Chapter 65.2- One Thousand Hands

“I said you beat him” She said.

“Yes, yes I did. The Tsuchikage didn’t stand much of a chance, did he?” I said, bragging and boasting before my little sister even as Kurama did his best job of reminding me just how close that had come to ending very differently for us.

“But beyond that, Minato was saying something Kushina, and it’s rude to interrupt” I lightly scolded.

She nodded from her position atop my shoulder, I could feel it from the way her body moved with it. I reached up to place her on the ground again and next to hr teammates before I dropped to the lotus position in front of them.

“So now that I’ve heard from Kushina. Minato, Mikoto, tell me what you think.”

My other two students looked at themselves, having a silent debate to decide who would go first, and just like expected Mikoto deferred to Minato.

“It was intense. You couldn’t even make a single mistake. Neither could he. It was like every move you guys made was designed to end the fight as quickly as possible” he said, and he was right.

“Correct. High level fights don’t really allow you to make mistakes. I did make a mistake in this one, but thanks to extenuating circumstances, I was able to turn it to my advantage. That is far from what is usually the case though, and the first person to make a mistake is often the first to die in a fight like that. Between Genin like yourselves, you can afford to make a mistake or two, but by the time you get to that level there isn’t a single mistake that won’t cost you your life in most cases” I said. He nodded, looking thoughtful.

“Neither of you used any genjutsu” Mikoto said when I turned in her direction.

“We didn’t. While in the academy you might have been taught that all the ninja arts are more or less equal, the truth is that most genjutsu lose their place in high level combat. For one, anyone who makes it to that level is likely to have highly developed Genjutsu resistance. Even if you and every Uchiha in the village tried, you’d struggle to catch me in a genjutsu for more than a second. While the potential genjutsu has in luring your opponent into a mistake is immense, it also runs the risk of your opponent drawing you into a false sense of security by pretending to be under your thrall.” I explained.

“So it’s useless then”

“No. Not completely useless. The truth is just that most people can never get their genjutsu to the level where they could be useful in that sort of situation. Someone like you, an Uchiha, has the advantage that comes with the sharingan so you might be able to train your genjutsu to the point where it can work in those situations.” I explained.