Genjutsu Prodigy

Jin accepted the logbook Sparrow handed him. Only Gennosuke and he remained in the monitoring room.

"The entire village is under surveillance." Jin browsed through the feeds and noticed that an entire wall of monitors covered the Uchiha Clan Compound.

"Watching your own clan must be hard," Gennosuke said with concern. "If you can't handle it, I'll switch you out."

"It's fine. I'm not the worrying type." Jin sat on a stool with one leg crossed over the other. "By the way, the negotiations ended a while ago. They should be coming back soon, right?"

"Yeah." Gennosuke replied calmly, "When the time comes, we'll probably be escorting prisoners to exchange with Hidden Sand."

"A cushy job like that could fall to us?" Jin asked curiously. Logically, wouldn't it be enough to send other Anbu?

"We'll be operating in the shadows, in case someone tries anything," Gennosuke explained. "Things like this have happened before."

"Mm... so complicated." Jin stared blankly at the surveillance feeds.

By the time his shift ended in the evening, another half-day of slacking off had come to an end. After saying goodbye to Gennosuke, he headed home alone.

Watching the villagers pass by and the children laughing and playing in the streets, Jin could not help sighing. "It really is nice when there's no war."

When he got home, Kurenai was already studying alone in the pavilion. Seeing Jin return, she happily said, "Brother Jin, I've finished reading all the theory. Can you teach me basic genjutsu now?"

"Hm? You finished?" Jin walked over to the pavilion in surprise. "You read it all in just two days?"

"Mhm." Kurenai nodded adorably. "Wow... you really are a genius." Jin praised her. "Then I'll teach you your first genjutsu."

"Genjutsu: Tree Binding Death."

After telling Kurenai the hand seals, she immediately wanted to try it out, brimming with excitement. "Brother Jin, how about you be my sparring partner?"

"Hm? Aren't you going to practice first?" Jin asked in confusion. Kurenai shook her head, then began gathering chakra and forming hand seals. She cried out, "Genjutsu: Tree Binding Death!"

One second, Jin had not been worried that Kurenai would fail to use the genjutsu. The next, he felt his entire body being bound by a tree.

Kurenai emerged from the tree and smiled at the terror in Jin's eyes. "Brother Jin, you're under genjutsu."

"Am I?" Jin suddenly smiled despite being bound. "Kurenai, take a look at yourself."

The scene shifted. Jin was standing there perfectly unharmed, while Kurenai was the one bound by the tree.

"Huh?" Kurenai looked at Jin in confusion. "Brother Jin, weren't you supposed to be under genjutsu? Why am I the one tied up?"

"Really? Take another good look at me." Jin smiled at her. At some point, his black eyes had turned into Sharingan.

"This is the Sharingan genjutsu, Mirror Heaven and Earth Change. The moment you cast your genjutsu on me, the Sharingan reflected it back at you." Jin explained as he deactivated his Sharingan.

As if nothing had happened, the two of them were still standing in the pavilion. Kurenai's cheeks were slightly pale from the excessive chakra she had used to cast the genjutsu.

"Rest for a while. You don't have much chakra left." Jin helped Kurenai over to a chair.

Kurenai lay sprawled across the table, replaying the process of casting the genjutsu in her head. She clearly had not seen Brother Jin activate his Sharingan, so why had it been reflected back for no reason?

As she thought, she gradually drifted off to sleep on the table.

When Jin came out with two bowls of noodles and saw the girl, he smiled helplessly. "Kurenai, wake up and eat."

"Mmm... no, let me sleep a little longer..." Kurenai mumbled, shifting into a more comfortable position before continuing to sleep.

Seeing this, Jin could only dig out a clean coat from inside and drape it over Kurenai.

Early the next morning, Kurenai woke up in her own room, rubbing her head groggily... Wasn't she at Brother Jin's place? How had she ended up at home?

Still puzzled, she walked out of her room and found the rarely seen Shinku Yuhi reading a scroll nearby.

"Dad, aren't you going to work today?" Kurenai asked curiously.

Shinku put down the scroll in his hand and beckoned for Kurenai to come over.

"Dad's taking the day off today. Jin carried you home last night." Shinku patted Kurenai's little head and said with satisfaction, "Jin told me you already know genjutsu."

"Hmph, I'm amazing!" Kurenai proudly turned her head away. "I put Brother Jin under genjutsu on my first try, though in the end, um..."

"Hahahaha!" Shinku laughed heartily. "If you could have kept that brat trapped in genjutsu, then you'd be even more of a genius than him."

"Dad, whose dad are you anyway?! You didn't even praise me." Kurenai pouted in complaint.

Seeing this, Shinku spoke even more indulgently. "From now on, Dad will teach you. Don't trouble Brother Jin anymore."

"Why?" Kurenai looked up at her father with wide, puzzled eyes.

"He's busy." As one of Konoha's higher-ups, Shinku naturally knew about Jin's Anbu identity. "He has missions every day."

"Oh... okay..."

Anbu Squad One's break room

Gennosuke gathered his teammates. "Tomorrow, Hidden Sand will exchange prisoners with us. Lord Hokage has ordered Squad One to follow them in secret."

"Oh, so as long as nothing unexpected happens, we won't need to show ourselves?" Sparrow interjected.

"Yeah." Gennosuke said flatly, "The jonin leading this mission are Minato Namikaze and Dan Kato, the deputy director of the Medical Department."

"Oh, don't know them." Sparrow interjected again. Cicada shot Sparrow an annoyed look. "Can you stop saying pointless things?"

"What a coincidence, I know both of them quite well." Jin looked at Gennosuke. "Minato Namikaze taught me my Body Flicker Technique. He's a genius as famous as I am. As for Dan Kato, he's Lady Tsunade's lover, one of the Three Ninja."

Fangs picked up the thread. "A genius as famous as Crow? Damn, that impressive?"

"This mission will have two Anbu squads escorting them openly, so unless something unusual happens, we won't need to act." Gennosuke cut off his teammates' conversation. "There are no missions today. Get plenty of rest. We leave early tomorrow morning."

"Alright, then I'm heading to the barbecue place. Who's coming?" Fangs sprang to his feet excitedly and looked at the other three.

Cicada pretended not to hear him, while Sparrow quietly packed up his things. When his gaze turned to Jin, Jin said with a smile, "Fangs, you don't want to take a Sharingan hit before going out for barbecue, do you?"

The aftermath of getting diarrhea after their last barbecue meal had been far too traumatic...

"Tch, you people have no taste." Fangs said disdainfully.

"Want to go train at the training grounds?" Sparrow suddenly suggested. Cicada thought about it and figured there was nothing else to do. "Sure."

"What about Crow?" Sparrow looked at Jin again. Jin naturally nodded right away. "I'm fine with it."

"You're not asking me?" Fangs stared at the three of them with wide eyes. He always had the feeling that they were quietly leaving him out.

"Go eat your barbecue." Cicada rolled his eyes at him, then patted Jin on the shoulder to signal that he should leave.

"Let's go. I'll come along and watch the fun too." After Gennosuke finished packing his things, he followed them out as well.

"We're going in Anbu uniforms?" Jin asked blankly.