Chapter 593: A Genius Among Ordinary People
"Big Brother, did you use a genjutsu on Hinata?"
Naruto looked at the dazed Hinata beside him, then turned curiously toward Kenichi.
He was not particularly worried about his brother putting Hinata under a genjutsu.
Naruto knew Kenichi would never deliberately hurt either of them.
Besides, Kenichi had already explained that the genjutsu was part of an experiment.
So Naruto remained fairly calm.
"Yeah. It's just a simple genjutsu."
Kenichi smiled.
"I need to collect Hinata's memories, emotions, and thought patterns while she's inside the illusion. After that..."
He did not finish the sentence.
Kenichi had come up with a rather unusual idea based on the fragment of Kaguya's consciousness he had obtained earlier.
He wanted to implant something new into that fragment.
More specifically, he intended to make Kaguya experience exactly what Hinata was experiencing right now.
The genjutsu Kenichi had placed Hinata under was based on a simple scenario he had carefully prepared himself.
To increase immersion, he had also guided Hinata's cognition so she would quickly accept the identity and background he had assigned her within the illusion.
The stronger her acceptance of that false identity, the more genuine her fear would become.
As for the final effect...
Kenichi was not yet certain.
Right now, he was collecting Hinata's brainwave activity, memories, and emotional responses throughout the illusion.
All of that information would then be extracted and stored inside a specialized device so it could later be transferred into Kaguya's consciousness fragment.
Kenichi had developed this device almost by accident during his previous research into souls and consciousness.
At the moment, it did not have many practical applications.
But perhaps in the future, it could be developed into some kind of immersive entertainment technology, something capable of directly transmitting experiences and sensations into a person's consciousness.
Unfortunately, the operating conditions were extremely strict.
The recipient had to be completely incapable of resisting.
Even the slightest conscious resistance could cause the transfer to fail.
Normally, that limitation would make the device almost useless.
Kaguya's situation, however, was different.
Kenichi currently possessed only a tiny fragment of her consciousness.
That fragment had almost no ability to resist what he intended to force into it.
It could only passively receive whatever he transmitted.
"I just don't know how effective it'll be."
Kenichi stretched lazily.
"If this actually works, maybe I can slowly reform Kaguya's consciousness."
"And if I manage that, everything afterward will become much easier."
He glanced at Hinata, who was still trapped inside the genjutsu.
The illusion would continue for a little longer.
Kenichi had specifically designed it as a short suspense-horror scenario.
He wondered how much Hinata was enjoying it right now.
...
"Huff... huff..."
Hinata breathed heavily.
She had already curled herself tightly on the bed, pressing her lips together as she tried to control her fear.
She no longer dared to look through the peephole.
What if she saw something terrifying again?
What if that man from earlier had realized she was awake?
What if he was now watching her?
The thought alone caused fear to rise through Hinata's chest.
Outside the door...
Silence.
Complete, suffocating silence.
There was not even the faintest sound.
At first, that allowed Hinata's rapidly beating heart to calm slightly.
But as the silence continued, her anxiety only grew worse.
Hinata pressed her lips tightly together.
There was no sound outside.
Yet she still could not relax.
That man might already know she was here.
And someone might have just died in the room beside hers.
The thought nearly overwhelmed her.
Hinata strained her ears, listening carefully.
At night, even the smallest noises seemed unusually clear.
But there was nothing.
Not even the sound of the suitcase being dragged across the hallway anymore.
The silence became even more frightening than the noise.
Hinata nervously twisted her fingers together.
Something still felt wrong.
She had the strange feeling that she had forgotten something important.
She also felt that she should not be this helpless.
But every time those thoughts began to surface, the oppressive silence of the night swallowed them again.
All Hinata could do was listen.
She was terrified that she might suddenly hear someone knocking.
Or worse...
The sound of her own door opening.
But nothing happened.
Hinata remained curled on the bed for a long time.
No unusual movement came from outside.
"Could he have left already?"
The possibility suddenly occurred to her.
Hinata wanted to go to the door and check.
But she was afraid.
The contradiction left her extremely uncomfortable.
She did not know what she should do.
And with the night so unnaturally quiet, there was no chance she could fall asleep again.
