Naruto The Narutoversity

[ankokudaishogun]

Actually, didn't Sasuke use his Sharingan for all Sharingan techniques, while using the Rinnegan for the Rinnegan ones?

And while I do agree his Rinnegan looks more an incomplete RinneSharingan, especially with him "getting back his full ocular powers" having the Sharingan turning into (Eternal)Mangekyo and the Rinnegan gaining the tomoe, nowhere it's suggested it has the powers of a RinneSharingan.

 

[Altered Nova]

No Sasuke still uses his left eye to cast Amaterasu even after it becomes a Rinnegan.

Spoiler

He also used the Rinnegan to hypnotize the bijuu, something we'd never seen a Rinnegan do before (Madara's clone switched back to EMS to cast genjutsu on the Raikage.)

This is why I think Sasuke's Rinnegan is special, because he uses both Rinnegan and Sharingan jutsu with the same eye. Nobody else does that, Nagato only uses Rinnegan jutsu and Madara has to shift between the Rinnegan and Sharingan to use powers that are unique to either bloodline.

As far as I can tell, the only power that is explicitly stated to be unique to Rinne Sharingan is the Infinite Tsukuyomi (although it also requires the chakra of all the bijuu). And, well... are we sure that Sasuke can't use that jutsu, assuming he also has bijuu chakra? He is immune to it's effect and it was said that he could dispel it. Maybe he could perform it if he wanted to.

 

[Knyght]

Not gonna bother with the Outer Path itself, just the individual abilities.

Six Paths of Pain (Research Notes) (Version 1)

• When inactive, the Paths rest inside a specialized storage room. Nagato chose to only have one active to deal with the intruder.
• They are capable of speech.
• They can performjutsu outside of their Path’s ability.
• The Animal Path’s summons are pierced with giant black rods and have the Rinnegan.
• The Animal Path essentially only used summons to fight Jiraiya despite being capable of other jutsu.
• It can summon other Paths.
• Each one has a copy of the Rinnegan and can see througheachother’seyes.
• They can all create chakra rods.
• Each Path only has a single ability of the Rinnegan.
• They can bleed.
• Genjutsu does not affect them all simultaneously despite their link.
• There are Six Paths in total.
• Piercing someone with a chakra road can agitate their chakra.
• The original Six Paths were all shinobi Jiraiya had met before.
• They can be incapacitated with sufficient damage.
• The Animal Path was replaced with a new body instead of the original one being retrieved.
• The chakra rods remained after the Path has been incapacitated.
• The Animal Path can summon all others Paths and Konan.
• The rods respond to high frequency chakra waves. They are chakra receivers are starting receiving chakra once Pain arrived at Konoha.
• Pain stores his potential body replacements in a tower.
• Pain physically retrieved the rods that had been in the first Animal Path’s body.
• Physical attacks are the Preta Path’s weak point.
• Nagato moves his Paths by implanting them with chakra rods throughout their body and transmit chakra to them.
• It is similar to the Yamanaka’s Mind Body Switch but controls multiple bodies with chakra. They need to be as close as possible to be able to perform complex movements and jutsu.
• Any information the Human Path learns with its ability is shared with the other Paths instantly.
• When using Shinra Tensei’s full power, all Paths but the Deva Path were deactivated. They reactivated after the jutsu but do not recover instantly.
• Naraka Path is used to restore the other Paths when they are damaged. When fighting together, it stays behind to be protected by the others.
• No other Path (or Nagato) was affected by the Preta Path absorbing too much senjutsu chakra.
• Nagato likely stays in Ame’s tallesttower to transmit his chakra and create the Paths.
• Nagato is seated in a mechanical walker when controlling the Paths.
• Deva Path needed to be within a certain range of Nagato to perform Chibaku Tensei.
• Naruto can sense Nagato through the chakra rods using Sage Mode’s sensing.
• Deva Pain has implants for where the chakra rods are inserted.
• At close range, Nagato can control someone’s movements with a chakra rod unless they’re strong enough to overcome it.
• Obito turned Edo Tensei Jinchuuriki into his Six Paths of Pain.
• The ability to see through each other’s eyes is an Outer Path jutsu.
• Their eyes reflect the eyes of the controller even if they aren’t just the Rinnegan.
• The Edo Jinchuuriki only had a single chakrareceiver implanted.
• Obito didn’t use the Six Paths Jutsu through the Six Paths of Pain due to the chakra requirement and then being known abilities.

 

[Altered Nova]

Somehow I'd forgotten that the paths can actually use normal handseal-style jutsu... Why the heck do they almost exclusively use their path jutsu again? The Rinnegan was explicitly stated to grant mastery of every element and the databook gives Nagato every nature except yin (and he's used both wind and water on-panel) so why doesn't he ever mix things up with some elemental jutsu cast through his Paths? Even if just to throw his enemies off guard and keep them guessing about what exactly each Path is capable of.

Wait, how do they bleed? Aren't they corpses animated by Nagato's chakra? Do they actually have blood flowing through their veins? Are they technically alive, but mindless?

