Chapter 161: Five Senses Seal, and the Rise of the Fifth Kazekage!
On the second day after becoming the Fifth Kazekage, Pakura led a team out of the Sand Village and headed for the Land of Fire front.
She didn't bring many people. Besides those who had previously withdrawn from the battlefield, she also selected a group of young people, such as the elite jonin Maryō's son, the 15-year-old Baki. Bringing a group of young people was a calculated move to cultivate her own loyal retainers. After all, this trip to the Land of Fire would not involve fighting, so there was no need to bring too many people.
"Lady Kazekage," the bold Baki couldn't help but ask on the way, "is that Kinoshita Genichi really as strong as they say? Even the Fourth Kazekage…"
The news of the Fourth's death in battle was too shocking for many to believe.
Before Pakura could answer, the jonin Sanmaku, who had personally witnessed that battle, said in a low voice, "If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, it would indeed be hard to believe. The one who was praised by the Third Mizukage as having the power of a Kage… he is even younger than you, Baki."
"How does he train?" Baki was shocked.
"He is an Ice Release Kekkei Genkai user," Sanmaku said. "He is a master of Water Release, Wind Release, and genjutsu, and he has a very strong Body Flicker technique. The battle with the Fourth did not last long, but… the Fourth was careless. He didn't expect him to be an Ice Release user, which resulted in the Gold Dust hidden underground being frozen and rendered unusable."
Pakura took the opportunity to add, "That was an intelligence failure. So, on the battlefield, you must pay special attention to gathering intelligence on the enemy. Baki, the future belongs to you young people. You shouldn't harbor feelings of hatred. Instead, you should think about how to improve yourselves, and see Kinoshita Genichi as a goal to chase and surpass. Although this may be asking a bit much of you, this is the conviction you must have, and pass it down from generation to generation. Only then will the village's future have hope."
Baki and the other young ninja all nodded. "Yes, Lady Kazekage!"
Beneath Kikyō Mountain, inside a tent, Genichi let out a long breath, a look of joy on his face. "It's finally done."
After completing all the individual sensory deprivation ninjutsu, he had gone all out to merge the five into one. The process had been going very smoothly but was interrupted by the news of his teacher Sakumo's injury. Now, he had finally succeeded.
"I'll call it… the Five Senses Seal."
Genichi named the technique. This genjutsu could instantly seal all five of an enemy's senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. It could be said to be the culmination of his development of sensory deprivation genjutsu, and a thorough integration of all the genjutsu knowledge he had accumulated over the years. This jutsu, like the previous ones, would also become a prerequisite for casting the Realm of Truth.
"The next goal is to integrate the essence of the Five Senses Seal into the Realm of Truth."
Genichi had long had a very mature, step-by-step plan for the development of his genjutsu. Seal the enemy's five senses, then use the Realm of Truth to give them "false" sensory feedback, making them think they have broken the previous illusion, but in reality, everything they sense and know is his genjutsu. The first priority here was stealth. But that wasn't enough. He needed to give the enemy a sensory perception that was real enough. This was undoubtedly very difficult.
However, he already had a preliminary idea, which was to use his own sensory state as a basis. That is, to use his own basic perception of sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste as the background color for the Realm of Truth. What was this basic perception? The environment. For example, in a battle, the environment and background of the battle, including the time, the wind, the scent of flowers, the sounds heard, and other basic elements. With a real background, the story he weaved would have a basic reliability. This was the second step.
But that still wasn't enough. Genichi knew very well that for the same thing, everyone's sensory perception was different. For example, the sensitivity to color was different for everyone's eyes, even leaving aside those unique individuals with color blindness. So, his next idea was to use the enemy's own perception to deceive their own brain. The brain receives information from the outside world through the five senses. Everyone's senses have subtle differences, so the information fed back by the enemy's own senses is the least likely to be suspected by their brain.
At that time, the fake would become the real. This was the third step.
What the outside world was like was no longer important. What was important was the information transmitted to the brain by the five senses. Passing off the fake as genuine.
Genichi had not yet come into contact with a Kekkei Genkai user from the Kurama clan. But from the little information he had on them, he could deduce that the foundation of their Kekkei Genkai was the third step he wanted to achieve. For example, a general visual genjutsu just creates a false layer over the enemy's eyes to deceive their vision. Someone with a good mental fortitude could easily see through it. His current method was to black out the enemy's five senses and then feed false sensory data to their brain, with some real data mixed in. The next step was to make the false data nine parts true and one part false, to pass off the fake as genuine.
Of course, his Kekkei Genkai, Kyōka Suigetsu, was different. It involved the conversion of illusion and reality, and in terms of ability, it was no less than the Kurama clan's five senses control. As for the Kurama clan's Kekkei Genkai, it was more direct, more domineering. It controlled the enemy's five senses, playing with them at will. There was no wind outside, but the enemy who was controlled felt the wind, heard the wind. This was a real, personal feeling of the enemy. The enemy themselves were not injured, but the various sensations of their body would tell the brain, "I" am injured, "I" am being burned. The brain and subconscious would know that a certain part of the body was being burned. And so, that part of the body would show signs of being burned.
