CHAPTER 31

By committing a kind of betrayal to the geniuses of the Uchiha, namely Shisui and Itachi, the Third Hokage demonstrated the utter impossibility of trusting his person.

Perhaps it was his son's age that made it possible for an outsider to be chosen as Hokage, and this despite the fact that the same Fourth was his student's disciple.

However, Hiruzen had his own motives, and they mainly consisted of his knowledge of the state of the village. After the war, Konoha would not be able to be like its old self for a long time to come, which might have been the real reason why the young shinobi had been given the arduous task of restoring it to its former glory.

If Minato couldn't handle such a difficult task, there would be rumors of his incompetence and a possible need to choose a more worthy candidate, and who better than a famous jonin, the son of the previous Hokage and one of the Twelve Guardian Ninja.

Yet Fate was tired of witnessing the intrigues and inadequacies of the students of the second Hokage, who was also a regular visitor of the realm of delirium, so she intervened and directed events in a different course than the old plotters had planned. But that is only speculation on Yuske's part and his personal disdain for certain individuals of this world, the nature of whom can be traced from their actions throughout their lives.

* How Shisui managed to accomplish so much at the age of five will remain a mystery to me for the rest of my life. But he put a decent sized target on himself with it. The main thing is that he and his insane follower Itachi stay away from me, and when they're gone, I'll be able to breathe freely, without fear of individuals with overly exaggerated genjutsu potential dwelling somewhere out there.

Yuske was concerned about being in the limelight for one more reason, and that was because his age was appropriate for him to be put on Itachi's team. The latter is likely to be paired with those who are more or less similar in talent and potential.

This way the other members won't pull the genius back. If someone with good skills at a young age and also very talented is within sight, there's a good chance he'll end up on the team of a little psycho. Therefore, he was not going to engage in foolishness and draw attention to himself.

Yuske wasn't even remotely comfortable with the idea of ending up as a close friend who would 'help' awaken the sharingan of this bunch of insolent fellows begging for extermination.

Making sure that one of the two walking bombs had already taken the path of the shinobi, Yuske was able to concentrate on his own affairs, hoping that the other one would also perform the actions leading to his imminent demise without his participation.

Yuske believed that the biggest gain for him was a situation where sharingan carriers stayed away from ordinary shinobi like him.

You can come up with various countermeasures for future battles by covering all the gaps in your fighting style, but none of the tricks in question offer a guarantee against the overwhelmingly cheating genjutsu of mangekyo.

A simple sharingan, with its ability to enhance genjutsu, is already the dream of any illusion-based style user, nothing to say about higher ranked eyes.

Getting information about Shisui's graduation was virtually effortless - the whole village was abuzz about it. They love to gossip about geniuses as it is, and it was enough to 'be able to listen' in order for the latest news to reach you instantly.

Graduation at such an early age was a sensation, something that the populace will definitely not miss in their routine chatter. Even if Yuske left the Land of Fire in a desire to avoid by any means obtaining any gossip about Shisui becoming one of the youngest genin, he was unlikely to be able to do so.

The only way Yuske could think of to counter the illusions of the sharingan was to become a jinchuriki of one of the biju. And it doesn't matter which one, the main requirement was to find a common ground with the beast, which wasn't that difficult for someone who understood the essence of chakra creatures.

Jinchuriki being the bearer of two consciousnesses can easily nullify most genjutsu, but saying it is not the same as doing it.

Not only getting a tailed beast itself is not the easiest thing to do, as most are possessed by Five Great Shinobi Countries, but one will definitely have to encounter Akatsuki in the future.

What to say about Zetsu, who will tail you all day along, and probably ten days a week, with the loyalty of Hachiko, and him watching your every move will be just another perk of the decision to become a jinchuriki.

Yuske believed that there shouldn't be much of a problem against general genjutsu users. He had high expectations of his advanced level of chakra control, training in which was also driven by a desire to secure himself from genjutsu. A shinobi with very good chakra control not only wastes less chakra, but also notices an opponent's attempt to infiltrate his chakra system much faster than someone whose uniqueness in the form of large amounts of chakra reserves or special dojutsu causes him to neglect the possible benefits of well-rounded chakra training. 

If a shinobi has neither large reserves of chakra nor any bloodline benefits, then without improving his own control he is doomed to be among the ranks of the average people, and spend his entire life in the bench of chunin, if not genin at all.

Yuske was glad that the difficulty of practicing genjutsu made only a small number of shinobi interested in it, and there were just a handful of shinobi to be feared compared to the number of shinobi practicing ninjutsu or taijutsu.