A Konoha team was racing through the forest.
"Die!"
Abruptly, from within the team, such a low roar suddenly rang out.
The team leader turned to look and was shocked to see two of his subordinates, with twisted faces, flipped out kunai and stabbed at their nearby comrades.
This sudden defection caught them completely off guard. The two ninjas nearest to them were immediately pierced through heart and kidney by the kunai, clearly beyond saving.
"Caught in genjutsu? When?! Everyone on alert! Suna may have discovered us!"
The leader's voice was filled with urgency. While warning his team members, he instantly Shunshin-ed toward the out-of-control comrades, attempting to first subdue them and try to dispel the genjutsu.
Yet in these two ninjas' bloodshot eyes, their vision filled with nothing but madness, what they saw was not their leader's appearance, but the Suna ninja who had caused two or three thousand comrades casualties and was now under Konoha's highest alert and wanted the Crimson of Agony.
Knowing the Crimson of Agony's taijutsu prowess, the two ninjas kicked the 'enemy' they'd fatally stabbed down from the treetops, then without hesitation leaped back, their hands rapidly forming seals.
"Your position is exposed, Crimson of Agony!"
"Not good!"
Though completely unable to understand what they were saying, the leader saw their movements and realized this infiltration mission had completely failed.
Fire Release: Fireball Technique!
Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!
The huge fireball transformed into a sky full of fire amidst the gale, piercing through the dense canopy toward the sky.
Then, as if having completed their mission and ready to die bravely, the two ninjas revealed serene smiles and joined battle again with their surrounding comrades.
Such scenes were seen across the entire southeastern side of the Konoha-Suna front.
Meanwhile, in Konoha's temporary medical area, pungent medicine smells and blood rust permeate the air. Survivors who had 'luckily survived' Hii Kōri's attack were housed here.
Medical conditions here are clearly insufficient to treat so many wounded, but Konoha couldn't guarantee their safety transporting them back to Konoha village especially in the Land of Rain's environment, and rashly moving so many severe burn patients was itself extremely risky.
Though under proper treatment, severe burn patients might recover in three to four weeks. But with insufficient medicine, personnel, and treatment methods, Konoha's medical teams, after treating some lightly wounded who could quickly return to combat, were at their wit's end.
More than the strange smell of disinfectant mixed with blood, the muffled, muffled moans emitted from time to time by severe patients were an even more severe torture to medical staff watching them suffer.
This fact made many jōnin reflect on whether they should have supported Tsunade's proposal to mass equip medical ninjas in units.
Yet at this moment, those severe patients injected with anesthetics to alleviate body pain, sunk in sleep, seemed haunted by nightmares, sent out painful cries one after another.
Moments later, a thin figure silently appeared in the medical area. Orochimaru's narrow snake eyes swept across the surrounding chaos, thoughtfully.
With his two teammates deployed to different battlefronts, and himself actually taking on 'defense' and 'control' duties in the original team, Orochimaru couldn't immediately find suitable teammates. Possessing considerable command talent, he withdrew from the front lines and took command of this battle zone.
Back when reinforcing the attacked stronghold, in that hell of scattered flesh and blood, Orochimaru had faintly sensed a subtle atmosphere.
Though unable to find other traces then, he could only attribute that sinister atmosphere to the victims' collective mental state. But now this collective madness couldn't be explained as normal.
Orochimaru crouched beside a ninja frantically writhing, oblivious even to burst blisters, casually summoned several large snakes to tie him firmly to the bed, then reached out and buckled his face, meticulously probing this frenzied ninja's condition.
As expected, this ninja's mental state was obviously stimulated by something, producing intense fear and negative emotions.
As a ninja who hadn't trained in Yin Release, such violent abnormal spiritual energy couldn't be utilized—instead causing damage.
"Hmph... this is also the Crimson of Agony's doing...?"
Orochimaru stood and looked outside. Doctors and nurses bustled back and forth, nearly running their medicine cart wheels to smoke.
Having lamented the Crimson of Agony's vicious tactics, Orochimaru slightly furrowed his brow, yet unconsciously curled his lips into a chilling arc.
"I'd really like to meet you..."
Whether dōjutsu or non-dōjutsu ordinary genjutsu, the vast majority use the five senses as a medium, manipulating the target's cerebral neural chakra flow to achieve psychic attacks.
Hii Kōri wasn't skilled at this, but he always had his own solutions.
During this period, he'd been using encountered Konoha ninjas as test subjects.
Since attacking the Konoha stronghold and attaching cursed energy to all survivors in the steam, Hii Kōri could faintly sense the cursed targets' states on some level.
Using this as an opportunity, he found another direction for 'genjutsu.'
By injecting his own chakra and cursed energy into targets, mixed with their chakra, using cursed energy as medium to gradually make 'circulating chakra' itself part of the curse.
The more they used chakra, the more they inscribed the cursed energy's information within themselves, eventually evolving into the target cursing themselves.
Though requiring lengthy preparation, making this technique essentially useless in actual combat, if not limited to momentary battles, its effects became quite significant. Moreover, due to this mode of operation, conventional genjutsu dispelling methods couldn't work.
What he obtained was this technique:
Cursed Genjutsu: Demonic Descent.
As the name suggests, it's a technique to place a 'tsukimono' within others' hearts, letting them see and hear 'hallucinations' only they can confirm.
The 'hallucination' he recorded in this technique was very simple: 'The Crimson of Agony is right before you.'
Nothing else no other details.
Though he didn't particularly like this title Konoha had slapped on him out of thin air, that didn't prevent Hii Kōri from exploiting it.
To Konoha ninjas, all they knew was this title and some scattered traits and abilities. Once Hii Kōri activated the technique, targets would perfect their conception of 'Crimson of Agony,' conflated with the recorded image of Hii Kōri himself.
Ultimately, people always deeply believe conclusions they draw themselves. Fabricated intelligence might be questioned, but after glimpsing partial truth, letting them 'themselves' draw conclusions convinces themselves.
This is the world's 'most real' information.
And because the figure appearing in the 'hallucination' is 'Hii Kōri,' by hiding himself, making Hii Kōri an individual 'not present here,' thus achieving the conceptual substitution of 'Hii Kōri could be anywhere,' this genjutsu can affect all cursed targets.
Under the hallucinatory 'Hii Kōri's' provocation and stimulation, targets' incomprehensible actions appear to outsiders like possession by some 'demon.'
"Though as the first large-scale activation, precision is hard to guarantee, still caused you plenty of trouble..."
Wearing a pitch-black mask, his entire being wrapped by indistinguishable ambiguous aura, Hii Kōri slowly emerged from behind a lush tree, standing quite calmly before Katō Dan's team, who had just endured a hard fight.
"First meeting, Katō... Dan, right?"
"Please completely hand over the Spirit Transformation Technique training method to me, and I'll dispel this genjutsu."
"How about it? A good deal, no?"
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