Chapter 64: Real Memories, Feeding White Pigeons
Root operatives never wasted words on an assassination target, especially when their mission was crystal clear. Ignoring his desperate pleas, Kamiya Kazuki and Yoshida Taro dropped silently from the branches and launched a coordinated attack on Uchiha Tonan.
Tonan lifted his head calmly and activated his crimson Sharingan.
"Genjutsu — Jigokugan (Hell Viewing Technique)."
But the two were prepared for his genjutsu from the start. The moment Tonan's eyes flickered open, they shut their own eyes tightly in unison, blocking the illusion before it could take hold.
"Damn it." Tonan hissed through clenched teeth. As they landed, Kazuki and Taro immediately activated Body Flicker Technique, vanishing in an instant. The next moment, they reappeared at Tonan's left and right flanks.
With ruthless precision, they thrust their tachi swords toward his midsection.
Puchi.
Blood splattered violently. Tonan was pierced. His eyes widened, mouth slackened, crimson flowing like a broken dam. Finally, he lowered his head, accepting the injury.
Rumble.
Thunder cracked around them. Forked lightning carved unnatural shapes across the sky, splitting it apart as if the world itself were ending.
As the two assailants allowed themselves a moment's grim satisfaction, believing their mission complete…
Coo coo.
Coo coo.
The restless cries of birds erupted from all directions. In the shadowed forest, countless pairs of scarlet Sharingan glowed wildly, like a swarm of blood-soaked fireflies.
"This… all of these… Sharingan…" Kazuki's eyes narrowed in fear, swallowing hard. Suddenly, sharp pain erupted in their guts, and both coughed up thick mouthfuls of blood.
They instinctively glanced at the source of their torment—and their eyes went wide in horror.
Tonan's head had twisted a full 180 degrees, his cold, merciless Sharingan spinning slowly.
"They're hungry… I'll have to trouble you two."
In the next instant, Tonan's body burst like an overinflated balloon. Swarms of white pigeons violently poured out, scrambling to escape.
Even more horrifying, Kazuki and Taro realized with a shock that their tachi blades had pierced through each other's bodies.
Blood streamed down their swords, dripping onto the ground.
With effort, Kazuki and Taro both turned their heads and watched the white pigeons gathering at the cliff's edge.
One by one, the pigeons merged, reforming into Tonan. Gone was the battered, wounded figure from moments ago. Instead, he held a closed umbrella and gazed out calmly into the distance, his clothes pristine and spotless—as if he were a leisurely traveler admiring the view.
The two assassins stared at his back, umbrella in hand, lost in a daze. Slowly, reality unraveled before their eyes. The false memories shattered piece by piece, and their true memories flooded back.
The moment they had broken down the door, their intent was clear: to kill Tonan. When Tonan activated his Sharingan genjutsu, they closed their eyes instinctively to avoid its effects.
But in truth, they never closed their eyes at all, unknowingly falling deeper into his illusion.
Inside this genjutsu, they poured every last ounce of their strength into unleashing the Nirvana Temple Technique—nearly draining their chakra reserves.
Meanwhile, Tonan strolled leisurely, umbrella in hand, leading two exhausted corpses out of the village…
All the way to this very cliff.
Later, he manipulated them to stab each other.
"But when—?" Kazuki spat blood, disbelief heavy in his voice.
Tonan slowly turned, his cold, serene Sharingan turning lazily.
With a polite smile and a gentle voice, he answered, "At the village gate, I cast my genjutsu on you. Didn't you want to see it for yourself?"
"How was it? Impressive? Well, don't worry—I have an even better technique to show you."
Tonan then activated his secret technique: Beast Infestation.
Immediately after the hand signs were complete, the white pigeons hidden in the forest shrieked in unison. Their bodies swelled several times in size, their feathers darkening to a glossy metallic black.
Their soft beaks sharpened into hard, hooked talons as they charged at the two already flickering like dying candles.
Ahhhh!
The forest filled with the sickening sounds of flesh ripping and bones crunching.
Here, the rain stopped as suddenly as it had begun. The dark clouds thinned and dissolved, sunlight breaking through to paint the distant mountains with a golden glow.
"What beautiful weather." Tonan narrowed his eyes, closed his umbrella, and casually tossed it over the cliff's edge.
Coo coo.
A white pigeon, now sated, returned to its gentle form and landed on his shoulder. It nuzzled affectionately against his cheek.
He smiled softly and reached out to stroke the bird's head. "Since my senpai wanted to see the full power of my genjutsu, it would be unthinkable for me as a kohai to refuse."
The pigeon nodded almost like a human. Another white pigeon flew over and landed on Tonan's other shoulder.
He looked at it with a gentle smile. "Thank you for your concern, but I'm not hungry."
The bird's eyes flickered. It lifted its head and swallowed the morsel in its beak.
One after another, more white pigeons alighted on him.
On the horizon, the red sun peeked out from the morning mist, bathing the landscape—and Tonan and his pigeons—in a warm scarlet light.
"Disperse. Return. Stay vigilant."
Tonan stretched and started walking down the mountain toward the village below. Passing the spot where Kazuki and Taro had fallen, he scooped up their ninja pouches with visible disgust.
He extracted the useful items, stowing them neatly in his own bag.
Coo coo.
Behind him, the white pigeons scattered with soft chirps.
As the morning mist gradually lifted beneath the rising sun, the world around grew clearer.
Not far from the cliff, torn scraps of clothing and two Konoha forehead protectors lay discarded in the mud.
The next moment:
"Doton: Ankoku Numa (Earth Style: Dark Swamp)."
The earth churned and morphed into a murky swamp, swallowing all evidence of the battle.
Tonan had in fact left a cunning trap back at the village gate.
On one hand, he deliberately let the rumor spread that his Sharingan genjutsu could be countered simply by closing one's eyes.
On the other hand, he implanted a hypnotic suggestion deep within their subconscious inside the genjutsu illusion.
When Kazuki and Taro violently shattered his genjutsu, Tonan had quietly dispelled the illusion himself and allowed events to unfold as he wished.
He had assumed it would take a long time before he could use this trap again.
Yet, unexpectedly, the opportunity arrived sooner than he anticipated.
When Kazuki and Taro broke into his room, they unknowingly triggered the subconscious suggestion he had placed earlier.
Thus, when they saw Tonan activate his Sharingan, they thought they had closed their eyes—but in reality, their eyes were wide open, and they were fully caught by the genjutsu's power.
In evaluating these two, Tonan's final assessment was two words:
Offering themselves.