Chapter 1-18
I felt her hand settle on my shoulder as we watched the grotesque display unfold before us.
"You did great." She told me and I could hear honest pride in her voice in my work and our progress.
Despite watching the next bandit crumble into a shivering mess in the little clearing before us I couldn't hide the fact that the praise gave me a nice fuzzy feeling.
We ignored the lone bandit trapped in a water prison held by my shadow clone next to us for the time being, he would serve his purpose soon.
It had been and still was a sweltering hot day when my mist rolled into this bandit camp from the surrounding tree line.
It was a frighteningly weak version, but it carried two little surprises.
The first was the Demonic Illusion: False Surroundings Technique which in my version made the mist seem unrelenting and all-encompassing. It didn't matter if the original mist would disappear on its own or someone used a jutsu to drive it away.
Whatever they did, wherever they tried to run, they would see the mist push back on them, always.
The second was the little gem Kurenai had started teaching me almost two weeks ago, the Demonic Illusion: Descending Hell Technique with the respective changes she had helped me implement. The same way the mist would creep into your vision, the cold would seep into your bones, chattering of teeth, and violent shivers were guaranteed for those caught in the genjutsu.
The last puzzle piece was the inclusion of the Mist Servant Technique and for now a single water clone.
My mist was long gone by now and we could easily watch four adult men desperately stumble around, some of them crying pitifully for help, while sluggishly parring hits from imaginary opponents, who weaved in and out of the imaginary mist. They wouldn't last much longer.
"When we are back in the village, I will show you how to add more intricate details and sensations into your illusions." She quietly told me as we watched the lone physical clone dash from opponent to opponent to weave in true physical contacts in between all the fakeries.
"Yeah, it looks a bit stupid with the clone running around." I admitted sheepishly, making Kurenai chuckle.
The water clone was a workaround for the time being, which would be obsolete as soon as I understood how to fake the strain and the forces of a true fight into the actual genjutsu.
The earlier the better, because with a physical clone putting pressure on my captives, I was always running the risk of snapping them out of the genjutsu by inflicting true pain.
Omitting the true mist, which didn't make much of a difference for Kurenai since she could easily do everything purely with genjutsu, she had shown me what those pure sods were currently experiencing.
It truly was a harrowing feeling, all the more so since they didn't know what they were dealing with.
First, you lost your vision, the sound was dampened, orientation became a true challenge, more and more you experienced the cold on your skin which began to worm its way into your very core. You couldn't stop and think, enemies were constantly assaulting you, putting you on edge.
Disorientated, freezing, desperate to keep fighting, to survive…until you couldn't anymore.
My initial assessment still held true, I would probably never use it on somebody on my level or above, but it was perfect to keep 'fodder' or the allies of my true opponent occupied, while I dealt with him or her personally. A quick shadow clone, who would set everything in motion and dispel itself, feeding his remaining chakra back to me as quickly as possible.
Her soft hand still on my shoulder, I sensed her shift, probably eying our captive and I used the moment to reflect on the time we had spent together so far.
I really was grateful that I had stopped quickly with viewing her as just a pretty genjutsu private tutor provided by the village, but as the incredibly competent Jonin that she was in anything but name.
The only reason that I could think of why she wasn't already one might be her lack of elemental ninjutsu proficiency since I could only detect a decent proficiency in fire-release, but she honestly more than made up for this seeming deficit with her sheer competency in just about everything else.
She didn't just keep pace with me when I opened my two gates for taijutsu practice, but she kept pushing me more and more without much visible effort, her incredible chakra control no doubt playing a large part in that. The way she whipped out convenient little seals out of nowhere led me to believe that she was hiding some serious skills in that area, too.
I was beginning to see why Kurenai Yūhi stood shoulder to shoulder with powerhouses like Kakashi Hatake, Maito Gai, and Asuma Sarutobi.
"Good," She gave my shoulder a light pat and her eyes met mine, which made me cut my reminiscing short and focus on the here and now. "Tell your clone to finish it." She instructed calmly.
A quick whistle and I saw that my clone got the message, because the next blow he delivered was a deadly one, putting the first bandit out of his misery. Seeing this as well Kurenai carried on.
