The One-Tail Appears

The night sky was bright, the streets blazed with lights, and vendors' cries rang out without pause. The entire night market seemed perfectly normal.

Yet Pakura felt something she couldn't quite put into words. It was the instinctive wariness she had developed over many years as an outstanding ninja.

"As expected of Pakura, the Scorch Release user. You actually sensed my genjutsu."

Suddenly, a low, ethereal voice spoke. Pakura noticed that the noisy sounds of the bustling street had abruptly vanished. The pedestrians along the roadside, including her disciple Maki, whose hand she was holding, had all suddenly stopped moving, as if time had frozen across the entire world.

Pakura's expression grew solemn as she watched a tall, shadowy figure approach her step by step. The figure had clearly been obscured by genjutsu; she couldn't make out his face or clothes, and had no way to determine his true identity. She could only vaguely tell that he was a man.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Pakura asked gravely.

The visitor was, of course, Yusuke. With the help of his Sharingan, he had drawn Pakura into a genjutsu space. No matter how much time passed inside this space, only an instant would elapse in the real world.

Yusuke's genjutsu was somewhat similar to Itachi's Mangekyo genjutsu, Tsukuyomi, but it was nowhere near as powerful.

Itachi's Tsukuyomi could inflict mental harm on its target within the genjutsu space. In severe cases, it could drive the victim to collapse or even die.

Yusuke's genjutsu space, on the other hand, could only create illusions. It couldn't cause the target any actual harm. But for Yusuke, that was more than enough.

During the brief moment he cast the technique, Yusuke had also placed a genjutsu on himself that caused others to perceive things incorrectly. This way, nobody nearby could realize that he was using his Sharingan.

"Don't worry. I have no designs on Sunagakure. I only want to show you something interesting," Yusuke said slowly, his voice simulated by the genjutsu.

Pakura snorted. "If you have something to say, say it. Stop hiding your face."

In Pakura's eyes, anyone capable of casting genjutsu on her in the middle of Sunagakure's busiest district was no ordinary person. And if he had to contact her this way, he must have some ulterior motive.

As soon as she finished speaking, Pakura saw the surroundings shift rapidly. One scene after another played out like a movie.

Yusuke had used genjutsu to recreate two scenarios. In the first, Pakura accepted a secret mission from Sunagakure's leadership and secretly went to Kirigakure to negotiate peace. In the second, after reaching Kirigakure's territory, she was ambushed and killed.

Some of the scenery and people in the scenes were unclear, but Pakura understood what Yusuke was trying to convey.

Her eyes narrowed slightly. Thinking of her recent conflicts with the village leadership, she couldn't help but grow suspicious. She doubted both whether these scenes were real and how the other person had obtained such information.

Though she already believed it to some extent, Pakura didn't let it show. Instead, she sneered. "You used this genjutsu to show me things that never happened, just to drive a wedge between me and the village?"

Yusuke smiled. "Whether they're true or not, let's wait and see. Time will prove everything!"

Yusuke had already conveyed what he wanted to Pakura, and there was no need to waste his breath convincing her that it was true. Once she received a mission from the village leadership, she would verify it for herself.

As Yusuke's words faded, the genjutsu scene before Pakura slowly disappeared, and the noise of the night market returned to her ears.

"Sensei, sensei, why aren't you saying anything?" Maki called repeatedly, still holding Pakura's hand.

Pakura came to her senses, her expression returning to normal. She smiled and said, "It's nothing. I just spaced out for a moment. By the way, Maki, how long were you calling me before I responded?"

Maki smiled. "I didn't know you spaced out too, Sensei! I only just called you, and you came to your senses right away."

Pakura nodded, but she was still amazed by the mysterious person's powerful genjutsu. She had spent nearly ten minutes in the illusion, yet in the real world, only an instant had passed.

"Hey, Sensei, what's this in your hand?" Maki asked curiously, noticing the small scroll in Pakura's hand.

Pakura was startled. Only then did she realize that somehow, someone had placed a scroll in her hand.

I was so careless! Even if it was because I was caught in genjutsu, the fact that he managed to place a scroll in my hand without my noticing means he could have killed me just as easily in that situation. Full of doubts, Pakura tucked the scroll into her clothes, intending to read it when she was alone.

While Pakura's attention was on the scroll, Yusuke had already walked past her, brushing shoulders with her.

The corners of Yusuke's mouth lifted slightly. His contact with Pakura had gone quite smoothly.

Pakura had been a last-minute move, an unexpected hidden piece on his board. Whether or not he could persuade her to become his ally, he had nothing to lose.

Luckily, she let her guard down because she was in Sunagakure. Otherwise, it really wouldn't have been easy to restrain her with genjutsu! With his back to Pakura, Yusuke strolled slowly toward the far end of the night market street.

By noon the next day, nearly twenty-four hours had passed since the second round of the Chunin Ninja Exams had begun.

The Desert of Demons was vast, so all the Genin teams had entered through different gates. So far, the two teams from Konoha still hadn't managed to meet up.

