[yamaguchi daichi]

I COULD EAT THE WORLD RAW

Daichi had lived in Kirigakure for nearly eight years now, since he was nine years old and freshly enrolled in the academy. For most of that time, however, he had felt intensely isolated: caged in by the restrictions put on him by the Pathfinder, terrified of accidentally revealing the secret of the Jakkugan, busting his ass day in and day out to be the best shinobi he could be while still meeting his clan’s impossibly high standards of secrecy and discretion. That began to change after he became the Mizukage’s bodyguard. And once it started changing, it started changing fast. He’d started out with the ambition of bringing the Yamguchi clan and Kirigakure closer together, yes, but as a year went by, and then two, Daichi’s allegiance slipped further and further from his clan, closer and closer to Kirigakure. To Toru. He hardly seemed cognizant of it; he returned to visit maybe once every three months, and communication with the Pathfinder had been growing steadily less frequent over time. He barely thought about it, he was so busy with his duties as a shinobi. Until he bumped into Masshiro at the Kage tower, and it was as if he was suddenly reminded that he had a family. A clan. Responsibilities, expectations. Dread snarled thick and heavy in his gut, and he tried his best to push it aside. "Masshiro!” Daichi said, grinning brightly despite the sudden hesitation that sparked in his gut. The older man had been a shinobi for even longer than Daichi, a consequence of his Jaakugan activating later in life, and had both a successful career and a remarkable skill with the doujutsu. Better than Daichi’s, if he was being honest with himself, and it sparked a certain envy within him. "Hey, can I borrow you for a bit? I was hoping to ask you to show me a couple of genjutsu techniques, if that’s alright.” Purposefully vague to avoid talking about the Jaakugan, but it was still incredibly bold of him to be requesting such a thing out loud, in a public space. The impropriety of it never even crossed his mind. At least he was still wearing his eyepatch; there had been days as of late when he’d nearly forgotten about it entirely, comfortable as he’d grown going without it while in the relative safety of the Kage tower.

masshiro -- 394

LAIKA OF THQ

[masshiro]

    It was typical that Masshiro could be seen around any number of places within the village during the day, usually with papers, folders, scrolls, or in this case a very large notebook in front of his face. Anyone that didn't know him any better might think he was due to walk directly into something or someone as he rarely looked up, but truthfully he wouldn't as much as step on a leaf unintentionally. Flipping a page over he hadn't even as much as acknowledge anyone he was walking by, but a sudden excited calling out of his name seemed to go just as unnoticed. 

    He took a few steps right past Daichi as he called out, suddenly stopping and snapping the notebook closed. Letting it fall, it swung, attached to a leather strap slung over his shoulder, as he turned around and looked up, that slight smirking smile he wore as a default stretching across his face as he locked eyes. He didn't respond with a greeting, nor a wave, just that piercing crimson-eyed stare of curiosity, always feeling like he was visually interrogating anyone he looked at.

    Holding up his hand he motioned for him to wait, still not having responded, as he lifted the notebook again and flipped through a few pages, reading something over, likely his schedule, and once more let it fall to his side.


    Taking a step closer he never lost eye contact for a moment outside of blinking. 

"I have time, if you have somewhere in mind to talk then lead then way. I assume you have something specific in mind, so we can speak more openly about Genjutsu techniques elsewhere.

    His tone was far more formal than usual, likely due to having spoken to many of his elders and more than a few of his superiors during the morning and was simply on autopilot. What was surprisingly absent from him this morning was his Uemori weapon, currently locked away at home. It was a crude and ruthless weapon, even it's presence making many uncomfortable. Until he was able to get a new proper sheathe or covering for it for every day use, he didn't bring it with him while speaking with the Mizukage or certain higher ranked Jounin in official capacities.

"We need to make a stop by my house first to drop something off and pick something up."

    Motioning with his head to follow, he turned and walked off towards his house without first checking if he was actually being followed or not.

