Source: Wikipedia
“Genjutsu or Reality?”
“Naruto, Kurenai, Yakumo, and Team 8 return to Konoha, which appears to have been destroyed in their absence. They learn from the head of the Kurama clan that they are trapped in a genjutsu that has enveloped the entire town, and Naruto and Team 8 manage to escape. They then enter the mansion to find Kurenai and Yakumo.”
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Analysis
The episode focused on Yakumo’s deadly genjutsu, which shows an element of appearance versus reality, as evidenced by the title of the episode, “Genjutsu or Reality? “It has some strengths and weaknesses, as I will show in the analysis.
From the onset, the episode shows Yakumo putting everyone under a genjutsu by painting everything, including the destruction of the Leaf Village. Therefore, it is a dramatic irony where the viewer knows that it’s a genjutsu while the characters haven’t yet figured out that they are in Yakumo’s genjutsu. In this scene, they were all going to the Leaf Village, and Naruto was carrying Yakumo on his back, contemplating why the Third Hokage would try to eliminate Yakumo. After some time, Sakura helped Kurenai walk since she still had a stab wound on her shoulder. Moreover, Squad 8 was behind Sakura and Kurenai, contemplating who Kurenai was trying to protect and wondering if the third Hokage had something to do with it. Before they could contemplate their thoughts any further, they came across the leaf village in ruins.
Naruto, Kurenai, Yakumo, and Team 8 return to Konoha, which appears to have been destroyed in their absence. Despite seeing the damage to the leaf village, they still went to the hospital because Kurenai and Yakumo needed to rest and recuperate in the hospital. So, when they got to the hospital, Yakumo was unconscious as she lay on the bed because her vital signs were dropping. Therefore, Naruto and Sakura decided to look for medicine for Yakumo, while Squad 8 decided to look at what happened in the village. Before Squad 8 could leave, Kurenai, who was also in bed, said they should come back in thirty minutes. Afterwards, everyone left, leaving Yakumo and Kurenai resting in the hospital.
After getting out of Yakumo and Kurenai’s room, Naruto and Sakura were looking for medicine in the hallway until they came across an intruder, so Naruto decided to chase after the intruder while he told Sakura to go take care of Yakumo and Kurenai. After some struggle between the intruder and Naruto, it is revealed that the intruder is Unkai, who says that Naruto should listen because if he doesn’t, then everyone will die.
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Unkai reveals more details about Yakumo’s genjutsu
They learn from the head of the Kurama clan that they are trapped in a genjutsu that has enveloped the entire town, and Naruto and Team 8 manage to escape. When Unkai conversed with Naruto, he said that the leaf village that is in ruins is a genjutsu, or illusion, cast by Yakumo. He also revealed that Yakumo was the one who caused lightning to strike at Tsunade’s mission. The reason is that within the confines of Yakumo’s genjutsu, she would often call down lightning to start fires, and their human minds perceive that phenomenon to be real. Unkai went on to say that “our brains are turned against us, causing actual damage to the body,” which makes it easier for her to kill someone if she wants to. To make matters worse, Yakumo cannot control the powers she possesses, even though she was born with them. Unkai said that her power is ruled entirely by the girl’s unconscious mind. Unkai also explained that he and the Kurama clan wanted to capture Yakumo because they were afraid of her powers, which could have destroyed their village. He explained that Yakumo’s Kekkei Genkai allows her to cast genjutsu that stimulates the mind so much that it can cause actual damage to the extent that it can cause death. The problem is that, without proper management of the genjutsu, the Kekkei genkai’s power can turn against the user by creating a second, dangerous personality that is a monster. Because of this, the Third Hokage and Kurenai realised there was no choice but to destroy Yakumo’s power before the second mind (the monster) took over. It explains why Kurenai sealed her powers in the first place.
While they were conversing, they came across flaming lava that was covering the whole area. So, Unkai knocked out Naruto to block his senses, making the genjutsu inferior and helping Naruto escape by sacrificing himself as he jumped into the lava while carrying Naruto. Doing so unfortunately left Unkai wounded, with burns on half of his body. Luckily, Naruto and Unkai escaped the genjutsu while everyone was still unconscious.
Before looking at Naruto waking up his teammates, there are details about Yakumo’s genjutsu that present its strengths and limitations:
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Team 8, consisting of Hinata, Kiba, and Shino, gets trapped in Yakumo’s genjutsu.
When Team 8 went outside to look at what happened at the Hokage’s headquarters, Yakumo was painting the destruction of the Hokage’s headquarters. The building started to collapse, and when Hinata activated her Byakugan, Shino’s insects let him know that they were all trapped in a genjutsu. So, Shino told his team and explained how his insects could tell it was a genjutsu. He said, “Heightened senses can occasionally be a weakness; no matter how superior one's sight or smell may be, it is ultimately the human brain that receives and interprets information. The mind is a vastly intricate network of electrical impulses; there’s a lot of room for error, but the senses of the insect are minimal. Unlike the human brain, the insect mind utilises the various amounts of information necessary. Look, my insects are still under control; they can’t be deceived.” In other words, the insects’ senses are minimal compared to the human brain, which tries to analyse everything. Therefore, the limitation is that Yakumo’s genjutsu only influences the human mind, not insects whose senses are minimal.
