(6th of August, year 55 AK)
Although the proctor signaled for the fight to begin, neither Kota nor Yuta moved, both were still looking at each other.
"Do you know who I am?" Kota asked suddenly with anger in his voice.
"Should I?" Yuta calmly replied with a bit of amusement.
'No, really, should I know this guy somehow?' Yuta thought with a bit confused amusement as he looked at Kota, 'He is from the Valleys village, right? The only interaction with those guys I ever had was during our first mission in the Land of Rivers, that time we fought some Valleys guys. The only memorable thing about that whole ordeal was their squad leader, he was a genjutsu specialist, and that is the only reason I remembered him. What was his name again? Juri... Jujin... July... no, not quite right...'
"I am Kota Tsuji, the son of Jun Tsuji!" Kota said loudly.
"Who? Is that name supposed to tell me something?" Yuta asked with a blank and unbothered face without any change in it as he heard what Kota said, while inside he thought, 'Ah, right, Jun was the name of that guy! So, he had a son, huh, how old was that guy? Thirty? Thirty five? Did he conceive his son when he was twelve or something? With a math like that, even this Kota guy could have a son of his own already... Would Kota's son come looking for a fight next time?'
...
'And why is this guy glaring at me so much? Didn't we spare the guy back in the days? Could it be that Shisui, when he said that he is going to let them free and watch them go back, in truth, could've he kill them, sparing us the moral struggle? No, I don't think that is the case, there is no reason for Shisui to act like that and lie to us, besides such things tend to get out of the bag sooner or later, like right now for instance...'
Kota's face turned a bit redder as he was struggling to suppress his anger and to finish what he had to say first before the fight started.
"You don't have to pretend, I know that it was your team that went into the Land of Rivers a year ago and fought the team led by my father!" Kota said loudly.
"Well, we indeed had a mission there about a year ago, but so what? I don't remember all the details, a lot of time passed since then." Yuta said unbothered as he shrugged, as if to say, 'what can I do...'.
It wasn't like Yuta hated the guy, but at this point it was kind of natural for him to act in a most infuriating way for his opponent, it was just another part of the fight for him. The part where Yuta making his opponent angry and unable to think rationally, it was a natural step in a fight, although not a lot of Yuta's fights ever had such a component in them, but after watching the preliminary rounds back then Yuta got the gist of it, since almost each fight contained some kind of a trash talk and he had a lot of time to think it through, so by now it came out naturally for him.
Yuta understood what Kota is trying to say, but he made it difficult for him on purpose almost on instinct, since Kota was his opponent and the fight was already started, so every word right now was just another move on a different kind of battlefield for him, no reason to play fair.
"I heard that it was one of the Genins from that squad that had defeated my father, and that Genin was a genjutsu specialist." Kota said heatedly, "I saw how everyone from your squad fights during the preliminary rounds, it must've been you who had defeated my father while using genjutsu!"
'So, "defeated" he said, not "killed", that means his father is alive! So why is he so angry about it? We did let him go when we could've as well just killed him instead, is this guy stupid or something?' Yuta thought in bewilderment while keeping his blank and unbothered expression outwardly.
"I refuse to believe that some kid like you could've defeated my father in a fair fight! I'm going to beat you up today so everyone will see that it was just a fluke back then!" Kota was saying loudly and by the end of the phrase he was shouting.
'What a moron, I've beaten your father already, what could you do if your father failed? If I remember correctly, that Jun guy had much more chakra than Kota...' Yuta thought, 'Isn't this turn of events is a bit backward? I've beaten up a father, so his son came for revenge... Shouldn't it be the other way around instead? Whatever...'
"Sigh, I get it, stop yelling already." Yuta said with a bit annoyed tone, "I've beaten up your father, and you want to wash away the humiliation by beating me up, did I get everything right? Now that I understand everything, are you satisfied? Could we start the fight already? I still have some serious fights later, so I can't stay here with you all day..."
'There, that should do it. And there is even some present for him in my previous dialogue too...' Yuta thought with satisfaction of a job well done as he looked at Kota who was fuming with hatred, 'Isn't this thing is a bit too easy? I was previously worried a bit that I'm not very used to this "trash talk" thing, but it seems that I'm a natural in it, huh...'
"You arrogant brat, no matter, I'm still going to beat you up!" Kota said fuming with anger, but then he calmed down just a bit as he pulled out a kunai and thrown it at him.
