Boruto, You Little Rascal (42)

Chapter 42 - Duel of Illusions

(With this blade, I'll show you what a true swordsman is.)

What did Chitose mean by those words? Yosuke stood at his entrance number 3, recalling his teammate's cryptic statement.

However, Chitose surely wouldn't say such things idly.

The blue-eyed youth gazed ahead at the pitch-black path just three meters beyond the turn, his eyes narrowing slightly.

What lies within?

"...Attention examinees, please turn on the switches for the earpieces now."

The chief examiner's voice suddenly came from above. Following the instructions, Yosuke removed the earpiece and noticed a small red button on it.

"Everyone be careful not to lose your earpieces inside the exam venue. They will display text transcripts of what you say on the screens, allowing the examiners to assess your status."

Yosuke felt a chill run through him and cautiously put the earpiece on, adjusting its position. His experience from the previous exam told him this third test was the best opportunity to demonstrate his Chunin-level abilities - he had to give it his full effort.

Although...the last exam...

"I hereby announce the start of the third Chunin Exam! It will continue until someone reaches the maze's center or all examinees forfeit by firing their flares!"

Yosuke snapped out of his daze, clenching his teeth resolutely.

—This time, he absolutely would not relive the tragedy of his comrades' deaths! His sole purpose in coming here was to prevent that!!!

He would become a Chunin, grow strong enough to protect all his comrades!!!

The red-haired youth's expression hardened instantly as he flung a kunai straight ahead, then without hesitation, stepped into the maze.

At that same moment, all the examinees entered their respective entrances. The massive screens above simultaneously lit up, each one displaying a contestant based on their entrance number, capturing even their smallest facial expressions in crisp detail. Their names and affiliated villages were also shown in the top left corner of each screen.

The third phase of the Chunin Exams had now officially begun.

***

"Well, this format is quite intriguing, Mizukage," the lone female among the Kages, Kurotsuchi, remarked with interest as she watched the screens.

"Although it does seem extraordinarily stringent this time around. One of the brats from our village is even a disciple of the Lord Killer Bee," Raikage Darui clasped his chin, a hint of implication in his tone.

—Something seems amiss?

Mizukage Chojuro watched impassively. "Ah, you mean that bubble-blowing kid who got defeated by the Leaf's Uchiha Chitose? That sword skill of his was truly spectacular from what I saw in the recordings."

Taking the cue, Naruto turned his gaze to Chitose's screen, unable to suppress a proud smile.

"That kid is currently the most outstanding Genin in the Leaf Village," he said, his blue eyes shining.

The other Kages showed surprise at his words, which subtly revealed something to them.

While peace in the Ninja World was certainly desirable, the current generation of shinobi lacked a certain quality in their eyes, a far cry from true ninja. In such times, the rise of a prodigy became all the more precious, destined for great things in the future. To earn praise from the typically mild-mannered and even-handed Hokage, this child was clearly no ordinary talent.

And an Uchiha at that...

"He's the son of Uchiha Itachi," Naruto stated plainly, seemingly aware of their unspoken thoughts regarding Chitose's lineage.

The Kages' eyes widened in shock. While they had guessed as much, to learn that the infamous Uchiha Itachi - first the perpetrator of the Uchiha Massacre before his pivotal role in the Fourth Ninja War - had indeed left a blood heir was still startling.

"Truly a gifted shinobi then, just unfortunate..." The Kazekage Gaara remarked flatly, as if recalling something.

Naruto smiled wanly and averted his gaze, offering no reply.

How could he respond when those unaware of the truth would never see Uchiha Itachi in a positive light?

"Don't you think his age seems off though?" Observant as always, Kurotsuchi spoke up after studying Chitose intently.

"Now that you mention it, the kid does look to only be eleven or twelve," Chojuro agreed with a furrowed brow.

"I found him when he was just ten years old," Naruto replied evenly, his eyes fixed unwaveringly on Chitose's screen.

Seeing he would not elaborate further, the other Kages fell silent and watched the proceedings with growing astonishment.

***

Chitose stood still at his entrance marked '1', making no move to approach the ominous turn in the path ahead.

