The Genjutsu Devil of Konoha

[Day Eight of the Journey — Forested Hills Near the Land of Tea Border]

Anyway, they'd been traveling at civilian speed over the past four days. The Land of Fire was vast, they should be in the Land of Tea.

But only now were they crossing the borders, which meant they had to wait a couple more days before they arrived.

During this time, he did eat some of his rations, and anytime they started getting bland, he would hunt a random wildlife he knew wasn't poisonous to eat. Didn't mean he didn't collect venomous animals; he needed them to study later.

He wanted to be able to coat his blade with poison, a very thin layer of it—something that was very slow acting... we're talking it could take hours, if not months, for it to show symptoms. Or he could just go the cyanide route, it didn't take much to kill a person.

Hm.

So many possibilities.

Hm, though he noticed something... for the last hour or so.

The path was quiet.

Too quiet.

Seijuro noticed it first—the sudden absence of wildlife. No birds. No rustling. Even the wind held its breath.

He narrowed his eyes. "We're being watched."

He placed a light Genjutsu over Mikoto's eyes.

Mikoto's Sharingan flared.

Nawaki kept calm. They had a formation for this, believe it or not.

Seijuro: "How many?"

Mikoto: "Too many. At least seven... no—nine. And chakra levels are high. These aren't bandits."

Seijuro turned sharply toward the trees, voice like ice. "Protect the client. They're surrounding us."

So, they got closer to the client, making it look like they were switching positions, and the client wanted to take a piss.

All the while, Seijuro had one of his shadow clones do the Head Hunter Jutsu with the client... so the guy was currently safe.

A clone—not shadow clone, just a regular clone—took its place.

And now... to wait.

And then—BOOM!

Explosive tags detonated around the path. Dirt and shrapnel flew into the air, the ground shaking as a coordinated group of Chunin-level shinobi launched from the treetops.

Their headbands showed that they came from Kiri. Made some sense. Apart from the Sand Village, the Village of the Mist was like the second closest nation, part of the Big Five, which could access this area without crossing the border.

They could do it by sea.

Tsunade appeared behind them, hand already cracking with chakra.

Tsunade: "You three handle the ones coming for the rear. I'll take the ones leading this mess."

She leapt into the air with a force that shattered the earth, intercepting three incoming Elite Jounin mid-air.

...The fuck... three Jounin.

Nah, this was planned. Something wasn't adding up. He immediately pulled his blade out from the sheath. This wasn't a C-rank mission anymore. The second they ran into some Chunin and three Elite Jounin, this mission was no C-rank.

Matter of fact, shit jumped to a B or A-rank mission... more like A-rank. Three Elite fucking Jounin.

He looked at the three Chunin who were ready to jump him.

Weapons drawn, their faces blank. Professionals.

"You're just a Genin," one of them muttered.

"Correct," Seijuro replied, calm and detached.

They rushed him.

The first Chunin came in with a wide horizontal slash, kunai gleaming.

Seijuro ducked under it—hand already weaving.

He used Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu.

However, the Chunin, being Chunin, used Substitution Jutsu to get out of harm's way.

Gripping his sword, he was about to test out a theory of his.

"Sha..." The Chunin rushed him, not even giving him time to finish his sentence. He ducked under a strike, parried another, jumped a couple feet away, and while in the air, he took out a kunai, tossing it toward their general location.

The Chunin, which the kunai was aimed at, blocked the attack, while the other rushed at him from the side.

He saw the handseal that one of them was making.

Tiger → Ox → Dog → Rabbit → Snake.

He knew those handseals... this was the Wind Release: Great Breakthrough.

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough

(Fūton: Daitoppa)"

Seijuro's eyes seemed to widen. The wind came at him... and then, instead of hitting him, it hit a... log. The Chunin who had just parried the strike from the kunai turned just in time to see a paper tag slip onto his chest.

Boom.

The explosion didn't kill, but he wished it did. It flung him hard against a tree—down for the count.

The second Chunin charged blindly, chakra coating her fists.

Seijuro watched her with cold eyes. Predictable.

He made a single, simple handseal.

Preparing to take out his blade once more.

"Sha..." CLANG

He blocked another kunai... okay, that was all the proof he needed.

They were aware of his ability, and since the people fighting him seemed pretty resistant to Genjutsu, if the fact that the guy that just got exploded by his exploding tag was anything to go by.

He wasn't supposed to break out of the illusion and see he was exploding, but he got out near immediately.

Hm.

Fuck it.

He gripped his blade tightly.

The sound of glass shattering could be heard.

The woman blinked.

"Kai."

Wow, they were just incriminating themselves... however, this was too late.

As Seijuro was gone—it seemed like, in the time they were spending breaking the illusion, he had escaped.

Wait, no.

Too late, she realized it was an illusion.

He was behind her already.

"Sleep."

A pressure point strike to the back of her neck ended the fight.

Seijuro stood there, calm amidst the settling leaves and smoke.

Meanwhile—

Tsunade was trading blows with three Jounin at once.

One tried to bind her with Lightning Chakra Chains.

She broke them.

Another came with a Wind Blade meant to slice through trees.

She caught it with her bare hand and shattered it.

The last one tried to pin her down with Sealing Tags.

She detonated the entire section of forest with a single earth-cracking punch.

The Jounin were fast. But she was Tsunade Senju.

"YOU THINK A FEW MERCENARY NINJA ARE ENOUGH TO STOP ME?!" she roared, chakra pulsing like a war drum.

Even Seijuro, watching from afar, had to admit:

"She really is a monster."

Hm. Looking at his teammates... hm, they were doing fine... as for the third Chunin.

Seijuro turned his gaze, looking as the man sliced the head off his own teammate.

Hm.

Kyoka Suigetsu worked wonders, didn't it.

As for his teammates, Nawaki was fighting a Genin, and so was Mikoto.

Hm, it seemed like the enemy knew their weaknesses, as the Genin Nawaki was fighting seemed to be a long-range type enemy—Nawaki's weakness.

And for Mikoto, her enemy was a Taijutsu specialist.

Though she was doing well.

Good.