Chapter 19

I had been given a small stipend and apartment on the condition that I would 'grow up to be a fine ninja.' When I read the fine print on the agreement, it was clear that I was essentially receiving a loan that I would pay back when I was able to do missions. Still, it meant I didn't have to worry so much about my dwindling savings. I swear, the day that I left the orphanage, the entire staff threw a party in honor of the day the demon child left. Not to mention the exorcist they hired to purify my room.

It was nice being able to focus solely on training for a while, even if I had to put up with the stick-in-the-mud Ebisu. I appreciated everything he did for me but the man was so tedious and boring. He drilled me on all the basics from hand seals and chakra control to shurikenjutsu and taijutsu. It galled me to no end that Ebisu refused to teach me anything more advanced than the academy jutsus, stating that I was not ready for fire techniques or the Kage Bunshin. He was probably right but I still felt shafted. Even fuinjutsu was 'too dangerous for someone not even academy age.'

Yet, I did everything he told me to do. I ran laps, did push-ups, threw countless shuriken and senbon, all the while adjusting to heavier and heavier weights. "At least he wasn't Maito Gai," I told myself. It constantly struck me as weird that no matter how much I trained, I didn't really build visible muscle. "Maybe chakra makes it work differently here? Maybe it's because I'm young?"

I still looked as pretty as ever. It was embarrassing. Even my voice was adorable. Never mind Sasuke. I was going to be strong competition for cutest rookie, male or female. I often considered cutting my hair. Long, flowing, and red, it didn't really make the most 'correct' impression, but it felt wrong to imagine myself with short hair. Instead I just kept my hood up constantly and spoke only when necessary. I tended to get incredulous looks from restaurant staff whenever I took my coat off to eat but that couldn't be helped.

And my favorite black coat had seen better days. Unlike when I had first found it, now it was perhaps only a couple sizes too big. The elbows were worn down and some of the seams had started to come apart. I planned on getting a new one made before the academy.

"I've brought someone here to see you, Haru," Ebisu said as he stood next to Kurenai Yuhi. "This is Kurenai Yuhi. She is an expert in genjutsu and I asked her to take a look at your, well, unique genjutsu skills."

"It is an honor to meet you, Kurenai-sama." I bowed respectfully. Ebisu hissed something at me about removing my hood but I ignored him.

"It's nice to meet you too, Haru-chan," Kurenai said with a smile, her deep red eyes softening gently. "I suppose we should start with a demonstration. Show me what you've got."

By the time she had finished the sentence, I had already laid a genjutsu on her. I had not been slacking on my genjutsu training. As soon as I had learned what was wrong with my chakra, I began to experiment with sending proper chakra in my genjutsu. It hadn't changed much except now my illusions were terrifying difficult to break out of.

Predictably, Kurenai had frozen where she stood, lost in a dream. Ebisu looked at her, and then me, and then back to her, wondering whether he should do something. I just waited impassively for her to try to dispel the illusion.

As usual, I started the fiction innocuously enough, with myself asking her what type of illusion she wanted to see. Presumably Ebisu and I would see signs of her trying to break the genjutsu when she notices that under my coat there was no body. Or at the very least when she became surrounded by empty black coats. Surely she would break out by the time that they caught on fire and became flaming demons.

I looked over to Ebisu. "Ebisu-sensei, should I stop the genjutsu?"

"That might be a good idea, Haru."

I pulled my chakra out of Kurenai's head. She began to slump to the ground but Ebisu swiftly caught her unconscious body. I hadn't been going easy on Kurenai, but hoped that I hadn't gone too far.

I walked silently behind Ebisu, hoping to god that Asuma wasn't about to randomly show up. We were about halfway to the hospital before Kurenai woke up in Ebisu's arms.

"Are you okay, Kurenai?" Ebisu asked. He gently let her slip out of his arms to stand on her own two feet.

"What happened?" asked the red-eyed woman as she slowly took in her surroundings, realizing that she was no longer on the training field and instead standing in one of Konoha's less populated streets.

"Ah, we were worried when you didn't break out of Haru's genjutsu so we decided to take you to the hospital." Ebisu turned away as he spoke, his face flushing red from having to talk to the attractive kunoichi he had previously been carrying.

Kurenai turned to look at me and for a moment, I could see the vestiges of fear in her face. "That was genjutsu?" I nodded back to her. "It felt so real. So horrific." She turned to Ebisu and inquired quietly, "A kekkai genkai?"

Ebisu pushed up his glasses with his fingers and shook his head. "No. Haru simply has a preternatural affinity for genjutsu," he answered quietly. I could hear them quite plainly talking about me so I decided to interrupt.

"Kurenai-sama. I want to ask you if there is a way to prevent yourself from falling under a genjutsu." Kurenai stared at me. Her brow furrowed as she considered what I said next. "Is it possible to inoculate or shield yourself from foreign chakra? Wouldn't that be preferable to reacting after the genjutsu takes hold?"

It was a moment before Kurenai answered. Ebisu was speechless as well. "That is a very interesting question, Haru-chan. I...I don't know," she admitted. It seemed pretty obvious to me that if you were only capable of defeating a genjutsu after you realized it was affecting you, then all someone would have to do was layer genjutsu upon genjutsu faster than the victim could break out of them. Assuming you had enough chakra to cast genjutsu indefinitely, the victim would never escape.

