Overdrafting the Future, Starting in Naruto

After Tsunade's teasing, the "Nine-Syllable Arts" were renamed to the "Nine-Syllable Secret Arts," or the Nine Secrets for short. However, Genichi's deepest understanding was still limited to the arts of Pyo, Zai, and Kai. His grasp of Zen, Jin, and Rin was secondary, and the others were merely superficial. But this was also related to the different functions of each secret art, and the ones he was currently focused on were the ones he needed most.

That evening, before bed, Genichi performed his routine of dispelling his clones, sorting through their memories one by one to better arrange the next day's tasks. Although shadow clones were excellent for shouldering the burden of training, he never let them exist for too long at a time, to avoid too great an impact on himself. It was also a way to control the direction and progress of his training.

"Oh? Has there finally been a milestone?"

While processing the memories of the clone specifically responsible for developing the sensory deprivation genjutsu, Genichi was pleasantly surprised. He had envisioned a jutsu to rob the five senses ever since he learned the Bringer-of-Darkness Technique. He had successively completed the Silent World, which deprived hearing, and the Flawless Fallen Body Technique, which deprived touch. But after that, interference from other projects had slowed progress in this area considerably. Even with clones sharing the load, a person's capacity still had its limits. Even as his physical strength grew daily and he developed the Primordial Spirit Technique, his tolerance was not infinite.

"So I have to name it first to get more motivated?" Genichi was a bit speechless. The jutsu wasn't even developed yet, and the clone wanted to name it first. Shadow clones always had some strange ideas.

But since there had been a milestone, he would adjust his plan tomorrow and assign more clones to continue developing the genjutsu that deprived the sense of smell.

A person's five senses are sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. The first three are the most important elements in genjutsu, as a person's perception of the outside world is mostly based on them. Therefore, genjutsu also primarily targets them. By deceiving sight, hearing, and touch, an illusion can already be made extremely realistic and difficult to distinguish from reality. Unless one encounters someone with a very keen sense of smell, who can detect that something is amiss.

For example, that guy Kakashi's nose was very sharp. He hadn't mastered sensory ninjutsu, but he could rely on his sense of smell to detect enemies hiding nearby. And that was to say nothing of the ninja of the Inuzuka clan and their ninken.

And apart from hard-control genjutsu—the kind you know you're in but can't break—most illusions are best when the opponent doesn't even realize they're caught. If you don't know you're in a genjutsu, then there's no way to even talk about breaking it.

The Bringer-of-Darkness, Silent World, and Flawless Fallen Body techniques were all hard-control types. Once hit, the enemy immediately knew and would take measures to break free. The reason the Kurama clan's five senses control was once on par with the Uchiha's Sharingan was that its power not only made illusions infinitely close to reality but could even interfere with reality and cause real damage.

Genichi's genjutsu ability hadn't reached that level yet. The reason he started with sensory deprivation was that crude deprivation was much easier than fine control. He would first develop the five deprivation jutsu, then integrate them more deeply. For example, Mirror Flower, Water Moon actually involved all five senses. But that genjutsu was actually a combination of Yin Release and Water Release. It was precisely because his precision in controlling the five senses was insufficient that he had relied on his mastery of Water Release, using the copying ability of the Water Mirror Technique to reflect the surroundings and thus create a very realistic illusion to deceive the enemy's senses. And their sixth sense, chakra perception, if they had it.

Fortunately, he was drawing nourishment from the ultimate genjutsu, Izanagi, and his proficiency in genjutsu was constantly improving. And the development of the sensory deprivation illusions was also constantly accumulating his knowledge base in this area. Although he had the Sharingan, he never relied on it, but instead continued to diligently develop his own genjutsu. He was now looking forward to the day when his thick accumulation would lead to a great breakthrough.

As for the name of the smell-depriving genjutsu, how about… Avīci Hell?

June was relatively calm for Konoha. They were in a state of near-truce with the Mist. The situation in the Land of Rain with the Stone was also at a stalemate. The scale of the fighting with the Cloud was also decreasing, because Kumo was escalating its war with Iwa. The A-B Combo was making a name for themselves in the ninja world with the corpses of Iwa-nin. The only thing missing was a "North A-B, South Genichi" rivalry.

After Sunagakure and Kirigakure's fruitless secret search for the missing Pakura, the Sand leadership announced that she had been killed by Iwa-nin. The death of a hero roused the fury of the Sand's ninja and civilians, and they fought against Iwa with even greater ferocity. But how many people would remember a dead hero? And for how long?

At the end of June, Sunagakure and Kirigakure officially ended their war, each withdrawing their troops from the southern Land of Wind and the southern Land of Rivers. Instantly, the pressure on Iwagakure increased dramatically, as Sunagakure's forces quickly concentrated in the north and began to counter-attack. At the same time, Kirigakure also began to send more troops toward the Land of Fire.