After the building collapsed, a huge snake appeared before Squad 8. Shino said that it was just an illusion since it couldn’t harm them, but then the snake dug a hole underground, causing Team 8 to fall. This just shows how powerful Yakumo’s genjutsu is. Although this was just an illusion, everything seemed so real, hence it left Team 8 in a sticky situation, which in this case was a threatening atmosphere.
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Sakura finds herself stuck in a blue galaxy.
Sakura gets back to the hospital, where Yakumo and Kurenai are supposed to be resting. However, when she entered the room, she was in shock of her life. At that moment, she saw the room looking like a blue galaxy surrounded by a sun. As a result, it made Sakura scream. This just further shows how realistic Yakumo’s genjutsu is, even though everything was just an illusion.
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Kurenai gets trapped in Yakumo’s trap.
Meanwhile, Kurenai woke up in her bed due to Yakumo’s screams. So, she got up to check on Yakumo on her bed, but she wasn’t there. As a result, menacing music plays in the background with a mix of drums to signify that Kurenai is in danger. Moreover, she heard Yakumo calling out her name through a door, and when she opened the door, she saw Yakumo sitting on a chair, painting, while she was surrounded by paintings that were floating in the air. The scenery was all dark blue, which signifies that Kurenai is in deep danger.
Back to the scene where Naruto found his teammates unconscious, Naruto woke them up. As soon as Sakura woke up, she ran to check on Unkai’s wounds, and while she attended to his wounds, Naruto said that he was the reason why they broke free from Yakumo’s genjutsu. In response, Unkai said, “That’s not true; we were all driven out. Yakumo doesn’t care about us; her only target here is Kurenai Yuhi.” After hearing this, they all left to save Kurenai.
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Kurenai’s interaction with Yakumo.
When Kurenai opened the door and saw the room with paintings floating in the air, Yakumo was painting while she sat in a chair. The door closed and disappeared. Afterwards, Yakumo was filled with anger as she asked Kurenai what happened to her parents and her clan. She also wondered if the third Hokage had something to do with this. In response, Kurenai said the third Hokage had nothing to do with the deaths of her parents, so Yakumo said if she didn’t tell her the truth, she would kill Kurenai. Thereafter, Yakumo had a painting of Kurenai and started to erase the legs, which resulted in the real Kurenai’s legs disappearing. Afterwards, despite Yakumo doing this to her, Kurenai is filled with remorse for Yakumo’s pain, as is shown in the dialogue:
Kurenai (cries): You poor, sad child, if killing me will put an end to all your suffering, then you should just go ahead and do it. So long as this deep hatred can finally be put to rest.
Yakumo (angry): Oh, save it; your crocodile tears aren’t fooling anyone.
At that intense moment, Kurenai is like a mother figure to Yakumo, who still feels regret for sealing her powers, even though it was the only way to keep the leaf village safe. Yakumo, on the other hand, refused to listen; hence, at this point, they still have a strained relationship as a student and a teacher. The next episode will determine whether their student-teacher relationship will be restored or not.
Meanwhile, at Satomi Hill, Might Guy is doing push-ups while the Kurama clan members are still stuck in genjutsu. After some time, the Fox Masked ANBU member and the two medic ninjas also arrived and told Might Guy that they were trapped in a genjutsu caused by the Kurama clan members. Immediately, Naruto and Squad 8 rushed into the area and headed to the mansion. Might Guy wants them to explain what’s going on, but Naruto said there was no time to explain. Afterwards, Naruto and Squad 8 entered the safe house where Kurenai and Yakumo were located. As soon as they left, Sakura also arrived with Unkai, and when Might Guy asked her what was going on, Sakura said she would explain later. She then asked Might Guy to help her take care of Unkai, who was wounded.
They then enter the mansion to find Kurenai and Yakumo. Edgy music plays in the background with a mix of electric guitar and drums when Naruto and Squad 8 enter the mansion. Afterwards, Hinata activated her Byakugan and told the team where Kurenai and Yakumo were located. She said, “They are together right now in the room in the centre of the building.” Yakumo knew they were inside, so she cast a genjutsu to cause a fire to destroy them. Meanwhile, when Kiba hears what Hinata said about the location of Kurenai, he rushes to look for her, but then gets caught in a fire. The episode ends with Naruto screaming, “Kiba!” What happened to Kiba? This will be revealed in the next episode.
The lesson from this episode is that one can find a mother figure in someone who is not related to them, as evident by Kurenai, who is like a mother figure to Yakumo.
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and then Add to home screen.