The damage from the genjutsu became real. This transformation of illusory genjutsu attacks into real damage was not because a fake lightning bolt had become real and struck the enemy. The key was the real damage itself; it was the result, not the process.
However, these were his own deductions about five senses control. He wasn't sure if the Kurama clan's Kekkei Genkai had this exact effect. But whether it did or not, this was the goal he would work towards, step by step. At that time, combined with the abilities of Kyōka Suigetsu, there might be unexpected gains.
He stood up and left the tent, heading for the medical corps' camp. He needed to find someone to test the Five Senses Seal on. Just as he entered the camp, he saw Tsunade teaching Shizune and Ina in the woods outside. He quickly strolled over, but didn't immediately make a sound, leaning against a tree and quietly watching Tsunade's lesson on the Yin Seal. The difficulty of this jutsu lay in chakra control, requiring a level of fine manipulation that surpassed even medical ninjutsu. In this aspect, Genichi's own talent was not bad, as could be seen from his training with the Rasengan, which also required chakra control, especially the one-handed version. Even so, it had taken him many years in the future to master the Yin Seal.
"If you two worked as hard as that little bastard Genichi, you would have already mastered this jutsu," Tsunade scolded Shizune and Ina, her hands on her hips.
Genichi was speechless. Since when did he become a "little bastard"? He was clearly a good person.
When the lesson came to an end, he finally spoke up. "Lady Tsunade, talking bad about people behind their back is not something a person of your stature should be doing."
Tsunade's body stiffened. She then turned around as if nothing had happened and said coolly, "I was just stating a fact. And what are you doing here?"
Why is she so irritable? Genichi spread his hands. "I just completed a new jutsu and wanted you to try it."
"Genichi, you developed a new jutsu again!" Ina cheered.
Shizune was also curious. "What kind of ninjutsu is it? An Ice Release secret technique?"
"No, it's a genjutsu," he smiled. "I've fused the five jutsu that seal the five senses."
"You fused them?" Tsunade was slightly surprised. "Can it instantly seal an opponent's five senses?"
Genichi nodded. "Yes."
"That level of difficulty, it must be S-rank," Shizune exclaimed.
"Something like that," Genichi said, looking at Tsunade.
"Then let's try it," she nodded.
He immediately formed hand seals. After the arts of Sha, Kai, and Jin, he clapped his hands together.
Genjutsu: Five Senses Seal!
Although it was a self-created genjutsu, he still couldn't cast it without hand seals.
And Tsunade, the moment he completed the seals, lost her sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste, losing all perception of the outside world. She had been prepared and was about to subconsciously raise her hand to break the illusion, but to the shocked cries of Shizune and Ina, she inexplicably fell over.
Thump!
With no instinctual reaction to support her body, she hit the ground hard. Her attempt to form a hand seal failed.
She finally felt a sharp pain. Not a skin-deep pain, but the pain of a hard fall. Her sense of touch had been sealed by the genjutsu.
What happened? She was shocked and quickly formed the hand seal again. This time, she succeeded in breaking the illusion and found herself lying on the ground.
"Was it because my five senses were sealed, causing my body to lose its sense of balance, which is why I fell?" she asked, standing up and frowning.
"That should be it," Genichi nodded. "The human body mainly relies on senses like sight and hearing, as well as the vestibular system, to maintain balance. It's very complex. When you lose the basic external sensory abilities like sight and hearing, the balance system can't work properly. Any major movement will cause a loss of balance."
"It's more than that," Tsunade said. "Although it was only for a short time, my heartbeat, body temperature, and other aspects were all in disarray. If it had been for a longer period, it would have definitely caused more serious consequences, such as a disorder of the respiratory system and chaos in the brain's nervous system. This jutsu is not comparable to a single sensory blockade."
Genichi nodded. He had sealed all of an enemy's five senses before, but that was by depriving them one by one. Even if it was very fast, there was still a time gap, so the effect was not as terrifying as instantly sealing all five senses at once. From this test, the Five Senses Seal was definitely an S-rank difficulty genjutsu that could be used as a trump card.
Given Tsunade's performance just now, taking so long to break the illusion, she would have died several times over on a battlefield. And this was a powerhouse like her.
"The best way to break a genjutsu like this is to use a massive amount of chakra to reset the disordered chakra, not to form a hand seal to release it," she analyzed. "If I had used my Yin Seal just now, I wouldn't have been affected at all. But that also depends on the strength of your seal."
Genichi nodded. Her analysis was very pertinent. The rank of any ninjutsu, including genjutsu, did not represent its absolute power. The key to its power lay in the nature transformation, shape transformation, and the basic amount of chakra. The power of many jutsu could be controlled by adjusting the amount of chakra used. Of course, every jutsu also had a base, or minimum consumption. Likewise, there was also an output limit, that is, the upper limit of chakra that could be output at one time. This was not just a matter of the amount of chakra one possessed, but also a matter of chakra control. The larger the amount of chakra, the harder it was to control. So, it wasn't as simple as just piling on more chakra to increase a jutsu's power. You had to be able to control that much chakra and stably cast the jutsu.