"Remember the missions we are currently doing aren't to test your skills or to earn money for the village. They are meant to teach fresh Genins the things you can't learn from a book or train in schoolyards." She began to explain, and I listened intently because it was somewhat fascinating to hear about the thoughts behind some parts of the general shinobi lifestyle.
"For example, this extermination mission. It obviously wasn't a problem for you and technically it shouldn't be a problem for all Genin skill-wise, but, to put it plainly, it's meant to teach how to kill someone and work out every issue that may result from it in a safe environment with your Jonin teacher."
She paused her explanation and eyed me for a second.
"How did they handle that in Root?" She asked me genuinely curious.
"Let me think," I actually had to search my memories for this, at the time I had made the whole Root business a bit of a routine 9 to 5 slog, go through the motions, do what you are told to do, and don't think about it, which definitely had helped with my sanity "I believe we just went through enough targets until it became something we didn't think about anymore. You know, at some point it became a bit of a blur, and killing someone was as natural as throwing a kunai. You just did it." I finished with a shrug, which only deepened my sensei's frown, which had steadily grown.
She closed her eyes and put her hand back on my shoulder, giving me a light squeeze, and suddenly I remembered that she was talking to a ten-year-old.
"What about escort missions or that first courier mission?" I asked her, desperate to get her back on track and out of this funk.
"As I told you partially already, most missions are there to give young Genin the chance to build a routine, get used to the lifestyle, where and when to do things. Escort or protection missions serve another primary purpose, however, they are meant to teach you how to behave and conduct yourself in front of a customer. Show the proper respect and professionalism while on a mission." She paused and cocked her eyebrow in thought. "This is something that will come with experience and it's something a few older shinobi still don't understand. It's about moderation, obviously, when dealing with a dignitary you show the appropriate conduct, but someone of lower status might enjoy a more easy-going, casual, behavior, that helps to deal with their nervousness." She finished with a shrug and finally steered me by my shoulder towards our guinea pig.
"Alright," She let go of me and moved next to the big water bubble. Teacher mode engaged. "there will come missions of a different kind later, though with your skill-level I expect not much later." She said with a smile.
"One such a mission might rest entirely on your ability to gather information. But what if the necessary information isn't written down or only known by a single person?" She asked.
"Are you going to torture information out of them?" She kept going and I knew to keep quiet, by now we had built a good enough understanding of each other. For the few times something straight up went over my head I would raise my hand and signal an incoming question, giving her the chance to wrap up her thoughts to work out my problems.
"No, in my opinion, torture, particularly out on a mission, in potentially hostile territory, is messy, dangerous, and most importantly unreliable." She may have said it was her opinion, but she stated it as a fact, which I honestly believed, and I wouldn't fault her if she apparently had a superior alternative.
"You luckily already know the Temple of Nirvana Technique, which is a huge boost and a great way to soften the pitfalls of the most common Interrogation Genjutsu, which uses brute force to break the target, which gives said target the chance to resist with enough will." She held up her left hand in a one-handed seal and gave my Shadow Clone a curt nod, which he returned and subsequently quietly poof'ed himself out of existence.
"Plea…" The bandit was sound asleep the second his feet touched the ground.
Her hand still up, I could feel her chakra slice into him like a scalpel, she weaved her chakra through his mind like a string through the eye of the needle and despite the incredibly delicate task she still looked at ease when her gaze settled back on me.
My eyes were still on her when they snapped to the bandit who suddenly started grumble in his sleep.
"My mother…Yua…brown hair…hmmm…my boss…Takoda…tall…black hair…scar on his cheek…scary…oh yeah…" My eyes went back to Kurenai and I saw her smirk. "Oh hmm…no…wet my bed…12…" I raised my eyebrow in humor and she winked, the bandit now silent.
"It helps when you coax the target. I for example…" her voice suddenly shifted, and my other brow joined its brethren near my hairline. "I tend to use a sultry…, a suggestive and flirty voice, which tends to make men and boys more pliable..., doesn't it Daiki?" A full-blown smirk adorned her features, and I swallowed.
"I can imagine."