have wounded Tsugumi without activating one of the protective seals, and even then father is watching the exam and would have done something by now' I believed as my thought process was going at a higher speed than usual

'Everyone around me is also too passive, and Tsugumi would have tried to get out of his grasp as well... This likely is the second stage's test, surely a test of will' I thought as it was extremely weird for Gai or Yugito to not struggle as most as possible to escape the roots

'But, if there's even a small possibility of everything being real, I should make the right decision' I ended my thought process before replying "I-I will do it, but keeping Tsugumi hostage will make it difficult for me, he won't listen long enough."

"Don't lie to me, I know well enough that your Genjutsu work instantly." Black Zetsu replied as he frowned so I quickly added "Alright, I will do it, just don't hurt anyone else, I beg of you!"

"Be quick." Black Zetsu ordered as he didn't answer my plea so I turned back towards the door but instead of leaving, I activated my Mangekyô Sharingan, used my Body Flicker, and caught both of them with a giant green hand made of chakra that allowed Tsugumi inside of it while Black Zetsu was simply grabbed by it, separating the two

"You're faster than your mother... But you wouldn't hurt her, would you?" Black Zetsu exclaimed as he stayed calm and purposely used her voice

I knew that she was a complete puppet to Black Zetsu since he got rid of her free will by using her own Genjutsu against her... But Father told me that my Genjustu was superior in every way which means that I could free her, and maybe I could even use it on Black Zetsu...

'No, it doesn't matter, I'm still in an illusion, or I wouldn't have incapacitated him so easily' I thought before declaring "You're right, I would never hurt her because the one who will take care of you isn't me." as I closed my eyes and tightened my Susanoo's hand to the maximum, ending his life as the horrifying sound of bones getting crushed resonated within the room

The moment I opened them, I sweated profusely and had to take a couple of quick breaths to calm down, only then did I realize that I was laid down and, looking around me, I saw everyone who passed the first stage 'sleeping' on the ground before a voice I knew very well declared "You're the first to wake up, congratulations, Shisui, for passing the second stage."

*Yuichi's POV*

'Mmh, Uroko's test is going to make most of them fail, regardless of their talent' I thought as I joined her in the Kurama Clan's Eastern Mansion and saw all Genin laying down on the ground as they were affected by her Genjutsu, even Shisui was 'sleeping' since he was also caught without realizing when

"Did you simplify your Genjutsu as I asked?" I said as I looked at Uroko who was also waiting for the Genin to wake up in time or not

"Of course, I was quite shocked when you asked me to be the examiner but since they are Genin I had to make it easier for them, I wouldn't want to see no one pass, nor to see one of them wound themselves to the verge of death." Uroko replied as she was lazily laying on a mattress she brought here just for the test

'*sigh* at least it's better for her to be lazy than suffer from DID' I thought as it was well known that each possessor of the Kurama Clan's prized Genjutsu 'Kekkei Genkai' was suffering from a dangerous personality split

Nevertheless, after waiting for a while, I finally sensed someone coming back and was glad to see who it was as I said "You're the first to wake up, congratulations, Shisui, for passing the second stage."

Shisui then looked at me and took the time to calm down before slowly getting up as he looked around and located both Tsugumi and Yukimi still sleeping on the ground.

"I'm in the real world this time, right?" Shisui asked which made me chuckle as I replied "Good to see you so cautious, but yes, you are back." and pointed at Uroko who was taking a nap on her mattress, not expecting someone to leave her Genjutsu so quickly

Shisui just looked at her and the expression he made was priceless as I said "I know, reality is often disappointing."

"Tell me, father... What I experienced wouldn't happen, right?" Shisui asked me with the most serious expression I ever saw on his face

"Neither Uroko nor I know what you experienced the moment you entered the mansion since it was all taken from your imagination, however, I might have an idea for yours... You can be assured that however it ended in the illusion you suffered will not become reality." I explained before patting his shoulder since I was certain that he had to make a difficult choice involving his mother

While they entered the Genjutsu before even reaching the Kurama Clan's compound, the true test began when they reached the mansion, only starting from there did they get separated from each other.