    

[yamaguchi daichi]

I COULD EAT THE WORLD RAW

Masshiro’s crimson gaze was piercing. Not for the first time, Daichi cursed his own bad luck: Masshiro and Kyoko had both gotten the boon of naturally red eyes, in stark contrast to Daichi’s emerald green. Daichi couldn’t even try to claim heterochromia. The damage he’d done to his chakra network as a child had left his sclera an insidious black, his pupil glowing red, making it immediately obvious that the eye was not normal. Masshiro and Kyoko moved through the world hiding in plain sight, while Daichi perpetually felt like he was just hiding. … which, incidentally, he felt like he wanted to do now, with Masshiro’s interrogative gaze locked on him. It was a sensation akin to being pulled aside to speak to an instructor after class, knowing that he’d done something bad but having no earthly idea what his crime could have been. Masshiro’s polite, formal acceptance of Daichi’s request did nothing to relieve his tension, but he couldn’t pinpoint why he felt so unsettled, only that he did. He chose to take Masshiro’s words at face value, pushing his misgivings aside. "Sure thing,” Daichi replied, "appreciate it.” He followed along in the other man’s wake like a wayward puppy trotting in his master’s path. As they made their way to Masshiro’s home, Daichi took a moment to focus, and opened his Mind’s Eye. It was beginning to feel like a well-exercised muscle; each time he did it, it came a little easier, and the sudden flip between his standard sensory awareness and the much wider range of the Mind’s Eye was less and less overwhelming with each attempt. Any practice was good practice, and since Masshiro was willing to work with him on the Yamaguchi’s genjutsu, he would have to be stupid to pass up on the opportunity to study his own chakra pathways more closely. "How’ve you been?” he asked after a couple of long, quiet moments. "I feel like it’s been a while since we’ve ran into each other like this. Keeping busy?” Awkward small talk made to fill an awkward silence.

masshiro -- 347

LAIKA OF THQ

[masshiro]

    By this point he was used to the way people responded, even if mostly visibly, to his staring. Sometimes it was intentional just to see the reactions he would get or to throw people off. It often brought out the most honest reactions and responses eventually, but truthfully it amused him more than anything. Reactions like those written all over Daichi's face were at least honest, and it was often the ones who didn't react at all that made him nervous and untrusting. 


    There wasn't much to this interaction on the whole that made him need to think too much about it though, giving the slightest side glance to see if he was being followed now, as he picked up the pace. His home was rather close by, or at least as close as it could be, and intentionally so, as he wanted to be as close to the Kage's office and more important the war council in truth, as he had his eye on positions there. Halfway through the walk in his mind was drifting, as if he had a song stuck in his head, but instead of repeating a tune he kept going over handseals, repeating them over and over again, until it clicked that Daichi had said something to him.

"Hm?"

    Turning a corner he turned to look back, giving a bit of a shrug.

"Training, missions, training missions; fine enough. Haven't had time for much else."

    Clearing his throat he looked forward, then up a bit, rubbing the back of his neck. Small talk wasn't necessarily his forte, but for some reason he felt more awkward than usual trying to force it. Perhaps it was simply a matter of attempting with someone he should have been more familiar with given their clan bond, but he hadn't done a great job keeping in touch with anyone as of late.

"What about you? Been keeping up with training?"

    As he asked the question he stopped as they were already there, motioning for Daichi to stop behind him.

"Hold that thought and wait here please."

    Looking back he began to unlock the door to a first floor apartment, then almost slithered inside as if he didn't want anyone to see even within before shutting and locking the door behind him. After a few short minutes he exited much like he had entered; awkwardly, and locked the door behind him. The notebook was gone, but in its place slung over his shoulder was a very brutal looking weapon.

"Sorry to cut you off. Lead the way."

    Making a motion with his head he waited for Daichi to start walking, following him to wherever he had in mind.
    

[yamaguchi daichi]

Daichi was used to a certain degree of discomfort when interacting with other members of his clan, but this was... something else. The awkwardness felt tangible, the product of a relationship at once too familiar and too foreign. Masshiro and Daichi had been operating in the same circles for long enough that he felt a certain expectation that he *should* be more comfortable with Masshiro, but had interacted with him so little that he was acutely aware that he was *not* more comfortable with Masshiro. A mutual feeling, or so it seemed.

"Yeah, I—" he cut himself off as Masshiro motioned for him to stop, nodding mutely in assent. Masshiro disappeared inside his home, Daichi loitering awkwardly outside, wishing that he hadn't left the girls at home. The social buffer of a friendly dog was something he desperately needed in this moment.

Masshiro reappeared, sans notebook, with a nasty-looking weapon. Uemori, if he remembered correctly, Masshiro having recently inherited it from Hozuki-sama. A brutal woman with a brutal blade.

"All good," he said amicably, and started leading the way towards the Kaguya compound's training grounds. Though he didn't have access to the truly private area, they were more closed off than most of the village's training spaces.

