Snap! After a crisp snap of his fingers, the space around Nawaki warped. Before long, it shattered like a reflection in water.
The surroundings changed. The forest that had been devastated by the battle was completely "restored," and the blood and corpses on the ground vanished, replaced by six unconscious boys and girls.
Looking closely, weren't they the Cloud Ninja prodigies who had supposedly died? Not only were they completely uninjured, even their clothes were undamaged. They all lay peacefully on the grass, as though dreaming sweet dreams.
Meanwhile, Nawaki, who stood to one side, was sweating heavily and breathing hard, as if he had just gone through a fierce battle.
"Whew! That was really exhausting! As expected, using this technique with only half my strength is still too much!" Nawaki wiped the sweat from his forehead, then looked at the six people lying on the ground and nodded in satisfaction. "Still, if my plan succeeds, it'll all be worth it!"
So, everything that had just happened had merely been part of a plan. Nawaki's goal was to force Kumogakure to surrender. If these six future pillars of Kumogakure had truly died in this battle, then even if they had genuinely killed one another, Kumogakure would have blamed Nawaki for it. Having completely lost their future and hope, the Cloud Ninja would surely have fought Konoha to the death. Forget admitting defeat and surrendering—even turning into terrorists and wreaking havoc everywhere would have been possible.
Therefore, Nawaki could not allow any of the six to die here. Everything that had happened earlier had been nothing more than genjutsu!
A genjutsu capable of immersing six strong-willed prodigies in an experience so real that they noticed no flaws was naturally no ordinary genjutsu. It was Nawaki's exclusive ocular technique, obtained after awakening