Whoever he saw already present was also his own assumption, he surely saw those who he expected to see before his team.

The more they believe to be in an illusion, the less real the environment and people around them will appear, however, if they believe to be truly experiencing everything, they will be stuck here for a longer time since it will be difficult to make the right decisions and their foes will only get stronger.

A vicious Genjutsu but not impossible since the strength of their opponents, if there are any, is still heavily nerfed which was a great hint as to whether or not they are real.

To pass the stage, all they needed to do was to wake up before nine p.m. or they would get disqualified, and the easiest method was to understand the illusion and get rid of any doubts.

Time also flew differently in their illusions, it could be faster or slower and it wasn't fixed but it would never be too much to handle mentally.

"You can go rest in the first room of the west corridor or wait for your teammates and friends to wake up, there's still ten minutes left, and they're truly ten minutes." I exclaimed before transforming into a regular Jōnin so I wouldn't surprise those that didn't expect me to be here

After all, a Hokage should have a lot of work...

Nevertheless, Shisui opted to stay here, and the next Genin to wake up was Kurenai Yūhi, followed by Kakashi Hatake and Ibiki Morino shortly after her.

When only six minutes were left, Yukimi woke up and so did Nohara Rin, both were glad to see one of their teammates already waken up and decided to wait for both Obito and Tsugumi to pass the trial, hopefully.

Yugito Nii woke up one minute later, and I couldn't help but be surprised that it took her so 'long' considering that she had Matatabi with her who should have realized quite early that something was wrong.

Matatabi surely decided to not help Yugito Nii with this predicament just to see if she could take care of it herself.

Three minutes later, I finally saw my daughter wake up as she exclaimed "I knew it, not only doing some gambling-like test was weird but there's no way I could win everything!"

'...' I couldn't help but be speechless when I heard her since she seemingly didn't have that much of a hard time and may have enjoyed her illusion instead

Before Shisui and Yukimi could say anything to her, the next person to wake up was Obito as he looked around and released a sigh of relief.

His teammates moved toward him as I heard Kakashi exclaim "You took your time, Obito." which made the Uchiha boy let out "Hey, the grandma was really, really slow you know!" as he got up and made his teammates dumbfounded

"A... Grandma?" asked Rin as she wasn't buying Obito's excuse since she heard it many times before

"I know! I should have realized that something was wrong earlier, urgh, now Kakashi is going to boast around for days..." Obito added as he crossed his arms and looked away from Kakashi

While Teams 7 and 8 were glad to see all of their members pass, the same couldn't be said for Yugito, Kurenai, and Ibiki since their teammates didn't wake up yet with only a few seconds left, and many teams had no one qualified as well.

Uroko, who finally woke up when the test was near its end, got up from her comfy mattress and after a 'well deserved' stretch combined with a noisy yawn, she exclaimed "I see nine people who woke up, that's not a lot... Anyway, the test will end in three, two, on-"

Just before Uroko could finish her countdown, a voice suddenly shouted "YOUTH!" as a hairy boy with a full-body green suit woke up and, with a ten out of ten triple somersaults, landed with his feet right on Obito's face who was pushed down as Gai proudly stood up.

"...Zero." Uroko finished as she didn't expect someone to wake up one second before the time limit, luckily for Gai, he was the tenth and the last qualified of the second stage

"Congratulations to the ten of you, you passed the second stage." Uroko then declared as Gai looked around completely confused as to what just happened while Obito grumbled since he heard Kakashi make fun of him

Uroko then carefully woke up everyone and told them about their disqualification, something that made most of them disappointed, and even one of my protegees, Tenzō, didn't make it.

I would never scold him since he was the youngest participant of the year and he only started to learn how to be a shinobi recently, I expected him to participate later but he insisted to take part this time, something I accepted but he still ended with a disqualification.

Though honestly, it didn't matter since the Chūnin exam will become more frequent as it will finally involve the other villages.

The next one was only a couple of months later and would be held at Kiri, a choice accepted by all Kage.

Nevertheless, those who passed today were allowed seven days to rest or train before the final stage began.

They will finally be able to test their combat skill.