Chapter 1022: Escalating Tension
Boom!
A loud explosion occurred as a blinding light swallowed the figures of Raijin, Naruto, Mika, and Sasuke. By the time the flash of light disappeared, the figure of Raijin holding Mika by the roots of her hair with his left hand, crushing Naruto’s head into the ground with his left foot, and holding Sasuke by his throat with his right hand appeared in front of everyone.
“Such a letdown… and these are supposed to be the strongest Genins in Konoha?” Raijin shook his head in disappointment as he increased the strength in his right arm, making it difficult for Sasuke to breathe.
“Da… damn it!” Sasuke cursed as he tried to make Raijin release him but couldn’t even make him budge!
Seeing Sasuke struggle, Raijin chuckled and whispered in his ears, “Heh, actually, I had high expectations of you since you are an Uchiha… but it seems that I was mistaken… it appears to me that you are even a bigger disappointment compared to your pathetic and worthless father!”
Hearing Raijin suddenly mocking his father, Sasuke roared in fury, “What did you just say?!”
Raijin wasn’t intimidated, and continued to trash-talk the Uchiha Clan and Fugaku, “What? Did that burn? In fact, the Uchiha Clan as a whole is nothing but trash… and let’s not talk about your stupid and worthless father, he even lost his Sharingan and became a blind man! Heh!”
“You……!” suddenly the three tomoe in Sasuke’s Sharingan started to spin crazily.
Noting the changes in Sasuke’s emotions, Raijin smirked, “And just like your trash old man, you are also nothing but trash…!” Then he put Sasuke under a Genjutsu using the pair of Mangekyō Sharingan in his eye sockets.
…Inside the Genjutsu Plane
Sasuke found himself in Uchiha Fugaku’s study. He immediately noticed the familiar back sitting not too far from him, and called out, “Tou-san…”
“……” There was no response from Fugaku.
With a hesitant expression, Sasuke approached Fugaku, “Tou-san…” and as he walked in front of his father, he saw bloody tears dripping from his father’s eyes as he realized that his father had lost his eyes and had become a blind man. Drops of tears flowed down Sasuke’s eyes as he tried to wipe those bloody tears from his father’s face, “Tou-san…!” But before he could, the blind Fugaku raised his face and spoke in a distorted voice that shook Sasuke’s soul, “Tras––!”
Sasuke’s hand shook and the next thing he saw was everything being swallowed by darkness and his consciousness returned to the field.
…
Back on the Field
Looking at the tears flowing down Sasuke’s eyes, Raijin thought to himself, ‘Now that I have given that hint, this much should be more than enough for now…’
He did not go all the way with emotionally breaking Sasuke in this small scuffle because that would probably not work out the way he wanted. It would take more than one emotional stimulation for his plan to bear the fruit he wants, and for that, he has buried a seed in Sasuke’s heart by putting him under Genjutsu through Sharingan.
In fact, one of the only two reasons he engaged in his ‘pointless’ fight with Team Kakashi was to push Uchiha Sasuke and bury that seed in his heart so that he could continue to water it during the course of the Chūnin Promotion Exam such that it bears the fruit he wants by the end.
‘Hopefully, Sasuke would be able to pick up on that hint…’
With that thought, he was about to release the members of Team Kakashi, but suddenly, his entire body froze, and muttered in surprise, “This?”
No rather than saying that Raijin’s body suddenly froze, it is more like he lost control over his body as the line of Shadow from earlier merged itself with his shadow, at least that’s what Nara Shikamaru believed as he revealed himself to Raijin, and spoke, “This ends here…” then started to move to the side so that the Amegakure Genin would also step away from Naruto, and also tried to release both Mika and Sasuke from Raijin’s grip.
“But is that really the case?” asked Raijin with a chuckle and did not budge from his position.
Shikamaru was stunned, “Wha–?”
Not far away from Shikamaru, Ino asked worriedly, “What happened Shikamaru? Make him release Sasuke-kun and the others!”
While trying his hardest to keep Raijin paralyzed, Shikamaru answered, “I am trying, but the difference in our strength… it’s too much so he is able to resist my control… no… at this rate, he would overpower the Shadow Imitation’s control!”