The raven-haired youth remained motionless, eyes slightly narrowed as if sensing something. The unseen cameras projected his impassive visage on the screens as spectators puzzled over his actions.

Suddenly, Chitose took a deep breath and smiled faintly, a barely perceptible glint of excitement flickering in his obsidian eyes.

"Let us begin," he uttered softly, the subtitle appearing on-screen.

At the distant entrance number 3, the pale-haired girl skillfully maneuvering her puppet while evading a barrage of shuriken glanced up sharply.

Through her extraordinary vision, she perceived an invisible ripple of crimson energy sweep forth from the direction of Chitose's entrance. Upon contact, it sent out a soft pulse that reverberated back towards its source far away.

She lowered her gaze calmly and reached out, her hand caressing the crimson membrane longingly.

"Circle," she whispered under her breath.

In an unseen area, five identical youths materialized amid white smoke - two scaled the winding walls to the left, two more to the right, while the fifth vaulted overhead.

The one uncertain if he were the original paused for a beat before gripping a pair of kunai in reverse grip. He then unhurriedly rounded the corner, truly venturing into the maze's unseen depths.

Swiftly, his screen split into six segments - the five shadow clones nimbly evaded a relentless onslaught of traps in the dim lighting as they advanced along preset trajectories. Soon the cameras tracking them seemed to detect something alarming and panned upwards, revealing a startling sight that left not just the audience, but even the Kage themselves stunned into disbelief.

The five Chitose constructs, not deviating from their straight paths in the slightest as they fluidly scaled walls and bypassed amplified traps, were each seamlessly converging towards the other examinees' locations!!!

The crowds erupted in fevered cheers, electrified by the undeniable fact - Uchiha Chitose intended to singlehandedly confront every last participant!

"Is he some kind of sensor-type ninja?" The Raikage chuckled after his initial shock. "What an arrogant brat!"

"Brimming with youthful vigor!" Kurotsuchi agreed, her interest piqued as she watched the youth's screens intently.

Naruto let out an awkward laugh, privately puzzled.

—Does Chitose really possess such powerful sensing abilities?

In the audience, Boruto was punching the air enthusiastically. "As expected of Chitose! Take them all down!"

Beside him, Sarada giggled, her eyes shining with admiration and pride for her onscreen brother.

Meanwhile, the Chitose at the heart of everyone's heated discussions strode calmly along his designated path, not once faltering despite the barrage of obstacles. His seemingly instinctive sense of direction, bypassing turns with nary a pause, also gave observers reason to doubt their initial assessment of him as a sensory-type ninja.

His goal was undoubtedly the maze's center, but how did he know which route to take? Sensors detected chakra, not objects, right?

Oblivious to the external speculation, Chitose seamlessly deflected the onslaught of traps with just his pair of kunai.

The other examinees fared reasonably well too, if not quite as effortlessly as Chitose. After all, this was the notoriously difficult third phase where the real challenges began.

But if this third exam proved simple, it would hardly qualify as the torturous trial the Mizukage had devised.

The true meaning of the Chunin Exams was combat.

Chitose's steady gait suddenly faltered, his dark eyes glinting sharply.

The raven-haired youth abruptly froze, body stiffening as his expression turned vacant and listless. His face contorted as if struggling against something, hands twitching erratically. But slowly, his features slackened back into an unnaturally rigid stupor, utterly motionless.

"...Boring, so damn boring! Is this really the famed Genjutsu clan, the Uchiha? They actually had me come out for this small fry, what a total waste! This brat's supposed to be some hotshot, but I ain't seeing nothing! Bored out of my mind here!"

A young man's incessant ranting filled the air as the winding vines beside Chitose's rigid form began to distort. A scruffy, shifty-eyed brunet emerged disgruntledly, raking his unruly mop of hair as he appraised the dazed youth with disdain. Sneering suddenly, he raised his hands to form seals.

