Chapter 29: [Induction Mission (Part 2/2)]
It was an everyday evening for the Kusa Vipers bandit group, they holed up in their hideout sitting on the hill and talked about their exploits.
"Boss! You should have seen the look on those merchants' faces, they were crying like little girls when we killed them." A bandit sat in front of a campfire, as he spoke excitedly to the man sitting in front of him.
"Why are you a lot surprised? They're just a bunch of fat pigs, they've probably never seen blood in their lives." The boss responded, who was a stocky man with a scar stretching down the left side of his lips and scruffy brown hair tied into a ponytail.
He was previously a simple farmer in the Land of Earth, but during the 3rd Shinobi War 20 years ago he had lost everything. His land, his family, his home...
Hungry and resentful, he soon found himself robbing a home in his village of their food. Realising how easy it was to just grab the fruit of another labour, he soon repeated his actions.
Again and again.
Until there was nothing more to steal from the village anymore, hungry for more wealth the man gathered several like-minded people and began robbing various merchant caravans.
It was only recently that he had moved over to Kusagakure in an attempt to rob the more wealthy Konoha merchants.
"But, shouldn't we leave soon? We've been a bit too high profile recently..." A skinny man who stood behind the boss spoke up, hesitation staining his voice as beads of sweat pooled on his forehead.
He was another victim of war, though unlike the other bandits every time he robbed someone he would feel terrified. Terrified of suffering the same result as them. He was a timid fellow who found himself in relative safety in this bandit group and he didn't want that to end.
His words came to a halt as he saw his boss glare at him.
"Don't be silly! We've just been targeting merchants, we wouldn't be as unlucky as to have provoked some sort of noble or something.
Even if those merchants do send ninjas after us, how strong could they be? The most they will do is send a Genin squad here, which can't deal with us. I mean look at how many brothers we have gathered here.
But remember this you lot, merchants are pigs that can be slaughtered- but we shouldn't be dumb enough to lay our hands on those noble bastards or their business. Otherwise, we could have a bunch of powerful ninjas sent after us."
Hearing his words the skinny man wanted to speak up again, but sighed as decided against it.
'But I feel like the merchants we targeted a few days ago seemed a bit... too luxurious in terms of their cargo. Never mind, even if I tell them it's not like they're going to believe me.'
The skinny man thought despondently as he walked away from the campfire and left towards the forest below so he could relieve himself.
However, after he finished and began walking back up the mountain he felt as if he had forgotten something. Unbeknownst to the poor man, a pair of crimson-red eyes tracked his figure as he moved up the mountain.
As he trudged back to camp, he felt an eerie silence hover over it. As he looked at the camp, his blood ran cold and the hairs on his body began to stand on end. A while earlier, this camp was filled with bandits but now it was filled with several enemy ninjas who stood over the corpses of the bandits.
The faint moonlight illuminated their haunting figures as one of them soon approached him, the ninja's eyes were completely black and devoid of any pupils. His mouth warped into a huge smile despite spots of blood decorating his face.
Crunch
The skinny man could almost taste the overwhelming stench of blood drowning his sense of smell whilst his ears could make out the distinct footsteps of the ninja who made his way over, stepping on the leaves and twigs in his path.
As the ninja stood right in front of him, the skinny man could see his face closer- he could make out those soulless eyes boring into his soul.
Terrified. He was terrified. But more than that, he was regretful.
Why didn't he warn everyone to leave?
Otherwise, everyone would still be alive.
However, he didn't want to just die so simply. Reaching his side he pulled out a dagger and thrust it into the heart of the haunting figure that stood before him.
Splat
He could feel the ninja's beating heart slow down, and for some reason, he felt as though those once soulless eyes now carried a sense of shock and betrayal as they slowly drained of life.
Shock? Betrayal? Why would the ninja feel that?
The skinny man shook his head, he was happy he brought down one. Normally he would be happy with just that, but now he wanted more. He wanted to bring down as many of them as he could, he wanted revenge.
The man then swiftly dashed towards another ninja in front of him, slashing at his throat and before even checking if his target was dead he moved on to his next target.
two, three, four
He managed to capitalise on their shock and brought down three more of those ninjas. However, he was still unable to figure out why they all seemed so shocked by his actions.
Soon his luck ran out as by the time he tried to kill his fifth, a sword ran itself through his heart. He smiled as he thought about dying in such a way.
He brought down four ninjas. Alone!
As he felt his limbs slowly turn cold and was ready to embrace death, he looked up and saw the person in front of him more clearly.
