I Will Catch Up!

Akatsuki Zoom Meeting

"9 tails jinchuriki… to think Konoha has kept them a secret for all these years…". Pain said in a cold voice.

"Then… what do we do now?", Konan felt worried the existence of Tsuyu Uzumaki would bring trouble to their plans.

"...Our goals haven't changed. The war will weaken every nation. Let them tear each other's flesh. Konoha's hidden weapon will only help us achieve our goal".

Deidara looks at the projection of injured Kisame, his eyes shining. Not because Kisame is handsome, but the description of the massive explosion… he wished he could have seen such an art!

Tobi, behind his mask, had a serious look. He didn't know there's a second jinchuriki. So Minato split the 9 tails into two and gave each to his children? And Flying Raijin too… He looked over at Itachi's projection. He looks fine on the outside, but in fact, he's hiding his injury. This cannot escape his sharingan.

Tobi felt a sense of dread knowing Minato's daughter had learned his technique. And what's more this girl sends a bijuudama to their face and not just a Rasengan. He had trauma remembering it. 

Itachi knew Kisame had the Flying Raijin mark on him, and that mark is permanent. But ultimately, he is doing everything for the sake of Sasuke first, Konoha second. So he didn't tell Kisame or anyone about it for now. They won't be fighting Tsuyu any time soon after all. And just in case, Itachi had to break away from Akatsuki at some point.

"Meeting adjourned…".

As Tobi exited the zoom meeting, he felt somewhat uneasy. "It should be time to test Konoha's will…". Topi swirled and disappeared.

***

Training Field 5

Kurenai, being free and about with her own students training in their own clan compound, agreed to guide Sakura. The wine Tsuyu gave was top notch, and well… the date with Asuma went so well… Kurenai blushed, remembering the night…

Shaking her head, she returned her focus to Sakura.

Sakura takes a deep breath, focusing her chakra. She weaved 2 hand seals for the building block of the bigger jutsu; Dog → Snake

Sending and manipulating chakra on Kurenai sensei as the target.

In Kurenai's vision, a simple tree appears from the ground. It looks really realistic at first glance, though on more focus, it seems illusory and there's very slight transparency.

"Good work Sakura. But you need to maintain and concentrate on the image and senses you want your opponent to experience perfectly. Your chakra contains your will - on what you want your opponent to experience. Genjutsu is Yin release in nature, to form from imagination. Have a clear image, even the exact colour, the exact small details and lines".

"Steady your chakra control on the visual cortex. Otherwise the image will have distortion and can be seen through. For the jutsu I taught, sight is the most important aspect to control first as our chakra would infiltrate through the tenketsu in their eyes first. Only when the opponent's senses and brain is tricked into thinking it's reality, even if they know in their mind it's a genjutsu, their body is tricked into believing it. Mastering manipulation of sight and then touch senses would at least give you a second or two even against expert opponents - this can be fatal in a real battle".

Kurenai on the other hand, can manipulate all 5 senses all at once, controlling her chakra into different parts of opponents brain. Kurenai might not seem much but aside from Itachi or the Uchiha - she's the most powerful genjutsu user of Konoha with many S rank and A rank missions completed.

"Understood, sensei!". Sakura's expression tightened, she once more made hand seals. Dog → Snake → Monkey → Ox → Tiger.

Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death!

The minute chakra entering through tenketsu points of the eyes move along the nerves, infiltrating into the primary visual cortex in the occipital lobe. A tree grows up from the ground.

At the same time, Sakura also controlled the chakra to move to the primary somatosensory cortex responsible for sensation of touch, faking brain signals to make the opponent feel the strangling of the tree as it wraps around Kurenai.

"Good!", Kurenai praised her as she finally succeeded in using the jutsu. Although there's many flaws, in a battle even a second of success is enough when it comes to genjutsu. And Sakura had only been learning for a few days, and yet she already grasped the anatomical structure and the nerves and chakra network path as if her brain was like a sponge, and she can apply theory to practical with ease, moving her chakra through the chakra network and the nerves network to exactly the parts of brain required. 

Sakura takes a deep breath. The focus it takes stresses her mentally. Even though it's barely something, Sakura felt happy.

"Okay, let's stop for today Sakura". Kurenai smiled slightly. She's a genius… she commented inwardly. But in Tsuyu's words, do not make her complacent, so that she keeps working hard.

"Yes! Thank you sensei!". 

Before Kurenai leaves, she turns towards Sasuke, who's doing some weird training with those wires and light bulbs. She noticed Sasuke stopped and stood and decide to stay for a while to watch.

Hn? Is he finally showing what's that all about?

Sakura too looked over. It's been a few days since he's been training to do that. It seemed, Sasuke already mastered controlling his chakra to produce a constant stable lightning chakra.

Tsuyu and Sasuke don't think creating a chakra armor like Raikage is necessary, because Sasuke wasn't a brute nor does he need to crash people like a train. His sharingan already consumes chakra constantly and he needs to utilize the advantage of enhanced perception from sharingan. What Sasuke needs is a boost in speed and only enough for his body to handle that speed fluidly. Thus the jutsu Sasuke is mastering is different from Lightning Chakra Armor. He calls it, Lightning Flow Dance (Rairyūbu).

Sasuke made a single hand seal, generating chakra and using lightning nature transformation. From his left hand where he usually uses chidori, travelling throughout his entire chakra circuit. Sasuke's Sharingan flared up, looking into his own body.