After struggling with herself for a long time, Hinata finally gathered her courage.
She slowly stepped down from the bed barefoot.
She deliberately avoided putting on her shoes.
Shoes would make noise.
If someone outside heard her moving...
That could be dangerous.
After all, the person next door was not an ordinary neighbor.
He might be a murderer.
Just thinking about it made Hinata tense again.
There was another problem.
If she wanted to contact Konoha's security personnel, she needed to leave the building first.
For some reason, she had no way to contact them directly from inside.
But why?
That confused her.
Hinata felt as though something about that was wrong.
It should not be this inconvenient.
She vaguely remembered there being another way...
But no matter how hard she tried, she could not recall it.
Only the memories associated with her current life remained clear.
Hinata shook her head.
There was no point thinking about it now.
She needed to see what was happening outside.
She quietly left the bedroom.
The hallway stretched before her.
At the far end stood the front door.
In the darkness, even the peephole seemed strangely unsettling.
Hinata swallowed.
Then she slowly approached on tiptoe.
She wanted to check whether the man had truly left.
If he was gone, she could immediately leave and find someone from the village's security force to handle whatever had happened next door.
Hinata finally reached the door.
Then she leaned forward and looked through the peephole.
The instant she did...
Her entire body froze.
Pitch-black darkness filled her vision.
For a split second, Hinata could not understand what she was seeing.
Then the darkness suddenly shifted away.
An eye appeared.
A bloodshot eye.
Filled with rage.
Staring directly through the peephole at her.
Hinata instinctively stumbled backward.
He had not left.
That man had been standing outside her door the entire time.
Watching.
Bang!
The door shook violently.
Hinata trembled from head to toe.
Bang!
Another heavy impact struck it.
The wood creaked beneath the force.
Hinata stared at the door in terror.
She wanted to run.
But her body refused to move properly.
There was a window nearby.
She could have escaped through it.
Yet for some reason, that possibility never even entered her mind.
All she could do was stand there helplessly while the man outside repeatedly slammed against the door.
Then came the shouting.
Curses.
Angry words she could barely understand.
The man screamed from the hallway as he continued battering the entrance.
Hinata's entire body shook.
She wanted to flee.
She wanted to hide.
But she could not move.
Crash!
The door finally burst open.
The man stormed inside, still cursing.
The large suitcase he had been carrying was thrown aside.
It struck the floor.
The lid opened.
Hinata's eyes widened.
There was a woman inside.
Dead.
A deep strangulation mark circled her neck.
For a moment, Hinata could not breathe.
Pure terror overwhelmed her.
The man slowly turned toward her.
His eyes were filled with killing intent.
Then he began walking forward.
Hinata trembled uncontrollably.
She could only watch helplessly as he approached.
"AHHH!"
A piercing scream tore from her throat.
...
Hinata suddenly woke with a violent gasp.
Her eyes snapped open.
For several seconds, she looked around in confusion.
Then she finally noticed the people standing beside her.
Kenichi scratched his head awkwardly as he looked at her tear-filled eyes.
"Well..."
"The experiment looks pretty successful."
"That level of fear should produce a much stronger reaction once I transfer it into Kaguya's consciousness fragment."
He hesitated.
"But judging from your reaction, maybe I went a little too far."
Kenichi was somewhat embarrassed.
Among the people available, Hinata had simply been the most suitable consciousness donor for this particular experiment.
The reason was straightforward.
Hinata was female.
That similarity would allow Kaguya's consciousness to accept the transferred experience more naturally and reduce the possibility of incompatibility or other unexpected problems.
Fortunately, once Kenichi explained everything, Hinata accepted the situation fairly quickly.
From her perspective, it was not a major problem.
The experience could even serve as training for resisting genjutsu.
Still, Kenichi knew he had frightened her quite badly.
So to compensate Hinata, he gave her several additional things afterward.
Once he had obtained the fear response he needed, Kenichi left.
Itachi's illness had already been dealt with.
That was obviously good news for the current Uchiha family.
And Itachi himself was still a powerful shinobi.
With the Mangekyo Sharingan supporting him, Itachi was highly effective in certain kinds of battles.
