(6th of August, year 55 AK)
Hikari runs towards Yuta at full speed, the distance between them decreasing quickly.
Since Yuta still couldn't breathe in any air after receiving a strong kick to the chest, he used a bit of his chakra around his diaphragm muscles to help himself breathe in just a bit of air, just enough for what he planned next.
"How?" He asked with shock and surprise in his voice, although that was just an act, he wasn't experiencing any emotions right now, still under the effect of the Calm State.
Yuta wanted this question to sound genuinely, so Hikari doesn't suspect that he used it to cast another genjutsu, that he did.
Previously, as Hikari noticed him sneaking up on her somehow and kicked him, his Shadow Cloak genjutsu had being broken instantly.
The Shadow Cloak genjutsu works by blocking the recognition and comprehension, making the mind of a target to be unable to recognize whatever the genjutsu is currently obscuring, making the person to look away and dismiss the obscured object from their mind. But in case the person is still able to somehow bypass this block, the genjutsu won't be able to do anything any longer and would be broken instantly, and that was exactly what happened back then.
Yuta didn't experience his Shadow Cloak genjutsu being broken this way since the time he was still developing it and testing it frequently on Shisui. Only by Shisui, and only back then when his Shadow Cloak genjutsu was still not as strong as it is now, that was the only time this genjutsu of his had being broken this way, and never after.
Back in the day Yuta even used to spend effort to move fluidly, without any sudden or abrupt movements to not attract too much attention from the person that was under his Shadow Cloak genjutsu, like during the combat evaluation fight before he was Genin. Back then his genjutsu wasn't strong enough, and any abrupt movement might've attracted too much attention and after a certain threshold the genjutsu would fail and be broken in the same way it happened now.
But Yuta couldn't believe that Hikari might have broken his Shadow Cloak jutsu the same way. It would simply be too difficult to overcome the genjutsu's blocking mechanism by normal means.
'Could she have some advanced detection jutsu I don't know about? Something like that, in theory, could've helped her to overcome my Shadow Cloak, but this is a stretch...' Yuta thought as he felt how his new Shadow Cloak genjutsu is taking hold of the coming at him at full speed Hikari and staying dormant just for a moment longer.
Hikari didn't reply to his question, but she didn't try using genjutsu dispelling technique anymore either.
At the same time Yuta felt that his Shadow Mirage genjutsu that is still affecting her from before, was running out of time and he only had about a few more seconds of it until it runs out completely.
His Shadow Mirage genjutsu was designed to be lite and simple, so it doesn't have much juice in it to begin with, and it also doesn't have a mechanisms in it for Yuta to be able to pour more chakra into it after it being cast, like he could do with his other two genjutsu techniques to some extent, so his only option to keep it running is to re-cast it over and over. Everything that wasn't important in that jutsu, like the duration and other features, was being cut off to simplify it and to make it faster.
As Hikari closed up on him, Yuta jumped to the side, at the same time he controlled his Shadow Mirage to produce another batch of seven illusions of himself to try to distract her, while he hid himself with the Shadow Cloak.
As soon as Yuta moved slightly out of the way of Hikari's attack and put some distraction going with his illusions, he immediately clasped his hands in a hand seal to use the Body Flicker jutsu to flicker far away and create a huge distance between them to win some time to think everything through. Although he could use the Body Flicker quite fast even without any hand seals by now, it was still faster with a single hand seal, and Yuta wasn't taking any chances now.
And as the Body Flicker was starting to take effect and Hikari had sliced the closest illusion with a kunai, Yuta felt how his Shadow Cloak genjutsu suddenly being broken once again, and Hikari instantly locked in on him with her eyes that was full of fighting spirit and anticipation of finally beating him down.
She moved fast towards him and swung her kunai, but the Body Flicker jutsu had activated first, and Yuta flickered to the other side of the arena just in time for her kunai to pass through the empty air instead of injuring him.
As soon as Yuta reappeared, he despite the dizziness turned around towards Hikari's position and while fighting the side effect of the jutsu he was on full alert and ready to intercept her if she were to flicker right away after him.
He knew that she has the same problem with the Body Flicker jutsu, everyone does, he had activated it first, she would need at least half a second to follow him up, and then another second to suppress the dizziness, so he had an advantage in that second to make a move on her.