'This is... a bit anticlimactic, isn't it? Just a thrown kunai? What is this, an Academy's spar?' Yuta thought disappointedly but then he noticed the next moment that Kota was already in the middle of a quick series of hand seals, 'Oh? That is more like it, let's see what you have for me there...'
Yuta's thoughts went through his mind in an instant as his hand was already moving to his own tool pouch and pulling a kunai from it, preparing to deflect the incoming projectile.
Then Yuta suddenly felt such a familiar feeling that he could've recognized it anywhere any time after he trained for many years while using himself as his own genjutsu target. By now Yuta's chakra senses, at least when it was about genjutsu affecting his own chakra network, is more sensitive than probably of an average Jonin's.
Yuta distinctively felt like a foreign chakra trying to envelop his own chakra network.
'No fucking way!' Yuta thought surprised, 'Like father like son, I guess... And why didn't I notice him using any genjutsu in the preliminaries? Did he specifically hide his genjutsu skills up until now? Just to surprise me? Should I feel honored? Such a nice surprise indeed, now this fight turns just a little bit less boring. Such a nice guy, I should thank him later...'
Then, as Yuta was moving to deflect the kunai that was flying at him with his own kunai, he instinctively started moving to the side instead. Since the new variable was being introduced – the genjutsu, so Yuta instinctively started the dodging maneuver instead of proceeding with his initial move – deflection. Yuta didn't know how the genjutsu was connected to the first attack, the kunai, so he switched to dodging instead on pure instinct.
Then Yuta felt suddenly, that Kota's genjutsu was slipping up and was on the verge of failing even before it could start affecting Yuta's chakra network. Yuta glanced at Kota in the middle of his dodging maneuver and saw how Kota was desperately holding the last hand seal, his eyes were a bit bloodshot and there was sweat starting to form on his forehead, his breathing hastened.
Yuta realized that Kota was trying his best to keep his genjutsu from collapsing and to make it work.
But since Yuta's chakra strength was many times over Kota's, he had a very hard time casting it on him.
'What a disappointment. It seems that I won't see what his genjutsu is all about, huh... Or, maybe...' Yuta suddenly had some reckless thought.
Next instant, Yuta took manual control over his chakra flow and slowed it down just a bit and made his chakra a bit less resistant towards the foreign chakra that was trying to influence it from outside. Just a tiny correction was enough, and no one will notice...
'Well, I'm such a nice guy, aren't I? Giving my struggling opponent a chance...', Yuta thought as he briefly felt like some honorable knight who lets his enemy pick up their weapon instead of instantly finishing them off in the moment of vulnerability. Yuta instantly got rid of that thought and focused back on the fight.
He only did what he did because he was absolutely sure he could afford it, and because he was curious, nothing else. In a real and dangerous fight against a strong enemy he would never act like that, probably, or so he believed anyway.
And the next moment, as if Yuta had predicted it when he started dodging instead of deflecting, the flying kunai had suddenly multiplied in Yuta's vision, and dozens of copies of it flew at him at different angles, although Yuta was in the middle of dodging most of their trajectories and there was only two or three copies that will still hit him if it goes on like that.
Yuta prepared to move away from those three kunai as well as soon as his feet touched the ground again, since he was in the middle of jumping to the side, and there is still enough time for him to do so. He doesn't want to swing his kunai in the empty air in case if all three of those kunai would turn out to be just illusions. As a genjutsu specialist, Yuta's didn't want to be outplayed like that by some inferior genjutsu user in front of the audience, so he wanted to just extend his dodging maneuver instead.
But the next instant Kota's hand made a grabbing motion and swung to the side, in the direction where Yuta was dodging, and the next instant Yuta saw how all those dozens of kunai copies changed direction and flew at him, following his dodging maneuver.
'Well, shit...' Yuta thought as he watched how about three dozen kunai suddenly changed their trajectory and followed him. He knew there was only one real kunai in there, but he is not going to take chances by trying to deflect all of them one by one, he won't be able to account for all of them at once, he knew that much.
'The kunai was connected by ninja wire, huh... Is this how that girl in the preliminaries felt when I attacked her with five copies of myself at the same time from all angles? Not a very pleasant feeling, huh...'
--- AN ---
Damn, is he ever going to learn? Don't answer that, it was a rhetorical question...
...
We all know damn well, he wouldn't...
...
Hey guys, stop that, please stop writing those hateful comments, it was just a joke, of course he would learn...
...
Probably...
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