Why did Nagato use the corpses of Shinobi that Jiraiya had met before for his Paths? Were those shinobi friends of Jiraiya, or just people he randomly met? If they were his friends, why did it take him so long to recognize them? If they were just people he randomly met, then why did Nagato kill and collect them? Wait, did he kill them? Or just collect their bodies after they died of other causes? Or maybe it's just a huge bizarre coincidence, since this whole plot point doesn't really make any sense and nothing ever comes of it?

Also, was the girl that Nagato replaced the original Animal Path with also a shinobi that Jiraiya had met before?

Why didn't Nagato just summon the body of the original Animal Path back himself and then revive it with Naraka Path? Why replace it?

Chakra as a high frequency wave... I wonder, is that the normal state of chakra? Is chakra like a kind of spiritual analogue to electromagnetic energy? Is that why it can be stored in chakra batteries like the ones used to power the Daimyo conference? Or does the chakra have to be transformed first with chakra control to transmit it through the air to a receiver like that?

I still find it fascinating that "chakra meters" are an actual thing that exists. You'd think the fact that it's possible to detect chakra with technology would have come up more often. Like, normal ninja would be using them when a sensor-type ninja isn't available or something.

Do you think it's possible that Nagato summoned that mechanical walker with Asura Path? And why doesn't he use Asura Path to replace his crippled legs with cybernetic ones?

 

[AoMythology]

Do you think it's possible that Nagato summoned that mechanical walker with Asura Path? And why doesn't he use Asura Path to replace his crippled legs with cybernetic ones?

It's possible, I think. As for replacing his legs, maybe he would give up any hope of healing them (like he did when he absorbed Kurama's purified Chakra), if he did that.

 

[Knyght]

I think Nagato's leg wounds may have healed a long time ago - they don't look horrifically scarred or anything when we see them but it's hard to tell - and that his lack of mobility came from being drained by the Statue, leaving him too physically frail to get around easily which only got worse by staying immobile while relying on Pain to act in his stead for decades. And yeah, I'm half-convinced that the walker is literally just an expression of his Asura Path for getting around while supporting his body as he transmits.

Nagato must avoid using anything other than the Six Paths because he wants to focus as much chakra on those as possible since they're his ultimate skills. And the Paths may be the ability that Pain is the most efficient at using with them being so specialized for them.

(Though it would have been cool to see Nagato fight alongside the Six Paths of Pain using every chakra nature, post-Pain Invasion.)

I guess literally reanimates the corpses so that they're functionally alive whenever he channels his chakra into them. Break that connection and their regular corpses again. Or maybe they just bleed whatever blood is leftover from when they were alive which has been kept in a preserved state through his powers.

Those ninja probably just strangers that Jiraiya met under random circumstances without much deeper meaning on his side. I've been thinking that they might have all been killed by Nagato's Human Path and so he ended up using their corpses out of a bizarre sentiment when he discovered that they had once met Jiraiya.

I could understand Nagato not being able to summon the Animal Path while it was trapped inside the gourd toad but once he had reached Konoha and its rods were even reacting to his chakra, I don't get it. He even went back to retrieve the rods so obviously he still had an interest in it.

It sounds like "high frequency chakra waves" are a specialized type of chakra rather than how it is in its natural state so I think Nagato does something with his chakra when transmitting to Pain.

 

[Altered Nova]

I think you need to reread that fight AoMythology. Zombie Nagato restored his body by absorbing Killer B's chakra, not Naruto's. And we don't actually know that he healed his crippled legs because he never actually moved again for the rest of that fight - he grabbed naruto and Killer B as they jumped at him, performed planetary construction to capture them, and then got stabbed by the Totsuka Blade after they blew it up.

Also I don't see how using cybernetic legs would prevent him ever healing them properly since Asura Path transformation is easily reversible.

I'm gonna agree with Knight that his legs aren't actually crippled anymore and he's just too frail to easily move around without help. Especially considering that the King of Hell can easily and instantly heal anyone just by chewing on them for a second, unless that power only works on soulless puppets for some bizarre reason.

 

[Knyght]

Do you think the Six Paths of Pain actually need to be dead bodies first? The Edo Tensei weren't alive but they weren't exactly dead either. Could a living person be turned into a Pain?

Can Nagato remotely break a genjutsu that one of his Pains has been affected? Did he allow his Pains to stay trapped in the genjutsu to trick Jiraiya, was the genjutsu itself just too powerful to overcome or was it just not possible?

 

[Altered Nova]

I'm sure he could make a living person into a Path, after all we've seen Madara use those black chakra rods to control Obito's actions and Nagato was pretty confident that he would be able to control Naruto from point blank range after impaling him with a chakra rod. The problem is that a living person can potentially resist that control, something we saw both Obito and Naruto successfully do. Controlling a corpse is much easier as they don't fight back (and edo tensei zombies have a built in mind-control function to suppress their free will.)

