(July, year 55 AK)
Yuta continued working on his new genjutsu after meeting Shisui. He was also constantly thinking about what Shisui had said about the way of beating the Sharingan by 'striking at the weak point', but even after a while Yuta didn't figure out what Shisui meant by that. Still, those words were constantly running through Yuta's mind.
Yuta only asked that question while being curious, he didn't actually expect that there is indeed a way to do it for him and that Shisui would point it out. But now, knowing that there is indeed a way exists for him to beat the Sharingan with his genjutsu, Yuta became a bit restless.
Up until now he believed that there was no way for him to beat Itachi in the finals, since his strongest skill – genjutsu, was directly countered by the Sharingan Itachi possesses. Whatever genjutsu Yuta could throw at Itachi, Itachi would see right through and break it right away. Such is the unfair advantage of the Sharingan, the cheat eyes as Yuta refers to them in his thoughts.
But now, knowing that there is a way, Yuta couldn't stop thinking about it. Even in a calm and emotionless state inside his mindscape while working on his new genjutsu, Yuta was catching himself from time to time on the thoughts about what is the weak spot of the Sharingan could possibly be.
Either way, by the end of the second cycle Yuta finally solved one of the problems that was bugging him and stepped a bit closer to completing his genjutsu development, although by solving one problem, he immediately stumbled on a few more and felt like he was being a bit overwhelmed.
The third cycle came and went, same as fourth, fifth, and sixth.
The seventh cycle has begun. Yuta went through the six months of work like it was nothing, although for him it was more like two years' time.
By now, Yuta was mostly done with his Shadow Mirage genjutsu, all of the problems he initially had with the inner workings of it were already being solved one way or another, although not everything went the way he wanted.
The jutsu was still too complex and too chakra heavy, and some of the design decisions were quite bulky and crude for his likings, but at least it worked the way he wanted.
On the sixth and previous cycle Yuta was working on trying to optimize the jutsu and to bring it closer to the vision he had in the beginning, but it was easier said than done. When he changes something in the jutsu, it was breaking some other things in turn, and he has to start over and re-do another significant chunk of his jutsu in the process, just to reach a bit better result in the end.
As Yuta was sitting at his bed at the start of the seventh cycle, he thought, 'If it goes at this pace, I will have to spent years reworking same components over and over again, only discovering the best and most optimal ways for each component only after rebuilding it for dozens of times from scratch...'
...
'Well, it's not like I'm short on time or anything, but by now, I think it is appropriate to seek help of the professional instead of continuing things like that... I already solved everything I had to solve, the problem I have now is optimization of the jutsu to make it work more efficiently, by now I do need some professional advice...'
With that thought, Yuta went to meet Shisui again.
He found him at the same place, and after the greeting, Yuta said, "I need some help with my new genjutsu."
"I see. Then show me what you've got." Shisui said as he remained sitting lazily on the ground with his back against the tree, same as the last time.
Yuta concentrated and slowly went through the series of thirteen hand seals in the span of seven seconds, then he calmly said "Shadow Mirage." as he cast the jutsu through his voice on Shisui.
After that, Yuta made a step to the side, but from Shisui's point of view, while Yuta stood in front of him, a bunch of other Yuta's stepped out of him in different directions as if he had multiplied.
Each Yuta produced sounds as they moved, the grass was bent under their feet, almost nothing was giving away that those are just illusions.
"So, what do you think?" One of the Yuta's on the left asked.
"Is this any good?" One of the Yuta's on the right continued.
"Hm..." Shisiu hummed as he observed the genjutsu with his Sharingan active, but without resisting it in the slightest, "Not bad, it has potential." He commented.
After a few more seconds Shisui Sharingan's tomoe made a one slow spin and Yuta felt how his connection with the genjutsu had suddenly broken.
"I see you only developed this jutsu not long ago, it still has a lot of work that needs to be done." Shisiu finally said.
"Yes, I know, it is not exactly on the level I had envisioned while developing it." Yuta replied, "Do you have any advice for me?" Yuta asked a bit hopefully.
By now it wasn't as if Yuta couldn't fix and optimize the jutsu by himself, but by now his progress entered the tedious and grueling phase of a methodical checking of all the dead ends of possible development ways for the each and every component of the jutsu, and it wasn't something that could be skipped while he was working on it on his own, but with a bit of advice from a genjutsu professional Yuta could skip a lot of that if he were to be pointed to the right direction instead.
