Chapter 16

Naruto frowned as he walked away from the mission debriefing. Oddly enough, they had never debriefed straight to the Hokage yet, Naruto had read that missions should be reported to the Kage of your village but these menial chores didn't seem like real missions to Naruto anyways, so he shrugged off the odd coincidence. After all, he really didn't want to see his Jiji right now anyways, he was still coming to terms with the fact he had lied to him his entire life. Though he no longer trusted the old man, he still held him in high regard and as a close personal friend, despite his actions.

The mission debriefing, nor the mission actually, was what had Naruto in a foul mood. No, it was his team. Sakura looked like he could begin to build a teammate relation with after his revelation as a sensor. Her concern for his health earlier this morning combined with how she no longer attacked him for the slightest thing, though that may be because he doesn't really talk anymore, were quickly endearing her to Naruto. After all, despite what he might have decided upon, he knew he needed to have some type of relationship with his team, and honestly wanted more than just that as he had always hoped for more when he had been younger.

Even though he would no longer go to the lengths to prove he was worth their time, Naruto did want to have a cordial team so as to say that he had more friends. This may have been contradictory but Naruto now knew he would always welcome more friends and he felt, if Sakura and Sasuke changed, he could actually have a relationship with them beyond their current one. He wouldn't push for their friendship, but neither would he deny them a chance to build such a relation, should they show the proper effort after everything they had done to estrange him. He noticed he was reaching the training grounds and headed to Training Ground Seven.

Sakura was well on the way to doing that. Sasuke, on the other hand, had only seemed to draw further in upon himself when he found out about Naruto's sensor ability. He seemed almost jealous of Naruto's ability and, anytime Naruto closed his eyes, he would narrow a gaze that Naruto could feel was boring a hole in his head. Naruto disliked Sasuke's deep stares and, even after only one mission, resolved that he would have to see if he could do something about that if it continued.

Naruto stopped and sighed as he looked at the Monument stone. His eyes started to burn with the flames of determination. "Alright! I have my control to where I can sense now. So, I should start on the next control once I master this one and I can start reading that genjutsu book Shikamaru gave me." Naruto thought to himself as he smiled slightly at finally getting to read about his, now chosen, field of expertise. He couldn't wait to show Kurenai what he might make. The thought made him grin foxily as his mind went into overdrive thinking of the many things from his pranks that he could use within an illusion. When he started to rub his hands together, he suddenly sweatdropped as he thought to himself, "What am I doing?"

Naruto looked thoughtful for a moment before shrugging it off and closing his eyes, expanding his sensor ability to sense any nearby people. Though he could only sense a few yards, he figured that constantly training it, along with increasing his chakra control, would help increase his range. As his other senses fell away, Naruto was treated to his sensor vison. He could feel the earth and the wildlife around him in varying degrees of gray while his own chakra pool was a sort of center of the dome-like vision he obtained when he focused. When he sensed that no one was nearby, he opened his eyes and used his other senses to make sure that he hadn't missed anything before nodding to himself and entering the underbrush, heading to his training clearing.

(Scene Break)

Naruto smiled as he sat down in his training clearing and looked around. He had done some more Surface clinging before doing some pushups and situps, while intermittently running laps around his clearing. He had read some of each of the books except the genjutsu book. Once he had finished his training in control, he would sit down to read more of the books as he realized it was easier to read the books when he was slightly tired, though it also had the effect of making him sleepy while reading. So, he had basic knowledge of each of the books and the training one had helped immensely.

After gaining weight from the heavy type of food the Akimichi restaurants would serve him, he had quickly burned any excess fat off when he stepped up his training regime according to the book How to Train. He had doubled his pushups and situps as well as almost quadrupuling the amount of laps he ran. At first, Naruto had been slightly disappointed with his progress, but as the weeks went by, he noticed that things that Naruto had trouble lifting or moving before were slowly becoming easier to handle. As such, Naruto was quite pleased with his progress even if it was only slow and steady. He disliked having to wait for it but he was trying his best to appreciate how much work he should put into being a ninja in order to become a ninja of the caliber that legends were made of.

Naruto smiled and produced his genjutsu book from his coat. He immediately set it down and opened the book, eager to find out its secrets, when he noticed a page had fallen from it. He blinked as he snatched the paper off of the ground and brought it up to his eyes,

Dear Naruto,

Below is some words which I thought might help you understand the book better, use them wisely.

Subtlety- The art of stealth and covert ops. It is what you do when you hide. It is being able to blend into the background or being able to do something without being noticed.

Finesse- means you need to have alot of skill. Something which you have in spades when you concentrate.

...

-Shikamaru

Naruto blinked before folding the paper up and putting it in his pocket. He was slightly happy and slightly angry. That Shikamaru might believe he wouldn't know what those words meant slightly hurt Naruto. Of course, that was dimmed by the fact Shikamaru cared enough to write out the definitions himself. After having read the first two definitions, Naruto had skipped to the end to see who it was. In hindsight, he should have known it was Shikamaru.

