Chapter 6: Difficulties with Genjutsu
Disclaimer: Naruto is the work of Kishimoto
Naruto awoke to his 26th Loop which meant that he was pretty much repeating things for half a year now.
Half a year and he could say that most of his time in the Academy was actually wasted and/or the teachers there were really into sabotaging him. Right now he could rank himself as following:
Ninjutsu: Mid Academy Student (Exception of Shadow Clones)
Taijutsu: High Academy Student
Genjutsu: Near Zero skill
Chakra Capacity: Jonin
Chakra Control: High Academy Student
Weapon Throwing Aim: High Academy Student
Stealth: High Chunin (High Genin in neon orange)
Trapping/Wiring: Chunin
Needless to say that he realised he was quite unbalanced in too many ways.
Other than his Shadow Clones, he really didn't have that much skill in his Ninjutsu, Taijutsu was just there after 5 loops of working on it, Genjutsu he didn't even start yet and he didn't even want to talk about the gap in his Chakra Capacity and Control.
His aim with weapon throwing was at a decent level so far with him getting around 5-6 hit out of 10 with a still target while his stealth was always good but not good to the point that some of the more skilled Ninjas can't track him.
Not his fault that so called Chunin and Jonin and even ANBU sucked at tracking him. Though his traps were quite good he had never been able to prank the ANBU headquarters or the Hokage Tower directly and made a point to never try to after a firm lecture and threat from the Hokage-jiji about banning Ramen from the village.
The Horror.
Looking at his current abilities which naturally excluded strength, speed and stamina since they wouldn't increase that much in the loop; Naruto figured he needed to at least be able to break through Genjutsu which was a Genin level skill for those with enough Chakra Control.
Going back to the library again, Iruka was fine but Naruto preferred to learn at his own pace which was evidently a bit slower than other people than Iruka-sensei liked.
Naruto Transformed into his disguise look and went to find a book on Genjutsu for starters and then hope it included a way to break through them or hopefully let him cast them at all.
After spending 10 minutes on finding the book called 'Genjutsu the Art of Illusions', Naruto sat down and read through the book absorbing everything he learn.
Genjutsu is the art of illusions and is the most difficult of the arts to learn and master due to its strict Chakra Control restriction. However this is not only the reason as Gejutsu requires a creative mind that will not bend as well which is a rare combination to find. Furthermore, unlike Ninjutsu or Taijutsu; Genjutsu is rarely copied due to its subdue nature and the fact that it uses Yin Chakra rather than purely Yang Chakra like Taijutsu or a combination of both like Ninjutsu.
In order for Genjutsu is work, the user must first align their own Chakra with the target's Chakra system to control it. Such reasons is why certain Bloodlines aren't as affected to Genjutsu than others such as the Hyuuga Clan and Uchiha Clan who have Dojutsu that both see Chakra and through illusions. It then takes precise control for the user to trap the target into a Genjutsu and control part of their senses; which is the main reasons of the requirement of high Chakra Control.
There are many forms of Genjutsu such as the most common visual and sound type that affects the target's visual and hearing. The more uncommon type of Genjutsu out there includes those that affect the target's touch and pain reception making it used often for interrogation. However there are rarer forms of Genjutsu that touches on delusions and fantasies but it is known though never completely verified that the most dangerous types of Genjutsu includes the Kurama Clan's illusions which inflicts physical damage on targets and the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan which is said to have a forbidden Genjutsu that can affect time perception.
However Genjutsu are split into three different categories; Outer Illusions, Inter Illusions and Hypnosis.
Outer Illusions are Genjutsu that are based on changing the appearance of something so that the outside world interprets it differently. The transformation jutsu is one example of this even though it counts as a Ninjutsu. This is the easiest kind of Genjutsu to use,
Inner Illusions are Genjutsu that are casted in individuals to adjust how they interpret the world around them without alerting others and sometimes the victim to this. Most Genjustu fall under this category due to the large amount that affects the senses of the victim and the sheer number of senses a person has.
Hypnosis is a Genjutsu that is the most difficult kind of Genjutsu to use since they are capable of manipulating all of a person's senses at once and can be used to shatter the victim's psyche if used correctly. There are often long lasting effects of these kinds of Genjutsu and thus are often used in Interrrogation.