Nagato probably could remotely break a normal genjutsu (or absorb it with the Preta Path). But the Toad Confrontation Chant was specifically stated to paralyze the nerves and the mind (VIZ translation = "binds the psyche")... so I assume it actually interfered with Nagato's mental link to the puppet. That is, he could still transmit chakra to the trapped Paths through the rods, but lacked the ability to control it in any meaningful way as he could barely interface with the puppet's brain and/or chakra system.

 

[Knyght]

Six Paths of Pain

The Six Paths of Pain is a jutsu invented by Nagato of Akatsuki and made possible by the Outer Path of the Rinnegan. It allowed him to invest any one of the Six Paths Jutsu into a human body and animated them to act as he desired.

All of these chosen vessels - a maximum of six in total - reflect the same eyes as the caster which, for Nagato, makes them look as if they all had the Rinnegan themselves. Each one captures separate images of what they see and each of them can see all of these images at once which allows them to work in perfect coordination. Nagato himself experiences everything the bodies experience so anything that he learns is instantly shared with each other them.

The six bodies controlled by this jutsu can only possess the power of one Path: the Naraka Path, Preta Path, Human Path, Animal Path, Asura Path or Deva Path. Once the chosen body has been invested with a Path, they are unable to use any other and it cannot be changed to give them a different one. Only Nagato, who holds the real Rinnegan, is able to use all of the Six Paths.

However it is possible for them to perform ninjutsu and genjutsu like any other ninja if necessary. But this is normally done only in the most exceptional circumstances as it is more complicated than controlling them for hand-to-hand combat and it is far easier to utilize the Paths which superior to most other jutsu regardless. Where ordinary ninja knead their chakra and mould it into a jutsu, Nagato must knead his chakra and then transfer it to the designated Path for them to perform their jutsu.

The Six Paths of Pain are not controlled like puppets but are instead possessed by his chakra. They can each think, feel, speak and act as if they were Nagato himself with his real body serving as the overseer that links them all together. Each Path is embedded with black receivers which allows Nagato to transmit his chakra to them in high frequency waves which can pass through any substance and over hundreds of meters.

The less distance the chakra needs to travel then the more effective it becomes as they can receive more chakra at a faster rate with greater control of it, so they become more powerful and more effective the closer they are to Nagato. At the same time, the more Paths he has active at once then the weaker they are overall relatively speaking as he needs to divide his chakra between each of them. For instance, if he deactivated all but one of the Paths then he can devote all of his chakra to that one in particular so that it can use its abilities on the same level as himself at the cost of temporarily losing its ability. There are also abilities where the Path needs to be within a certain range of Nagato to be performed because of the extent of their power.

Once reanimated, Pain's bodies are functionally alive with working organs. They are kept at peak physical condition without experiencing any of the biological changes caused by death. They breathe, sweat and bleed but they aren’t actually vital life functions as they are for ordinary human being. They do not feel pain, cannot be drugged or poisoned, do not suffocate and can survive various fatal injuries. Genjutsu still affects them but only the Paths caught specifically within its effect despite the connection they share. It is only when they suffer enough physical damage that it prevents their chakra network from receiving and distributing Nagato’s chakra through their body that they die.

Once they are sufficiently damaged, they are beyond Nagato’s control. He cannot make them move, use any of their abilities, see through their eyes or even summon them.

The Paths

The Deva Path is able to manipulate gravitational force to attract and repel targets. This power has already resided in Yahiko - Nagato’s deceased friend - as the central figure of the Six Paths of Pain. In battle, its abilities grant the perfect type of offensive and defence and is undoubtedly the most powerful of the Paths overall. It shows the most dramatic increase in its destructive power when Nagato focuses all of his chakra into this one Path, and its greatest ability cannot be performed without being close enough to him.

The Asura Path is able to summon mechanical armour and weaponry. It is the perfect tool for close combat that very few ninja are capable of going toe-to-toe with against its limitless variety of weapons, shapeshifting capability and durable armour. Its bombardment weapons also make it extremely dangerous at range as well, making it second only to the Deva Path in destructive power.

The Animal Path is able to summon any and every species of animal. These have all been pierced with chakra receivers to grant them the same eyes for Nagato to see through, though they aren’t controlled like the Six Paths of Pain. This Path can also be used to summon Nagato’s most trusted ally Konan using her piercings which are actually small black receivers in disguise. When defeated, any summons the Animal Path has on the field is immediately returned to their original dimension.

The Human Path is able to read minds and steal souls. It uses engages in taijutsu in combat as it allows it to make direct contact with the opponent, giving it the opportunity to directly tear their soul from the body for a killing move.

The Preta Path is able to absorb chakra of any shape, nature and composition. It avoids close combat with more physical fighters so that it can take advantage of enemies who specialize in performing jutsu, completely neutralizing their attacks or defences. However the chakra t absorbs is only absorbed by the body itself and doesn’t transfer across to Nagato or the other Pains to help recover their chakra levels. It is only by Nagato taking chakra from his Preta Path directly that he could receive the chakra stolen from his enemies. Nevertheless this is very useful in replenishing Nagato’s stamina after a battle as the Preta Path often has a lot of excess chakra since it avoids combat itself.

