'It's weak?' Hyuga Rao's eyes widened when he realized how easily he had parried the Ghost's heavy strike.
The haymaker that approached with the force of a falling boulder just bounced off the palm of his hand.
And yet everything else about it showed how much power had been put into the attack.
The impact had been resounding. The air around them had scattered. And even a faint flame had been ignited due to the air friction.
However, the result was baffling.
Rao had no time to think as the fist he parried suddenly snaked around his arm.
"!!!"
Alerted by the bizarre movement of his enemy, Rao pulled back. However, he found another hand piercing into his guard and worming its way to grab the collar of his shirt. A slight jerk broke his balance.
He fell forward, and his instincts compelled him to fight the fall.
Muscles tensed up all at once as a cold pain resonated through his gut. Belatedly, he realized, that he had been struck. His Byakugan had caught the movement, yet somehow he could not react.
Then, his joints screamed.
The world flipped on its head in the next moment.
And the next thing he knew, he was plummeting to the ground at a rapid pace.
—Crack! Boom!
Shattering the branches in his way, he hurtled faster than gravity pulled him down. Regaining his bearings, he spun and landed on his feet.
However, the impact made his knees cry out in torment as if doubting his tyrannical ways.
Rao quickly caught sight of his squadmates rushing the Ghost.
Insects flooded his vision, however the Fire Release that spread out in a wide cone deterred them from their approach. With every wave of the Ghost's limbs, more fire spread out into the surroundings.
"Tsk,"
The faint frustration of Aburame Chiso was subtle.
His last teammate, meanwhile, was tending to Sayuri's wounds given her role as the medical-nin. The nagging feeling that something was off never left the two girls as they watched Chiso stall for time.
The arrival of the other squads was going to be the deciding factor in all this.
After all, if the Ghost felt a threat to his life, he would surely flee. Sayuri had informed Squad G beforehand. Hence, they avoided going all out so as to avoid alerting their target.
"Hoooo,"
Breathing out to calm his worries, Rao resumed his stance. However, it seemed like he had taken a decent hit as his body was sluggish.
As if a weight was dragging him by both ankles, he struggled to leap onto the trees and match the height at which the others fought.
'Something's wrong,' He thought to himself.
Yet he had no choice but to continue the mission. After all, everyone only had doubts.
Nothing was pointing towards the existence of any danger for them.
It was as clear as day that the Ghost was nothing but prey. Looking at the Ghost, whose skin was void of any injuries despite the flames that burned all around him, Rao momentarily felt a sense of awe.
***
"You're close, but that's not exactly what's happening."
After breaking the layered illusions on his students, Akuta took another glance at them to make sure that there were no lingering threats.
"Akuta-sensei... Are you sure a Genjutsu influenced us?" Mitsuko asked, fully intrigued.
The world around them didn't seem any different. Daylight continued to pour through the canopy and the scent of plantlife wafted about. Together with the distant sounds of a violent battle, the disharmony played an unnerving tune.
Hearing Mitsuko's words, Akuta's gaze drifted into the distance — an approximate location for where the Genjutsu spread.
"I am sure. If we move in that direction, I'm pretty sure we'd find the person responsible for it."
"So?" Sasuke asked, "Are we going?"
Recalling that his cursed brother, Itachi, was also proficient in Genjutsu as per Akuta's teachings, he was keen on learning who was behind the layered illusions. Given that he bore the Sharingan, he found it astounding that a Genjutsu could still influence him to such a degree.
In response to Sasuke's curiosities, Akuta had to shake his head.
"No, it's best we use this opportunity to escape. Since the Genjutsu's range is quite large, anyone who tries to follow us will be plunged into the illusion. It's a good chance."
Akuta's eyes seemed to narrow in thought. He too, seemed curious about who the Genjutsu caster was.
Given the similarities its effects had to the Real Mirage Formation, he couldn't help but wonder how it had appeared here all of a sudden.
"Could it be..?"
For a moment, his thoughts wandered to a silver-haired boy. The sole reason why Konoha had gotten their hands on Suna's special formation.
If his guess was correct, then meeting with Suguru would prove to be quite useful for his plans. With the boy's skillset, dealing with Danzo would be much easier. Furthermore, despite being a rogue ninja at the moment, Suguru's loyalties still seemed rooted in Konoha.
Hiruzen had to make a choice soon.
***
From a distance, Suguru watched as his clones, draped in cloaks of swirling red dust, fought different squads. Each squad faced four clones without them knowing it.
All the sounds of battle were incorporated into the illusion, blurring the edges of reality to create a scenario where they believed that only a single opponent lay before them.
Suguru's eyes gleamed.
'They're holding back... Likely to bait me into lowering my guard so that all four squads can ambush me. With that lineup, which included a pair of Nara jounin, my movements would be severely restricted.'
Unfortunately for them, Suguru had long whispered lies into their ears. Their earpieces no longer fed them the information they needed.
Their eyes saw a mix of reality and illusions, unable to discern between what was real and what was not.
Although the pain that erupted from his melted skin threatened to break his focus, the adrenaline that coursed through his body was enough of a deterrent. Numbed by the thrill, his eyes pierced through the veil of his illusions to observe the status of each Hyuga.
'Now, let's see if I run out of chakra before I complete my experiment.'
With a card or two stuck onto the bodies of the three Hyuga shinobi, Suguru was analyzing the effects of his Cards of Cursing in the heat of battle.
His eyes gleamed with a crimson light, fully maximizing Ranmaru's Kekkei Genkai.
The truth, arrived at through the Shinrakugan, would slowly be unraveled.
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