"Kyoko's one of the Seven as well, you know," he said conversationally as they walked. "My sister, she's got Nuibari. Been keeping it quiet, though, she doesn't want to advertise it too much."

Once he was certain that no nearby ears were close enough to listen in, as they reached a quiet section of the Kaguya compound, Daichi said, "I was hoping you could show me the basics of the Chakra Ghost technique. I need to learn it, and I've been working on trying to, uh... sense when genjutsu is active, I guess? It causes this weird fluctuation in chakra that I've been able to tune into lately and—"

He cut himself off from his rambling, shaking his head. "You're a lot better at this stuff than me," he finished. "I'd appreciate your help, if you're willing."

[masshiro]

    He made a point to stand just a bit behind Daichi to let him lead the way both literally and metaphorically, in part so he could watch him. He hadn't spent nearly as much time as he perhaps should have with some of the younger Yamaguchi as they had joined the village, much like he had no one from the clan doing that for him when he had joined. He felt guilty about it often, but truthfully he wasn't exactly a great role model, and he wasn't sure he would have had much to say or do to help them when they were first joining.

    Thankfully Daichi was a better conversationalist than he was, having at least something to say to make small talk, where Masshiro would have stayed silent and kept walking till they got to the training grounds, but the mention of other swordsmen however piqued his interest immediately.

"Yamaguchi Kyoko...Did you know my teacher and the previous wielder of Uemori was named Kyoko as well?"

    Sighing to himself he gave a soft pat to Uemori as if he was petting a small animal.

"Unfortunately I have no siblings and she is long gone. You I do find curious though, I must admit, as someone with a sibling among the ranks of the swordsmen yet no inclination towards weaponry at all. Also a clansmen, which in itself makes you more curious to me than most. I believe your focus is..."

    Looking up at the sky he tried to recall, tapping his chin.

"...Sealing techniques? A subject I hate to admit I'm sorely lacking in."

    The comment of what was clearly Daichi's intentions up to this point caught him off guard, not because the topic surprised him but it was rather sudden. He gave a heavy nod, then a bit of a shrug.

"I'm only better because I have more experience. There was a time when I picked up a weapon because the powers dormant in our blood simply refused to manifest. I was told when I was younger my eyes were crimson as a sign my Jaakugan would never awaken. I came home later and activated it and....well nevermind that, I'm just rambling now."

    Clearing his throat he felt a bit of amusement at the fact they were both catching themselves rambling in such a way.

"So, tell me what you know of the Chakra Ghost technique. What do you think it is, or does, and why do you need to learn it. I'm willing to help but I need to know where I should start."


    

[yamaguchi daichi]

Daichi nodded—he was familiar with Hozuki Kyoka, though he'd never had much cause to interact with her personally, something he was privately grateful for if her reputation was anything to go by. A savage woman with a harsh outlook and a brutish temper, she was a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield and commanded respect due to that, but Daichi had a perpetual distaste for those who threw their bloodthirst around as though it was something to be proud of. He didn't want to be disrespectful to Masshiro's mentor, however, so he kept his peace, only acknowledging the similarity when Masshiro presented it.

"Sealing, barriers, and sensory," Daichi replied, affirming Masshiro's recollection. "It's all pretty academic, honestly. The muscles are just for show." He flexed, offering up a thick bicep with a self-deprecating grin—he'd always insisted that he strove for a broad physique as a battlefield tactic, but he could admit to himself now that it was at least one part vanity, and accepted that for what it was.

Masshiro's tale of awakening his doujutsu later in life sounded similar to Kyoko's, and Daichi told him as much. "She was only allowed to enroll at the academy with me because no one thought her doujutsu would awaken," he said thoughtfully. "I don't think the Pathfinder would have risked it otherwise." He'd fought tooth and nail to be allowed to be a shinobi, since his eyes had activated early in life—though that had come with its own cost.

One section of the training ground was empty; there was a genin team half a kilometer away working on coordinating their different elemental ninjutsu techniques, but otherwise Daichi and Masshiro had some small semblance of privacy.

"It's supposed to be a defense against enemy sensory doujutsu," Daichi said, as quickly and precisely as if he were reading from a textbook, "specifically the Sharingan, though I'm not exactly sure how that works. It can wipe the visual chakra signature of the user or an ally or duplicate it, like with a clone. I thought it might help me differentiate between doujutsu sensory and my other sensory skillset, or something like that."

