[Yamamoto Shosuke]

A wise man had once said that the path to self-improvement was a never-ending one, that one could always get better. In Shosuke's case, he was well-aware of that fact, always viewing himself as lesser than he should be. He needed to get stronger, more powerful, more competent. He needed to make up for the sins of his past, especially considering the past six months of inactivity as he recovered and mastered his new blind-sense.

The first step to this betterment was, in his mind, to overcome those flaws that had led him to defeat in the Chuunin exams. Ignoring the "flaw" of charity and friendship, that was something he would never choose to excise from himself, the obvious weakness to overcome was what had 'beaten' him - Miroru's illusion.

Miroru was a member of the Uchiha clan, her entire family specialized in Genjutsu. Yet, as far as he had seen, she had never manifested a Sharingan. As such, it seemed her genjutsu was just a bit more practiced than most people's. Even so, he had had no idea that he was even under a genjutsu at the time, so he needed to learn how to recognize and overcome them.

He would not let himself be "suckered" so easily next time.

215 words | @closed

SPOILER: Click to show

Kai [Release]: 1/12
Jutsus Used: None

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

The first step was a rather simple one - Though there were no Yamamotos Sho was immediately aware of who specialized in genjutsu, they certainly had many people who owed them favors who they could call in to help with such matters. One such man was a genjutsu specialist, an illusionist who worked their magic with telling stories.

Sho, for his part, paid the man a visit early one morning. The man had been primed to expect his presence at one of his shows, and so Sho took a seat at the bar where the thing was set up. Though Sho was unable to read the signs decorated around the bar, he knew from story that the signs all gave the same warning, that this show would include genjutsu.

The warning made sense; in an epoch like theirs, should anyone figure out they were being influenced by a jutsu, even a relatively harmless one, they might become violent or attack the perpetrator. Thus, though the warning might ruin a little of the effect, it was something that simply had to be announced. Nobody wanted a bar brawl after all, especially not someone who specialized in genjutsu.

Genjutsu was, some would say, the most peaceful of all the ninja art forms.

209 words | @closed

SPOILER: Click to show

Kai [Release]: 2/12
Jutsus Used: None

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

Though Sho was unable to see it, he could hear the hiss of smoke machines being activated and feel the emergence of a man onto stage, sitting down upon a small little wooden stool. He had to assume that a spotlight had been turned on and the man had approached the stage, as people sat in rapt attention, waiting with baited breath for the story to begin.

Riiiiiiing~

The sound of a bell ringing preceded anything else, as the man hit what appeared to be a small tambourine. Yet, even once the bells stopped vibrating, the ringing continued, a little background ornamentation to the story as the man began to speak, telling of a distant time, a distant land beset by war and strife.

Sho listened, though in his mind he could tell that the entire bar were under the same effect - it was a simple genjutsu, one people would probably not even consider D-rank. A little trick to maintain the sound long after the thing making it had ended. Why the man didn't just rely on some sort of audio player, he didn't know but perhaps it was just getting people used to the sensation of being under illusions so they reacted better when more serious ones were placed.

210 words | @closed

SPOILER: Click to show

Kai [Release]: 3/12
Jutsus Used: None

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

Though it was a relatively harmless effect, and in fact it did do quite a bit to reinforce the narrative the man was telling, it was also weak enough for Sho to be able to practice his technique without needing to worry about it.

Quietly, moving his hand underneath the table so as to not be spotted by other bar patrons, Sho began to focus on his chakra. It was something he was used to by now, being able to close his eyes and feel the inside of his body. Even without his blindsense, he was able to simply feel his internal structure, where everything was and where everything should be. That included his physical organs, but also his chakra.

His chakra was ebbing out of his body as it always did - small, almost microscopic waves that permeated the atmosphere when he breathed out. It was this that he seized his attention on. His eyes closed for a second, using the background noise of the man's narrative to focus on as a meditation piece. Slowly, his breathing became more conscious, more deliberate. Each breath in was deeper and each breath out projected less and less chakra as he concentrated

Then, with a single breath, his chakra pulse stopped entirely.

209 words | @closed

SPOILER: Click to show

Kai [Release]: 4/12
Jutsus Used: None

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

Though at this point Sho's vision was about as dark with or without his glasses, the fact remained that his mind was entirely focused within his own body at this point, his lack of breathing and slowed pulse the focal point of his entire being.

Then, as his chakra came to a complete stop, he suddenly released his breath and pushed it out. It was a little hard at first to recognize what was and wasn't his own chakra - his tremor-sense allowed him to sense physical objects, but chakra was completely non-physical making it invisible to him.

Yet, despite the difficulty he was having in sensing what was his and what was not, he simply came up with an alternative. If he could not tell, if any might be either, then all he had to do was eject the top layer of chakra in general. It was a slightly more wasteful transaction, but it would do the job nonetheless.

