Genjutsu resistance

The afternoon of the second day after their spar at the training ground, Ryuto came again.

Rena Uzumaki was already waiting, holding two scrolls.

"Mr. Ryuto, you're right on time." Rena greeted him with a smile.

"I need to shore up my weaknesses as soon as possible," Ryuto said bluntly. "Yesterday, you said you'd teach me how genjutsu works. Where do we start?"

Rena spread the scrolls out on a wooden post at the edge of the training ground.

"It's simple. Put plainly, genjutsu uses chakra to invade someone's brain and interfere with their five senses, or create illusions directly." Rena pointed at the diagram on the scroll. "Look, chakra enters through sensory channels like the eyes and ears, or stronger chakra is used to strike the brain directly."

Ryuto frowned at the complicated chakra pathways in the diagram.

"But I don't have a chakra pathway system."

"Right, that's the problem." Rena nodded. "Ordinary genjutsu works by connecting chakra to the pathways inside your body. It doesn't work on you because there's nothing to connect to. But advanced genjutsu, especially the Uchiha's Sharingan Genjutsu, forces its way straight in. Whether you have pathways or not, it uses massive amounts of chakra to batter your brain and force illusions on you."

She looked at Ryuto. "The Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes Technique you fell under yesterday is a relatively basic visual genjutsu. It doesn't rely on making a connection. It creates a false image right before your eyes to fool them, then makes your brain believe it's real."

Ryuto understood.

In other words, low-level genjutsu didn't work on him because it wasn't compatible.

But high-level genjutsu, especially the Uchiha's, could break in by force.

"Then how do I defend against it?" Ryuto asked.

"The standard method is to form a defense around your brain with your own chakra, or use greater mental strength to disperse the invading chakra directly," Rena said. "But your ki... I'm not sure whether it can achieve a similar effect."

Ryuto thought for a moment.

Ki could strengthen his body. Could he also use it to wrap his brain in a layer of armor and keep foreign chakra out?

"I want to try," Ryuto said.

"How?"

"Wrap my head, especially the brain, in ki." Ryuto pointed at his head. "Form a barrier."

Rena's eyes lit up. "We can try! But your control has to be extremely precise. The brain is fragile. You can't let ki surge around recklessly."

Ryuto walked to the center of the training ground and closed his eyes.

First, he let his ki flow normally through his body, then tried separating a portion and slowly guiding it toward his head.

The ki traveled upward, through his neck and into his head.

At first, everything was fine.

But when he tried to spread the ki evenly over his entire brain, a problem arose.

His control was unsteady.

He usually used ki to strengthen his fists, legs, and feet, or released it to strike people. He had never tried wrapping such a delicate, fragile organ so precisely.

Some of the ki successfully wrapped around his cerebral cortex.

But even more slipped out of his control and escaped through the pores on his head.

"Pfft."

Rena couldn't help laughing.

Ryuto opened his eyes to see Rena pointing at his head, doubled over with laughter.

"Mr. Ryuto... your head... it's glowing!"

Ryuto froze, then reached up to touch the top of his head.

He felt nothing.

But he saw that a few dangling strands of his hair were giving off a faint golden glow.

He quickly used his ki perception to "look" at himself.

Good grief. His entire head looked like a golden light bulb. Ki streamed uncontrollably out of the top and back of his head, forming a hazy halo.

He looked especially ridiculous.

At some point, a few young clan members had gathered around the training ground again. They all laughed at the sight of him.

"Mr. Ryuto, that's quite a unique new hairstyle!"

"No need to light a lamp at night. You've got built-in lighting!"

"What new technique is this? Glowing Head Technique?"

Good-natured laughter rang out.

Ryuto flushed and hurriedly focused, trying to draw the leaking ki back in.

But his nerves only made his control more erratic.

Whoosh!

The ki light above his head suddenly flared brighter, truly resembling a little torch.

The onlookers laughed even harder.

Rena laughed and waved her hands. "Don't rush, don't rush, Mr. Ryuto. Take your time! You have to stay calm to control ki. The more you panic, the wilder it gets!"

Ryuto took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

He stopped trying to forcibly control all the escaping ki and instead turned his attention back inside his brain.

Bit by bit, he adjusted the ki surrounding his brain until it was even, like a thin membrane fitting snugly against its surface.

The process was mentally taxing.

He had to concentrate completely, sensing every tiny movement of ki.

The escaping glow slowly weakened until it finally withdrew completely into his body.

His head stopped glowing.