Success…! Now, infusion into the body… outward. Only a little to my nerves… then the rest to my tissues

Sparks of electricity are barely visible on Sasuke's body. Minute lightning chakra surrounds his nerve cells, surrounding its membrane rather than entering it, increasing isolation and sensitive his action potential. 

Now! Lighting Release: Lightning Flow Dance! Stage 1!

Sasuke flashed upward, a small arc of electricity generated from each of his movements. Sasuke takes kunai and shuriken from his tool bag, throwing them on the targets ready around him with a flashy spin midair. 

My speed… my senses…! Sasuke felt how fast he's moving even with sharingan perception making everything seem slower. But his body is not so slow anymore! Almost a 1.2x speed improvement. But in other's eyes he moved like a ghost, almost inhuman like.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Each of the projectiles is only slightly off the bullseyes.

Sasuke comes down, taking a deep breath of air. He felt all his muscles strained. It's not that bad, since it's only a minute improvement. 

Sakura and Kurenai watching from a distance is shocked. 

What jutsu is that! Such speed, perception, and even control! 

Kurenai feels shocked inside. Speed is one thing. But anyone moving at such a speed wouldn't be able to have enough perception and control normally. Of course, the sharingan helped his perception.While the lightning release infusing into his entire body tempered his body to withstand such speed and the nerves reaction was boosted allowing control.

I need to infuse more lightning chakra into my body - it's straining, but keep the amount in my nerves the same… okay…

Sasuke thought inwardly and kept training. Sakura looked in awe. In just a week, Sasuke created and used such a powerful jutsu.

In the next few days, Sakura kept watching him from a distance, not wanting to disturb him while focusing on her own training. Medical ninjutsu in the morning at the hospital, genjutsu in the evening at the training field using a few monkeys as a test subject. Medical ninjutsu use her stamina, while genjutsu use her spiritual power more. So at the end of the day she's completely exhausted. But so is Sasuke.

Being in the training field with Sasuke already gives her motivation to catch up.

"Sorry, monkey, here we go again…". "Uu uuu aaa aa!". The monkey had enough of being binded to trees.

But all of a sudden, Sakura noticed a flash of lightning from Sasuke's direction. She heard a grunt for a second.

Her pupil constricted seeing Sasuke convulsed on the ground so suddenly.

"Sasuke-kun!", Sakura rushed towards him quickly. Lighting arcs move around his body. It seems he's electrocuted a little from trying Stage 2 of the technique by increasing his lightning chakra output. He's too impatient for rapid improvement.

"Sasuke…!", Sakura calms herself and uses medical ninjutsu, relaxing Sasuke's convulsing and shaking muscles, isolating them from the electric impulses.

"...Sakura". Sasuke opened his eyes, surprised Sakura actually came and did help him. His body stops moving uncontrollably.

"... You are so reckless…". Sakura muttered.

"...", Sasuke didn't comment. He is reckless. He thought he mastered using the small amount and can increase a little more and won't lose control, but it's more difficult than he anticipated because there's a ratio he needs to keep between amount of chakra sent to the nerve and the rest of the body. If stage 1 he sent 10 unit to nerves, while 100 to the body - there's a 90 unit difference. But stage two requires him to send 20 units to nerves, 200 to the body. This is 180 units different to control and kept constant. The jutsu difficulty increased exponentially the higher stage he went. He should follow Tsuyu's guideline to train properly with those circuits first.

"Thank you Sakura… I am fine now…".

"Ah… sure thing!".

"...".

"Sakura… you are learning genjutsu now, aren't you?".

"Uh. Yes! I can only do the basics so far…". Sakura is afraid Sasuke would feel disappointed.

"I need your help then. I need to train to break his genjutsu. I would like you to cast genjutsu on me. Use me as your practice target". Sasuke recalled Tsuyu's words. That if he wants to kill him, his genjutsu is the 1st priority to settle. Because even Tsuyu cannot escape without 9 tails, an external person's help.

"I… yes, sure Sasuke-kun! Let's train together!". Sakura felt so happy inside. For the first time, she felt seen by Sasuke.

Sakura felt more motivation to improve her genjutsu, so that she could be useful for Sasuke, even if it's for his training. She stayed late until the sun almost set, exhausting all of herself mentally.

As she returned home, she saw a look of disagreement from her parents.

"Sakura, where have you been? It's already so late!". 

"I was training, kaa-san, I am tired…". Sakura had enough of their complaints.

"You…! You know shinobi work is dangerous. Why do you even…".

"Kaa-san…".

"You know they would send you out there right…? What if…?". 

"Kaa-san… don't worry… that's why, I am training now. I will make you proud, I promise…".

The two went silent and just watched as Sakura went upstairs to her room. She didn't notice her mom already cried, with her dad patting her back. Seeing her training hard makes them realise convincing her to quit is no longer possible. They can only hope for the best.

Everyone in Konoha could already feel the pressure in the air. Even though the council tried to stop rumors from circulating, but there's movements from the 3 nations at the border. A few of Konoha's scouts at the border were found dead, possible breach by the other village already. Of course these small things isn't enough to trigger a complete fight.

As long as one of the hidden village make a major move, a war would break out. They are only waiting, either for preparation or a major chance of weakness from Konoha.