[masshiro]

    Masshiro obviously didn't know what was going on in Daichi's mind, otherwise he'd be a far more useful Shinobi for being able to read minds, but he certainly knew well enough how others felt about his previous teacher. It wasn't as if he held her in high regard because she was a kind individual, but she had skill, taught him quite a lot, saved him on more than a few occasions, and she at least had his respect as equally as she often had his disdain. He saw the way people tensed momentarily when he brought her up, the way they looked at Uemori when they saw it, but clearly in someone else's grip.

"Interesting. Perhaps it's you who should be teaching me a few things. Different things come easier to different people after all. The sensory part, that was natural, sealing however, well I guess that's as much my fault for not putting in the work."

    There was a noise that sounded like a mixture of a laugh and a scoff coming from the exhale he gave, as Daichi flexed in front of him. Masshiro was more than a bit positively shaped himself, but his clothes his any signs of it, just as he wanted them to. The change to his familiar tale of their awakened doujutsu snapped him out of his momentary drifting thoughts, nodding in obvious agreement.

"I was admitted as I excelled at Bukijutsu, and while it was nothing impressive at the time, had a firm grasp on Genjutsu for my age. I remember the surprise my academy instructor had when he saw my name and learned I had nearly no grasp on our clan abilities to speak of, at least the ones he was aware of. I could certainly hold my own with a weapon in hand, for an academy student at least."

    Again he nodded heavily in response, but kept quiet for a moment as he looked up in thought. This was the first time he was in a position to truly teach another Yamaguchi member and not simply teaching someone how to swing a katana. It hadn't really hit him until he tried to form the best way to respond that he realized how out of his element he was, and in a way this new experience was exciting, even revealing a smirk.

"In the most basic terms, you have the idea right. It is a defense against sensory doujutsu, but think of it in terms of a genjutsu, because at it's core that's what it is. You use them to trick the mind of another, except in this case you are tricking how a doujutsu user senses chakra by manipulating their eyes input to the brain. You are making them sense something that isn't there at all."

    Stepping to the side he started to move his arms as if he was tracing a shape next to him that wasn't there.

"The idea is creating an entire being of chakra next to you, but as you are now, your Jaakugan unactivated, you see nothing, hence Chakra Ghost."

    Stepping back in front of him he stopped for a moment, trying to think on his comment about the Sharingan before he continued, going for a full blown stereotypical thinking pose.

"You are correct again with your understanding, and in reference to the Sharingan, I'm not sure how much you know of it. The Sharingan users are able to read your chakra flow, which tells them you are about to do something specific, moving chakra for an attack, to your legs to move in a certain way perhaps, and to those unaware it seems as if they simply know what you are going to do before doing it. It's actually quite simple, but the Chakra Ghost technique can trick their eyes."

    Pointing at his eyes, there was a sudden change as he activated his Jaakugan and stared at  Daichi.

"Think of it like taking that Chakra Ghost and placing it on top of yourself, they aren't seeing your chakra anymore, they are seeing the flow of chakra from the fake clone you've created instead. It is essentially a Genjutsu, but it's targeting those specifically intent on tracing or tracking chakra with doujutsu. Even if the two of us were to use our Jaakugan against one another, I could impair any attempts you could make to detect or track my chakra. With other techniques I could cease to exist at all to doujutsu assisted tracking attempts.

    Moving in close to Daichi, he kept his Jaakugan active and leaned in close, staring him in the eye as if he were looking for something. Leaning back again he kept staring at him and gently crossed his arms.

"Just keep in mind, this isn't a simple tool or trick. It's actually a rather advanced technique."
    
    

[yamaguchi daichi]