Thus, every tenketsu in his hands and feet began to push, ejecting the topmost layer of chakra into the atmosphere of the room. In that instant, the ringing suddenly came to an abrupt stop, relieving the illusionary sound from his mind. It might have been a basic technique, but it proved his theory.

212 words | @closed

SPOILER: Click to show

Kai [Release]: 5/12
Jutsus Used
NAME: Kai [Release]
RANK: C
CHAKRA USAGE: Very Low- High Depending on the rank of the genjutsu
CLASSIFICATION: Ninjutsu [General]
ELEMENT: None
HANDSEALS: 1
DESCRIPTION:
Kai is a technique invented to counteract the targeting of Genjutsu, working by halting one's chakra flow with a hand seal before drastically increasing the rate of chakra flow within oneself, forcing the opposing chakra out of the body. This can also be used on another person by manually forcing a surge of chakra into their body through direct contact, breaking them of their mesmerized state. One's skill to break an illusion depends on their skill and understanding of Genjutsu, as some may prove too powerful to escape by conventional means.

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

With the ringing no longer present in his ears, Sho was able to "look" around the bar, watching as other people were still watching the show in rapt enjoyment. He couldn't quite tell if they were processing that they were under an illusion, or if the warnings had simply fled into the background of their mind as the man talked.

To be entirely fair, the man was indeed worth listening to. Though it was hard to read the mood lighting of the bar with his damaged eyes, he didn't need to. In fact, it seemed almost like the tale was a genjutsu itself, keeping his attention focused on the man no matter what he said.

It was a violent tale, a sordid love-story of a man and a woman from different clans meeting each other during the old days before the villages were formed. He told it like it was a historical piece, like it had really happened, and yet he also spoke with such clear passion and delight about the narrative that it was hard not to be carried along with him.

Sho, personally, couldn't help but feel that the love story, the characters within it, the whole theme of the piece was a little heteronormative but it worked for what it was worth.

215 words | @closed

SPOILER: Click to show

Kai [Release]: 6/12

Jutsus Used: None

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

Without the otherwise omnipresent ringing of the bells to serve as backing "music" for the story, the narrative itself did seem to suffer somewhat. Whilst the story was good, it was clear there were points where the man's inflections made it clear that there was something intended to fill those gaps. Instead, those pauses felt particularly empty, causing the story to feel more and more disruptive as time went on.

Fortunately, after what felt like a moment or two, it seemed the man was moving onto his next effect.

The man's tone seemed to grow quieter, his words slower yet more emphasised, as the story turned to a moonlit night. The characters were wandering alone save for each other through the misty moors, wandering over hill and dale as they continued trying to get to their destination. Yet, when the man spoke about the misty hilltops the characters travelled across, he paused for a moment, muttering something quietly under his breath.

So quiet was the man's words that from his position across the bar, Shosuke was having a little bit of trouble making them out clearly. Even still, with his concentration solely focused on the man through his tremorsense, he was just about to make out the way the man's lips moved and piece together what he said.

"Keizokuteki Enmu no Jutsu"

219 words | @open

SPOILER: Click to show

Kai [Release]: 7/12
Jutsus Used: None

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

From the moment the man finished talking, the air suddenly grow dark and dense. From the very floor of the bar itself, mist began to grow up, forming into thick waves of fog that occluded the entire stage. It had little effect on Sho who could barely see in the first place, but he could tell that his symptoms were suddenly shared with much of the bar.

In the moment, a dark thought occurred to Sho - this would have been the perfect way to escape the gig, for the man to slip away with the money that he had already earned from tips and leave the audience high and dry without knowing a thing. With his tremor-sense he was able to see that the narrator in question was still very much there, he hadn't even stood up from his chair, yet the fact remained nonetheless that it could be used in that way.

Regardless, it was clear that some of the people in the audience were dealing better with the sudden mist than others. The man had even gone the full distance, simulating the dampness of the fog and the coldness of the air that would come as a package. A fair amount of the audience were beginning to complain, a minor clamor rising up about ruined clothes. It seemed in that moment that many of the audience had already forgotten the warnings about the genjutsu presaging the performance.

239 words | @open

SPOILER: Click to show

Kai [Release]: 8/12
Jutsus Used: None

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

This time, Sho felt the genjutsu was a little bit stronger than the other, its effects more rooted, digging its metaphorical heels in and sinking its fangs into the senses of the people around them. It's effect was also far more perfidious, something one would actually be able to make serious use of in combat.

Even still, the result was much the same as it had been the time before. He wasn't sure but he was pretty confident that he would be able to reject this genjutsu as he had before, the same way that he had before. Indeed, Sho's hands hadn't even left the handsign from last time, and it was a mere matter of going through the same steps as before.