Naraka Path is able to call the King of Hell to interrogate human beings and restore their injuries. That ability makes it invaluable for Nagato and it will always take in rear position when the Paths fight together to avoid being damaged, allowing it to perfectly restore any Path that had been too damaged to continue fighting.

Creation and Development

When Nagato first summoned the Heretical Statue of the Outer Path and wielded its power, it pierced his body with black receivers and drained his lifeforce to turn him into a withered husk of a man. Combined with the injuries inflicted to his legs by Hanzo and the death of his best friend, he was more physically and mentally vulnerable than he had ever been.

However this tragedy acted as the catalyst for Nagato to start consciously wielding the Rinnegan’s Six Paths and realise how he could become the god he dreamed of.

He learned that the black receivers embedded in him could transmit and receive chakra and discovered that he could create those same receivers himself with the Rinnegan. By implanting another person with a black receiver, he could send his chakra to them and control their movements. However this control degraded the further the individual was from Nagato as their own chakra worked to resist his until it was reduced to merely interfering with their movements and chakra rather than controlling them.

Corpses were the more ideal subject of control. Their bodies lacked any resistance against his chakra and allowed him to manipulate them without restraint. And by embedding them with a black receivers, he discovered that he could channel one of the Six Paths into them which gave birth to idea of using six bodies as a medium for his power.

Each Path is implanted with black receivers throughout their entire body. Only a single one is needed but using several aids the even distribution of chakra to maximize the effect and makes them less vulnerable to having the rods removed in battle. The ones that pierce their face are used to add to their mystique with the different styles and intimidate their enemies. Because Nagato chose Yahiko’s body to serve as the Deva Path, he changes to others to reflect his image with orange hair.

While Nagato was able to heal the injuries to his legs with the Naraka Path, the damage inflicted by the Heretical Statue could not be reversed until it no longer required his life force and he could restore it with huge quantities of chakra. Rather than relying on his weakened body, he chose to create six vessels who would take on the persona of Pain to lead Akatsuki in achieving world peace. The bodies that he initially chose were enemies he had encountered and killed with the Human Path, learning that they were acquianted with his old mentor, Jiraiya. And though he never consciously recognized it, it was for that very reason that they became the first Paths.

His real body would remain hidden and in a location where he could easily provide the Six Paths of Pain. To this end, he would reside in the nearest and highest place possible when using them to achieve his transmission’s maximum range and keep himself safe and secret. In Ame, he made the enshrined tower of the dead the seat of his power as the tallest location in the hidden village and a storage facility for replacement bodies. Outside of Ame, he finds an appropriate location and uses the Asura Path to support his body with a mechanical walker while controlling Pain.

When inactive, the Six Paths are stored in pods within the same tower until Nagato requires one or all of them to act in his stead.

 

[Altered Nova]

Each path having a clone of Nagato's mind rather than being directly puppeted by him is an interesting idea. It does make more sense than Nagato having supreme multitasking skills and explains why Deva Path occasionally thinks about the other Paths as if they were separate people (ie "I though he dodged him" when Naruto punches Preta Path with frog-fu.)

I like the idea that Nagato originally tried to make living people his puppets and only came to use dead people when he realized that the resistance of living victims made the jutsu too impractical. I never liked how most Kekkai Genkai users can just perfectly use most of their jutsu without really needing to practice or experiment first so I prefer to think it took Nagato a few attempts to work out all the issues with his idea.

Random thing I noticed - when Naruto killed Animal Path, her summons immediately disappeared. Is that normal? The only other instance I can think of of a summoner dying while their summon is still active was Sarutobi and Enma... but Enma didn't immediately vanish, he had time to crawl over to Sarutobi's body and remove Orochimaru's sword first. (I suspect that he didn't actually have to desummon because Sarutobi died, but rather chose to leave since Orochimaru was defeated and he was tied up by a snake and couldn't continue fighting anyway.) If it's not normal then that might be evidence to support the idea that the animals come from another dimension or are straight up created by the Rinnegan.

It might be worth mentioning more explicitly how distance from Nagato affects the strength of the Paths. It's not just that they become "stronger, faster, smarter" the closer they are to Nagato, there are also strict distance limits on the ability to use more powerful jutsu. For example, Deva Path could not use Chibaku Tensei at all until it led Naruto on a chase to bring him close enough to the real Nagato to channel that jutsu. It may be possible that the other Paths also have more powerful jutsu that were never shown because they were never close enough to Nagato to use them (I'm imagining Human Path spitting out a phantom dragon that rips out people's souls like the demonic Statue did when Nagato first summoned it.)

Likewise, you should probably explain that Nagato can "supercharge" one Path to drastically increase the power of their jutsu by temporarily disabling the other five Paths, but this has the drawback of preventing that particular Path from being able to use any jutsu whatsoever for a significant period of time until it "recharges." I imagine that Nagato can probably use this trick in less extreme and more flexible ways as well, such as by disabling variable numbers of Path to provide varying levels of supercharge or splitting the supercharge up among multiple Paths.

