Meanwhile, under the cover of night, Tayuya sped towards Konoha.
Since it wasn't wartime, Konoha hadn't increased its patrol manpower around the village at night.
Tayuya easily infiltrated Konoha using a secret route she had discovered during her last reconnaissance mission.
"So unguarded."
She couldn't help but mock Konoha's poor defenses. "So much time has passed, and they still haven't found and sealed this loophole."
"If it weren't for Takumi stopping Orochimaru-sama, Konoha would have been taken by him long ago."
"This time, I must bring Takumi's body back for Orochimaru-sama!"
She sped up,
Soon arriving at Konoha's outskirts.
Then, she saw two sleeping figures.
"Is this...?"
She was startled, then her face lit up with joy.
Seeing Takumi in a deep slumber, she thought, 'Talk about a gift from the heavens!'
She was so excited that the hand holding her flute trembled slightly.
After barely steadying her breathing, she immediately put the flute to her lips and began to play, fully unleashing her Genjutsu.
Her gaze locked tightly onto Takumi, but before she could see him respond to the Genjutsu, the woman beside him, whose face she hadn't quite made out, stood up.
Tayuya immediately looked at her warily, only to recognize her as Onoki's daughter, Kurotsuchi!
She had seen her a few times before during the Chunin Exams.
They just hadn't spoken,
Because at the time, Tayuya was maintaining the Four Violet Flames Formation with Sakon and the others,
Naturally, she had no time to interact with others.
Now, Kurotsuchi stood up, eyes closed, swaying unsteadily. The chains on her hands and feet clinked softly.
'Not good. The noise might wake Takumi!'
Hearing the chains, Tayuya's heart raced with anxiety.
If the chain sound disrupted her Genjutsu, all her effort would be for nothing!
Such a perfect opportunity, without needing to go deep into Konoha, encountering Takumi right here,
If failure came from this kind of accident, what dignity would she have to return to Orochimaru?
Orochimaru would probably think even less of her as a useless waste.
She stopped playing the flute and instead pulled out a kunai.
She didn't care who Kurotsuchi was now; she just wanted to eliminate anyone obstructing her plan.
But before she could strike, someone else moved even faster towards Kurotsuchi.
Thump.
A dull sound rang.
Takumi caught the softly fainted Kurotsuchi, gently laying her on the ground.
"I was originally going to see what you would do,"
Takumi stood up, his expression calm as he looked at Tayuya. "But if you try to kill my friend, I can't just stand by."
"You're awake after all."
Tayuya frowned, but confident in her Genjutsu, she immediately raised the flute to her lips and began playing softly.
Instantly, enchanting sounds filled the air.
Takumi himself didn't mind, but seeing Kurotsuchi showing signs of getting up again,
He casually broke off a blade of grass from the ground.
"You can create lifelike snakes with your Genjutsu?"
"Huh?"
Tayuya looked confused but kept playing her flute diligently.
Then she saw Takumi put the blade of grass to his lips, as if he were about to play.
But could that kind of leaf even produce sound?
The next moment, she found out.
She didn't know how he did it, but the blade of grass indeed produced a somewhat sharp sound from Takumi's mouth.
And he was actually using this rather piercing sound to play a very rhythmic tune.
Even she couldn't help but want to move to the beat.
Just then,
"It hurts!"
Her expression changed, and she looked down to see a vibrant green snake biting her ankle.
"A venomous snake!"
Having been with Orochimaru for so long, Tayuya had seen countless venomous snakes.
She immediately recognized this as an extremely potent one.
And she didn't have any antidote or serum with her.
"Am I going to die here?"
She despaired, lowering her flute. Facing almost certain death from poison, what use was her Genjutsu now?
But she waited for a moment, feeling no signs of poisoning. The pain in her ankle also inexplicably vanished.
She looked down again, 'Where was the snake?'
'My ankle skin was intact, there's no wound at all.'
"Is this... Genjutsu?"
Perhaps because she also used music to cast Genjutsu, she caught on quickly.
She snapped her head up, but Takumi was gone.
Instead, a bloodthirsty beast was lunging at her.
"Ah!"
Instinctively, she closed her eyes, letting out a short scream. Collapsing to the ground, she realized the beast was also an illusion.
But then, the ground beneath her felt scorching hot.
Opening her eyes, she found herself in a sea of flames. Lava flowed beside her, and in the distance, a volcano spewed thick smoke.
'A volcanic eruption?'
'How? I was just in Konoha!'
'But the sensation was so real, this heat!'
Suddenly, the scene shifted again.
She was in the air, wind roaring in her ears, hurtling towards the ground at terrifying speed.
Most terrifying of all, she was sitting on a massive meteor.
The feeling of the wind, the heat from friction with the atmosphere – it was all so real.
But the more real it felt, the more she couldn't believe it.
She knew it was Genjutsu, but she couldn't escape it.
Boom!
The meteor struck, but didn't hit land.
She found herself plunging into the ocean, sinking rapidly into the depths.
Then, she saw countless monstrous deep-sea creatures she had never seen before.
Giant squids tens of meters long, colossal creatures crawling on the seabed, and so on.
All of it felt incredibly real.
The suffocating pressure made her head throb.
Suddenly, she was abruptly back on solid ground, surrounded by nothing but utter silence.
But then, countless meteors glowing red appeared in the sky, hurtling towards the earth.
Boom!
She watched dumbfounded as scenes unfolded that felt terrifyingly real.
The earth trembled and cracked.
Volcanoes erupted, lava flowed across the ground.
Hundred-meter-high tsunamis lashed the coast, yet couldn't extinguish the blazing fires burning on land.
It was as if she had a front-row seat to an apocalypse.
Tayuya didn't know how much time passed before she finally came to.
Dazed, she looked at Takumi standing before her, momentarily unable to distinguish if this was reality or if she was still trapped in Genjutsu.
She had never seen such realistic Genjutsu, nor such an expansive one.
It was like a world within the Genjutsu.
Real, yet illusory.
Seeing Takumi, she instinctively retreated.
But as she moved, she realized she was somewhat drained.
She collapsed weakly, hearing her own ragged, heavy breathing.
Though she hadn't physically moved an inch,
The experience, which felt like an eternity yet also just an instant, had consumed immense mental energy.
She was exhausted now.
Not physically, but mentally and psychologically.
She had never experienced anything like this.
But then,
She saw Takumi, who had been standing still, suddenly pounce on her, frantically tearing at her clothes.
"What are you doing?!"
Panic seized Tayuya. She tried to resist, but her body had no strength; she could only twist futilely.
Like a puppet manipulated at will, she was positioned in countless ways by Takumi.
Her eyes gradually grew dull.
Suddenly,
She found herself still sitting on the ground, gasping for breath.
But her clothes were intact, and Takumi remained in his original position, motionless.
The pain and strangeness she had felt were all gone.
'Another Genjutsu!'
Tayuya realized.
She stood up, feeling her strength somewhat restored.
But she no longer had the will to resist.
The gap in their power was just too vast.
How naive she had been, thinking she could use her paltry genjutsu to bring Takumi back to Orochimaru.
Now, it all seemed laughable.