"Hmph! With looks like that, you must be quite the lady-killer back home, eh? Nothing I despise more than pretty boys like you stealing all the spotlight. Since we've got this rare audience, how about putting on a good show for us? Get down on your knees, give me a 'daddy' or two, then turn to the cameras and loudly proclaim for your beloved Hokage - 'All Uchiha are fools!'" He cackled uproariously at his suggestion, only to freeze at the chilling words that followed.

"What an...excellent proposal."

The young man's pupils contracted in terror at the bone-chilling killing intent laced in that softly amused tone directly behind him. He barely registered that the youth before him had vanished, replaced by a suffocating, icy sensation at his back that seemed to leech all warmth from his body.

He turned jerkily, as if his neck might snap with the slightest force.

There stood the raven-haired boy, a cruel, merciless smile contorting his porcelain features into a demonic leer - as if eager to devour his prey whole.

The young man shuddered violently and shakily raised a trembling finger. "Y-You...wh-when did you..."

"Break free of your worthless illusion?" A blur of motion, and that hateful visage filled his vision, prompting the man to crumple backwards with a undignified yelp.

"Y-You...I...I...!"

He suddenly stared in horror, hands clutching at his own throat as his face visibly reddened at an alarming rate before turning purple. His entire body convulsed violently, muscles spasming as he quickly crumpled to the ground, frothing at the mouth with bulging eyes. He clawed feebly at his neck, desperately trying to pry off the invisible hands viciously strangling him.

He attempted to discern the jutsu being used, but his rapidly fading consciousness could not overcome the relentless suffocation no matter what he tried. He glared at the youth, mind reeling with disbelief and terror.

What was going on? What had he done?

"From the start, you were simply performing a deluded solo act," Chitose said dispassionedly, toying with the sword in his hands. His slender, porcelain fingers danced along the flashing blade with a dangerous yet captivating grace that was mesmerizing to behold.

To the choking man, however, it was nothing but the devil's harbinger.

"P-Please...!" The stranglehold tightened inexorably as his awareness began to dim, hands falling limp. At last he could bear it no longer and feebly tried pleading with the youth, but could not form a single comprehensible word.

"Hmm? What was that?" Chitose idly inspected the sword, only glancing down at the man's desperate expression after a long pause.

His obsidian eyes were utterly devoid of warmth. In that moment, an incomparable sense of despair welled up in the young man's heart.

"Why have you fallen silent? You had such a way with words earlier."

With a demeanor completely unlike his usual self, Chitose gripped the blade in one hand, coldly surveying the young man from above with an arrogant, vicious sneer.

Yet now, the once defiant young man no longer struggled, arms falling limply to his sides. Clearly displeased by his lack of response, Chitose flicked his wrist, and the sword became a chilling blur as it punched straight through the man's palm, embedding deeply into the ground.

The man's body jolted violently as a strangled groan escaped his throat, only for him to forcibly swallow it back down.

Chitose raised his head slightly, though his eyes remained contemptuously downcast, shadowing his features except for those fathomless black pools shining with a turbulent darkness. He took a step forward and delivered a cold, merciless kick.

"Speak up. Isn't this what you wanted, to make me lose face before the Seventh Hokage?"

Receiving no reaction, Chitose sneered as another kunai materialized in his hand. His slender wrist flicked gracefully, but the calloused fingers gripping the handle were as unyielding as steel.

A flash of killing intent, and the man flinched, squeezing his eyes shut.

"Stop, Chitose!!"

The shout like a thunderclap made the raven-haired youth pause, turning to face the new arrival.

In an instant, the oppressive aura vanished, as if the world had transformed. The young man let out a shuddering breath of relief, practically delirious at having his life spared. He opened his eyes wearily to find himself staring at Chitose's black ninja sandals.

Air slowly filled his lungs again as vitality returned to his body. Blinking heavily, his gaze drifted down to his hand. It was unblemished, without a single drop of blood despite the vivid memory of being impaled. Yet the excruciating pain remained, haunting him like a phantom.

"So you were the first after all, Kagura," the formerly ruthless Chitose now smiled faintly at the youth.

Kagura's violet eyes were tinged with red, as if he had been crying. He shuddered involuntarily under Chitose's gaze, diverting his eyes in embarrassment as he bit his lip, a hazy glaze settling in his eyes even as his face flushed slightly.

