"Illusions in shadow"
.𖥔 ݁ ˖ ϟ ⚡︎ ϟ ˖ ݁ 𖥔.Sakura Genjutsu AU.𖥔 ݁ ˖ ϟ ⚡︎ ϟ ˖ ݁ 𖥔.
Pt 1. In which Sakura finds a loophole
“The existence of consciousness is both one of the most familiar and one of the most astounding things about the world."
The words jumped out at her, stalling her reading. It was a simple sentence on a piece of paper, yet it felt to Sakura as if she was uncovering a truth for the first time.
Which came first, the mind or the body?
As she twisted and tossed the thought in her head, a wave of chakra washed over her, tingling at the tips of her fingers, as if reminding her of its existence. Chakra was a shinobi's greatest weapon; yet few had studied enough theory of it to adequately manipulate it. Through the pile of books she had pored over, not one chakra theorist could claim themself to offer any comprehensive theory. It was still one of the mysteries of the world, neither mind nor body, and not quite both.
Could thoughts, attitudes and feelings be reduced to fundamental physical matter? At least two of them did; but what of the former?
In all her long twelve years of life, Sakura Haruno had experienced about multiple instances of dissociation between mind and body.
After all, her affinity and (recent) interest for genjutsu had taught her just how important subjugation of the mind could tilt the tide in battle. A shinobi could overpower their enemy by intercepting communication (and thus rendering the opponent factually blind), or misleading them to think all hope was lost.
Yet, sensor-type training had never been encouraged in her days at the academy, much less taught. Ninjutsu and taijutsu were all the craze.
Another realization hit her head-on, one that was perhaps more fundamental. A thought that had been running at the back of her mind for years: shinobi, who prided themselves on a rather outdated system of honour and duty, had yet to embrace any kind of conjunction at all between mind and body.
Putting significant effort into her training with Lady Tsunade meant that she had to not only physically build up her strength, but also fight daily against exhaustion, pain, failure, and even more so, her vast ignorance. A doctor's battlefield was a never-ending line of tents where knowledge and practical skills were erected as law. Every day, she had learned to push the mental and physical boundaries of her body, until her chakra became not only a physical manifestation of her vital energy, but also an effective, usable vector for her mind.
Yet how many of her classmates, other chunins, had healthy, well-adjusted lives? How many knew basic arithmetic?
She made a point of counting.
Baffling.
Whenever she suggested stress management to her shinobi patients, it was almost always met with a shrug and a face that suggested they definitely were not "considering it".
If anything, history had shown, three great wars and waves of mass psychosis later, that the shinobi world had an aversion to open communication, diplomacy, and work-life balance. Or, at the very least, an aversion to nurturing them with the same level of care put into drilling children to become weapons of mass destruction, all in the namesake of peace.
She kept reading.
"No conception of the natural order that does not reveal [consciousness] as something to be expected can aspire even to the outline of completeness.”
In other words: there was a lot of work to do.
Perhaps the world of shinobi was lacking something fundamental.
Research, for one. Sakura closed the book and set out to ponder about how she might bring change to the straight and narrow-minded village of the Leaf.