It had been a while since I had seriously considered the Tin-Foil Hat Jutsu. I had been busy putting the finishing touches on my Rasengan and trying to figure out a simple kawarimi, along with all of Ebisu's training. I had first considered the idea of a chakra shield as a counter to the Gentle Fist long, long ago but I wasn't going to mention that part right now.

"Okay, I was just curious, Kurenai-sama. Ebisu-sensei, are we done for today?" I asked.

"I suppose so. I'll take Kurenai-san to the hospital just to be sure she's fine. We'll see you tomorrow."

"I will see you tomorrow, then. Good-bye." The last thing I saw before I turned to leave was Kurenai's face visibly blanching as she likely caught sight of my shadow writhing maliciously behind me. I hoped I had made a good impression.

The next morning, I waited for Ebisu at our usual training ground. Leaning against a tree, I thought back to the day before. "Isn't Kurenai a genjutsu expert? Why did my genjutsu bother her so much? I thought it was kind of a cliché illusion, personally."

Ebisu and Kurenai arrived shortly. I looked at Kurenai. And then I turned to look at Ebisu. I should have greeted them properly, but instead I asked, "Why are you standing so far apart?"

The two adults instantly blurted out "No reason." Ebisu pushed up his glasses while trying to nonchalantly shuffle closer to Kurenai. At the same time, Kurenai flashed to my side, incidentally leaving the total distance between them exactly the same.

The female jounin asked me, "Haru-chan, how long have you been using genjutsu?"

"I don't know." I looked down at the ground, not that Kurenai could see under my hood. "I think the first time was around when I was two years old. I don't really know what the illusion was."

"Wow, that's very early for someone to be casting genjutsu," Kurenai remarked calmly. I glanced at Ebisu who was less adept at hiding his surprise. Kurenai continued, "Is it very hard for you to cast genjutsu?"

"Not really. Not anymore." I adjusted the illusion set on my shadow to flare and grow, visibly surrounding me to demonstrate what I was about to say. "Most people don't realize they're under a genjutsu when the illusion is indistinguishable from what they would experience in reality. I usually try to keep a genjutsu set on my person constantly, even when I'm asleep. Usually I maintain an illusion that makes my shadow seem darker and occasionally move on its own. I've been working on strengthening it over the past few years." With that, I had my shadow return to normal.

Ebisu's jaw was nearly touching the floor.

"I assumed you already knew about my constant genjutsu, Ebisu-sensei."

The special jounin quickly regained his composure, shoving his glasses up furiously and mumbling, "Of course, of course."

"I have one last question, Haru-chan." Kurenai leaned forward to inspect me as she asked, "Why do you wear such weird clothing?"

I pulled back my hood reluctantly, letting my hair fall out over my shoulders. "It's because everyone always thinks..."

"You're so cute, Haru-chan!" Kurenai immediately had me in an A-rank glomp. "Ebisu! Why didn't you tell me you had such an adorable student?! Oh, my, Haru-chan, you'll have to fight the boys off with a stick when you're older!"

"Ebisu-sensei...help...me..." "Can't...breathe..."

When I woke up, I was on the ground in the shade of a tree. I kept my eyes closed, listening to the two adults talk to each other.

"Haru is a strange child. That is certain. He has such prodigious chakra control but his actual ninjutsu is abysmal. He's starting to become proficient at taijutsu, but I can only imagine what he would have been capable of with proper instruction from a young age, if only he hadn't had to teach himself."

"And that genjutsu of his."

"I'm sure you noticed the lack of hand seals. There's no medium, no warning whatsoever. It's nearly instantaneous. And that hypothetical defense he mentioned earlier. I would never have imagined such a thing, must less considered developing such a defense against genjutsu. He's never brought it up before. Is it even possible, Kurenai?"

"I honestly cannot say. It's unheard of. But it makes so much sense."

"Is my genjutsu really that strong?"

"Frankly, it's baffling. The Hokage wanted me to teach him the Shadow Clone Technique but Haru can't even properly accomplish an ordinary Clone Technique. He can't even manage a simple Transformation Technique but he's managed to nearly recreate one of the Fourth's personal ninjutsu, apparently just from hearing stories about it. And that was before I taught him to properly mold his chakra." I could totally imagine Ebisu pushing up his glasses with pride at that last part.

"It was unlike any genjutsu I've ever seen before. I'm embarrassed to say that Haru could probably teach me a thing or two."

"Well, it's never too late to improve oneself."

"That's mean, Ebi-san! I come to help with your student and this is how you treat me?"

"Don't be like that, Kurenai. Now isn't the time for this." Ebisu paused. "Haru, hasn't anyone ever told you it's rude to eavesdrop?"

"Busted." I sat up. "Kurenai-sama, Ebisu-sensei, I know that my genjutsu is potent but genjutsu is like a riddle. It is useless against someone who has the answer to it. That is why I still have to become stronger. So I can defeat those who are immune to genjutsu," I said, knowing what the Sharingan was capable of. "So, Ebisu-sensei, don't tell me you're going to skip my lesson again today so you can take Kurenai-sama on another date."

I was going to get hell for it later, but watching the two adults simultaneously stammer out "It's not like that!" was completely worth it. "Of course not. Ebisu and Kurenai? As if that could ever happen."