Also you never mentioned that weird fact that Nagato created his Paths from the corpses of acquaintances of Jiraiya for some reason. (What if he just normally collects hundreds of corpses and regularly mind-scans them, and those six just happened by coincidence to be ones that Jiraiya met? So it's not that Nagato specifically murdered people Jiraiya met, he just picked those particular corpses out of the many in his morgue just to fuck with his master's head if they ever met again.)

 

[ankokudaishogun]

I guess they didn't have a will of their own and\or might have been dead bodies, so they dispelled when the chakra keeping on-site disappeared.

Viceversa, Enma used his own will and chakra to stay around as much as possible

 

[Knyght]

Likewise, you should probably explain that Nagato can "supercharge" one Path to drastically increase the power of their jutsu by temporarily disabling the other five Paths, but this has the drawback of preventing that particular Path from being able to use any jutsu whatsoever for a significant period of time until it "recharges."

Would that really apply to all of the Paths? Specifically the part about recharging. I assumed that was likely specific to the Deva Path so its abilities already have an inbuilt recharge period because its abilities are so much more powerful than the rest.

(What if he just normally collects hundreds of corpses and regularly mind-scans them, and those six just happened by coincidence to be ones that Jiraiya met? So it's not that Nagato specifically murdered people Jiraiya met, he just picked those particular corpses out of the many in his morgue just to fuck with his master's head if they ever met again.)

How would being able to mind scan corpses fit into our explanation for the Human Path?

I was simply thinking that the Paths were people that Nagato had killed with the Human Path, learned that they were connected to Jiraiya through that and, perhaps unconsciously, ended up choosing to use them out of sentiment. So he didn't kill them because they were connected to Jiraiya, he found that connection after killing them.

 

[Altered Nova]

The recharge period might be unique to the Deva Path, you are right that that is the only Path that already needs to recharge at all... but it would seem weird to me if that is the only one that can be supercharged. I mean, he's just channeling more chakra to a single Path, should be able to do that for any of them. Although yeah, only a few of the Paths have abilities that seem like they could effectively scale up with more chakra.

Yeah not sure how Human Path could scan a dead person's memories, (maybe he uses a normal jutsu?) but it seems weird to me that Nagato could have accidentally killed so many people with specifically the Human Path that knew Jiraiya. I never got the impression that he personally went on missions or left Amagakure all that often, since nobody knows literally anything about him. I figure that the other Akatsuki members do most of the dirty work internationally while Nagato typically stays in Amagakure to maintain the rain barrier and fend off intruders, so when did he get the opportunity to kill those people?

Question - Why does Obito only use one black rod for each of his Paths? As you pointed out, it made them vulnerable to being defeated by having the rod removed, and it wouldn't distribute his chakra effectively like you theorize.

Also I think it should be clarified that the Paths don't just copy the Rinnegan, they copy the master's eyes specifically. For Nagato that was two Rinnegan, but for Obito it was one Rinnegan plus a Sharingan.

 

[Knyght]

The Six Paths of Pain he used against Jiraiya were the same ones that he used against Hanzo so he acquired them before he took over Amegakure. I assume he was more personally active between losing Yahiko and killing Hanzo, fading further and further into the background as time passed and probably killing whichever enemies he met face to face.

Obito cheats. He claims his binding is powerful than Nagato's for one and stayed in relatively close range, his Paths were able to move under their own power because they were reanimated with an independent jutsu and they were controlled by a talisman.

 

[Altered Nova]

That makes me wonder how exactly he met and killed all those foreign ninja then, since he presumably would have mostly been active in Amagakure fighting the civil war against Hanzo. There must be some interesting stories behind those Paths.

Obito also didn't channel any of the Path jutsu into his Paths either. Now that I think about it, the only thing that really qualified them as Paths of Pain at all was the shared vision. Otherwise they were basically indistinguishable from the other zombies.

 

[Knyght]

Redrafted.

 

[Knyght]

On to...well, not quite greener pastures since I've already done a draft of this article before. But that was before I got in the habit of collecting evidence.

Genjutsu (Research Notes)

