Correct Countermeasures Against Genjutsu Users (Part 2)

Genjutsu worked by affecting an enemy's five senses, and the vast majority of genjutsu required vision to take effect. In theory, as long as one closed one's eyes, most genjutsu would not work.

"I see!" Might Guy said. He seemed to have found a broad road to dealing with genjutsu-type ninja!

"Are you an idiot? How are you supposed to fight with your eyes closed? If you can't see the enemy's movements, aren't you just courting death?!" Obito mocked. As a dead last himself, he did not often get the chance to look down on another dead last and feel superior.

If Kurenai had understood Hagoromo a little better, she would not have gotten so emotional. Hagoromo was particularly skilled at provoking his opponents.

"Then stick to your own strategy. Don't regret it when you lose!" Yuhi Kurenai said resentfully. Then, without caring whether Hagoromo was ready, she flicked two shuriken at him.

She was indeed a genjutsu-type ninja, but that did not mean genjutsu was her only means of attack. She could still use shuriken and kunai!

Hagoromo raised an eyebrow slightly, then opened his eyes. This classmate really did not hold back. Two shuriken were flying straight for his chest!

However, for any ninja, an attack like a shuriken was difficult to make work from the front.

Hagoromo swiftly pulled a kunai from his tool pouch and accurately blocked them in front of his chest.

After two clangs, Kurenai's shuriken were knocked down by Hagoromo without the slightest error.

"Weren't you going to fight with your eyes closed?" Seeing Hagoromo open his eyes, Kurenai mocked him.

Teachers generally did not stop verbal clashes during sparring, because they could be part of psychological warfare.

Hagoromo could indeed interfere with an enemy's mindset, but that was not why he spoke. The reason was simple: he just liked talking trash.

"Huh? Didn't I say closing my eyes was to deal with your genjutsu? Did you use genjutsu just now? Oh... so this is what the Yūhi Clan's genjutsu is like. We usually call this sort of thing shuriken," Hagoromo asked with an innocent expression and a tone of earnest inquiry.

"Hagoromo's awful personality..." The same thought involuntarily flashed through the minds of the three people familiar with him.

Sure enough, feeling that she had been toyed with, Kurenai became even angrier! In an instant, three more shuriken shot straight toward Hagoromo.

Hagoromo blocked the shuriken again, then said, "Forget the shuriken. Aren't you going to use genjutsu? Then you've already lost. I'm better at Shuriken Throwing Technique than you are."

At that moment, Yuhi Kurenai noticed a shuriken arcing in a huge curve toward her!

"When?!"

She had not noticed Hagoromo making any attacking motion. Without any warning at all, how had he thrown that shuriken?

However, because the shuriken had to travel in a wide arc into her blind spot before suddenly appearing, it did not carry much force by the time it reached Kurenai. She swiftly blocked it with her kunai as well.

Clang!

Hagoromo's attack seemed to have failed.

Yuhi Kurenai had just been about to mock Hagoromo's Shuriken Throwing Technique for being nothing special. How could such a Small Trick possibly hit her?!

But then she suddenly heard someone shout anxiously, "Watch out, it's Shadow Shuriken!!!"

"What?!"

Hagoromo had not thrown one shuriken, but two. Both shuriken attacked Yuhi Kurenai in wide arcs, one above and one below. The lower one hid in the shadow of the upper one, skimming ten centimeters above the ground. When it reached a point one meter in front of Kurenai, it shot sharply upward, flying fiercely toward her chest!

Having been warned, Kurenai immediately realized the danger she was in and dodged in a panic!

The shuriken tore through her sleeve, leaving a shallow wound on the outside of her arm.

If no one had warned her, that shuriken would have rendered her unable to move, and the injury would have taken at least several weeks to heal!

"Sarutobi Asuma, this is a duel between two people. Any reminder from others is forbidden! If you interfere with the battle again, Yuhi Kurenai will immediately be disqualified!" Aizawa-sensei immediately warned Asuma! The teacher's tone was full of anger, with no regard whatsoever for Sarutobi Asuma's status as the Hokage's son. That strike should have decided the match, but because of Asuma's warning, it had become an insignificant attack!

"Yes, sensei." Sarutobi Asuma obediently lowered his head. He knew he had done wrong. When he saw Kurenai about to be injured, he had shouted without knowing why.

A move that should have decided the winner had only caused a harmless minor wound. That was absolutely Asuma's responsibility.

The two shuriken had flown along perfectly synchronized trajectories while using the Shadow Shuriken technique. The difficulty was far beyond what ordinary ninja could comprehend. These were shuriken less than ten centimeters in diameter, not enormous Demon Wind Shuriken!

Yuhi Kurenai checked her wound. It was merely a graze and not serious, but her right hand, which held the kunai, was still numb.

In an instant, she figured out the method behind Hagoromo's attack.

"You coated the shuriken with Lightning Release?!" Yuhi Kurenai asked uncertainly. There were only a few students in the entire Ninja Academy capable of skillfully using elemental techniques. More importantly, she was certain that Hagoromo had not formed a single hand seal since the spar began. So the question was, how had he used Lightning Release?

Hagoromo shrugged and did not answer Yuhi Kurenai's question.

"How did you turn such tiny shuriken into Shadow Shuriken?" she continued asking unwillingly.

This time, Hagoromo answered, because his urge to educate was burning. "Making two small objects move in sync along wide arcs while retaining enough acceleration for the final moment isn't easy. It involves applications of magnetism, magnetic declination, corrections for the Earth's rotational deflection, and so on. I worked out a somewhat complicated formula for it, but putting it into practice tests the user's mental calculation ability..."

"Magnetism?" For Kurenai, Hagoromo's explanation might as well have been no explanation at all. That pile of terms she had never heard before made her head spin.

"From the perspective of physics, a magnetic field is an electric field. Electricity and magnetism are inseparable. Or rather, electricity is magnetism, and magnetism is electricity. Lightning Release, when you get down to it, is just the application of electricity."

Yuhi Kurenai: "..."

Teacher: "..."

Classmates: "..."

Everyone was roaring inwardly: What the hell did that mean? Why didn't we understand a single word?

Then they began watching one another's reactions. Some people kept nodding. Could it be that they understood?

So, in order not to make themselves look too stupid, everyone began nodding along.

"Obito, do you understand what Hagoromo meant?"

"Huh? Me?... Of course I understand. What, do you need me to explain it to you?"

Although Kai was not especially quick-witted and sometimes acted like some rare beast, no one could treat anyone else like an idiot.

After giving Obito a long look, he said, "No, no need to explain. I think I understand too."

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