~or~

Why Akaryu Isn't Allowed To Use Genjutsu In Practice Spars

...

...

==Two Months Later==

Sasuke panted as Akaryu effortlessly rebuffed him and the latest wave of Naruto clones. Even without his shovel, they couldn't touch him. Konan-sensei wouldn't let him use his favorite weapon during these sparring sessions because that made attacking him successfully borderline impossible. Akaryu had revealed when he took them on simultaneously for the first time, that was no ordinary shovel he was toting.

Sasuke wasn't sure what all exactly Akaryu's shovel could do, but he knew for sure that Akaryu had numerous earth jutsu stored in it somehow, along with a couple of other jutsu that Sasuke was pretty sure he couldn't use without it, all ready to be used at a moment's notice and no cost to him. Akaryu couldn't do Earth Style Mud Dragon or Fire Style Dragon Flame Bombs, but that didn't stop him from manifesting a giant dragon for a few minutes that spat flaming explosive cannonballs when he slammed his shovel into the ground.

When Konan-sensei had demanded to know how he did that, he'd set the shovel point first in the dirt and her eyes had gone wide as the shovel's handle became a wide plank riddled with seals at a pulse of his chakra. "I have to store chakra in here or I can't do them," Akaryu explained, "So without my shovel they're beyond me. With it though, I can do them and numerous other jutsu normally beyond my capacity no problem." That was the end of Akaryu getting to use his shovel against Sasuke and Naruto.

Then he'd revealed that he could fly and generate explosions with his strikes. Another quick inquiry had revealed his boots and gloves to have weaponized sealing arrays like his shovel. After finding that out, Konan-sensei asked what other hidden weapons he had on him. Removing every seal enhanced piece of clothing on Akaryu left Akaryu in nothing but his underwear and Sasuke couldn't help but notice the large complex sealing array on his back. Konan had asked what that did and Akaryu had grudgingly told her in a whisper too quiet for Sasuke and Naruto to hear. Konan's eyes had gone wide and then she'd agreed that he could leave it active…for now.

Akaryu hadn't liked that 'for now' business, but he'd been happy he'd been allowed to leave it on and hadn't had to deactivate it. That did however lead to Akaryu needing some new clothes that didn't augment his abilities to the realms of nigh-invincibility. So now he fought them unarmed in a black gi that Konan-sensei had gotten for him to be a training uniform.

He was still trouncing them mercilessly, his strength and speed were too much for them to keep up, but Sasuke and Naruto were actually able to make it somewhat even by relentlessly spamming Naruto's clones, to which there seemed to be no end, and using Sasuke's more advanced wire and fire jutsu to set up traps that the clones could lure Akaryu into. It was a struggle, but now they were starting to see a glimmer of hope that today might be the day they would actually be able to beat their seemingly unstoppable teammate.

Two Naruto clones rushed him with a net. He simply jumped over them. Sasuke threw a windmill shuriken at him. He caught it and the second one that Sasuke had thrown with it in one hand. He then landed on the side of a tree like it was the ground. Sasuke knew about the tree climbing technique, Konan-sensei had him and Naruto learning it, but he still wasn't quite sure how Akaryu could do it so quickly and effortlessly. Akaryu attempted to throw the twin windmill shuriken back only for them to turn into a pair of Naruto clones who latched onto his hand and dragged him to the ground.

Or rather, they dragged him into the net the Naruto clones had prepared under the tree. The next thing Sasuke knew, he was in the net and Akaryu was hammering a kick into the Naruto that had been standing next to him. Then Akaryu got a very nasty surprise as the Naruto clone exploded.

Sasuke and all the Narutos felt victory upon them and charged where Akaryu had slammed into a tree. Then Akaryu stood up with chakra pouring off him like heat from a raging bonfire and his bangs curled up into horns. The Narutos one and all skidded to a halt and immediately started dispelling themselves in terror. Sasuke wasn't sure what exactly Akaryu was doing, but he knew the fight was probably about to become very VERY painful for him and Naruto both. Speaking of Naruto… "NARUTO! SNAP OUT OF IT!" The bright orange wonder was frozen stiff with fear.

Naruto gulped, "He's pissed…"

"Of course he's pissed! We just blew him up!"