• The Hell Viewing Jutsu surrounds the subject in a whirlwind of leaves and then shows them what they fear. Sakura fainted from the sight.
• Genjutsu employs hypnosis to induce hallucination.
• Kakashi made Zabuza see a copy of himself behind him.
• The False Surroundings Jutsu is a force-field illusion which tricked people into thinking the second floor was the third floor.
• A genjutsu can be stored inside a scroll to knock someone unconscious when opened, potentially for days.
• The Sly Mind Affect Jutsu tricks people into walking in circles.
• The Mist Servant Jutsu creates illusionary, black copies of the caster (and allies) which split apart and reform when ‘injured’. The caster and/or their allies will appear the same as the illusions and can observe and attack their enemies in disguise. They can control the number of copies that appear.
• The Temple of Nirvana makes illusionary feathers fall and can put an entire stadium full of people to sleep.
• The effects of a genjutsu can be prevented with a hand-seal to release. One can undo a genjutsu cast on others by using the same hand-seal and touching a victim.
• Hashirama cast the Bringer-of-Darkness Jutsu on Hiruzen and his shadow clones. He made no attempt to released the jutsu but was able to smell and touch his enemy within it. Numerous injuries didn’t interfere with the genjutsu either.
• Kurenai’s Tree Binding Death caused her to turn invisible, and after a delay, sank Kisame’s legs into the ground and wrapped Itachi in a rapidly growing tree which she reappeared from.
• Itachi used genjutsu reflection to place Kurenai under the same illusion. By beating her lip hard enough to draw blood, she was able to escape it.
• Itachi used an illusion on a civilian to attract Jiraiya and draw him away from Naruto.
• Tayuya’s Phantom Sound Chains is cast through her flute music, controlling the target’s body against their will with chains and has them experience the flesh melting from their bones. It stops their physical movements and binds them. Tayuya doesn’t need to keep playing to keep them in the genjutsu.
• Shikamaru escaped the genjutsu by breaking his own finger.
• Most genjutsu work on the five senses. Ones based on hearing are the most problematic because it allows the caster to hide out of sight.
• One can free an ally from genjutsu by hitting them.
• Itachi cast an elaborate genjutsu on Naruto using the same finger he used to make a hand-seal. He pretended he was a shadow clone and his teammates had been defeated, his teammates turned into copies of Itachi, Itachi then turned into crows and back again, crows turned into shuriken which inflicted imaginary injuries, and had images of Team 7 (and Gaara) haunt him.
• Itachi intended to knock him unconscious with the jutsu.
• Genjutsu works on the five senses by controlling the chakra flow in their brain. Naruto and Jiraiya aren’t genjutsu types. Sakura is.
• One can break genjutsu by stopping their chakra flow which breaks their control by disturbing their chakra, or an ally can send chakra into them to break the flow.
• Naruto tried and failed to break Itachi’s genjutsu (from within the genjutsu). Sakura and Chiyo broke it for him.
• The Iwa jounin had Rin in a genjutsu to make her talk.
• When under genjutsu, one’s chakra flow is disturbed.
• An ally can break the genjutsu without touching the victim.
• Itachi caught Kakashi's shadow clone in a genjutsu which turned him into paper and set him on fire. Even though the shadow clone experienced the genjutsu, it wasn't affected by it.
• Orochimaru didn’t believe a genjutsu paralysis could bind him when Itachi used the Shackling Stakes Jutsu.
• Itachi fooled Deidara into wrapping himself in his own bomb.
• Deidara trained his left eye to resist genjutsu. This may only be applicable to Genjutsu: Sharingan.
• The Toad Confrontation Chant requires Fukasaku and Shima to sing in harmony to entrap their target in genjutsu which binds their psyche.
• Itachi favours using crows in his genjutsu
• Sasuke once used snakes.
• Sasuke and Itachi exchanged genjutsu for some time without moving themselves.
• Itachi showed Sasuke a falsified version of Madara and Izuna's history.
• It can force a person to reveal information they would have kept hidden. It worked on Zetsu too.
• Sasuke temporarily paralyzed B with a genjutsu.
• A genin from Ame have genjutsu blocks which interfere with truth serum and mind jutsu. There is such a thing called genjutsu traps as well.
• Genjutsu can render a person unconscious while experiencing visions from the illusion.
• C combined ninjutsu and genjutsu to use the effects of ninjutsu to generate the illusion.
• Sasuke paralyzed C with genjutsu who struggled to move even after it was released.
• Uchiha Itachi is the only person capable of controlling someone with genjutsu without being detected by the best sensors in the world.
• Genjutsu is Yin Release.
• Itachi caught B in a genjutsu which was broken by Gyuki.
• The Second Mizukage’s clam creates a mirage which hides itself and him by creating steam and using the water particles to reflect light.
• Sasuke and Itachi cast genjutsu on each other to free them from the effects of genjutsu.
• Madara cast Genjutsu: Sharingan on A and paralyzed him. He was freed by Onoki.
• It can be used to show a person’s memories.
• In The Last, Sakura is said to be resistant to genjutsu.

I've excluded Tsukuyomi, Kotoamatsukami, Izanagi, Izanami and the Infinite Tsukuyomi which only work under special conditions.

 

[Altered Nova]

I think my theory about genjutsu still holds with this evidence. I theorized that all genjutsu exists on a scale between difficulty-to-break and severity-of-incapacity-inflicted. Other factors such as user skill and genjutsu rank being equal, a genjutsu can either be very difficult to break but only mildly debilitating, or it can be completely paralyzing but relatively easy to escape (or anywhere in the middle.)

This is why Tayuya's and Kurenai's genjutsu completely bind the victim's movements but are relatively easy to break free from, but Hashirama's genjutsu "merely" blinded Sarutobi but was virtually impossible to escape (presumably, since he didn't even attempt to use Kai and couldn't escape even after receiving grievous injury.)

How this works mechanically... perhaps when they user injects their chakra into the victim's brain, they can either create a fragile but complicated illusion that affects every part of the chakra coils in the brain and can totally control them, or they can create a strong but simple illusion to only affects a few coils but is much harder to break.