I COULD EAT THE WORLD RAW

"I can teach you sometime if you’d like,” Daichi said eagerly. Fuinjutsu was a deeply scholarly effort and one that he’d put a lot of time into—and not one that was shared by very many of his peers, at least not to the extent that he studied it. "A lot of it is rote memorization of seal patterns, honestly, it’s not hard.” Their skillsets were so fundamentally different, diametrically opposed in much the same way that Daichi’s and Kyoko’s were, and yet Daichi found himself feeling a certain kind of academic kinship: Masshiro was far and away Daichi’s superior in the physical arts, but there was a common thread here, a hunger for excellence. He listened carefully to Masshiro’s explanation, wishing for a moment that he had a notebook or something—but even he wasn’t foolish enough to put pen to paper on this subject, so he settled for just listening very, very intently. He had never studied genjutsu beyond a very rudimentary level: he knew genjutsu kai, and employed the genjutsu intolerance seal liberally, but very rarely practiced it himself. "Creating an illusion of pure chakra to trick the visual perception of chakra flow,” Daichi echoed, trying to distill the information down into something bite-sized and palatable. He frowned, his brow creasing. "Have you fought against Sharingan users before? I’ve only seen one in action, at the chuunin exams, and it was hard to tell exactly what she was doing and how.” The Uchiha girl had won that fight against Toru by a razor-thin margin—but Toru had been on a whole other level of skill, even as a genin, even before the Sanbi. Daichi pulled his eyepatch down, letting it hang loosely around his neck as he activated his own Jakkugan, crimson gaze meeting crimson gaze as he held Masshiro’s intense stare. Again he felt like he was being interrogated, though he wasn’t sure what the question was. "It sounds complicated,” Daichi said, loathe as he was to admit it. He hated feeling like he couldn’t understand something conceptually, and his head was starting to ache with the effort of keeping his Eye open and his Jaakugan activated simultaneously. "Can you use it on me? I think it would help to see it in action.”

masshiro -- 375

LAIKA OF THQ

[masshiro]

"I am certainly fond of simple memorization. I'll take you up on that offer when you're available in the future. For now, we'll focus on this."

    He could tell his words were being internalized, as he was used to seeing the large difference between hearing and listening. You could see in the eyes when someone was paying attention, not just because they weren't making eye contact, but that vacant look as the eyes almost started to dilate as they day dreamed of other things. It certainly made things easier, as he didn't particularly like to repeat himself too many times out loud, as that was usually saved for his own internal monologues. 

"Interacted with, yes, fought against, no. Uchiha are just as proud a clan as we are, and rarely stray far from home without a good reason. I have studied them in as great a detail as I've been able to to with the information available and what I've been able to gather. There's likely more I don't know about them than I do."

    He gave a bit of a chuckle at the comment of watching them fight, as he had heard the same comment dozens of times. Given the way so many fought, it was hard to discern what was sheer impressive physical skill, and something they bundled together with a dangerous doujutsu to throw off an opponent.

"They certainly have impressive eyes. I wouldn't dare say this in polite company, but they have more than a few unique traits I wouldn't mind having access to. I would imagine they'd be incredibly dangerous opponents, even against our own prowess and Jaakugan."

    There was something about the way Daichi never looked away from him that surprised him. There were only two ways most people reacted to staring at them; to look away after a few seconds, or to try and match the stare just as intently. This felt like it was not trying to match anything but simply returning the gaze, and it felt like it was again part of actually paying attention to the situation, which he appreciated greatly.

"Subjectively it can be. I imagine it's something you're simply not used to thinking about, but for me I use and study Genjutsu often, so the concepts are obvious."

    Nodding over responding further to the request, he took a few steps back so the majority of Daichi's view wasn't just himself staring back, and made a motion to his right. It was clear by the way he motioned he wanted Daichi's attention there, and there was a motion and a movement suddenly there only his eye would have picked up on. There was a second complete chakra signature, a chakra network of another person standing there as if it had been there all along. As far as any else that could have seen the two, nothing had happened, they were just standing there, but Daichi's activated eye would have seen exactly what Masshiro wanted it to see.

[yamaguchi daichi]