"You've never seen him get pissed before have you?" That gave Sasuke pause and then there was no more time. What felt like a javelin slammed into his gut and Sasuke looked down to see Akaryu's hand buried up to the wrist in his stomach. Sasuke felt something move inside him and then Akaryu's glowing green glare (was that some kind of doujutsu?) met his as Akaryu unflinchingly ripped Sasuke's entrails out. Before Sasuke could recover from the shock, a bloody hand clamped over his face and slammed him into the ground with enough force to shake the world. Then again, and again, and again. Sasuke blacked out.

Meanwhile Akaryu was calmly watching through his mind's eye from the sidelines while he sat next to Konan-sensei from beneath his Veil technique while he munched a food-pill, "When do you think they'll figure out they've been fighting genjutsu and clones the whole time?"

"I'm not sure," Konan-sensei mused, "I'm a little disappointed that in over a month, neither of them have managed to figure out yet that they've never actually fought you even though they both know you're a genjutsu specialist."

"I will take that as a very high compliment to my abilities," Akaryu replied with a smile as he made a fresh hand-sign. Then Sasuke and Naruto crumpled like they'd been hit over the head and Akaryu grinned, "And Forced Sleep for the win."

Konan-sensei sighed, "I know it's probably quite interesting and impressive to watch you savagely and repeatedly trounce them in the genjutsu, but it does get very boring to watch them do nothing but stand there until you hit them with the Forced Sleep. When are you going to actually fight them?"

"I was planning to wait until they realized they're in a genjutsu," Akaryu replied, "Besides, this is excellent practice, and the perfect chance for me to train my long range medical jutsu. Until I got to start using these two for test dummies, I could never have gotten to where I am now." Konan-sensei nodded, it was quite impressive that Akaryu had managed to develop a technique that would let him inflict actual injuries to match whatever went on within his genjutsu, and with Sasuke and Naruto as his unwitting practice dummies, he'd refined the technique quite thoroughly.

Konan-sensei sighed, "As much as I've seen you progress though, I haven't seen either of them progress at all because the fights always happen in your genjutsu."

"So you want me to fight them without my genjutsu now?" Akaryu asked, "They're rattled and beat up thanks to my technique, but they should have enough stamina to keep going."

Konan-sensei nodded, "Yes, they should be able to replicate their tactics outside the genjutsu. Can you?"

Akaryu nodded, "I only use things I'm actually capable of inside the genjutsu. Can I use my seals?" Konan-sensei shook her head and Akaryu sighed, "Ah well, guess that was a little much to hope for. Alright, one real fight coming up. WAKE UP YOU TWO!" He barked as he snapped his fingers.

Naruto and Sasuke woke up and scrambled to their feet, instantly wide awake. Akaryu grinned as he rose to his feet, "The real fight starts in five…" he raised a hand with five fingers and then lowered one, "four…three…two…ONE!"

Before Naruto or Sasuke could react to the word "one", they had already gotten their guards up fortunately, Akaryu rocketed forward like a bolt of lightning drove his fist into Naruto's stomach. Naruto crumpled around the fist seemingly in slow motion and then went flying backwards. Before Sasuke could react to Akaryu's sudden proximity, Akaryu changed stances and drove his elbow into Sasuke's gut. Then his fist snapped up into Sasuke's face. Akaryu spun and dropped a fist onto the back of Sasuke's head, driving the black haired boy to the ground just as Naruto was slamming into the tree Akaryu's punch had launched him at. Naruto fell to his knees and began to vomit from the trauma to his stomach.

Before Sasuke could recover, Akaryu was on top of him with two of Sasuke's own kunai at his throat, crossed so that there was no way to roll him off safely, "I win."

He looked over to Konan-sensei, "Exciting enough for you sensei?"

Konan sighed, "Again Akaryu, very impressive on your end, but I didn't get to see anything at all from Sasuke and Naruto."

Akaryu thought for a moment, "Maybe if we were to take on a different genin team? Or two?"

Konan-sensei thought about it and then tilted her head. She looked off to the left with a smile, "Ah, there go a couple of likely suspects. Just a moment." She manifested her paper wings and with a mighty flap was gone.