Right now, Naruto was quite hooked onto Genjutsu; they sounded like a great way for him to prank people! Too bad he didn't have the Chakra Control to use any…but if he could; Naruto imagined torturing Sasuke with one about Fan-girls finally getting their hands on him and being Yaoi Fan-girls at the same time whatever that means.
Reading on, Naruto eventually found the section he wanted.
While there may be various methods in obstructing Genjutsu, there are methods to dispel it which are commonly used.
The most common method that all people can use is to inflict pain on oneself to break through the Genjutsu. Doing so with disturb your Chakra System and thus the Genjutsu itself which is why it is used when the person is not as skilled enough to dispel it on their own. However there are limits to this as higher level Genjutsu which can control pain can overrule any attempts with this method.
The second method to break through Genjutsu is by manipulating your Chakra System to the point where the Genjutsu has no grasp on you. By compressing your Chakra and flaring it in a precise moment, the hold of the Genjutsu will break due to the disruption to your system. Alternatively you can flood your Chakra System to the point where Genjutsu won't affect you since it won't have enough power to manipulate your Chakra though this method will exhaust a large amount of Chakra in the process and is not recommended.
The third and last method which is the most simple is to let a comrade disrupt the Genjutsu on you. This has the same effect as the second method but is much more reliable since there will be another foreign Chakra in your system disrupting it instead of trying to rely on your own Chakra System that had been controlled to a certain extent.
Naruto was surprised at how simple it seemed to break through Genjutsu, especially for him who had high levels of Chakra Capacity compared to everyone else in his age group and even seniors to a certain extent.
'Though my Chakra Control is horrible to the point that everything control wise to me is several times more difficult' he thought bitterly at his huge reserves that seemed to get in the way right now.
But in the future…if his Chakra Control was high enough…
It was at that moment that Naruto decided he should read one of those Chakra Control books in order to find how to increase his Chakra Control to the point that he could at least use a minor Genjutsu. Going through the basic theory books, Naruto eventually found an interesting one titled 'Chakra and controlling it'.
Seeing that there was no harm reading it, he did.
Chakra is made of physical and spiritual energies in the body and the person usually do not know how much they contain in the body at all besides the fatigue that comes with draining it and measuring it that way. However there is a method to exactly see and determine how much Chakra you can use. This is usually done via mediation similar to how Academy Students do when they first unlock their Chakra.
However doing so after said event is several times more difficult mainly due to the amount of Chakra a person has in the beginning compared to those who are an adult. The method to do this is to sit near perfectly still and ignore your other senses and any outside influences to look inside of you. It is also said that Sensor type ninja have a much easier time doing this though it is also said the opposite since they can sense other people's Chakra it is much more difficult at the same time.
Stopping there, Naruto was much more interested than before. If he could see how much Chakra he had, he could possibly tell how much he needed to improve to use Genjutsu. He was going to do this no matter what!
Grinning, Naruto sat down and started to mediate while remembering that he was the first to unlock his Chakra back at the Academy that day.
Now that he thought about it; that should have clued him in onto his stupidly large Chakra reserves. Minutes passed by and while Naruto was getting impatient though he was a lot more patient ever since the Time Loops started. However just as he was about to give up, he saw; felt a flare come up in front of him.
There was a vortex of light and dark energy; Yin and Yang Chakra mixing together to create a blue energy inside of him that he recognised as Chakra. He grinned seeing that this was what he wanted to see.
"Now what…?" Naruto curiously drew his eyes away from the energies mixing and tried to see the source of the two energies itself.
After a bit Naruto found the source of the Yang Chakra to be from his heart and the Yin Chakra coming from his head which made sense. The two energies travelled to mix near his stomach area though for some reason Naruto found 8 gates in his body and hundreds of smaller openings which his Chakra moved around. He would need to research to see what those meant.
"Damn my Yin Chakra is so small!" Naruto shouted seeing the Yin Chakra more than often being overwhelmed by his Yang Chakra which was HUGE.
Remembering back to that book he read, Genjutsu required lots of Yin Chakra. How the hell was he going to use it when his Yang Chakra was so overwhelming?!
It was like it was telling him to give up on Genjutsu.
"Damnit!" Naruto broke from his mediations pissed off.
