Naruto: Chronicles of A Fire Ninja

Chapter 196: Deception and Strategy

"Okay," Shisui said and released his genjutsu. Both of them woke up from their slumber ready to attack, but to their bad luck, they only saw a pair of dark red glowing eyes once again.

Their eyes became completely white, as if there were no pupils in their eyes in the first place. If they didn't know better, Team Shadow would have thought that Shisui killed those two root members.

But what Shisui was doing was entirely different; he was reading the memories of those two root members. With his Mangekyo Sharingan, this could be done in seconds, but he was at it for 10 minutes. The reason being, reading someone's mind forcefully may end up damaging that person's brain, even making them brain dead if the force was too much. Since Shisui still had very important use for them, he was making sure that their brains would not be harmed during the procedure.

After reading the memories, he woke them up again, only to place them in a genjutsu once again, after which he sent them back to their post as if nothing had happened.

...

Both of them were once again standing in their positions with the memories of the last 10 minutes erased from their minds, but there were some new memories in their heads, like their post was now changed. They now had to guard the captives' room, and since they had invested so much in those captives, their security was top priority. In case of any emergency, they had to be transported to Konoha alive.

Both of these were complete opposites of what the actual orders were, but due to the genjutsu capabilities of Mangekyo Sharingan, there was no way these two chunin rank ninjas could guess that. So, according to their new orders, they went to the room where the captives were kept.

"We are ordered to switch over positions; you guys are on guard duty till further notice," one of the root ninjas said.

"Are you sure? We didn't get any such order," the ninja who was guarding the room said.

"Yes, there is some unusual movement in the Land of Iron for some time. The leader asked for some stronger guards to be placed for the time being," the guard confirmed.

Though the ninja who was guarding the room was suspicious, once he sensed that both of them still had their seals intact, his doubts vanished. It was almost impossible for someone to place them in genjutsu, and even if someone somehow did, root ninjas could sense that from their seals. After confirming that, the guard swapped.

...

"Sir, new guards are here," Satoshi said.

"Good, our plan is working. Let's make sure all of the root ninjas guarding the civilians are under genjutsu before we make any move," Shisui said.

"Yes, sir," the others said.

And Shisui once again repeated the same procedure, sending a clone as a wolf, making the root ninjas unconscious, and then placing them under genjutsu once again. Though time-consuming, by using this method, it was easy for them to accomplish both tasks: saving the captives and subduing as many root ninjas as possible without killing them.

But even the higher-ups of Konoha knew the most they could do was bring back the chunin rank root ninjas. The ninjas at the jonin rank are specially trained against genjutsu and mind control, and had to be eliminated swiftly before someone from the Land of Iron got an inkling of what was happening under their nose.

After repeating the same thing for some time, almost 25 chunin were under genjutsu and they were tasked to protect the captives in case an attack occurred. After doing that, Shisui returned to the temporary base of Team Shadow.

"It is time to begin part 2 of our plan," Shisui said.

"Sir, there are still 15 ninjas left in the base and they will surely attack us. Since they are trained for efficient killing, I think we should do the same," one of the Anbu ninjas said.

"Don't worry. Satoshi and I will try to handle as many jonin as we can. You guys will mostly have to take care of chunin. Mainly focus on subduing them without killing them, but if you can't, then kill them directly without a second thought. If you have to fight against a jonin, try to stall for some time. There is no need to even think about subduing them; either kill them or stall enough for either me or Satoshi to come to your aid. Any doubts?" Shisui said.

"No, sir." The plan was already discussed; everyone knew their role. But the battlefield contains way too many variables to account for. One wrong move and the whole plan may fall into ruin. That's why the tension was understandable. But having two elite jonin, full knowledge of the enemy, and a surprise factor, victory was almost certain.

As per plan, Shisui went to the gate and unleashed all of his chakra. The alarm at the gate went off like crazy. The new guards didn't even think about checking the source and just called for reinforcement because they felt the enormous amount of chakra Shisui had released.

Within seconds, all of the 10 jonin were at the gate. Their leader was a ninja from the Yamanaka Clan. With his mind-controlling power and ability to read minds effortlessly, he was the perfect candidate for becoming the leader of such a base where privacy and secrecy were of utmost importance. He was the person Shisui was warned about. Even though controlling the mind of an Uchiha, especially one with a Mangekyo Sharingan, was almost impossible, this couldn't be said for his teammates.

If Satoshi somehow became mind-controlled and lost his life to a jonin, it would be a very big loss for Konoha. The same goes for Shingi and others.

After those 10 jonin, 3 other chunin also arrived at the gate.

"Where are the rest of our members?" Toshiro Yamanaka asked.

"We don't know, sir, but we sensed a very high amount of chakra. Even though it was from a single individual, the amount was twice your chakra reserve."

Since Toshiro was a Yamanaka, who were not particularly famous for having a high amount of chakra, anyone else may not think having twice the amount of chakra than a Yamanaka is a great feat. But those present knew how much chakra Toshiro possessed, second only to Fū Yamanaka, right-hand man of Danzo and greatest talent of the Yamanaka clan. Having a lineage of both the Senju and Yamanaka clans, Toshiro had a huge chakra reserve among jonin. If someone had twice the amount of chakra than him, then that person is sure to be an elite jonin. There is no such person in the Land of Snow, so either a great ninja village found out about this base, or someone from Konoha arrived here. Both of these situations are bad, and seeing how that person didn't barge inside the base, he/she must be aware of the safety seals inside the base.

"Ryohei Nakamura, go and check the situation. Don't resort to fighting directly; the person may be from Konoha," Toshiro said to his second in command.

Ryohei Nakamura is a civilian ninja who specializes in agility, complemented well with his lightning release, making him the perfect person for such a task. With his speed, evading an attack and calling for help should be child's play.

Ryohei nodded his head and disappeared from his position, appearing 40 meters away from Shisui, who was standing in front of the gate just outside the range of the seals.

"Shisui Uchiha, why are you here?" Ryohei was momentarily surprised, then raised his guard completely. Either the person in front of him is Shisui Uchiha or an imposter. And there was no way he could guess the truth unless Shisui used his Sharingan, because imitating a kekkei genkai, and that too a dojutsu, is very difficult.

Shisui also understood that and activated his Sharingan all the way to Mangekyo Sharingan. Seeing that, Ryohei at least became certain that the person in front of him was Shisui Uchiha, the real one.

"I want to have a talk with Toshiro Yamanaka. I have urgent orders from Lord Third," Shisui said, maintaining a calm composure.

"Okay, you can come inside," Ryohei said.

"No, ask your leader to come outside," Shisui said, not hostile but in a firm tone, with no-nonsense attached to it.

Ryohei sighed in his mind. Shisui clearly knew about the seal and was wary of them too. Since he was on an official mission, the result is not going to be good for sure.