His pupils trembled uncertainly for a long moment before he seemed to muster his courage, slowly lifting his gaze to meet those obsidian depths squarely.

"Were...those words your true feelings?" he asked tightly, barely suppressing the slight waver in his voice as his fists clenched with palpable tension at his sides.

Chitose studied him silently for a moment before sheathing his weapons behind his back.

"Of course," he affirmed soberly, his demeanor softening as he regarded Kagura with those deep, arresting eyes that seemed to possess an earnest power capable of inspiring unparalleled courage in others in this moment.

An incredibly dazzling light suddenly blazed forth from Kagura's violet eyes.

"Cough...cough...what the hell was that jutsu?" A ragged coughing fit interrupted whatever he had been about to say next. He glanced at the disheveled man warily eying Chitose while clutching his throat before pursing his lips, giving the youth a conflicted look.

Chitose seemed to dismiss the man entirely.

"Genjutsu."

"Impossible! A genjutsu that immersive simply doesn't exist in this wo—"

"Doesn't exist, you say?" the raven-haired youth cut him off brazenly, leaning back nonchalantly as he cast him a sidelong glance, his black eyes now aloof and devoid of the earlier manic intensity.

"You simply haven't seen it before. From the outside, all anyone witnessed was us passing by each other before you collapsed."

"Wh-What? Then when I first fell under your illusion—" Realization seemed to dawn as the man's eyes widened incredulously. "You mean you saw through my genjutsu from the start? I was ensnared in your illusion without even realizing it?!"

"I already told you," Chitose's brow furrowed slightly as his gaze sharpened. "From the beginning, you were simply performing a deluded solo act."

The young man's pupils contracted in instinctive denial. "That's impossible!!"

Disregarding Chitose entirely, he almost seemed to crumple under the weight of this revelation, suddenly grasping his head as he collapsed to his knees, staring blankly at the ground in a dazed mutter. "Impossible...this can't be! I've studied illusions since I was three, all these years and I've never encountered anything like this! It can't be, I don't believe it, how could there be a genjutsu I can't dispel? No, this isn't real! How is this possible?! No!! This isn't—"

"You're too noisy." The curt, frigid tone cut through his hysterics like a knife, leaving only an echoing silence where his ravings had polluted the air moments before.

Kagura glanced at the now motionless man collapsed in a pathetic heap and frowned slightly.

The Hidden Mist had certainly embarrassed itself here.

"Don't you need the Sharingan to initiate such genjutsu?" he asked Chitose in confusion, no longer looking at the defeated man. The youth had sheathed his earlier lethal aura, all traces of cruelty concealed from prying eyes. Now his cold, indifferent obsidian gaze met Kagura's evenly before curving into a faint smile as the latter seemed to recall something, unconsciously flushing.

"He wasn't worth using my Sharingan on." Chitose arched an eyebrow suddenly. "Well? Care to try your luck?"

He slipped one hand casually into his pocket as the other slowly rose, extending an index finger as his piercing black eyes remained steadily fixed on Kagura.

"One finger is all I need to defeat you."

Outside the arena, Naruto and Kakashi felt their eyelids twitch violently upon hearing that dreadfully familiar line.

—Those words...how ominously nostalgic.

Within the venue, Kagura seemed unaffected by their complicated feelings. He exhaled deeply a few times before slowly, resolutely drawing his blade from its sheath.

"No."

Gripping the hilt in both hands, he leveled the gleaming steel at Chitose, whose faintly smiling countenance was reflected flawlessly in the polished surface.

The gentle warmth in his violet eyes completely vanished, replaced in that instant by an edge as keen as his blade - a sharpness of intent Chitose had never sensed from him before.

He could not help widening his eyes slightly in surprise.

—The aura of a true swordsman's resolve.

"With this blade, I'll show you what a true swordsman is."

***

Clearly, the pair staring each other down were unaware that a certain blond youth in the audience had clenched his teeth tightly ever since Chitose's shadow clone first encountered Kagura.