Click.
The sudden rattle of the doorknob slashed through the hush of night. The faint scrape of metal on metal, magnified in the empty corridor, rang harsh and sharp.
A shadow slipped from the doorway without a sound, melting into the corridor's thick darkness. Only a pair of sapphire eyes glimmered through the gloom.
Mamoru came to a stop outside Yakumo's dormitory.
His brows drew together, his Six Eyes had met their first obstruction. Behind that door lay a fog he could not pierce, sealing every breath of presence within.
The anomaly put him on edge.
Without hesitation, he closed his fingers round the cold metal handle and turned, the door yielded at once.
What lay beyond made the Six Eyes contract to pinpricks.
Darkness, dense as liquid ink, swallowed every ray of light, as though even a gaze would drown in it.
Only the centre of the room, where Yakumo sat, was lit by a sourceless shaft of light. She had her back to the door, motionless at her easel, brush moving across canvas, deaf to the world.
Mamoru lifted a foot to step inside, then froze mid-air.
He frowned.
The floor inside was gone, replaced by a void that looked ready to swallow anything.
He drew back, mind racing.
The laws of space ahead had been twisted into pure nothingness. One reckless stride could trap him in utter passivity.
"Yakumo!" He called across the gulf of darkness toward the lone figure in the light.
His voice entered the room and died without echo, the darkness drank even sound.
Yakumo still did not turn. Her brush moved steadily, as though she existed in a world apart. Yet Mamoru knew she must be aware.
The entire Satomi Villa was already steeped in her genjutsu, every blade of grass answered to her will. He simply could not tell how far the illusion had bled into reality.
"Yakumo! Can you hear me?" He raised his voice.
"What's going on? Answer me!"
"This illusion... did you create it?"
"Yakumo, talk to me. Don't push your power, your body won't take it—"
Before the words had left his lips, her brush stopped.
Slowly, she angled her head and the corner of a hollow, chilling gaze slid across her shoulder toward the door.
In that instant—
Bang!
The door slammed shut with titanic force, a blur of speed.
Instinct hurled Mamoru backward in a gust of wind.
The impact shook the corridor and the echo rolled away like thunder.
Mamoru ruffled his hair in irritation. "So much for talking… Did I overplay my part?"
He recalled the night he had let Yakumo 'overhear' his talk with 'Kurenai'—a Kurenai conjured from a Shadow Clone.
It had all been to shift her bottled hatred onto himself, to draw out the real demon within her—Ido.
The plan had worked too well, the genjutsu power inside her dwarfed anything he had foreseen.
Squish… Squish…
A nauseating chorus of slime and limbs scraping over wood oozed from the darkness deeper in the corridor.
Mamoru snapped his attention forward.
Three warped aberrations crawled from the ink-black shadow.
Human faces, crudely stitched, crowned bloated spider bodies and six pallid jointed legs flexed, dragging their impossible torsos closer.
Mamoru raised a hand and blue light flared.
Blue!
A whirling sphere of gravity howled forth and swallowed the trio. The crushing force shredded them into unrecognisable scraps that slapped wetly across walls and floor.
He lowered his hand, unruffled.
Here an ordinary ninja could scarcely mould Chakra. Without the Six Eyes keeping him outside the genjutsu's rules, even he would be powerless.
"Time to go."
He had to find the two Medical Team members, get out, report to Hiruzen, then plan anew.
Yet the wet, grinding squelch returned. The scattered chunks were already flowing together, re-knitting.
A cold sidelong glance, then Mamoru stamped.
Boom!
The second-floor boards exploded and he dropped through the rain of splinters to the ground level. He landed running, passing through the dark manor.
Doors on either side burst open under invisible force, a chain of crashes echoing behind.
At last, in what felt like an endless corridor, he found the two unconscious medics. They breathed steadily, deep in enchanted sleep, oblivious to the upheaval.
Mamoru checked their pulse, then slung one over each shoulder.
Squish… Squish…
The sound pursued him again.
He glanced back: the three re-formed horrors poked their stitched faces through the doorway, eyes fixed on him.
"Persistent pests." He snorted, facing the outer wall.
Blue light rippled across the stone and the structure groaned.
Boom!
The wall blew outward in a storm of rubble and dust.
Mamoru vanished through the breach and reappeared on the open lawn beyond, night wind washing over him.
But the instant he stopped, he sensed something wrong. He jerked his gaze upward—the full moon hung in a ghastly, icy blue, dyeing the earth in an ominous hue.
He drew a steady breath, clearing his mind, then shot down a narrow forest path at full speed. Even with two grown men across his shoulders, his pace barely slackened.
Trees whipped past and soon Satomi Hill fell behind and the familiar outlines of Konoha came into view.
Yet Mamoru felt no relief.
The cold blue moon still rode the sky, its light like blades on his skin.
The streets lay deserted, a silence thick as death.
To his Six Eyes, not a flicker of life remained. He had never truly left Yakumo's genjutsu.
Realizing this, Mamoru jerked to a halt, his mind racing in a fraction of a second to find a way out.
Under the Six Eyes' perfect dissection of energy and barrier structure, a blunt countermeasure surfaced.
If he wanted to rip apart the veil between illusion and reality, he had to create an explosion vast enough to instantly overload its limit.
Decision made, Mamoru didn't hesitate. As blue light blazed in his eyes, he focused his mental power and Chakra on the empty air a few steps ahead.
Unlimited Blue: Maximum Output!
A tiny blue sphere appeared mid-air, and the surrounding air began collapsing inward but as Mamoru frantically poured Chakra into it, the scene before him snapped away.
The lifeless street vanished, replaced by a sun-drenched, peaceful forest so abruptly it made his heart lurch.
Mamoru reacted instantly, spinning around.
Sure enough, beyond the layered treetops, the gloomy Satomi Villa still stood in place.
It was Yakumo.
At the instant he would have shattered the Genjutsu by force, she had 'sent' him out of it.
Understanding, Mamoru faced the villa, channeled Chakra, and shouted so his voice rang through the trees, "Yakumo! I'll come back! Wait for me!"
With that, he hoisted the two people onto his shoulder, flickered into a blur, and vanished among the dappled light.
From the villa's depths came a faint sigh of mixed emotion, the soft scrape of a brush on canvas echoing long after.