There was many things he couldn't do but with the Time Loop thing he was in, he figured he could eventually achieve it with lots and lots of time.
But seeing the state of his Yin Chakra, Naruto saw that it was next to impossible to forgetting about measuring his exact reserve size and a way to control it all.
Still pissed off, he continued to read the book at hand even though he wanted to throw it away.
In order your physical energy otherwise known as Yang Chakra, it is required for you to train your body. Doing so will increase not only your body's physical abilities but the amount of Yang Chakra that it produces. Similarly to increase spiritual energy or Yin Chakra, you are required to train your mind in tasks for are gradually difficult for you. Not only does it increase your thinking abilities, it will allow you to produce and use more Yin Chakra.
It is because of this that Ninjas are told to train both the body and mind as by doing both, you are able to balance out both energies and get the maximum amount of Chakra from the body. Training solely on your Chakra will only increase your reserves while maintaining the ratio between Yin and Yang Chakra in you. With more Chakra reserves, it is much more difficult to change this ratio significantly without lots of time. Also by balancing these two energies, it makes it easier to control Chakra overall.
Naruto stared at the page; the book itself gave a solution to his problem. It even gave him a possible way to also increase his Charka control at the same time! Perhaps if he balanced these energies enough, he could use Genjutsu.
'But then it wasn't like normal Genjutsu could actually help me against Kakashi. May I can use it on the Teme; that would be fun' he thought with a smirk. That thought on torturing the Teme a bit made him smile a bit.
However this still meant that he would not be able to use Genjutsu in the near future as well and the stuff that Iruka-sensei taught him only bordered the Genin level due to him being an Academy Teacher.
Though Iruka could but he didn't since it wasn't in his right to teach Academy Students Genin stuff.
Naruto understood after a while why this was. If Academy Students knew they were being taught Genin skills, they would be too arrogant and that would get them killed sooner or later.
Plus it was best to have a ninja who was average overall than heavily specialised and weak in everything else.
'Though that weakness is what teams are for' Naruto thought with sorrow. Sakura though smart wasn't that strong and while Sasuke was strong, he wasn't willing to help others.
It was due to this that Naruto started to try and think of a method to show 'teamwork' even if the two didn't. Hell Naruto knew the method in which to pass the test but didn't like being tied up to the log. Like hell would those two would help him.
'Sasuke-teme not helping me is fine but Sakura-chan as well…' Naruto was sad at the fact that Sakura would probably never recuperate his feelings.
But at the same time with the Time Loop, dating wasn't really something he could do without breaking his heart repeating the same things over and over again.
But moving back to his previous thoughts, Naruto looked up looks on strategies and the likes.
They would serve as a way to both increase his Spiritual energy and as a well to make more use of his Shadow Clones.
'Now that I think about it…I don't really know much of the jutsu. I have to ask Iruka on more about it or even Hokage-jiji since he's the Hokage who knows about this stuff' he thought.
And with that, Naruto read a couple of books on tactics which he was interested in using against Kakashi and headed off to see what he could really do with Shadow Clones.
Checkpoint 2: Loop 27 End (Total Loops: 30)
A/N:
Well this is another chapter that looks into the concepts of things. Genjutsu is something that Canon rarely touches on else via Sharingan. You pretty much only have Kurenai who is an active Genjutsu user in the series. That's kinda disappointing since at the beginning of the series, Sakura was hinted to be a Genjutsu type.
How does she end up? As a Taijutsu/Medic. The only time Sakura actually used Genjutsu was in the Third Naruto Movie and that wasn't even Canon!
Anyway I want to explore Genjutsu a lot more in this series especially on how it could be used. You have Itachi who can use a finger to trap someone in a powerful Genjutsu and Madara who momentarily used Genjutsu to freeze a person for a split second.
Then we have all those Fics where Genjutsu is either overpowered as hell or pretty much non-existance as in Canon.
Besides that point, Genjutsu is powerful for a good reason. And while It'll take a while for Naruto to get his Chakra Control high enough and a proper teacher to teach him the basics, some certain Fics have a good point that Naruto would've been a good Genjutsu user.
The power behind Genjutsu is not that it can trap someone in an illusion but rather it can do so without them even knowing.
And not knowing is the fastest way to dying in the Shinobi World.