Deep Applications of Genjutsu

Minagawa Uchiha sensed a powerful Dojutsu Power trying to pull his consciousness into an unknown space. He immediately recognized it as Uchiha Itachi's Tsukuyomi, the Genjutsu said to possess the strongest offensive power.

This was exactly what Minagawa Uchiha had intended. Otherwise, while he was intangible in the dream dimension, Genjutsu could never affect him. He also wanted to test his resistance to Genjutsu. After all, he feared that one day he might suddenly encounter a Mangekyō Sharingan using Kotoamatsukami and, without realizing it, become someone else's puppet.

Now that he had encountered a Genjutsu-type Mangekyō Sharingan, he could test what a Genjutsu clash between Mangekyō Sharingan users was like. He believed Kotoamatsukami was not as invincible as its description claimed.

For instance, Uchiha Madara, who possessed the Rinnegan, definitely could not be controlled. Therefore, Minagawa Uchiha had to determine how Mangekyō Genjutsu worked in order to ensure he had a plan for dealing with Kotoamatsukami in the future.

Minagawa Uchiha had his own guess about this. A Genjutsu battle between Mangekyō users was more a contest of Dojutsu Power. Tsukuyomi was so difficult to counter because it stretched one second into seventy-two hours. The outside world had no time to react, making it naturally easy to fall victim to it.

As for Kotoamatsukami's power, the fact that it required a ten-year cooldown likely meant that this Dojutsu unleashed its accumulated Dojutsu Power in an instant. The opponent simply had no ability to gather sufficiently powerful Mental Strength in such a short time to resist it, thus earning Kotoamatsukami its reputation as the strongest Genjutsu.

Thus, when Uchiha Itachi used Tsukuyomi, Minagawa Uchiha resisted with his Dojutsu Power. Sure enough, he felt no sign of being pulled into Tsukuyomi Space. He merely expended some Dojutsu Power, and thanks to the Sage Body's recovery abilities, it was restored within a single breath.

Just as I expected, Mangekyō Sharingan Genjutsu is fundamentally an application of Dojutsu Power. For Genjutsu to work, that power must be injected into the opponent's brain. That makes it possible to counter this kind of Genjutsu with Dojutsu Power.

From that perspective, Tsukuyomi pulls its enemy into a mental illusion space. Within that mental space, just like the film Inception from my previous life, the speed of human thought far surpasses that of reality. That is what creates the phenomenon where an instant in the mental world becomes a long span of time outside.

In that case, Uchiha Itachi's Tsukuyomi is essentially just an ability that pulls another person's consciousness into a mental space entirely under his control. The limit of one second equaling seventy-two hours is probably the maximum reaction speed of thought after it has separated from the body within Tsukuyomi Space.

Having seen through Tsukuyomi's essence, Minagawa Uchiha was in an excellent mood and began considering Kotoamatsukami's operating mechanism.

Perhaps Kotoamatsukami works like the method used by the protagonists in Inception to implant memories. The difference is that Kotoamatsukami uses the powerful Dojutsu Power explosively unleashed by the Mangekyō Sharingan to enter the target's deepest mental world, planting new memories deep within the subconscious and thereby altering their perception.

This train of thought gave Minagawa Uchiha an entirely new understanding of Genjutsu and opened up another world of possibilities for him.

Ordinary Genjutsu generally confused the target's five senses or manipulated their emotions, causing the victim to lose their ability to distinguish reality from illusion through bodily perception and fall into an illusion.

Mangekyō Sharingan Genjutsu, however, was more like a direct attack on the enemy's consciousness. This meant the victim would either suffer devastating mental damage or have their perception directly altered.

The ability to directly reach an enemy's consciousness is probably the real reason Sharingan Genjutsu is so much stronger than other Genjutsu. Perhaps I can eventually develop my own applications of Tsukuyomi and Kotoamatsukami. The real difficulty should be how to affect the opponent's consciousness.

It sounded like a lengthy process, but these thoughts had been deduced in Minagawa Uchiha's mind in an instant. Outside, only a moment had passed.

At that moment, Uchiha Itachi felt as if he were trying to shake a mountain. No matter how frantically he drove his Mangekyō Sharingan, he could not move the other's consciousness in the slightest, let alone pull it into Tsukuyomi Space.

Seeing that his Tsukuyomi had completely failed, Uchiha Itachi did not hesitate further. His eyes spun rapidly, and a massive half-body skeletal frame appeared, encasing both him and Obito Uchiha.

Seeing his final trump card, Uchiha Itachi regained his confidence. Yet, considering Minagawa Uchiha's strangeness, he increased his Dojutsu Power output. As his Dojutsu Power rapidly drained away, chakra surged wildly, then materialized into the skeleton's veins and flesh. In an instant, the skeleton became a Half-Body Giant wreathed in blazing crimson flames, holding a gourd in one hand and a shield in the other.

Susanoo? And one wielding the Totsuka Blade and Yata Mirror, no less. Against a turtle shell that can both attack and defend, things will be troublesome until your Dojutsu Power runs dry. But how long can your Dojutsu Power last?

Hearing Minagawa Uchiha's mockery, the now-calm Uchiha Itachi remained completely unmoved. It seemed that he could not kill the other with his own strength. He could only wait for the Masked Man to recover before getting rid of him.

However, this mission had never required them to kill him. Bringing the Uchiha Clan's glory to an end was the mission's true purpose.

With that in mind, Uchiha Itachi did not hesitate. He immediately turned and charged toward another part of the Uchiha Compound.

Seeing Uchiha Itachi's actions, Minagawa Uchiha realized what was happening. His opponent had no need to fight him to the death. They had come to destroy the Uchiha Clan in the first place.

It seems I need to find a way to delay him first, or directly break his Susanoo. Unfortunately, there hasn't been enough time to develop a powerful Ninjutsu capable of breaking that turtle shell. Materialization to Void is completely impossible at such a large size, and he might even be able to form another one afterward. Wouldn't that be even more of a headache?

To delay him, I need to restrict his range of movement. This is the Uchiha Clan Compound, after all. If I make too much of a mess, it will be my own property getting damaged. It seems I can only try the method Gaara used against Uchiha Madara during the Fourth Great Ninja War. Hopefully Uchiha Itachi hasn't prepared for that.

Not daring to waste any time, Minagawa Uchiha secretly created a Wood Clone. Then his Mangekyō Sharingan spun, and chakra as tangible as solid matter rapidly condensed around his body.

Susanoo!