A few moments later she returned with a smoking bearded jonin and… "Hi Kurenai-sensei!" Akaryu waved excitedly. Kurenai froze as she realized who she had just signed her students up to fight and turned to Konan, "Konan-san, I will only let my team fight yours if Akaryu-kun is banned from using his genjutsu. I know full well what he's capable of with it."

Konan-sensei laughed, "Oh don't worry. I've been having that problem a lot. Akaryu-kun knows not to just trap them all in an illusion and make us just watch them stand perfectly still until he gets bored and knocks them out."

Kiba almost tripped, "Wait what?!"

"Akaryu's almost as good at genjutsu as I am," Kurenai told him bluntly. Kiba looked liable to soil himself, "WHAT?! BUT THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE! HE'S THE SAME AGE WE ARE!"

Akaryu's response was to put him in a genjutsu that made him think he was a bunny and throw a Veil over him so that he looked like a bunny. He even included Akamaru in the illusion, making Akamaru freak out as he thought that Kiba had legitimately turned into a fluffy white bunny.

"WHY AM I A BUNNY?!" Kiba roared as his tiny bunny avatar hopped around furiously in sync with his movements. Everyone except Kurenai, Akaryu and Konan stared in shock and horror. Then Akaryu snapped his fingers and revealed Kiba crouched down with his hands on the side of his head like bunny ears.

"AKARYU I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" Kiba roared as he charged and drew a kunai. Then he skidded to a halt as he realized he was holding a carrot and threw it down angrily.

"Fight starts now!" Akaryu replied cheerfully as he seemed to teleport right in front of Kiba, hammering a massive kick into the dog-nin's gut. Then he was gone again as Kiba went flying. Konan, Kurenai and Asuma immediately Body-Flickered away to the sidelines as a tidal wave of orange charged forward.

"HUMAN BOULDER JUTSU!" Choji shouted, immediately inflating and rolling over almost a dozen Naruto clones…only to fall right into a pitfall.

"Headhunter jutsu!" Akaryu called with a grin as he popped out of the ground. "Sasuke! Ring Shikamaru with fire so he can't use his shadow jutsu!" Before Shikamaru could react, he was surrounded by dancing flames as Sasuke ran to engage Ino. The two were quickly engaged in a heated taijutsu exchange and seemed to largely forget about the rest of the fight.

Hinata and Shino had gone back to back in the middle of a ring of Naruto's. This worked fine until one of the Naruto's substituted with Shino. Hinata and Shino were both immediately dogpiled. To Hinata's credit though, she managed to pop half a dozen of the Narutos that had been bodily launched at her before one tackled her knees out from under her.

The three Jonin instructors winced and then Akaryu drew their attention by diving underground and yanking Ino into the earth up to her neck just as Sasuke unleashed his second Fireball jutsu right at Kiba whose Tunneling Fang had just petered out while he looked around to see where Akaryu had gone. Kiba shouted as his coat ignited seemingly without warning, and in his desperation to get it off him, he completely missed Naruto leaping to deck him. Kiba went down hard and a Naruto clone ran up with a bucket of water to put him out. Kiba tried to get up, so the Naruto clone sat on him and started beating him over the head with the bucket while a couple more piled on.

By now the flames around Shikamaru had died down, and as he quickly surveyed the state of his friends, Shikamaru raised his hands, "I SURRENDER!"

Kurenai and Asuma stared with their jaws dropped in horror at the ease with which their teams had been simultaneously and summarily dismantled.

Konan smiled, "Well, I'm glad to see they've been learning something from their genjutsu fights with Akaryu." She whistled, "Come along boys! I think you're ready for a mission now!" She rose to her feet and smiled at Kurenai and Asuma, "Thank you both so much for the sparring session! See you around!"

A few minutes later Teams Kurenai and Asuma felt a distinct dread settle over them as their instructors gave them identical glares that promised at least a few weeks of hellishly intense training.

==Half An Hour Later==

Tazuna the bridge builder brayed in terror as he realized he had hooves, fur, long ears and a tail.

"AKARYU!" Konan snapped, "CHANGE THE CLIENT BACK RIGHT NOW! JUST BECAUSE HE'S BEING A JACKASS DOESN'T MEAN YOU CAN TURN HIM INTO ONE!"