That meant when the confrontation with Isshiki eventually began, he could contribute additional combat power.
For Kenichi, however, the greatest gain from this entire incident was probably the fear response he had successfully collected.
At the same time, curing Itachi had strengthened Sasuke's gratitude toward him even further.
Resurrecting Fugaku and Mikoto had already earned Kenichi enormous trust from Sasuke.
Now that Itachi's terminal illness had also been resolved, Sasuke would probably be able to devote himself more completely to training for the battles ahead.
"Speaking of which..."
Kenichi suddenly thought of something.
"My interference has changed quite a few things in this Shinobi World."
"In that case, what happened to Sakura?"
He became curious.
Because of Kenichi's interference, Sakura had already been removed from Team 7.
Hinata had taken her place.
So where was Sakura now?
Had her growth trajectory changed?
Would she still develop into the same person she became in the original future?
Kenichi had never had an especially good impression of Sakura.
Still, Sakura was technically one of the more talented shinobi of the future.
Probably.
Her strength certainly could not compare with Naruto or Sasuke.
But she eventually became Tsunade's student, mastered the Strength of a Hundred Seal, and developed considerable physical strength and medical ninjutsu ability.
Kenichi was genuinely curious about how much Sakura's future had changed because of his intervention.
Observing the result could be interesting.
With that thought, Kenichi headed toward the Hokage Building.
Minato was currently occupying the Hokage's office again.
Although he still held some resentment over what had happened in the past, especially regarding Naruto's treatment in Konoha, his anger had eased somewhat after having time to think.
Hiruzen had completely stepped down.
Both Hashirama and Tobirama had also personally reprimanded him.
That had helped Minato feel somewhat better.
So by now, Minato had essentially resumed responsibility for Konoha's affairs.
"Kenichi?"
Minato looked up in surprise when he entered.
"Why are you here?"
He genuinely did not see Kenichi outside his laboratory very often.
That naturally made him curious.
Had something happened?
"I'm looking for someone."
Kenichi smiled.
He only wanted to check on Sakura.
And the easiest way to locate someone in Konoha was through the Hokage's records.
The Hokage's office maintained information on nearly every registered villager.
Names.
Addresses.
Basic identification.
As long as someone was officially registered in Konoha, they could be found.
"Who?"
Minato became curious.
"Another future genius?"
Even as he asked, he began sorting through the documents on his desk.
Locating a single person was easy enough.
The only inconvenience was that Konoha had a large population, so searching by surname would make the process faster.
"A genius?"
Kenichi thought about it.
"That's hard to say."
"In terms of strength, she eventually reaches roughly Tsunade's level..."
He paused.
"No. Probably a little weaker than Tsunade."
Kenichi considered the matter seriously before giving his answer.
Toward the later parts of the story, he had always felt that Sakura's strength had been increased somewhat because Kishimoto needed to maintain the symbolic bond between the three members of Team 7.
As for her actual combat ability...
She was probably somewhere around Tsunade's level.
Maybe weaker.
Exactly how strong Sakura truly was remained something of a Schrödinger's question.
She simply did not have enough impressive battle records to establish her ceiling with certainty.
"Lady Tsunade?"
Minato looked surprised.
"That's already extremely impressive."
"She is one of the Sannin, after all."
Kenichi nodded.
That was true.
Comparing Sakura directly with Naruto and Sasuke was unfair from the beginning.
Naruto and Sasuke were geniuses among geniuses.
Sakura was more like a genius among ordinary people.
Her achievements were still extremely impressive.
She simply happened to stand beside two absurd exceptions.
Naruto was the son of the Fourth Hokage.
He was also the Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails and the reincarnation of one of Hagoromo's sons.
Sasuke, meanwhile, was an Uchiha prodigy and the reincarnation of Hagoromo's other son.
Against people with backgrounds like that, Sakura had never been competing on equal terms.
Thinking about it that way made Kenichi feel more reasonable about her achievements.
For someone born without those extraordinary advantages, reaching Sakura's eventual level was already remarkably rare.
"Her name is Sakura Haruno."
Kenichi looked toward Minato.
"Help me find her."
He was genuinely curious to see what Sakura's life looked like now.
....
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