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Chapter 16: Death II

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“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.”

~ H.P. Lovecraft

That's what they felt when they realized that they were in fact in an illusion, one that made them of how many clones there actually were.

The clones were apparently not an illusion. The illusion just deceived them so much that they could do nothing but be passive receivers of Isaac's attacks.

Just like now, they had retreated to what they believed to be a safe area, yet why were several clones standing behind them? Their fingers pointed at their heads.

Warnings ran through their minds as they realized that death was near. Isaac can seemingly appear from any of the clones, thus their fate is sealed.

The familiar sound of explosions resounded as two of the enemies' brains exploded. Isaac stood there, overlooking them menacingly with both his hands up, fingers locking on to new targets.

They now knew the water bullets' source, yet neither of the three remaining ninjas dared to attack as who seemed to be the captain of the enemy team yelled aloud, "Retreat!!"

The man's eyes were resolute as his hands quickly fell to the ground, yelling while keeping his eyes on the clones, "Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!!"

The other two enemy ninjas complied with their captain's orders as they ran back, knowing that their mission now was to deliver information back to the village.

They've had a terrible misunderstanding regarding Isaac. A genius is an understatement to someone like him.

Fortunately, their captain chose to be the sacrifice that would allow their escape as the ground rose, creating a barrier in which he would be stuck with the clones.

Just a barrier of rocks would of course not be enough to stall, thus why the enemy captain took a deep breath as one hand stayed on the ground while the other tapped it, giving birth to a strange wave.

"Earth Release: Bottomless Swamp!!" The strange wave spread through the ground, and it did indeed turn into a bottomless swamp, only the tiny area on which he stood remained solid.

He further went to perform several hand seals, causing the swamp to erupt like a volcano, surrounding him.

The enemy captain certainly found it strange that Isaac allowed him to perform so many techniques. The clones just looked at him, still keeping distance from the bottomless swamp.

He found himself naturally confused. However, he couldn't do anything to solve the confusion, especially since he was certain that there was no Isaac clone behind him. He kept them all at bay.

Moreover, he kept disrupting his chakra regularly. Therefore, he was confident that he wasn't under an illusion... The familiar deafening sound of water bullets exploding resounded throughout the woods.

The enemy captain was utterly stunned for the sound came from behind him, and it wasn't his brain that was blown out. The sound came from where his team fled... They're dead.

"Damn it!!!!" He cursed in desperation, fear overwhelming him. It wasn't something he's supposed to feel with his experience, but he never felt so helpless, never before.

He felt like he was losing his mind for everything happening around him made him bewildered and fearful to the point that he couldn't help but yell, "Show yourself!!!"

The bottomless swamp around him also started behaving strangely as it started rotating chaoticly around him like a whirlpool, afraid that Isaac would suddenly appear near him.

The poor man found himself even more confused when the clones slowly dissipated. Most importantly, he was even more panicked.

That panic made him even more obligated to inform the village of Isaac's information as he gritted his teeth and dove into the ground, his hands constantly performing hand seals to manipulate the Earth around him.

Everything in his way turned into a swamp in which he swam like a fish, going deeper and deeper even at the cost of exhausting his chakra.

Any price would be worth it as long as he escaped, so he had to focus more than ever before for such mass manipulation is extremely difficult.

"Earth is my playground," The man soon found himself stunned as he could swear he had heard those words right by his ear.

However, he didn't have much time to comprehend them before he found himself frozen, unable to perform a single-hand seal as the swamp around him turned glossy.

"Diamond Release: Eternal Ground," These were the last words he heard before he eventually fell into darkness as the solid diamond around him seemingly erupted with blades that went through him.

However, the diamond was certainly not eternal as it turned back to just rocky ground. The jutsu was far from perfect.

"Done," Said Isaac as he appeared before his team again, spotless and calm as if he hadn't just killed several people.

The team, however, didn't care about that as they were also confused, the spectacle that took place before them perplexing even them.

"You can turn invisible?" Not Minato though. Minato saw through Isaac's tricks as the way he looked at Isaac turned holy different.

"Optical Illusion," Isaac nodded.

"You can't rely on it too much as any sensory ninja can easily detect it," Minato advised, "Unless you eliminate the sensory ninja first as you did just now."

Indeed, such simple invisibility would be useless against sensory-type ninjas, thus why Isaac studied them carefully, specifically studying the signs that could expose if a ninja is a sensory type or not.

The first ninja was a sensory type. That first kill allowed him to easily control the situation, avoid getting even touched, and manage his chakra reserves precisely.

After all, he's just a clone, thus his chakra reserves are limited, and his chakra can not regenerate.

Minato went on to seal all the bodies in some scrolls before they continued on their way.

"That was so cool!" Obito could finally burst out with his curiosity, "What were those clones!? Why didn't they poof when they were attacked?"

"I call them Shadow Illusions," Isaac didn't seem to mind answering, "Just a combination of shadow clones, basic clones, and illusion."

"Huh? Just??" Obito was perplexed, "And how? Like, how are they intangible?" Even Kakashi's ears couldn't help but perk up at that question, similarly curious.

"Do you know that air can be liquified?" Isaac instead asked in return. He loves very few things more than sharing knowledge, "If it's compressed enough, and under the right circumstances, air can turn liquid."

"Hm? What does that have to do with the technique?" Obito was confused.

"Imagine the chakra to be the liquid as it becomes exceedingly compressed when you perform the shadow clone jutsu," Isaac explained, "Now imagine decompressing the chakra as much as possible while maintaining the shadow clone projection. It's something like that."

"Oh!" Obito nodded seriously, "I don't really understand it but it makes sense."

"Huh??" Humans truly leave him too perplexed sometimes, "I want to say read some books, but we both know that's impossible."

"Hey!! I've read plenty of books!!" Obito retorted.

"I can attest," Rin interjected, nodding seriously, "He had read about one and a half."

"Hahaha," Isaac couldn't help but let out a low laugh. Hell, even Kakashi barely stopped himself from laughing aloud.

"Not true!! I've already finished the other half!"

The atmosphere was joyful as they leaped from tree to tree, still able to speak freely on the way.

It was like the killings never happened. No, the killings were the usual for them, Isaac noted.

Isaac spent most of his time in the labs, but they didn't. They were out there, and while it's rare for genins to perform missions that require killing, it still happens sometimes, especially when your teacher is Minato.

Minato is the man who will be called the Yellow Flash in the future. Under his watch, it would be difficult for a student to face deadly situations, thus they have more liberty when it comes to missions.

'The world is truly broken,' The thoughts of a broken man, someone whose obsession drives him to wish to do good, to fix the world... No matter how extreme the methods are.

How could he not think the world is broken when he sees every day how horrible it is?

Isaac sees it better than the nobles, better than the ninja villages, better than anyone else, even the homeless, the broken, and the dead.

Isaac lives their life after all. He's beside them, watching them. He's their neighbor, their friend, and their enemy.

He's also the noble they hate. Isaac... Isaac is the homeless who hates the nobles. The irony... For his hate for himself is limitless.