With Yusuke's two Phantom Crow Clones keeping watch, he knew the situation of both Konoha teams like the back of his hand.

Mizuki, Gekko Hayate, and Uzuki Yugao's team was doing fairly well. All three were among the strongest Genin.

All three were skilled at Taijutsu. At the early stages of a ninja's career, many hadn't yet mastered ninjutsu or genjutsu, so Taijutsu was often the key to victory.

In less than a day, they had already obtained the scroll their team needed. They were now hiding in a secluded spot. All they had to do was avoid fights as much as possible and last for three days.

The other team, consisting of Itachi, Anko, and Kurama Naki, had run into a little trouble. They had been attacked by Sunagakure's seed team, and during the fight, Anko had overused her Chakra, triggering her Cursed Seal and temporarily leaving her unable to fight.

However, thanks to Itachi's formidable all-around abilities and Kurama Naki's unexpected genjutsu, the team still defeated their opponents. Unfortunately, the other team's scroll was the same type as theirs, so they couldn't rest yet. They had to keep looking for another team and take its scroll.

Seeing Anko's condition made Yusuke feel guilty. He really had overlooked this. Once the second round was over, he would have to deal with Orochimaru's Heaven Curse Seal on her.

The Heaven Curse Seal on Anko's body was still an incomplete version. For Orochimaru, it could serve as a vessel for resurrection.

But it was completely useless to Anko. It couldn't boost her Chakra like Sasuke's Curse Seal. Instead, it would flare up when she ran low on Chakra, leaving her incapacitated by the pain.

At a teahouse in Sunagakure, Yusuke chatted with Hayama while giving him a live report on what his Phantom Crow Clones had observed.

Just then, one of the Phantom Crow Clones patrolling the Nara Desert sent word that it had spotted the One-Tail, Shukaku. Yusuke was delighted and immediately ordered all the Phantom Crow Clones to converge on the area and search it thoroughly.

By nightfall, Yusuke had roughly pinpointed the One-Tail Shukaku's location. He left a Fire Clone at the Post House, then hurried to the Nara Desert himself.

When Yusuke reached the part of the Nara Desert near Shukaku's hiding place, nearly a hundred Phantom Crow Clones circling overhead swooped down and flew back into his body.

He looked out over the endless sea of sand. Although he knew Shukaku was hidden beneath the sand nearby, he wasn't certain of the exact location.

Looks like I'll have to use a little force to drive Shukaku out from under the sand, Yusuke thought.

Once he had a plan, Yusuke quickly formed Hand Seals. When he finished, he pressed his right hand against the sand beneath him.

"Scorch Release: Ten-Direction Scorched Earth."

A series of black seal patterns spread outward from where Yusuke's right hand pressed against the sand. In the blink of an eye, they covered an area roughly five or six hundred meters across.

Under the influence of Yusuke's ninjutsu, the golden sand began to take on a faint red hue, and great waves of heat rose from beneath the sand.

He had used ninjutsu to heat the sand across an area five or six hundred meters wide, causing the temperature beneath the surface to rise sharply.

The technique covered such a vast area that it consumed nearly seventy percent of the Chakra in Yusuke's body. But that didn't affect him much. He still had the Nine-Tails' Yin Release Chakra battery inside him, so his combat strength wouldn't suffer.

"Yahaa!!!"

A loud, piercing cry suddenly rang out, startling Yusuke badly. Fortunately, the Nara Desert was quite a distance from Sunagakure. Otherwise, that cry would have drawn the village's entire army.

The golden sand, now glowing faintly red from the heat, suddenly churned violently. A huge, extremely plump tanuki leaped out from beneath the sand and roared at the sky again. "I'm burning up!!!"

The tanuki stood dozens of meters tall, though it was smaller than the Nine-Tails Yusuke had once seen. Its body was very round, its surface the color of yellow sand and covered in purple markings. A tail, longer than its body and enormously thick, extended from behind it.

Looking at the fat, gigantic tanuki that had sprung out of the sand, Yusuke thought, So this is the Sand's Shukaku? From the sound of it, he seems pretty cheerful.

As soon as Shukaku emerged from the sea of sand, he immediately fixed his gaze on Yusuke.

"Ah!!! Was it you who made it so hot under the sand?" Shukaku shouted, then pointed his enormous arm at Yusuke and demanded an answer.

But before Yusuke could reply, the hot-tempered Shukaku launched an attack.

"Wind Release: Air Bullet!"

Shukaku slapped his belly. A massive sphere of Wind Release Chakra shot from his mouth straight toward the area where Yusuke stood.

The Air Bullet wasn't as powerful as a Tailed Beast Ball, but it was easy to form and quick to fire. For Shukaku, launching one was as simple as slapping his belly.

Faced with this purely destructive area-of-effect ninjutsu, Yusuke transformed directly into a Phantom Crow Clone to dodge. The extremely powerful Air Bullet passed straight through the intangible clone and kicked up a vast cloud of dust across the sand.