Normally, he wouldn't even assume that Hikari could dare to follow him up like that, but now, after his genjutsu being broken by unknown means over and over, he doesn't know what to expect from her anymore, so he is calculating every possibility, even if it doesn't seem possible.
She didn't flicker after him.
Once again, they were at different ends of the arena, looking at each other.
Once again, they start to walk towards each other.
Yuta was re-calculating the strategy and forming a plan as he walked. He was calculating the multiple possible combination with Shadow Cloak and Shadow Mirage, forming multistep strategies, adding other jutsu into the mix, Substitution, Body Flicker, even Clone jutsu, he was calculating multiple tactics up to eight moves ahead but it wasn't looking good for him no matter how much he tries to find the winning combination without the Shadow Chains here.
'How is she breaking my genjutsu? Until I figure this out, I can't win.' Yuta analyzed, 'My strongest combination, if I exclude Chains, is Mirage plus Cloak, and it didn't work against her, I'm really out of options here. Maybe Shikamaru in my place would've been able to concoct some twenty-steps-plan that would give a chance to win this, but I'm not him. Although I don't consider myself stupid, still, all the combinations and tactics I could think of and calculate up to seven-eight steps, they all crumble in the end, being broken by her ability to detect my real location any time.'
'Why didn't she use it from the beginning? Maybe she wanted to win without using it? and in the end, I had forced her to use it, if she still didn't, she would've lost already.'
...
'It really seems that without my Shadow Chains I won't be able to pull this off.' Yuta concluded at the end of his brainstorm as he stopped walking. He and Hikari stood once again in a standoff in the middle of the arena.
"Out of tricks already?" Hikari said teasingly, "Seems all of your tricks and schemes isn't working against me, huh... If that's all you've got, then I'm disappointed."
Yuta, in his emotionless Calm State, obviously didn't feel anything as he heard this provocation.
"You didn't win just yet." Yuta simply replied while re-casting his Shadow Cloak on her in a dormant state. And contrary to his expectations, she didn't attack right away as soon as he opened his mouth this time. That alone told him a lot about how confident she was in her new detection ability that somehow bypasses his genjutsu.
"Ah, of course, you are in that state right now. Ruin all my fun, why wouldn't you. It's not even enjoyable teasing you while you are like this." She said with a bit of disappointment.
"Wouldn't tell me how you are doing this?" Yuta asked without much expectation, and re-cast his Shadow Mirage in a dormant state on her in the process.
"Why would I? You are the smart one, who always knows everything and calculates ten moves ahead... Figure it out." She replied teasingly.
Next, Yuta did something he only came up with recently while he was brainstorming the strategy against Hikari. It wasn't necessary, since he could've just used that jutsu while he was further away from her, even without going to such lengths, but he still wanted to test something. And now, as he was relatively close to her, he needed some distraction to use that jutsu, since it required more time and unskippable hand seals, so normally Hikari would be able to attack him before he finishes casting it.
And so, Yuta activated both his dormant genjutsu on Hikari at the same time. With Shadow Mirage he created an exact illusory copy of himself at his exact position, overlapping it perfectly over his own body, so visually there was no difference. At the same time, he hid himself with Shadow Cloak while staying still.
Then Yuta moved his hands to form the three hand seals for his Shadow Chains jutsu, while Hikari shouldn't suspect a thing, since all she should be able to see is Yuta standing still, and whatever detection technique she might be using - it would also tell her that he was right there in front of her. And as for his hand motions, Yuta was currently trying to test it out if she notices it or not.
Yes, he decided to finally use his ultimate tramp card here and now. He didn't want to lose this match. Even with his Calm State active, and his emotions being completely suppressed, he still wanted to win against Hikari badly. It is as if something else is being at play here, stirring his suppressed emotions and compelling him to give it his all in this fight, partially bypassing his Calm State somehow, or maybe this strong desire to win had come from the same source as the Calm State itself...
Either way, Yuta was prepared to give it his best shot...
Hikari didn't move right away as he moved his hands and formed hand seals.
"Maybe I don't have to figure it out to win." Yuta said as he completed the last hand seal and cast the Shadow Chains genjutsu on Hikari.
--- AN ---
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