“In that case, I will help you… With the two of us working together, it should work…” said then she formed the special Yamanaka hand sign and looked at the masked Raijin through the hand sign as she used the secret Yamanaka Jutsu, and added, “Keep hold of him for a moment!”
“I will help out too!” added Chōji as he prepared to enlarge his hands and take away Naruto, Sasuke, and Mika the moment Raijin released them.
“Alright!” nodded Shikamaru while gritting his teeth.
‘Ninja Art: Mind Transfer Jutsu!’
As Ino activated her Jutsu, her consciousness was converted into the spiritual energy that she sent toward Raijin to take control of his body, but the moment her consciousness tried to enter Raijin’s body she saw an extremely bright light and was instantly repelled back. Returning back to her body, Ino was shaken and collapsed on the ground as she mumbled in shock, “What? What was that?”
Chōji questioned, “What happened Ino?” He was preparing to enlarge his hands, but seeing Ino fall, he stopped midway and hurriedly tried to support her.
“I… I don’t know…” She couldn’t explain what she saw. She did not see Raijin’s soul, but rather a very bright light as if the light of the Sun, though it seemed to be coming from the Moon(?). Confused she looked at Raijin verily.
After repelling Ino’s consciousness, Raijin turned toward Shikamaru and started overpowering his Jutsu. Immediately, Shikamaru lost control over the Shadow binding Raijin and released the Jutsu, “Damn it… this guy is too strong!”
“In that case, we will help too…!” suddenly a collective voice appeared from multiple directions as the remaining twelve members of Konoha Eighteen surrounded Raijin and looked at him with murderous intent.
The tension on the field suddenly increased, but Raijin didn’t seem to be affected by it and lightly called out his squad mates’ names, “Samsara…! Tengu…!”
Instantly, the two children appeared beside him with a body Flicker Jutsu. Samsara stood on his left side, and Tengu stood on his right side as the two faced the remaining Konoha Twelve.
“Sigh how did things reach this point in such a short time!?” mumbled Shikamaru with a tired sigh as he appeared beside Ino and put his hand on her shoulder. The girl immediately understood the meaning of Shikamaru’s gesture and with some difficulty, activated the ‘Mind Body Transmission Technique’ to link the minds of all the Konoha Genins with hers so that Shikamaru could relay his strategy to them via telepathy.
Looking at everything happening, and the increased tension, the Genins of other shinobi villages silently prepared themselves to fall back. To them, it looked like the Genins of Amegakure and Konohagakure were about to fight to the death, and they did not want any smoke of that.
Perhaps the only exception was Otogakure ninjas and Orochimaru as they silently prepared themselves to make their move… Kimimaro was contemplating whether to kill Uchiha Sasuke using this opportunity in order to complete the mission that Orochimaru had given him, meanwhile, Orochimaru was contemplating whether to use this opportunity to make his move on Uchiha Sasuke.
…
On the Jōnin Instructor’s side
“Hey… hey… this is getting too out of hand…!” said Shizune with a worried expression.
Kurenai nodded, “At this rate, they would really start killing each other… We have to stop them before it’s too late!”
Kakashi had a guilty expression, “I guess I went too far… I did not take into account that things would escalate to this degree…”
Guy patted Kakashi’s shoulder, “You are the fastest, go there and stop them immediately…” It wasn’t just about Kakashi being the fastest, Guy also understood that Kakashi was the best choice to resolve the situation. He is not only the Hokage’s Hand but also the Jōnin instructor of Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, and Shimizu Mika, so it makes sense for him to take action.
In fact, neither of them had expected Naruto, Sasuke, and Mika to suddenly interfere after Raijin neutralized the three Anbu, and they wouldn’t have taken action, at least, Sasuke and Mika would have acted if not for Naruto suddenly stepping forward upon hearing Raijin mock Konoha shinobi.
Although Naruto’s actions are commendable, they also complicate the situation. At this point, even Kakashi wasn’t certain if he would be able to resolve the situation. Nonetheless, it was his mistake that led to this situation, so he had to take responsibility and nodded, “Yes…” then disappeared with a silver flash.
Watching Kakashi disappear, Asuma spoke, “We should also go… just in case things worsen.”
The remaining four Jōnin nodded, “Yes,” and disappeared from the Rooftop.