The effects of a genjutsu can be prevented with a hand-seal to release. One can undo a genjutsu cast on others by using the same hand-seal and touching a victim.

One can break genjutsu by stopping their chakra flow which breaks their control by disturbing their chakra, or an ally can send chakra into them to break the flow.

I suspect that the Kai handseal simply automates this process Jiraiya describes of stopping their chakra flow to disturb the enemy's control over it. It was probably created for newbie ninja, similar to how the elemental handseals can let genin perform elemental jutsu that they don't know the nature transformation for.

Likewise, whenever a ninja breaks a genjutsu without using the Kai seal, I suspect they are just performing the chakra control to stop their own chakra flow internally, similar to how someone who has mastered nature transformation can perform elemental jutsu without seals. They need to hurt themselves only as an aid to that process - the pain gives them something to focus on in order to better block out the false sensual stimulus of the genjutsu. and the amount of pain needed is determined by the user's skill - this is why the minor pain of biting a lip is all genjutsu master Kurenai needs to escape a genjutsu, while Shikamaru had to break his own finger to accomplish the same feat.

 

[ankokudaishogun]

Genjutsu exists by altering the target brain through chakra flow.

More effect a Genjutsu has on the target's senses, more complex the chakra flow alteration must be.
Which means it become more susceptible to ulterior chakra flow\brain activity modifications, like those generated by sudden non-genjustu-induce pain.


Viceversa, Genjutsu with limited effect on the target like making somebody blind or misdirect their hearing sense making them think the sound the heard from the left came from the right, are harder to notice and the caster can basically keep channelling it without worrying too much about the chakra flux being disrupted by "simple pain"

 

[Knyght]

How are we defining 'easy to escape'? Because Tayuya's genjutsu seemed especially difficult to break if anything. The only reason Shikamaru managed was because he could hurt himself within the genjutsu with a shadow which few others could do, and even Itachi/Sasuke had to genjutsu one another (albeit it was technically a senjutsu version). The second databook suggests the victim usually end up losing consciousness as well.

I'm particularly curious on how some genjutsu knock you unconscious, some genjutsu leave you immobile and others don't interfere you physically at all. What's the difference?

Can genjutsu blocks affects more than just truth serum (how does that part work?) and mind reading? What would genjutsu traps entail and does it only apply to mind reading which hardly seem to be common overall?

Do you need to specifically affect at least one of a person's five senses to catch them in a genjutsu in the first place?

And why do some genjutsu have random visual effects like floating leaves or falling feathers? Why not just jump to the main effect?


...I just realised that I forgot about the genjutsu Itachi used Kakashi in Part 2. Now fixed. I can't think of any other examples but Kishimoto leaves a lot of genjutsu unnamed or unseen.

 

[Altered Nova]

How are we defining 'easy to escape'? Because Tayuya's genjutsu seemed especially difficult to break if anything.

I meant 'easy to escape' relative to other genjutsu, not that it's objectively easy to break the genjutsu. Basically, if a genin can even theoretically break the genjutsu by hurting themselves then the genjutsu is "fragile"; it probably wouldn't work on a badass jounin like Kakashi who would likely resist it with Kai or break out by biting his lip like Kurenai did.

So dispelling Tayuya's genjutsu is relatively easy compared to similarly ranked genjutsu - it's only indirectly difficult to escape because the genjutsu typically prevents the victim themselves from actually performing the physical actions required to dispel it. Another unaffected person could probably release the victim pretty easily with a Kai.

In comparison, a jutsu like the Mist Servant Technique is much less debilitating (it only causes visual hallucinations and has no effect on other senses or body control) and therefore presumably far more difficult to dispel than Tayuya's. (Or at least I assume it is, since nobody who was trapped in that genjutsu even attempted to dispel it and I don't think that is because they were too stupid to try.) I think a Kai from a genin would not have had any effect on that genjutsu and Sakura and Sasuke recognized that fact so they didn't waste their chakra trying (while Kabuto was pretending to be weak and Naruto probably didn't even know how to perform a Kai.)

I'm particularly curious on how some genjutsu knock you unconscious, some genjutsu leave you immobile and others don't interfere you physically at all. What's the difference?

I assume it all depends on which chakra coils in the brain are being manipulated by the genjutsu.

For example, the Temple of Nirvana probably puts people to sleep by messing with the Suprachiasmatic nucleus within the hypothalamus region of the brain, which regulates circadian rhythm, and by causing the brain to release Adenosine which is a hormone that promotes sleep and suppresses arousal (Caffeine works by blocking the cell receptors that bind to this hormone, preventing it from working.)

Genjutsu that leave you immobile are likely suppressing the motor cortex region of the brain, which is involved with the planning, control, and execution of voluntary movements. Or they could be hijacking the brain stem in order to block the signals from the motor cortex from reaching the spinal cord and travelling out to the rest of the body (which would explain why the victim can usually still move their mouths in order to talk.)

Genjutsu that don't interfere with bodily control are just messing with other parts of the brain that aren't responsible for movement. For instance, the Mist Servant Technique which causes visual hallucinations is almost certainly manipulating the occipital lobe, which is the visual processing center of the brain.

