"Hey I'm home" Ichigo called out as he opened the door only to see Naruto standing there arms crossed, with a smirk on his face and the sound of two voices coming from the kitchen.
"Let's have a match again, I'm learning a new jutsu from pervy sage that even you haven't been taught yet" Naruto said with a smug tone to his voice.
"He's back again?" Ichigo asked getting a nod from Naruto. "So your learning a new jutsu from pervy sage huh," Ichigo said as he walked up to him moving in the direction his bedroom was in "well maybe, why don't you perfect learning that jutsu of yours add a couple of shadow clones and we'll call it an even fight, kay" Ichigo said as he slapped Naruto on the cheek lightly while passing him leaving Naruto standing there with an open mouth, looking incredulously at the space in front of him.
"He just shoved me off and after all the training sessions and fights we've done together…he just shoved me off!" Naruto said inside his head. "Hey come back here I wanna fight you" Naruto said turning around to face Ichigo who was still walking towards his bedroom as though he didn't just hear Naruto talk to him.
In all truth and honesty Ichigo wasn't really listening to his brother Naruto he was listening to someone else, his other half. The hollow or shiro as Ichigo had finally decided on a name much to the hollows displeasure was spouting crap about many obscene things in Ichigo's mind and Ichigo had agreed to listen to him as though it was a problem that needed solving, not that his hollow thought so but agreed anyway since there was no one else to talk to within Ichigo's mind.
"Rasengan" Naruto shouted as he went to plow a highly unstable ball of chakra into his brothers back hoping to send him flying into the deepest reaches of the house where their mother was located before he sprinted out the door and ran for his dear life that he held so precious. However Naruto was disappointed went the chakra ball dissipated on it's collision course with Ichigo's back, making a small 'poof' sound when it finally met Ichigo's back, Naruto then promptly collapsed to the ground gasping and wheezing from all the chakra he just wasted trying to maintain it.
"Silly brother," Ichigo said making a 'tut tut' sound with his voice. "You've been practicing that all day haven't you," Ichigo said crouching down "plus your chakra control isn't that good yet so the chakra is constantly flowing out of it and it's not staying in the ball making you have to keep on pumping in your chakra into it, effectively wasting a whole lot of chakra" Ichigo finished walking off leaving Naruto on the ground at the front door with a sad look on his face as his stomach grumbled uncontrollably demanding food to replace all his wasted chakra.
Ichigo finally had been to his room and changed into a different set of clothes. When he exited his room he could see Naruto hopelessly trying to crawl into the kitchen on what was left of his strength and energy. Ichigo just stepped over him as though he didn't exist and continued on to the kitchen where he would gather himself some food and eat it in front of Naruto just for fun.
When Ichigo finally got to the Kitchen he spotted Jaraiya talking to his mother. "Oh hey Ichigo how's it going?" Jaraiya said noticing Ichigo enter the room "Did you talk to Naruto he seems pretty excited with the new Jutsu I'm teaching him"
"I'm fine pervy sage" Ichigo said getting Jaraiya to grow a tick above his eyebrow in annoyance and Kushina to just giggle slightly. "But I'm wondering why you are trying to teach Naruto such a dangerous jutsu, he hasn't even left the academy yet and you're already teaching him A-rank jutsu. Unfortunately I didn't really get to see what he did to perform the jutsu so I can't copy it yet" Ichigo said finishing off causing Kushina to glare at Jaraiya slightly from the corner of her eyes while she till remained facing Ichigo.
"Oh, I forgot about that," Jaraiya said clapping his hands together "you're like the next Kakashi aren't you only you don't have the sharingan in one of your eyes" Jaraiya said pointing at one of his eyes, remembering that he was called a copy ninja just like Kakashi due to the fact that he seems to understand most jutsu as soon as he sees them and can perform the jutsu almost straight after, taijutsu mainly though, ninjutsu was a bit harder. Sure it would take a couple of tries to perfect the technique he just saw, he wasn't an Uchiha, after all it would take at least some practice. "Yeah…hmm maybe you could learn it as well"
Ichigo just put up his hand to stop Jaraiya and said "As much as I would love to earn that jutsu I think Naruto wants to try and pummel me with it first so I'll just show him how clumsy he is when you just try to poke your hand out where the enemy can cut it off" Ichigo said making Jaraiya sweat a little at this and scratch the back of his head "it may be a powerful jutsu but unless he has the speed or reaction time to back it up he isn't going anywhere with that jutsu"
"Ahh come on don't make it sound like all the stuff I taught him was for nothing" Jaraiya said whining and dropping to his knees.
