A thin, bright yellow thread suddenly emerged from Nara Tama's body, as fine as Spider Silk. It branched and crisscrossed around him, its faint yellow strands almost transparent. Sunlight glinted off them, casting a rainbow sheen.
It wasn't the Nara Clan's Shadow Secret Technique, but some strange ninjutsu Suikazan Fuguki had never seen before. A thought crossed his mind. Could he not be a member of the Nara Clan? Is his ability these threads?
The threads were finer than steel wire—far finer. He couldn't imagine what made this technique so powerful.
"No, I have to find out what this technique does!" His extensive combat experience quickly gave Suikazan Fuguki a plan.
It was almost instinct. Any Mist Ninja without this kind of battle instinct would have died before graduating from the Ninja Academy.
The Mist Ninja had no shortage of boys who died before their twelfth birthday, but any ninja who made it through that ordeal could hold their own.
And Suikazan Fuguki was one of the most outstanding of the Seven.
Samehada was his honor.
In a flash, he put one hand on the hilt of Samehada across his back. Then he heard Nara Tama's voice. "I've actually been waiting here for you. Give up this pointless struggle..." As a clone, he didn't need to hide his identity or hold back. In that respect, Suikazan Fuguki was lucky!
He was about to witness Uchiha Kin's true Nerve Secret Technique—the art of manipulating nerves. The strongest use of a technique rooted in the nervous system obviously wasn't to use the nerves as chakra threads to control kunai, nor to bundle them together into whips or tentacles.
Using nerves instead of chakra threads or steel wire, replacing arms with tentacles, and fighting directly with them—or attaching kunai to them and using taijutsu...
All of that was just holding back!
The most fundamental application of the Nerve Secret Technique was, of course, to use the nerves themselves to carry, input, and output signals.
Genjutsu!
Just as Nara Tama hadn't spoken aloud a moment ago, yet Suikazan Fuguki had heard him...
When signals from the nerves used chakra as a medium to bypass the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and skin, and directly reach the brain's neural systems responsible for processing sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch, something remarkable happened.
Suikazan Fuguki heard a voice that didn't exist, but that Nara Tama wanted him to hear. Yet he still hadn't realized that he was under a genjutsu.
Nara Tama stood right there, releasing intricate neural signals from his fine, web-like nerves. The signals were complex enough to reach every nerve ending.
They transformed Nara Tama's "imagination" into outgoing signals and transmitted them to Suikazan Fuguki.
The signals encompassed the entire forest: every blade of grass and every tree, every breeze and every ray of sunlight. Everything looked and felt real, and nothing had changed because of the illusion. It was a genjutsu that perfectly matched reality.
If what you saw and knew as "real" was indistinguishable from "illusion," how could you tell whether you were under a genjutsu?
What's more... Nara Tama's genjutsu wasn't limited to the five senses. Its method also differed greatly from the genjutsu used by shinobi in the world today. When shinobi used ninjutsu to transmit neural signals, the effect was instantaneous.
It was like throwing a basin of water at someone and drenching them. If they were caught, they were caught; if they broke free, they were free.
But Uchiha Kin's approach was clearly different. His genjutsu didn't rely on an all-or-nothing attack. Instead, it was subtle and relentless.
The neural signals weren't forceful. Like spring rain, they gently covered all five senses, then continued to transmit at a rate of nearly seventy times per second.
Countermeasures like "disrupting one's chakra," which were used to break genjutsu, were completely useless against this technique.
Disrupting your chakra could only break one wave, and the next would immediately follow. The signals came so thick and fast that, for most people, there wouldn't even seem to be a break between them. There was only one way to deal with this kind of genjutsu: break it by force. Your brain had to work faster than the signals. Otherwise, there was no way out.
Suikazan Fuguki drew Samehada. The sword, covered in spikes, seemed to come alive, connecting him and the blade as one.
"Big words from a brat! You'll be howling in agony beneath my blade!" Suikazan Fuguki swung Samehada and charged at Nara Tama.
The blade passed through Nara Tama, but struck nothing. Only then did Suikazan Fuguki realize, No good—it's a genjutsu!
He hurriedly disrupted his chakra. For just an instant, his mind cleared, but then he was trapped in the genjutsu again. Nara Tama's voice whispered like a demon's. "It's no use... This is the simplest way to use my genjutsu. Give up struggling."
Nara Tama was standing in a different tree, behind Suikazan Fuguki. He could have made the illusion more realistic just now, but had deliberately let Suikazan Fuguki notice it.
If genjutsu were used as a one-time attack like this, a single flaw could easily expose it and break the illusion.
But there was another approach: use genjutsu to relentlessly mess with the target's head. After enough repetitions, the target would lose count of how many times he had broken free and be unable to tell whether he was still trapped or had escaped.
Only then would the genjutsu's effect on the target truly be complete.
He wanted Suikazan Fuguki to repeat the process again and again, turning it back on him until he became confused and couldn't tell what was real.
"Samehada, release your power!" Suikazan Fuguki came up with a plan: have Samehada continuously supply him with chakra.
This steady stream was even more continuous than Nara Tama's genjutsu, and instantly broke the illusion. Suikazan Fuguki turned around with a sneer. "So many geniuses have died because of their arrogance... That was the first lesson I learned when I graduated."
"Your genjutsu really is despair-inducing. Hahaha! But now it's your turn to despair. Have you decided how you want to die?"
Nara Tama calmly gathered up his web-like nerves and sighed. "I never thought the first time I truly used my genjutsu, it would fail against you." Yet there wasn't the slightest sign of panic or frustration on his face at having his genjutsu broken.
That calmness irritated Suikazan Fuguki. "I'll chop you into pieces and feed you to Samehada one piece at a time."
Nara Tama looked at Samehada. Its blue blade looked like a dried fish covered in spikes. He pretended not to recognize the weapon and asked with some curiosity, "Samehada? Your sword has a strange shape and a strange name—but it really does look like a fish."
His words struck a chord with Suikazan Fuguki. He glanced at his ninja sword. "That's right. It's a masterpiece of the Mist Ninja."
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