Deciding to take his friend's concern as a blessing, he returned to his book and smiled as he started to flip through the beginning pages to get to the first chapter, reading all those other books finally got him used to how teaching books were organized. He finally reached the first chapter and began to read, taking his first steps into the realm where reality and fiction blur together.

Genjutsu, the art of Illusions. This art of jutsu used by shinobi is one of the hardest to master as it is difficult to gauge one's level. Often, one is only considered a master when said person is capable of defeating their own teacher in this art. Unlike Ninjutsu or Taijutsu, Genjutsu is very versatile and only limited to the user's imagination and creativity. Whereas Ninjutsu and Taijutsu rely heavily on preset factors, namely the environment for ninjutsu and the shinobi's body for Taijutsu, Genjutsu relys heavily upon the user's mental finesse.

Genjutsu masters are few and far in between, mainly for the difficulty and the necessary conditions that must be met in order to be capable of using genjutsu to its fullest extent. The biggest block for the aspiring Genjutsu user is chakra control. Many people simply do not or can not maintain the proper control that this art requires. This is because one must have almost perfect chakra control to be able to invade another's mental chakra pathways and implant their own chakra to activate their illusionary tactic.

The best genjutsu users are often highly intelligent and capable of noticing even the slightest details in order to recognize when they are caught within genjutsu or for casting their own. Observation is another key element while casting a genjutsu. The more 'real' the genjutsu is, the more likely one is to notice that they are caught within an illusion. For example, if one would cast a genjutsu on a person while in a clearing with trees, grass, and a single small rock on a person who is observant, and the user does not put the rock within the illusion, then the target would immediately notice that they were within an illusion. Remember, observation is key while creating an illusion concerning one's surroundings.

There are three types of Genjutsu known to the world. The first, and most widely used, are the illusionary tactics and abilities that genjutsu are known for. This type of jutsu is cast by invading another's mental chakra pathways and 'implanting' your own to induce the illusion upon your enemy. Examples of these would be, sensory jutsu which confuse the senses into thinking something is there when it is not, Environment jutsu which change one's surroudings to cause one to panic or believe they have left the area of danger, or pain jutsu which make you believe you have been hurt when your body has not been touched in reality. This type of jutsu is the most versatile while being restricted, versatile in that one can add or subtract from their image or senses, restricted in the fact that, should one change too much, it can be easily found out.

The second type of Genjutsu is a Doujutsu cast Genjutsu. There are very few known doujutsu genjutsu but there are two deadly clans known for their proficiency in doujutsu genjutsu. The first, and lesser known clan, is the Kurama clan. Their doujutsu has no specific shape or name and, as such, could be considered the deadlier of the two doujutsu as one could never tell if it was activated easily. This clan is known for it's inner demons that are slowly killing their bloodline. The Inner Demon usually controls the Kurama's genjutsu ability and leads to a power struggle which the Kuramas are steadily starting to lose. As a result, this clan is slowly dying out.

The second clan, and the most prominent, is the Uchiha clan. Their doujutsu, the Sharingan, takes the form of a red sclera with any number of one to three tomoe's in both eyes to show one's maturity within the clan's progression. Their doujutsu allows the Uchihas to sense Genjutsu easier as it allows them the ability to see chakra when activated, in addition, the eyes themselves give the Uchiha the ability to cast genjutsu with mere eye contact with enough training. There is a rumored ability within the Genjutsu world that another form of the sharingan allows the user to use a genjutsu known as Tsukuyomi, in which it is said that the user holds control over time and space. This ability has never been confirmed but the abilities within the Sharingan eyes leads many genjutsu users to believe this tale.

The final type of genjutsu, and the rarest, are genjutsu that actually affect the surrounding area. These genjutsu seem similar to ninjutsu as they seem to attack the target's chakra network but attack any person within the range of the genjutsu. The only known technique of this type of genjutsu was used by the Shodaime and Niidaime Hokages of Konoha. The technique is known as Kokuangyou no Jutsu - Journey into Black Darkness Technique. All of these types of Genjutsu make up the Genjutsu field of expertise.

Finally, there are three known ways to dispel a genjutsu. The first, and least recommended, is inflicting enough pain on yourself to break the control the chakra within your mental pathways has upon your mind.

The second, and most widely used way, is to completely stop your flow of chakra and then release a large amount of chakra throughout your entire mind to disrupt the hold the opponent's chakra has upon you then expelling it from your mind.

Finally, one can have an outside source of chakra pulse their own chakra within your coils to expunge the opposing chakra from within your body.

This concludes the first chapter of your lesson upon Genjutsu.

Naruto blinked as he read the first chapter and then pulled out the paper Shikamaru had written for him. "Thank you!" he whispered as he held the paper like a lifeline, he hadn't understood half of the bigger words. Naruto suddenly looked up, quite perplexed as to how someone had managed to sneak up on him as he heard the bushes rustle.

"Genjustu eh? Naruto..." the voice said, Naruto's eyes widened in shock.