"Maybe you could teach him some genjutsu then" Ichigo said "well it was nice talking to ya but I'm going to torture Naruto now if you don't mind"
"No you won't Ichigo" Kushina said a dark aura overcoming her making both of the males in the room shiver. "You will help him get into the kitchen so he can feed himself, I'm tired of you always eating his lunch in front of him when he's tied to a tree, it certainly won't start inside the house"
"Yeah sure" Ichigo said sweating and went to fetch Naruto.
Once all were back in the kitchen Kushina asked Ichigo a question she'd been dying to ask. "So what was Anko like with you?"
"She wasn't as bad as you said she was, although she did punch me really hard when I said she should probably cut back on the dango" Ichigo said turning his face a little where everyone could see a large bruise forming causing them all to laugh a little.
"You don't do that Ichigo" Naruto said to him, "I ate one of her dango one time and she chased me around the village for an entire day"
"Well that's your fault" Ichigo replied not caring in the slightest for his brother's idiotic behavior.
With all that said and done all the occupants of the room talked for a bit longer before going to do their own thing for the rest of the day.
(Next day outside the forest of death)
Ichigo was sitting against the fence that sheltered the forest from trespassers and those that did not wish to die a painful or unfortunate death. It was quiet relaxing sitting there without anyone to bother him as he sat there looking at the rising sun in the distance. He had decided to get there early to take a quick look around inside the forest and wasn't that impressed, sure a couple of massive blood sucking leaches almost hit him but his quick reflexes and instincts prevented that from happening. The forest was probably only used to train ninja in survival skills while out alone without a food supply of some sort while fending off the natural predators of the wild life, most of which did not exist outside the forest, they were all very strange and had unique abilities.
The forest itself was dark and gloomy but there were a few openings where a river may have flowed and supported some marine life where the sun shined. The trees in the forest were all very tall with thick trunks and branches that seemed to reach out and touch the other trees or branches making it very easy to pass through the trees and not have to walk along the ground, a good thing for ninjas as they would normally pass through trees and not run along the ground to avoid any other people and obstacles that passed by. More commonly for points of advantage over enemies suggesting that the forest may also be a place for combat training as well.
"Hey brat," Anko said appearing in the clearing where Ichigo was seated "what are you doing here so early? Did you miss me?" Anko continued said a grin forming on her face.
"Hardly," Ichigo scoffed a little "I simply came here to enjoy the morning sunrise and avoid my brother this morning, he can be quite annoying when he chooses to be"
"Aww, Ichigo got annoyed by his mean brother" Anko said making a face which then vanished realizing something "come to think of it he still hasn't paid me for the dango he ate"
"Naruto just talked about that yesterday…was she listening" Ichigo said to himself. "Ahh well all's done and passed what are we going to do today for training" Ichigo said attempting to drag Anko out of her thoughts and back into the world of the living.
It worked as Anko turned her head back to him. "Well since I read your file, we can skip out on finishing what we were doing yesterday, unless you think that's important, and do you?" Anko asked Ichigo just getting a shake of the head in response. "Well then since you said you suck at genjutsu we'll begin with that"
"Hey! I didn't say that I sucked!" Ichigo yelled clearly annoyed at what she said to him.
"Shh, I'm talking brat" Anko said not hearing Ichigo mumble something under his breath. "Genjutsu is really important in the repertoire of a ninja, you can run rings around your opponents without them noticing or you can induce a jutsu that traps them in their mind in a world you created making them completely oblivious to the world around them, some people who are were skilled enough to pull that off say that a lot more time passes within the persons mind than the real world and that fatigue in there can also pass on to their body. However to achieve such a level one must be a master at genjutsu from the basics upward, and even then, those genjutsu users tend to devote their entire lives to mastering that one aspect leading themselves to a possibly short lived life" Anko said.
"This genjutsu stuff sure sounds a lot like Aizen's zanpakuto abilities" Ichigo thought "having abilities like his would be really useful"
"The only constant producers of that kind of skill level was the Uchiha clan, which no longer exists except for a lone survivor, however that was only because of a special doujutsu they possessed called the sharingan that allowed them to advance their ninja skills far more rapidly than the average ninja" Anko said pausing to take a deep breath. "Enough explanations now, do you know how to break out of a simple genjutsu?"
"Not really" Ichigo said rubbing the back of his head sheepishly "all the times that I've been stuck in a genjutsu I used my instincts to tell where the other person was and attacked even if I couldn't see them"
"Impressive" Anko said rubbing her chin in thought "but not good enough, some genjutsu are meant to paralyse the opponent, you won't be able to move if that happens, jeez what do they teach at the academy these days" Anko whispered the last part to herself in slight irritation. "Ok then, to start off with you will learn how to free yourself from genjutsu which is quite simple really, all you have to do is screw up the flow of chakra within your body momentarily to release the enemies grip on your chakra flow, that is what causes the enemy to be able to alter your senses and gain control of them"
"Ok…so when do we start" Ichigo said looking at Anko who was sitting on the ground in front of him while her lengthy explanation took place.