Ryuto let out a relieved breath, feeling more tired than he would after a fight.

"Did it work?" Rena leaned closer and asked.

"I think I've wrapped it." Ryuto wiped the sweat from his forehead. "But maintaining this state uses a lot of energy, and it's extremely distracting."

"That's normal. Precise control is harder to begin with," Rena said. "Shall we test it? I'll use the most basic Hell Viewing Technique."

"Go ahead."

Ryuto wrapped his brain in ki again, then nodded to Rena.

Rena formed hand seals. "Genjutsu: Hell Viewing Technique!"

Ryuto stared at her.

One second, two seconds, three seconds.

Nothing happened.

No daze, no illusions.

"It worked!" Rena said happily. "My chakra was completely blocked!"

But Ryuto didn't dare relax.

He could feel that in just these ten-odd seconds, his ki was being consumed much faster than during normal combat.

And because he had to divide his attention to maintain the ki membrane around his brain, even his reactions seemed a little slower.

"But this is only the most basic kind." Rena's smile faded as she spoke seriously. "The chakra strength of the Uchiha's Sharingan Genjutsu is dozens or hundreds of times greater than mine, and its method of invasion is more direct. This ki membrane of yours might not hold."

"And," she pointed at Ryuto's slightly pale face, "it consumes too much energy. You can't keep it up throughout a real fight."

Ryuto released the ki membrane and caught his breath.

True.

This move was only a prototype. It was still far from ready for actual combat.

"I need more practice," Ryuto said. "Until I can form it instantly, until it consumes less energy, until it becomes instinctive."

"Yes!" Rena nodded firmly. "You can definitely do it, Mr. Ryuto! You learn things so quickly!"

Over the next few days, aside from his daily ki and taijutsu training, Ryuto spent most of his time at the training ground, practicing wrapping his brain in ki.

He went from having a glowing head that drew laughing spectators, to barely managing a few minutes without leaking light, and finally to forming the covering instantly with relative proficiency.

His progress was plain to see.

Rena Uzumaki came to train with him almost every day, testing his defenses with various basic genjutsu.

"Hell Viewing Technique, ineffective!"

"Demonic Illusion: False Surroundings Technique, ineffective!"

"Mist Servant Technique, ineffective!"

Ryuto successfully defended himself more and more often.

But he also discovered that visual and auditory genjutsu were relatively easy to defend against. As long as the ki membrane remained intact, it could block almost all of them.

Yet once Rena tried more complex genjutsu involving mental suggestion and emotional interference, his defenses began to struggle.

The impacts made the ki membrane waver, forcing him to expend more ki to stabilize it.

And although practice had reduced the cost of maintaining the ki membrane, it was still a burden.

"Mr. Ryuto, your defensive approach is right: using ki to isolate yourself," Rena said after another test. "But the Uchiha's genjutsu doesn't just use large amounts of chakra. It also carries powerful mental pressure and emotional manipulation. Your ki membrane can block chakra, but that pressure on the mind might pass straight through and affect your judgment."

Ryuto sat cross-legged to regulate his breathing.

He knew Rena was right.

He had physical defense, but he hadn't put any points into resistance to "magic damage" yet.

"When is the next border mission?" Ryuto asked.

Rena thought for a moment. "Sister Mito said that in about three days, a shipment of supplies needs to be escorted to a frontline outpost. It might come under harassment from small Uchiha units."

Three days.

Ryuto clenched his fists.

Time was tight.

"For these three days, I'll focus on two things," Ryuto said. "First, getting the ki membrane's formation speed as fast as possible. Ideally, I'll be able to complete it with a thought. Second, trying to add another layer of vibrating ki inside the membrane, to see whether it can disrupt those effects on the mind."

Rena blinked. "The second one sounds so hard. Controlling two layers of ki in different states at the same time?"

"Hard or not, I have to try." Ryuto stood up. "I can't let an Uchiha stop me with a single look the next time I run into one, can I?"

That would be far too embarrassing.

His words made Rena laugh. "Mr. Ryuto, sometimes you say the funniest things."

"Just telling the truth." Ryuto smiled too, then focused again. "Let's go again. This time, try a genjutsu with some emotional effects."

"All right!"

The sounds of training rang out again.

In the distance, Mito Uzumaki stood by the window of a room, watching Ryuto practice diligently on the training ground while Rena earnestly guided him beside him.

"Three days from now..." she murmured to herself. "Will the Uchiha let you grow so easily?"