Illusion Invasion

In the forest behind the Uchiha District, a breeze rustled the leaves. Two figures stared each other down, their silent contest of pupil power already underway.

Pupil power gathered in Fugaku's eyes as he sent one genjutsu after another toward Uchiha Jin. Their pupil power canceled out each other's attacks without a trace.

Both possessed the Three-Tomoe Sharingan and were highly skilled at casting and breaking genjutsu. Neither could realistically win with it alone.

They moved at the same time, flinging concealed weapons from their hands. The weapons traced strange angles through the air, colliding and changing course again and again.

Clang! Clang!

Metal rang out in rapid succession. Weapons struck one another, scattering sparks before falling to the ground. The occasional blade that slipped through was still caught by the Sharingan and knocked aside.

The Uchiha's throwing techniques might trouble other ninja in the Shinobi World, but against two men with the Three-Tomoe Sharingan, their threat dropped sharply. They were hardly a threat at all.

Both men leaped and collided. Their kunai met in a flash of sparks. Fugaku was at a disadvantage in a contest of strength; he had only just turned fourteen, and the gap between him and Uchiha Jin was clear.

The Sharingan's perception alone let Fugaku fight him on even terms. But he could feel that he would not last long if this continued.

The tomoe in their eyes kept turning. Their attacks came from tricky angles, and their four kunai clashed repeatedly. Fugaku could tell Jin had noticed his advantage too.

Jin struck with mounting force. Fugaku's guard broke on contact, forcing him to counterattack at once. Trading blows gave him no advantage, especially when he was weaker.

Fugaku's real advantage remained his Sharingan, strengthened by the pupil power it had absorbed. If he guided Jin carefully, he might be able to defeat him.

Fugaku cast a simple genjutsu and began building an illusion that seemed real.

During one clash, a branch shed a shower of leaves. One or two of them were Fugaku's illusions, but Jin suspected nothing. Such small differences were hard to spot in the heat of battle.

Before the fight, Uchiha Jin might have scanned the surroundings with his Sharingan and seen through leaves Fugaku placed directly on a branch. Leaves that fell during the fight, however, were easy to overlook.

Among the leaves covering the ground, more and more existed only in the scene Fugaku showed Jin through the Sharingan. They vanished into the flurry of falling leaves without drawing his attention.

Insects crawled out of the battlefield and scattered, frightened by the force of their clashes. A few were illusions Fugaku had made with his Sharingan. Those insects had never existed in the battle scene Jin's Sharingan had recorded.

They had appeared suddenly, real and false mixed together, yet Uchiha Jin still suspected nothing.

"Fugaku, I didn't expect you to have come this far," Jin said. "I thought you wouldn't have improved much when it's been less than a year since you awakened the Three-Tomoe Sharingan. You've progressed faster than I expected—faster than many expected. I'm afraid all of Konoha has underestimated you."

"You're giving me too much credit," Fugaku Uchiha said. "Many people in Konoha simply keep their abilities hidden. They haven't had a chance to show what they can do. Plenty of them are far stronger than I am."

Fugaku meant it. At this point, the Three Sannin had yet to make a name for themselves. Only years later would people realize how powerful the Third Hokage's three disciples were.

The White Fang of the Leaf had yet to display his full strength either. Though Hatake Sakumo was the Forward Camp's highest commander, his abilities had not yet become widely known across the Shinobi World.

They moved swiftly, settling into a straightforward taijutsu contest. As Uchiha jonin, they knew much the same ninjutsu, while genjutsu was unlikely to work against either man's Three-Tomoe Sharingan. Taijutsu would decide the fight.

But Fugaku had not stopped using genjutsu to infiltrate Jin's vision.

His illusions gradually crept into Jin's field of view. With truth and falsehood growing harder to distinguish, Jin suspected nothing.

Their fierce exchanges had trampled the ground into a mess. Both men kept changing positions.

The uneven ground was a mixture of real and illusory hollows. Fugaku had used his Sharingan to make Jin see him step into some of them himself.

Some impressions were real. For others, Fugaku only feigned a step, using the Sharingan to show Jin a hollow forming beneath his foot.

Jin's Sharingan watched the terrain closely too. As they fought, he spotted a hollow behind Fugaku's right leg, well outside Fugaku's field of view. One step backward would put Fugaku's foot in it.

Clang! Clang!

Jin struck harder, trying to drive Fugaku into the hollow. Once Fugaku lost his balance, Jin would have his opening.

Those illusions existed only as extensions of what Jin imagined, fragile enough to break at a touch. Fugaku stepped aside again, stopping before another hollow as he thrust his kunai toward Jin's chest.

Clang!

Jin parried hard, then drove his other kunai at Fugaku with tremendous force, quick as lightning. Fugaku shifted position again and evaded the attack.

Jin failed to notice the small hollows that had appeared around his feet, some real and some not.

He attacked fiercely once more, trying to force Fugaku toward the original hollow. But a hollow where Jin expected to plant his foot was Fugaku's illusion. The leg he meant to extend suddenly struck solid ground.

In an instant, Uchiha Jin, who had been fighting Fugaku to a standstill, left himself wide open. One of Fugaku's kunai stabbed toward Jin's bent leg, the other toward his ribs.

Jin realized at once that he had fallen for Fugaku's genjutsu. He blocked the strike at his ribs with one kunai. His other kunai stopped in midair: Fugaku's blade was already poised at his leg.

On a real battlefield, his leg would already have been cut. Against an evenly matched opponent, he would only be driven closer to death with every exchange.

"I lost." No frustration showed on Uchiha Jin's face. He spent a moment reviewing the fight's details and soon understood what had happened.

"You were quietly building your genjutsu from the beginning, starting with things too inconspicuous to make me suspicious. Those two hollows that appeared behind you were traps too, weren't they?

"You deliberately tempted me to force you into one and make you lose your balance. In the end, I was the one who got impatient and fell into your trap."

Fugaku nodded. "That's about right. You never considered that I could beat you. So I built the illusion little by little from the start, drawing you in step by step until you walked into the trap."

Jin was at a loss for words. He had meant to defeat Fugaku and make him focus on getting stronger. Instead, Fugaku had taught him a lesson.

(End of chapter)