I COULD EAT THE WORLD RAW

First with Sora, and now with Masshiro, Daichi was becoming acutely aware of the gaps in his training. For so long he’d dedicated himself so completely to his areas of study that he’d left blind spots so egregious that he wasn’t even aware they were blind spots. On a superficial level, sure, he knew that he was at a disadvantage in close combat and that he didn’t have a good grasp of genjutsu, but it was another thing entirely to be educated by masters of those crafts. He would just have to work harder. "Is it wrong to say I’m almost envious?” Daichi asked, laughing sheepishly. "Visual chakra perception is great, but being able to read it in such detail would be seriously helpful.” Though it wasn’t too different in concept from what he was pursuing with his Mind’s Eye, he supposed; he was certainly able to hone in on specifics to a far greater degree than he had with standard sensory. The moment when the genjutsu took hold was immediately obvious, because Daichi saw Masshiro wave vaguely to the right, and then suddenly—transposed in space. The space where he had been was now devoid of chakra, and he had shifted abruptly to the side. At the same time, Daichi felt a hiccup in the chakra flow at the forefront of his mind, as if something had quickly and rudely interrupted it. There was nothing stopping the flow of chakra, he found, he was still quite able to mold it as he pleased, but there was an undeniable bump in the flow that had not been there previously. Nothing so dramatic as a dam in a river, but rather like someone had thrown in a very large stick that had gotten lodged in place. And alongside all this—Daichi’s head was throbbing with the effort of processing information, his attention split three ways—he was aware that while his eyes saw the illusion that Masshiro constructed, his Eye saw Masshiro in his original location, having not moved at all. "Gods, I’m gonna need painkillers after this,” Daichi groaned. "Okay. If I just—” He closed his Mind’s Eye, though his Jaakugan remained activated. His awareness of Masshiro’s actual location faded; his acute attunement to his own chakra flow faded; he saw only what Masshiro wished him to see. And if he deactivated his Jaakugan—now—the world returned completely to normal, as if there was no illusion at all. Daichi rubbed at his eyes, blinked, and then flipped everything back on again. A sharp spike of pain lanced through his temples, but he nodded decisively. "So this is really only something that’s used against, like—other Jaakugan users, or Sharingan or Byakugan or something,” Daichi said. In the Mizu no Kuni chuunin exams a couple years back, there had been one girl with the Sharingan and two boys with the Byakugan, all with varying degrees of skill in combat. The one Hyuuga, the older man, had been the most intimidating of the bunch. "How effective is it, in your experience?”

masshiro -- 504

LAIKA OF THQ

[masshiro]

"There's always someone stronger, you just have to keep working to be that someone."


    For a moment he wished he had access to the Byakugan to closely study Daichi. So many traits, secrets, abilities in the shinobi world he simply didn't have access to or couldn't have access to. He salivated at the idea of being able to study them all even if he couldn't use them all himself. Shaking his head for a moment he found himself distracted by the thought as he often did, refocusing on the task at hand.

"Genjutsu can certainly cause...unpleasant effects. Illusions or not, they still affect the brain in a real way. That is likely to leave some lasting impression physically."

    What he was most thankful for when he himself was learning Genjutsu was the teacher he had found. His former teacher who left him the Uemori was not a kind person during training. She left more than a few visible scars and taught by striking until he learned to block, dodge, or passed out. His Genjutsu teacher was far more understanding and patient, but the things he went through for the sake of learning were in some ways far more traumatic at the time.

"Correct. It's certainly a counter measure of sorts. I have used these techniques before against others, though I unfortunately can't share the details. I will say that I track and use sensory techniques, and I also use counter techniques, and our clan traits and techniques allow me to do both with far greater ability. You can't use them all in every situation, but this technique in particular is incredibly effective in the right circumstance."

    Reaching into his coat and behind his back he pulled out a kunai and tossed it to the ground between them, keeping up the Genjutsu as he did. Kneeling down, he made sure the clone mimicked his actions.

"Think of it like one tool among many. A kunai for example can be meaningless in some circumstances, while in others can be the difference in survival. If you come up against someone else with visual prowess that allows them to see your chakra, think of it more like a warhorse than a weapon."

    Picking it up by the ring on the end he stood back up, twirling it around his finger. He wanted to give Daichi time to study the chakra ghost for as long as he needed, so he left it there during pauses to let him study it, but he also kept talking and moving, letting it feel normal. Letting him get accustomed to the feel of the Genjutsu was a factor as well, as he would certainly run into far worse with far worse after effects.

"In the future I'm sure we'll be talking about other tools in that arsenal, and you'll need to prepare for the day we do. There are some dangerous Genjutsu belonging to our clan. I don't know how many of them you are aware of, but I would certainly pause at casting them on you intentionally, even during training."
    

[yamaguchi daichi]