"Boss?" He thought he was mistaken. He had seen his boss dead on the ground before, why would he still be alive and more importantly why would the boss kill him?
"Why? Why would you kill your brothers?" The boss screamed in both sorrow and rage as he dug the sword deeper into his target's heart.
The skinny man was confused, but through the corner of his eyes, he could make out his surroundings. Gone were those ninjas, instead stood his once thought to be dead bandit comrades.
'Then who did I kill?' With his dying breath, the man slowly craned his neck to the side and saw the bodies of his former brothers littering the floor.
Four bodies.
Four ninjas.
"Ho-" His words were cut short as his life faded away, forever unknowing of what had just happened.
The other bandits blankly stared at the scene in front of them, trying to understand what had caused this. The person who had just died was a familiar figure to all of them, just as were the other people who lost their lives in this bizarre situation and caused a single question to weigh on their minds- what caused this?
Just as the scene was enveloped in a depressive silence, dozens of figures jumped out from the shadows. Before the bandits could react they were collectively struck in the back of the neck, the sound of dozens of bones breaking reverberated in the air.
The shadows soon disappeared into a cloud of smoke and Sasuke appeared next to the bandit leader who was left alone by the shadow clones.
"Who are yo-?!" His words halted as Sasuke clasped his neck, before swiftly twisting it.
Before the bandit leader died, faint regret began to gnaw in his heart.
'I knew shouldn't have killed those Land of Fire merchants.
But why?!
Why should they live so well when their country has brought nothing but death and destruction to my life!'
Rain slowly began to fall from the skies as it began to drench Sasuke's lone figure on the hill.
'Will I have to get used to this...'
Sasuke thought as he stared at the sky above him as the rain kept falling on top of him.
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Sasuke soon found himself at his tent in the camp he had previously set up, the tent was rather spacious so Sasuke found himself in the company of a certain wolf who had made herself comfortable in the tent.
He closed his eyes gently, the pitter-patter of the rain outside slowly lulled Sasuke into a more relaxed state as he pondered the prior battle.
'The new Genjutsu seemed very effective... '
The Genjutsu Sasuke had employed back then was one of the things he had been working on in secret, whilst he had been training with Kurenai.
Tsuki No Kage
That was its name, it was heavily inspired by a certain ability from a character in another anime in his memory called Sosuke Aizen- whose ability was known as Kyoka Suigetsu.
Similar to its inspiration, Tsuki No Kage was a Genjutsu that affected all five senses of a target and generated an illusion so realistic that the victim would most likely never know he was caught in it until it was too late.
However, the underlying mechanism of this Genjutsu lay in the Sharingan. Namely the Mangekyou Sharingan, the target needs to make eye contact with Sasuke for him to cast it otherwise it wouldn't work.
However, this ability is still far from perfect. Sasuke would preferably have this Genjutsu be able to target multiple people at once, but that could take a while to develop as he finds that act still a bit strenuous.
There's also the fact that those with high Genjutsu resistance will be able to notice slight flaws within the Genjutsu when it is used, though that will not be the case when Sasuke becomes more proficient with this ability.
Nevertheless, with his progress in developing his spiritual energy, he will soon be able to use Yin Release to a greater extent and may even possibly perfect his Genjutsu.
This was his first time testing this on a human, but he can safely say it did work. Maybe too well. With this ability alone he could most likely stomp most ninjas in the current world, apart from a select few like his dear older brother for example.
For the previous battle, all he had to do was cast the Genjutsu on the man who left the hideout by himself and then trick him into thinking his companions were enemy ninjas.
The 'ninja' who had previously walked in front of the man was just one of the bandits who was asking how he felt, due to him looking incredibly pale and frightened to the other bandits.
'What a cruel ability...'
Sasuke's pondering soon ceased as he drifted into sleep. The sound of raindrops hitting the tent formed a sombre lullaby, and Luna, sensing her master's unrest, nudged ever closer.
In the mind of the wolf she simply wished to use the warmth of her body to bring a semblance of peace to her master, knowing full well that he was feeling conflicted over his actions tonight.
As the sound of breathing slowed in the tent, a single question lingered in the air- where would this taste of blood take the young Uchiha?
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Perma_Frost
Perma_Frost How is everyone liking his new Genjutsu?
Heavily inspired by Kyoka Suigetsu.
Though not sure why, I felt really happy with how this chapter turned out. A bit disturbing now I think about the chapter's contents...
Have some idea about my story? Comment it and let me know.
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