Mind control genjutsu probably work by fucking with the limbic system, which is a set of brain structures that support a variety of functions including emotion, behavior, motivation and long-term memory. (Sasori's Memory-Concealing Manipulative Sand Technique likely messes with this same part of the brain, except it uses a surgically implanted needle rather than chakra.)

Can genjutsu blocks affects more than just truth serum (how does that part work?) and mind reading?

I imagine they could interfere with any kind of foreign chakra invading the brain. So not just mind reading, but also stuff like genjutsu and mind body switch.

I would guess that truth serum is some kind of chakra infused chemical that messes with brain chemistry in a way that suppresses willpower and increases submission. Like a drug version of a genjutsu.

What would genjutsu traps entail and does it only apply to mind reading which hardly seem to be common overall?

Perhaps genjutsu traps (and genjutsu blocks as well) are fuuinjutsu seals placed directly on the brain, similar to how Madara placed a seal on Obito's heart. Genjutsu blocks probably just interfere with any hostile chakra that enters the brain, while genjutsu traps work like that Amaterasu that Itachi sealed in Sasuke's Sharingan and spring counter genjutsu on anyone trying to send their own chakra into the brain.

Do you need to specifically affect at least one of a person's five senses to catch them in a genjutsu in the first place?

No, there are plenty of genjutsu that don't affect any of a person's five primary senses. For example, putting someone to sleep or messing with their sense of direction.

And why do some genjutsu have random visual effects like floating leaves or falling feathers? Why not just jump to the main effect?

For the same reason that body flicker often involves a puff of smoke, a burst of leafs, or a flurry of sand. It's a stylistic choice by the user to personalize the jutsu and/or just to look cool for the people reading the manga.

Also I would like to point out that despite what the databooks say, Izanagi very clearly is not a genjutsu.

 

[Knyght]

The Mist Servant Jutsu does seem to effect multiple senses as not only can they see the copies, one of them speaks, their 'bodies' make sounds, and Naruto interacts with them as if he can touch them when fighting.

I expect that they didn't try to dispel the genjutsu because of their plan to sneak behind the team while letting them think they were trapped, using up their chakra to sustain the illusion. Otherwise I'd be inclined to think that Sasuke and Sakura simply didn't know how to dispel genjutsu yet as another late skill likw tree climbing (the latter picking it up in the next month after all these encounters) because just assuming that they can't break the genjutsu of another genin without even trying just doesn't sit right.

(Though this is probably a result of Kishimoto only just starting to delve into genjutsu and not coming up with counter measures until later.)

Pain, I think, is a quick and dirty method of breaking genjutsu as the physical sensation automatically causes a disruption in a person's chakra flow. But it sucks in comparison to Genjutsu Release. The stronger the illusion, the more pain is required to break it - biting your lip to breaking you finger to stabbing yourself - with no guarantee that the pain you do inflict is enough to break it until after you've hurt yourself. The caster may be able to compensate if they're expecting the injury or inflicting it themselves, and if you get captured in another genjutsu then you've gotta injure yourself all over again.

I wonder if a person's pain tolerance makes any difference.

Kurenai gets away with a minor pain because the genjutsu used against her was one she already knew and literally the same one she had cast herself. Hiruzen not even trying to escape could because all three of him would need to take the time break it, and they'd already started the Dead Demon Consuming Seal which they couldn't afford to disrupt.

Then there's genjutsu that traps you in an illusionary world where you're not controlling your actual body (like what Itachi did to Naruto and Kakashi in their encounter) so you've no way to hurt herself. You have to rely on Genjutsu Release and, failing that, you're screwed.

Using Genjutsu Release on someone else seems to be a foolproof method. There isn't a single case of it not working or even requiring much effort regardless of the genjutsu used, like Madara taking out A with his Mangekyo Sharingan only for Onoki to fix him immediately. The benefit of foreign chakra kickstarting the system, I gues.

Do you need to specifically affect at least one of a person's five senses to catch them in a genjutsu in the first place?

No, there are plenty of genjutsu that don't affect any of a person's five primary senses. For example, putting someone to sleep or messing with their sense of direction.

Then why was there such emphasis on Itachi casting genjutsu with a finger? If genjutsu don't typically need you to see something to be caught it in, needing to make Naruto look at his finger after doing the hand-seal seems like a downgrade. Unless it was likely putting the genjutsu on some kind of delay after it was ready so he could release it when ready instead of as soon as he cast it.

 

[ankokudaishogun]

Then why was there such emphasis on Itachi casting genjutsu with a finger?

Most likely because casting genjutsu still requires hand-seals. He basically casted one on the spot without any hand-seal

 

[Knyght]

Then why was there such emphasis on Itachi casting genjutsu with a finger?

Most likely because casting genjutsu still requires hand-seals. He basically casted one on the spot without any hand-seal

He does actually make a hand-seal before that which Naruto specifically remembers later on.

It makes it sounds like there was some significance to it and, to be fair, the gesture is a tad out of place because he makes a hand-seal but doesn't do anything otherwise.