Early July.

Danzō, who hadn't yet had time to deal with the Akatsuki, hurriedly returned to Konoha from the Land of Rain. It was the same conference room, the same four people.

"I plan to withdraw our troops from the Land of Rain and agree to Hanzō's peace talks with Iwagakure," Hiruzen said first.

"I object!" Danzō immediately shouted. "Now is the best time to attack Iwa. And we must maintain our alliance and united front with Hanzō. Otherwise, Iwagakure is very likely to secretly win him over and attack us in turn. Hanzō is now gradually integrating the numerous ninja organizations within the Land of Rain, his strength has increased, and his ambition will gradually recover. We need to direct his ambition at others, not at us."

Koharu and Homura looked at each other, somewhat troubled.

Hiruzen looked at Danzō. "You should also know that once Sunagakure pushes back Iwa, their next target, allied with Kirigakure, will be us. At that time, we will be under immense pressure. Withdrawing our troops now will not only relieve the pressure on Iwa, preventing Suna from pushing them back too quickly, but will also allow us to consolidate our forces to deal with the future attacks from Kiri and Suna. As for Amegakure and Hanzō…" Hiruzen paused, then said, "Danzō, I believe you can find a way to ensure that Hanzō does not become a threat to us."

Danzō's eye twitched. What else could he say? The hateful thing was, he wasn't the Hokage.

Taking a deep breath, Danzō gave up arguing. He stood up and said angrily, "Hiruzen, I will handle Amegakure and Hanzō. But… Iwagakure is a great threat to us. You will regret today's decision!" With that, he turned and left the conference room.

Hiruzen sighed.

"Hiruzen, he will understand," Koharu comforted him. "But, is it possible to change Sunagakure's strategy, or for us to strike first?"

Hiruzen immediately thought of Genichi's previous plan, but then secretly shook his head. Now was not the time. As for striking first, that wasn't suitable either. So he could only shake his head.

"Then we can only actively prepare," Homura said. "Although our forces are stretched thin, I believe we have enough strength to win this war."

"That's right," Koharu also nodded. "We have enough outstanding ninja, especially Kinoshita Genichi and Minato Namikaze. They are already elites on par with Tsunade's generation."

Hearing this, Hiruzen also relaxed a bit. There was also Kakashi, who was about ready to be promoted to jonin. His son Shinnosuke had also grown up and could stand on his own. The future was still very bright.

"Homura, once the war with Sunagakure breaks out, we will need you to personally oversee the front," Hiruzen said.

Homura nodded gravely. "Don't worry, I'm not so old that I can't move."

Although he was busy with training, Genichi was not completely out of touch with the outside world. He was still the captain of an Anbu squad, and although he only had Ina under his command, he could still obtain some intelligence from the Anbu. And Sarutobi Shinnosuke would come from time to time to bring him some information. After the successful assassination of the Third Mizukage, his status had invisibly risen a lot, even though not many people within Konoha knew about it.

"Sunagakure's counter-attack is very fierce. Kumogakure's offensive against Iwagakure is also constantly strengthening; they're causing a lot of destruction within the Land of Earth… Even if the Third Hokage withdraws his troops, it won't be much help to Iwa. The main purpose is to guard against Suna, but Iwagakure won't be grateful."

Genichi analyzed the recent intelligence. He predicted that at most, in three months, Iwa would be driven out of the Land of Wind by Suna. And based on some information from the original timeline, Iwa would probably take the opportunity to withdraw from the Land of Wind and concentrate their forces to fight Kumo within their own borders. Perhaps the famous scene of ten thousand ninja besieging the Third Raikage would still happen. If possible, he could go and watch, and preferably bring back the Third Raikage's body for research, Genichi secretly planned.

And after defeating Kumo, Iwa would probably go to war with Konoha next. Would the Battle of Kannabi Bridge happen again? Genichi secretly frowned. That guy Madara Uchiha made him feel like a thorn in his back. And he still couldn't detect White Zetsu's ability, even with his strong perception, because they could merge with trees and travel underground. And his ability to sense underground was currently very weak.

Perhaps he needed to integrate the Yin Release represented by the Divine Mind, Heavenly Sense Jutsu into his sensory Kekkei Genkai, Heaven's Eye, to form a Kekkei Tōta in order to perceive the earth. And this was his original idea, to fuse the three sensory ninjutsu to form a new one; the Heaven's Eye Kekkei Genkai had been an accident.

"Hmm…" Genichi's train of thought suddenly stopped. "I seem to have overlooked something…" He frowned and thought for a while, but he couldn't grasp the fleeting flash of inspiration, so he had to give up.

(End of Chapter)

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