Chapter 62: The Unbreakable Illusion
The small clearing in the shattered woods was heavy with tension as Kankuro finished his harrowing account. The Konoha shinobi listened, their faces a mixture of horror and disbelief.
"An illusion?" Temari repeated, her voice strained. "What kind of illusion could possibly hold both you and Gaara? You're both powerful shinobi; you should be able to break any standard genjutsu!"
"That's the most terrifying part," Kankuro rasped, a haunted look in his eyes. "There *is* no breaking it. The illusion... it pulls you into a separate space. In that space, you have no control. You're completely at the caster's mercy. Uchiha Sasuke... he tortured me there for a full seventy-two hours. When the illusion finally ended, the mental strain was too much. I blacked out. The next thing I knew, I was waking up here with you. I don't know how I got here."
"Seventy-two hours? That's impossible!" Temari argued, her logic fighting against the nightmare story. "It's only been about twenty hours since I left for Konoha! You met Sasuke at noon; it can't have been more than an hour or two since then! Your sense of time must be warped from the trauma!"
The other Konoha rookies nodded in uneasy agreement. The concept was too alien, too terrifying to grasp. Only Kakashi's reaction was different. His visible eye widened slightly, and his posture stiffened. A name, spoken in a low, grim tone, escaped his lips.
"Tsukuyomi."
"Tsukuyomi?" Kankuro's head snapped up. "Yes! That's the word he said when he cast it! 'Tsukuyomi'! And in that space, he kept calling it the 'Tsukuyomi dimension'!"
"Tsukuyomi?" Shikamaru stepped forward, his analytical mind latching onto the term. "The name of the jutsu? I've never heard of it. Kakashi-sensei, if you know something, you have to tell us. A confrontation seems inevitable. If that's Sasuke's power now, we need to understand it and find a countermeasure."
All eyes turned to Kakashi, the weight of their expectation pressing on him.
"Yes," Kakashi admitted, his voice heavy with memory. "I know Tsukuyomi. I have been its victim."
A collective gasp went through the group. "Even you, Kakashi-sensei...?" Sakura whispered.
"It was not long ago," Kakashi continued, his gaze distant. "Naruto, you remember when you and Lord Jiraiya went to find Tsunade-sama? The two individuals who intercepted us?"
"How could I forget?" Naruto said, his fists clenching. "One of them was Sasuke's brother! The one he wants to kill... Uchiha Itachi."
"Correct. Uchiha Itachi. He used Tsukuyomi on me. My experience was identical to Kankuro's. Seventy-two hours of unending torment, condensed into a single instant. The damage to my psyche was immense. I was completely incapacitated, confined to a hospital bed until you and Jiraiya returned with Lady Tsunade, and she healed me."
"That's... that's too powerful," Ino breathed out. "Not even you could break it?"
"No. It is not a standard genjutsu. It is a kinjutsu, a high-level ocular illusion unique to the Sharingan. It transfers the target's consciousness to a world completely fabricated and controlled by the caster. Time, space, physical sensation—all of it is under their command. Because the entire ordeal lasts only a split-second in the real world, there is no time to form a counter-jutsu or for a teammate to disrupt your chakra. It is considered inescapable. The most powerful illusion in existence."
"This..." Shikamaru ran a hand through his hair, his mind racing. "If that's true, it's practically invincible. How do we fight that?"
"It has a weakness," Kakashi stated, pulling them back from despair. "Like all ocular genjutsu, it requires eye contact to initiate. The moment Itachi—or Sasuke—activates it, you must avoid looking directly into their eyes."
"But if you close your eyes or look away in the middle of a fight, you're defenseless!" Shikamaru countered. "You'd be leaving yourself open to a physical attack!"
"You don't need to close your eyes," Kakashi explained. "You must focus your gaze elsewhere. On their hands, their feet, their shoulders. You must learn to predict their movements by reading their body language alone."
"Who could possibly do that?!" Naruto exclaimed, the idea seeming absurd.
"Someone has," Kakashi said, a faint, almost imperceptible smile touching his masked face. "Your fellow Jonin instructor. Might Guy."
Naruto's mind instantly conjured an image of Guy-sensei, thumbs up, teeth gleaming. A cold shiver ran down his spine. "Guy-sensei... of course."
"Really? That seems... nearly impossible for anyone else," Shikamaru sighed, the tactic sounding more like a theoretical last resort than a practical strategy.
"It is a specialized skill, yes," Kakashi conceded. "But it is our only option. However, there is another clue. The user cannot activate Tsukuyomi without a clear sign. If you watch for it and defiantly avoid their gaze the moment it appears, you can avoid being pulled in."
"A sign? What sign?" Naruto pressed, eager for any advantage.
"Their Sharingan... it will change form," Kakashi revealed, his tone grave. "The highest level of the Sharingan is not the three tomoe. There is a more advanced stage, known as the Mangekyo Sharingan. This is a secret even within the Uchiha clan. I only learned of it from Lady Tsunade while she was treating me. Tsukuyomi is a power of the Mangekyo."
"So Sasuke's eyes have evolved..." Shikamaru deduced, his brow furrowed in thought. "This Mangekyo Sharingan... if it's a more advanced form, its abilities must extend beyond just Tsukuyomi, correct?"
"Almost certainly," Kakashi confirmed. "My knowledge of the Mangekyo is limited to fragments. But this much is clear: the Sasuke we may face is not the Sasuke who left the village. He is exponentially more powerful and infinitely more dangerous. When we confront him, you must not act recklessly. You will follow my orders without question. Is that understood?"
A chorus of solemn "Hai!" echoed through the broken trees. The gravity of the situation had fully settled upon them.
"Alright," Kakashi said, his voice returning to its commanding tone. "We've wasted enough time. We need to reach Gaara's location immediately. Temari, get Kankuro back to Sunagakure. Gaara is our responsibility now."
"I understand," Temari said, her worry for her brothers warring with her duty. "Please... be careful. And bring Gaara back."
"Don't worry. We will." With a final nod, Kakashi turned. "Konoha team, move out!"
In a series of soft *shunshin* sounds, the Konoha shinobi vanished, leaving Temari alone with her injured brother in the eerie silence of the devastated forest.
"I hope they'll be alright," she whispered to the empty air, a prayer for her brother and a warning for the friends rushing to his aid.
𝗚𝗨𝗬𝗦, 𝗙𝗢𝗟𝗟𝗢𝗪 𝗠𝗘 𝗢𝗡 𝗜𝗡𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗚𝗥𝗔𝗠 𝗔𝗧 𝗚𝗘𝗛𝗥𝗠𝗔𝗡𝗦𝗣𝗔𝗥𝗥𝗢𝗪9