The 4 Anbu squads dispatched by Hiruzen reached the base created by Sunagakure and took over the command from Kakashi. Kakashi and the rest began returning to Konoha. By noon, they were back in the village, returning in exactly 24 hours.
They met Hiruzen, handed him the scroll of the dead bodies and informed him about the poison. Hiruzen let out a sigh and thought, 'Other than elimination, this mission has failed on all parameters. Oh well, I'm sure that Shikaku has considered this situation as well.'
Understanding the importance of the mental health of a Kage, Hiruzen didn't bother planning for even a second before tossing another headache over to Shikaku.
He said, "Alright, you did a good job in eliminating the infiltrators. I miscalculated their strength and didn't think they would fight back so vigorously. Fujin, stay back. Others can leave."
Other than Fujin, the rest left. Hiruzen tossed a scroll at Fujin and said, "This scroll has the Genjutsu that you requested. I'll let you take a week off to master them. On the 8th day, come to my office at dawn. We will be having a couple more diplomatic missions. Burn the scroll after you are done and don't use them lightly."
Fujin nodded. He understood that Hiruzen wanted to keep the Anbu Guards in the dark regarding the exact matter. He said, "Thank you, Grandpa. I'll begin working on them right away."
Hiruzen nodded. Fujin kept the scroll and walked out while thinking, 'It took so long for them to read Susumu's memories? Normally the memories get checked within a day… Did Hiruzen keep them until today? But I don't see any reason for him to do that.
I guess reading memories to extract jutsus is a more difficult task. Or perhaps he wanted to check each and every memory before giving me the scroll in order to remove any issues or dangers in the jutsus or that might arise while learning them.'
While Fujin headed to his home, Hiruzen entered Shikaku's office and closed the door. Shikaku looked at Hiruzen and had a bad feeling. He muttered to himself, 'This look. He is going to dump another troublesome task on my head!'
Hiruzen said, "Kakashi's group returned. Their enemy used poison to ruin the neural network in dead people. The only one who wasn't poisoned by it had his head destroyed by earth spikes. So we can't read any memories from them."
Shikaku raised his eyebrow and said, "I can understand a message being sent and someone escaping, but how did they fail so badly? Who did you send?"
Hiruzen replied, "Kakashi, Fujin, Ibiki, Genma, Yugao and Ken."
A look of annoyance appeared on Shikaku's face. He muttered, "Why did you send such a weak squad? I recommended sending at least 4 Elite Jounins and two who are close to that level."
Hiruzen shrugged and said, "I know, but you didn't arrange to have that many Elite Jounins available. I could just make do with the ones available."
Shikaku was stunned by the reply. He thought, 'Since when is arranging ninjas my job? It's your job as the Hokage to assign missions and move the ninjas around!'
Before he could reply, Hiruzen said, "Suna will soon start sending ninjas one by one in our country. Make plans to eliminate them."
He turned around and sighed, "I have a few meetings to attend. So I will leave this matter in your capable hands."
Shikaku watched as Hiruzen disappeared from his office without a hint of apology. His body slumped on his desk as he muttered, "What a troublesome old man. If he had informed me earlier, I'd have made Inoichi and Choza go instead of Ken and Yugao. Now I have to deal with another troublesome mess."
While Shikaku was sulking, Fujin reached his home. He entered the basement and began reading the information in the scroll. In a few minutes, a look of admiration appeared on Fujin's face.
He thought, 'This Susumu guy was a genius. Such precise, delicate but stealthy use of Wind chakra. He would first hide his chakra from being sensed so that no one would realize the extremely minute amounts of chakra he emitted from his body. The chakra would turn into harmless winds and slowly enter his target's body as they breathe the air.
Right when the target is about to use a jutsu, he uses his chakra in his opponent's body to influence the opponent's chakra and make him fall into a Genjutsu. And this Genjutsu has only 2 effects. One, it will cause the jutsu to fail. And secondly, it will make the opponent think that he has successfully used the jutsu.
But other than this, there is nothing that this technique does. The winds pose no threat and the chakra that infiltrates the opponent's body also doesn't pose any threat apart from being able to cast a low-level Genjutsu.
This is the ingenious part. Most experienced ninjas have a keen sense of danger. But since this jutsu doesn't pose any threat, the ninja won't feel any danger. The real danger comes from the jutsu that are aimed at the opponent.
For instance, if I hadn't sensed my chakra being influenced and used Body Flicker against Gaara, I'd have thought that I moved away when I hadn't. His sand would have killed or at least gravely injured me.
And the jutsu is so stealthy that even an experienced sensor would have difficulty sensing it unless he is actively looking for it. And the fact that it doesn't need any hand signs adds to the stealth part. If I wasn't on extreme alert due to being so deep in enemy territory and being heavily outnumbered, even I might have trouble detecting it.'
Fujin was extremely impressed by Susumu's ingenuity. However, he was more pleased with another aspect. While most other ninjas might struggle on the very first step, this technique was much simpler to learn for someone like him, who spent the majority of his time training Wind jutsus and improving his chakra control.
Fujin closed his eyes. A blue aura appeared around him. He controlled the chakra and began slowly emitting it in the air.
As the chakra left his body, it transformed into wind and mixed with the air in the basement. Fujin realized, 'I see. This is also excellent for sensing. Though the range is low, the accuracy is remarkable. I doubt anyone would be able to hide when I use this technique. I guess killing him without Gaara's distraction wouldn't have been possible.'
Fujin turned his attention back towards the technique and analyzed, 'Regardless, I am using a lot of chakra. I have to emit the chakra into the air without exerting any externally. The chakra emitted should be so low that no one should grow suspicious.'
'Multi Shadow Clone jutsu'
4 Shadow Clones appeared around Fujin. All 4 began practising the art of emitting chakra into the air and converting it into wind while suppressing their chakra as low as possible.
In the next hour, all 5 made rapid progress. Finally, an hour later, Fujin dismissed his Shadow Clones. He got a slight headache due to the memories he received. As all the memories and experiences mixed together, a smile formed on Fujin's face. One of his clones had managed to successfully learn the jutsu.
Fujin began emitting chakra into the air. Slowly, his chakra spread in the entire basement! And the density of the chakra was so low that other ninjas wouldn't be able to feel it unless they activated their chakra field or other abilities that could sense chakra.
Fujin thought, 'First step achieved. And since the amount of chakra that I had to emit was so low, I still have most of my chakra. The next step is to send this chakra into the opponent's chakra network.'
He created 1 Shadow Clone and sat on the ground. His clone nodded and emitted his chakra into the air. It engulfed Fujin's position and entered him as he breathed in the air. However, a frown formed on Fujin's face. He said, "I can feel the chakra entering my system."
The clone thought for a bit and said, "I see. Though I emitted the chakra in the right way, I tried forcing it into your body. I'll try it again."
Fujin nodded. His chakra suddenly flared and absorbed the chakra that his clone had inserted into his chakra network. Since the chakra of the clone belonged to him, he had no issue in doing it.
The clone began emitting chakra once again. This time, he didn't bother focusing it around Fujin and instead, just let the winds flow. As Fujin continued breathing, chakra slowly entered his chakra network. Over the next minute, Fujin continued inhaling the chakra.
His clone observed Fujin and thought, 'This should be enough.'
'Double Vision jutsu'
Suddenly, Fujin began seeing two clones in front of him. He disrupted his chakra and said, "That worked. The last part is stopping me from using my jutsus."
The clone nodded and said, "Let's fight!"