"I see." Shisui said and after a brief pause, he continued, "The way you are attacking the Tenketsu number 17 with your chakra is inefficient, it makes the process of infiltrating the auditory senses way too complicated, you need to go straight to the Tenketsu number 19 instead and work from that angle. Also, the way you..."
What came after was a series of comments that made Yuta feel like all his work for the past six months was being dismantled, judged, and thrown away like it was garbage, his face even reddened a bit as he continued to listen carefully...
But after Shisiu was done, Yuta said gratefully, "Thank you, that helps a lot!", although he felt bad about it, he also knew that what Shisui told him in the span of the past two minutes was priceless for his new jutsu, it will save him years of tedious work, and maybe even helps him to push his new jutsu to the level he wouldn't be able to reach on his own.
"Just show me the jutsu when you are done with it, I'm interested to see what the complete result will look like. Do you think you can complete it before the finals?" Shisiu said in a casual tone, although there was some brief expression in his eyes surfaced just for a moment as he said that, but Yuta didn't notice.
"Yes, I believe so." Yuta replied, still feeling a complicated mix of emotions. On one hand he was elated and excited for the pointers Shisiu gave him, and on the other hand he felt like his hard work had just got examined and graded with a mediocre score, to say the least.
Then Yuta remembered how in the original story in the span of just one month before finals Naruto was able to learn how to summon Gamabunta and clashed directly against One-Tails, and Sasuke was able to reach the speed of Rock Lee without leg weights and to learn Chidori as well.
And then Yuta thought about his six months of work and what it had amounted to... One crude and incomplete genjutsu technique that nowhere near being close to being combat ready...
'Well, whatever, I never thought of myself as a talented genius, but with unlimited time I sure can reach the same heights as them and even to surpass them eventually... probably...' Yuta thought.
After that meeting Yuta went back and continued his jutsu's development.
A lot of components had to be reworked, and a lot of jutsu's design decisions had to be changed as well, so the seventh cycle continued and then the eighth cycle started and ended, then nineth.
When Yuta started the tenth cycle, he finally finished all of the improvements Shisui had pointed previously, and his new genjutsu was already much better than before, it was a lot less complex and chakra-hungry than before, although even now Yuta felt that there is still room for improvement.
So, at the start of the tenth cycle Yuta went to meet Shisui again, and at the same spot as before, after the greetings Yuta asked again for the advice about his new genjutsu, and as Shisui asked to demonstrate it first, Yuta nodded and went through a series of six hand seals in the span of three seconds and said "Shadow Mirage" as he cast the genjutsu on Shisui.
Same as before, in Shisui's perspective Yuta had multiplied and now there were a dozen Yutas that stood before him.
Although the genjutsu was about the same as before, it was a lot better in terms of shaved down excessive complexity and chakra consumption, and even slightly better in terms of the quality of the illusions itself, since now they were covering more details and better hiding their flaws and giveaway clues, so it was harder now to spot those clues and to determine where is a clone and where is the real Yuta.
Shisui's activated Sharingan made a slow spin as he observed the genjutsu.
Then after a few moments he finally said, "Hm, interesting...", and then after another pause, he continued thoughtfully, "It is quite good. The jutsu has a simple yet powerful design, it's efficient, easy to cast, it's very subtle on the target's chakra network... Strange..."
"What is it?" One of the Yuta's asked.
"Some of the components of this genjutsu, it was as if... No, never mind..." Shisiu said.
His Sharingan made another slow spin, and the jutsu had broken.
"So how is it? Is there anything that you think I could improve in it?" Yuta asked enthusiastically.
"Ah, yes, I think so. The overall design is good, but there are still enough rough edges to polish." Shisui slowly said, still being deep in thoughts, then after some pause, he continued, "The genjutsu's entry point through the Tenketsu around the ears could be made less intrusive, if you just...", "... and then the connection could be made less obvious if you split it into multiple entry points instead... ", "..."
What came next is a series of suggestions on how to further improve the jutsu, but there was nothing substantial this time. Yuta listened carefully as Shisui was pointing things out.
After Shisui finished, Yuta said, "Thank you!" enthusiastically and soon left and went back home.
He didn't notice how Shisiu was sitting while still being deep in thought even after Yuta had left as he continued looking in the direction where Yuta left a while ago.
"Could it really be..." Shisiu quietly mumbled, and then popped into a cloud of smoke, canceling the Shadow Clone jutsu and sending his memories back to the original...
--- AN ---
So, is Yuta cooked already? Place your bets.
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