When he used genjutsu, the ones targeted at a group were easier to break, while the ones targeted at a single person were harder. This was because the precision was different. When targeting multiple people, the chakra control would be rougher, the amount of chakra would be less, and the precision would decrease, making it easier to break. The genjutsu of the Sharingan, and even the Susanoo, were stronger the stronger the user's dōjutsu power. This was the same principle; it did not violate this basic rule. So, chakra control was an indispensable basic ability for a ninja.
Leaving the medical camp, Genichi repeatedly considered the Five Senses Seal. This jutsu was very easy to get a "first-sight kill" with. If an opponent didn't react properly, they could be killed instantly. Even a Kage was no exception. However, the Third and Fourth Raikage, who trained in the Lightning Release Chakra Mode, would probably be an exception.
Unfortunately, this direction of genjutsu development had reached its peak. At least for now, he had no deeper ideas and could only continue to develop in the direction of five senses control.
Returning to his quarters, he was just about to continue his Ice Release training when someone came to report.
The Fifth Kazekage had arrived.
It was clear that Pakura had not disappointed him; she had succeeded. But Genichi couldn't be bothered with that. The next step was for her to talk with Hiruzen.
On the other side, Pakura was a little disappointed that Genichi hadn't come, but she didn't show it. After a conversation with Homura and Koharu, they had established the basis for the peace talks and alliance. Then, Pakura led Baki and four other young ninja to Kikyō Mountain.
Chiyo and Ebizō were undoubtedly shocked to see her as the Fifth Kazekage. They knew, of course, that she hadn't died, but the Fourth Kazekage had not revealed to anyone else that she had been saved by Konoha. But they were old and wise. Given the current situation, they knew very well that her becoming the Fifth Kazekage and shouldering the burden of the village was the best choice.
"The Fifth is right. Right now, our only option is to hold peace talks with Konoha," Chiyo was the first to speak after a moment of silence. She both acknowledged Pakura's identity as the Fifth and expressed her support for her policy.
Although she wanted to get rid of Chiyo and Ebizō as well, her reason kept her from showing her hatred. "In that case," she said coolly, "Ebizō will stay here and be in charge. Granny, you will come with me to Konoha to be responsible for the peace talks."
Chiyo and Ebizō looked at each other, then both nodded in agreement. If she wanted to get rid of them, for the sake of the village, they could only go to their deaths. Just like back then, when they had supported abandoning her for the sake of the village. For them, they had already had this resolve long ago.
Pakura stayed on Kikyō Mountain for three full days. Besides reaching an agreement with Chiyo and Ebizō, she also, as the Fifth Kazekage, comforted the Sand-nin on the mountain to appease the army and win their hearts.
February 15, Konoha Year 48.
Genichi protected Pakura, Chiyo, Homura, and Koharu's party on their return to Konoha. On the front line, Tsunade had become the commander.
After returning to the village, Genichi did not participate in the negotiations between the two sides. Although he was responsible for the safety of Pakura's party, he just sent a shadow clone to handle the job while he continued to train.
Mountain's Graveyard.
Aloe White Zetsu hurried back from outside. "Lord Madara, something big has happened in the ninja world. You'll never guess."
Madara was long used to Zetsu's exaggeration and didn't even lift an eyelid.
"What big thing?" Spiral Zetsu played the straight man well. "Did another Kage die?"
Aloe White Zetsu snapped his fingers. "Exactly. The Fourth Kazekage is dead."
Madara finally opened his eyes. "The Kazekage is dead? Killed by Konoha?"
"According to my investigation," Zetsu said, "he was killed by Kinoshita Genichi. A pity I didn't get to see that battle." He was quite regretful. He hadn't seen the Third Mizukage get killed either.
"So that means two Kage have died at his hands?" Spiral Zetsu was shocked. "How old is that guy?"
"12," Zetsu said. "He turned 12 on November 17th last year. He's 13 by East Asian age reckoning."
"Amazing," Spiral Zetsu marveled. "Speaking of which, was Lord Madara this strong at 13?"
Madara was in a slight daze for a moment. At that age, he had been skipping stones at the river and had just met Hashirama. At that time, he hadn't even awakened his Sharingan. But that was his most precious past.
Reining in his thoughts, Madara asked coolly, "How is that child?"
"Lord Madara," Zetsu said helplessly, "with the Yellow Flash around, it's very difficult to get close. Do you have a way? To be honest, isn't this a bit unreliable?"
"Does Lord Madara not have a better way?" Spiral Zetsu nodded in agreement. "Or we could change the candidate?"
"As subordinates, you should just follow orders," Madara said, his eyes downcast. "Remember, you are just inferior products made from Hashirama's cells. Also, have a little more patience. The eagle chick must always leave the nest's protection and face the dangerous world alone."
(End of Chapter)
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