I COULD EAT THE WORLD RAW

They still affect the brain in a real way. Something clicked into place at that moment, a cog smoothly sliding into the mechanisms of a machine that had been suboptimally clunking along for years. "An invasion of foreign chakra into the nervous system,” Daichi said excitedly, with all the fervor of a scholar who had just made a significant breakthrough. "Like a poison, but more esoteric. That makes perfect sense. Your chakra control must be incredible—I can feel that intrusion right now, I don’t know enough about brain anatomy to say exactly where but it’s up there somewhere. That’s amazing.” Talking and listening all while keeping his eyes and Eye online—Daichi was starting to sweat with the effort, the dull throbbing of a growing headache escalating into something sharper and more persistent. He ignored the feeling in favor of examining Masshiro’s illusion, his eyes watching how the illusory copy of himself tossed the kunai and knelt to pick it up in tandem with what his Eye could sense of the real Masshiro’s movements. It was a frame-perfect copy, and Daichi could feel the manipulation of the clone in his brain-meat. It felt intrusive, for sure, like someone was poking around in his skull, but that experience was valuable. "I want you to,” Daichi said abruptly. A challenge, once presented, needed to be risen to, and Masshiro’s hesitation to use the more severe genjutsu in his arsenal only added fuel to the fire. "Sudden Death, maybe? Burning Blindness? I can handle it, and it’ll be good experience for me. I need to learn what it’s like in a safe environment so I don’t freak out if I run into something similar in the field.”

masshiro -- 283

LAIKA OF THQ

[masshiro]

    He gave little more than a nod in response to the comment, as he could see it snapping into place as much as Daichi was feeling it suddenly make sense. It sounded so simple yet it was anything but, which was something he loved about the idea of Genjutsu. 

"In a sense poison makes sense, but if you could control what that poison was doing to someone."

    Masshiro was certainly very full of himself in the sense that he knew he was good at what he was good at, better than quite a lot of others, but he didn't like to say it quite so openly. Even while he was internally crossing his arms, grinning, and nodding heavily, he didn't show much emotion outwardly and didn't address the comment about his chakra control. Truth be told he wasn't even in the top percentage in the village, for now, but with every passing moment he knew he was improving and would eventually pass most if not all in time.

    Extending his arm, he poked Daichi in the forehead once, dropping his arm again.

"Knowing you are in a genjutsu and knowing how to do anything about it are two differing issues, just remember that. Sometimes the mind will even fight with that idea, as somewhere consciously you know you are being fooled, but your brain, physically, only believes what it's receiving stimulus to believe. Genjutsu is powerful but incredibly dangerous."

    As if shooing away smoke, simply for the sake of visually doing so, the Genjutsu dissipated and the clone was going, leaving nothing for Daichi to see or experience but Masshiro. He was quite frankly nervous at the idea of even teaching some of the techniques of the clan, because as with most Genjutsu you really needed to experience them to fully understand them. Looking around at just how close the closest person to them was, he narrowed his eyes as he gave a strained and worried look.

"It's true you need to experience them if you plan to use them, but that doesn't make me any less apprehensive. This is likely as safe as it's going to get but, you need to take a deep breath and mentally prepare yourself for what's about to happen. When you're ready, hold out your bare arm and please don't loudly panic." 
    

[yamaguchi daichi]

I COULD EAT THE WORLD RAW

It was subtle, hard to detect through all the other sensations flooding his mind, but there was a faint swelling in Masshiro’s chakra network that he could only describe as pride. Though he didn’t verbally or visually respond to Daichi’s praise, maybe too reserved to openly accept a compliment, it was gratifying to know his words had made some impact. And yet, the knowledge felt voyeuristic: like he was impeding on Masshiro’s privacy, claiming an understanding, however small, of the man’s emotional state without his consent. Useful against enemies, but horribly violating to his friends and allies. He would have to be careful with this going forward. Being poked in the forehead snapped him out of his focus, and he blinked in surprise, shaking his head like a dog who had just been flicked. "Right,” he said. "Conscious thought and physical chemical reactions aren’t always going to line up nicely.” He was, perhaps, still overconfident. Though he understood what Masshiro was saying on a logical level, he’d not yet been subjected to any of the truly horrifying genjutsu that its practitioners wielded, and he was likening the experience to fighting through a broken bone or an especially deep wound: uncomfortable, painful, but manageable with enough grit and willpower. He didn’t yet know how very wrong he was. The clone dissipated. The stick in the river of Daichi’s chakra network abruptly vanished, as if it had never been there at all, the poison safely extracted with no evidence left behind. "The closest person is a genin about ninety meters away,” Daichi said, when he saw Masshiro glancing around. "Two more genin one hundred and twenty meters away. Everyone else three hundred meters or further. Don’t worry, I can keep quiet.” He wasn’t sure exactly what to expect, but he was more than accustomed to slogging through pain, and felt sure he could manage whatever was about to happen. He took a breath to steel himself, clear his mind: and then he held out his arm as instructed, staring intently at Masshiro to catch every spare inch of his movements.

masshiro -- 348

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