However, this time, Sho could feel that he had to release considerably more chakra than he had the first time. The first time it was as if he was just having to scrape the very top off of his chakra, like rubbing off the top layer of a rubber. This time however it felt more like he was having to dig deep into himself, like ripping the roots of some feral weed out of the soil. It worked, and soon enough the mist elevated, but even so Sho couldn't help but feel more concerned.

Was this about the limit of what he was currently capable of?

229 words | @open

SPOILER: Click to show

Kai [Release]: 9/12

Jutsus Used
NAME: Kai [Release]
RANK: C
CHAKRA USAGE: Very Low- High Depending on the rank of the genjutsu
CLASSIFICATION: Ninjutsu [General]
ELEMENT: None
HANDSEALS: 1
DESCRIPTION:
Kai is a technique invented to counteract the targeting of Genjutsu, working by halting one's chakra flow with a hand seal before drastically increasing the rate of chakra flow within oneself, forcing the opposing chakra out of the body. This can also be used on another person by manually forcing a surge of chakra into their body through direct contact, breaking them of their mesmerized state. One's skill to break an illusion depends on their skill and understanding of Genjutsu, as some may prove too powerful to escape by conventional means.

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

The continuing sounds of discomfort and stress coming from elsewhere in the bar made it clear that Shosuke was the only one that had managed to slip out of the genjutsu. He supposed it made sense - not everyone in the village was a Shinobi after all, and of the few here that looked like they might be he was among the higher ranked members within the bar.

He wasn't sure why there wasn't anyone else higher ranked here - there were hundreds of jounin within the village after all, it wasn't like reaching Chuunin was all that world-shattering an accomplishment. Though, perhaps it was the very genjutsu that they were dealing with that had put them off.

Hard to release stress from your job whilst reliving one of the worst parts of your job, he supposed.

Whatever the case, the narrative continued. Within the story, the performer mentioned how within the swelling fog, one could hear the sounds of chains, clanking through the mist as if propelled by some spectral, unearthly force. Traditional fair for a ghost story one supposed, but as the gloomy description hit its peak, once more the man reached out and struck his tambourine, causing the bells to jingle.

Once more, Shosuke was under the effects of a genjutsu.

212 words | @open

SPOILER: Click to show

Kai [Release]: 10/12
Jutsus Used: None

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

Sho could feel it, every few moments the sound of bells rang around either side of his head, each time more active in a different ear. It was a clever effect, it gave the feeling that he was being surrounded by the sounds, like he was being encircled by some distant form.

Once again, Sho reached out with his chakra, ejecting the top layer from his body. However, this time as he did so, he felt no relief. The sound of bells, new ones ringing every few seconds like some length of phantom chain being blown around in the distant wind of the hills, remained present in his mind.

Sho could tell from his tremor-sense that the man wasn't ringing any bells, he could see reality as it truly was below the level of the illusion, but he also could not be free of that phantom sound. It was a minor effect, merely used as a reinforcement of the narrative, a bit of realism to help sell the fantasy, but it wasn't the effect itself that concerned Sho - it was the fact that he could do nothing to get rid of it.

Sho knew that, should the worst happen, there was always the option of inflicting pain upon himself. It was the last case scenario, not something to be considered lightly, but it was possible. But did he really want to be inflicting damage upon himself just to escape something like this?

More than that, just how much pain would he have to put himself to escape?

257 words | @open

SPOILER: Click to show

Kai [Release]: 11/12
Jutsus Used: None

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

It took another hour or so of effects and careful story-crafting, some of which Sho was able to escape from and some of which like the sounds of the ringing bells around his ears he was unable to escape, but the play was finally finished.

Making sure to tip the man some solid ryo for his part in Shosuke's training, he left the bar behind with some things to think about. He wasn't sure, in the end, if even now he would have been able to beat Miroru's genjutsu that she had used on him in the exams. He knew he would be able to see through it, maybe even to the point of being able to ignore it by simply focusing on his tremorsense and his mental projection of the world, but that didn't mean that he would be able to escape it.

Genjutsu was a terrifying thing, the more one thought about it. The sheer amount of things one could be tricked into thinking or feeling, all of which controlled by some other person. It reminded Sho of the old parable about the ladybird in the jar, about how the entire world could just be a construct of some third party's delusions.

Was it possible the entire world was just some fantasy? No, that was ridiculous, right? That was the argument going back and forth in Sho's head as he left the bar, moving to go handle his next training piece. Just cos he had overcome some of his weakness didn't mean that all of it would just be gone in a single day.

266 words | @open

SPOILER: Click to show

Kai [Release]: 12/12
Jutsus Used: None