"Now" Anko said flashing through some hand signs before a dark veil of an abyss surrounded them both blocking their sense of sight. "First of all I want you to break out of this, it's a powered down version of a high level genjutsu, I myself am not that great at many genjutsu but this is just one I've managed to put down for the sake of making missions easier, it's amazing how many other shinobi depend on their sight almost entirely and quite funny as well" Anko said letting out a small laugh probably remembering a time she used the genjutsu on an enemy ninja.
"I can still see you" Ichigo said, "the fullbring training did really stay with me, I can see everything, well not in clear detail but enough to tell where everything is and by the looks of it determine who's chakra signature is who's"
"Yeah I kinda guessed that when your eyes began to glow a weird silver-blue, could you stop it?" Anko asked, "And have you really fought by instinct before when a genjutsu was cast on you?"
"Yeah I think I can stop it" Ichigo said. "Hey shiro can you stop it for a moment" Ichigo spoke to his hollow. "Yes I did fight by instinct except my vision of the world around me hadn't disappeared, it was just a minor tweak to prevent me from seeing the enemy, not everything"
"Yeah I can stop it but only for now, it seems to be just a natural thing that occurs, kinda like night vision" Shiro said, "you should be able to control it in the future just by shutting off or limiting chakra flow to your eyes, also overtime if you use that frequently enough it may improve or level up. Hopefully enough to see through chicks clothing hehe" Shiro laughed at the end due to his perverted thoughts carrying him away.
"Yeah well it's not like I'll use it much anyway, I just aim and shoot" Ichigo said to himself.
"Hmm, ahh, it's stopped now Ichigo, continue with the genjutsu training" Anko said. "Weird, he didn't even know about that ability until I told him his eyes were glowing and he saw through the abyss. It could be a new doujutsu however unlikely seeing as though other ninja have been known to train their eye's to be able to see through genjutsu just like sharingan, but just maybe the right genes were passed down from the Uzumaki clan and now we have a bastardised version of the Rinnegan. Heh, what a useless piece of crap, it probably only provides extra sensory abilities like byakugan. Anyway I'm gonna have some fun"
"So all I have to do…" Ichigo stopped his thoughts as he felt something press up against his forehead, it felt wet, was it a…tongue? "Hey get off me" Ichigo flailed about trying to hit Anko. "That was creepy" Ichigo thought when Anko finally backed off and left him to break out of the genjutsu "right, so all I have to do is move the chakra in my body around violently and the genjutsu should come off" Ichigo said to himself. It took a few tries but the abyss was lifted and Ichigo could see clearly again.
The sun was now high up in the sky and it was around ten-thirty and Anko was sleeping with her arms splayed out on the grass beside her. "Heh, lazy" Ichigo thought but then again she had just bee waiting for Ichigo to release the genjutsu for what all of thirty minutes, that was lazy. "Hey Anko wake up, I'm done" Ichigo said waking up Anko by lightly nudging her side with his foot.
"Huh…what, oh damn, he did get out after all, that Jutsu should have been enough to stop at least a Genin from breaking free of it, it would of taken all their concentration and energy to dispel it" Anko thought as she sat up. "You weren't supposed to break free of that so soon, I'd planned to sleep the rest of the day" Anko told Ichigo in disappointment "you see I haven't been sleeping the best recently." "Could Orochimaru be close by, no that's ridiculous" Anko thought. "Alright then, the same principle applies to when on water or on a cliff face or even in the midst of battle however harder it is to maintain a steady flow of chakra to your feet when on water slash cliff face. And now onto casting genjutsu…"
And so the lesson continued for the rest of the day and all Ichigo really got from it was how to cast a mid-level genjutsu and how to escape a genjutsu.
Ichigo and Anko hadn't done much after the genjutsu training. All they had done was learn a few ways that you could apply genjutsu on someone through learning various hand-signs or just by looking the enemy in the eyes which sounded more like a doujutsu technique than a technique that a regular ninja could perform which was true. This method was simply trying to install fear into the enemy, which effectively lowered their defences, and a skilled chakra manipulator would be able to control their chakra in such a way that it cast an illusion of their fears around them.
It was safe to say that all Ichigo had to do now was work hard and practice in his own time and master the techniques he learned about and if he wanted to get more skilled in the subject he would have to ask someone else for help.
Next time though he would be learning about chakra natures and what not. He already did know about one of his chakra natures and was curious to find out if he had more. Anko also said she would bring him into the interrogation department to meet Ibiki and what they did at the ID. Life sure was interesting at the moment.