(October, year 52 AK)
Yuta successfully blocked another punch from a guy that was bigger and taller than him, he was already quite exhausted and hurting all over from the hits he already blocked during this fight and the hits that he wasn't able to. It was a while since Yuta saw the fight started and he jumped into it straight ahead.
At first Yuta wanted to watch from the distance, but he quickly understood that this way he would be too far away and wouldn't be able to act when the time comes.
Yuta rarely had an opportunity to throw a counterattack of his own, and mostly stayed on the defensive, if this continues, he would be overwhelmed rather sooner than later.
Those guys that attacked Itachi's group were from the third or fourth grade of the academy, and Yuta was struggling against one of them just to not get completely defeated before the fight is over, and on top of that, he has to pay attention to Itachi who was some distance beside him, and easily dodging all the punches of two guys at once.
'Damn, how long I have to keep up... And Itachi, who seems relaxed and untouchable, did his shadow clone even need my help?!' Yuta though while doing his best just to last a little bit longer.
"Hey! Stop it at once!" The loud voice of an adult was resounded all over the place.
'It's Mamoru!' Yuta exclaimed in his mind excitedly, 'No! I shouldn't drop my guard just yet, this is the moment I came here for!'
As everyone stopped fighting, or rather the upperclassmen stopped beating up Itachi's group, Itachi stopped moving as well and dropped his guard.
Immediately, the two upperclassmen beside him, took the opportunity and one of them grabbed Itachi from behind, and another was throwing a punch straight into the Itachi's face, Itachi won't be able to dodge or block this attack since he was carelessly got himself restrained.
Yuta was ignored by his opponent since Mamoru was showed up, and he was moving straight to Itachi, and now, seeing that Itachi was about to get hit, he jumped right in front of Itachi just in time... Just in time to block the punch with his own face, sadly, since there wasn't enough time to block it properly...
As Yuta flew a couple meters away, and the guy who punched him was going to throw another punch at Itachi, Mamoru showed up and stood in front of Itachi.
"I said stop this at once!" Mamoru yelled, glaring angerly at the guy, who reluctantly lowered his hands.
With that, the incident was over, and upperclassmen were walked away. Mamoru looked over Yuta and Itachi's group, and seeing that everyone was more or less alright, he left as well.
Yuta stood up with some effort, his face was hurt, as well as most of his body, but it was nothing serious, just some bruises that's all.
Although fights like that is quite common in the academy, and teachers only intervene when the outcome was already decided and the fight becomes a one-sided beating, still these fights never escalate too much, everyone is still a comrade at the end of the day, and there is no idiots who could pull out a kunai.
"Thanks Yuta." Itachi said while being a little embarrassed that he got himself caught like that.
"No problem." Yuta replied with a knowing smirk, giving Itachi a sign that he knows about him being a shadow clone.
If Itachi was surprised, he didn't show it up and acted normally.
"Hey, those bastards, how dare they attack us, Itachi, are you alright?!" Saisu spoke loudly as he came closer, he was the guy from Yuta's class who is the leader of the group of Itachi's followers, Yuta had a spar with him the other day.
"I'm fine." Itachi calmly replied.
"Hey Yuta, we are in the same class. I saw you fought those guys too, nice job!" Saisu said, "You should hang with us, one day we will show those guys that we are the best!"
"I'm tired, I'll see you guys later." Yuta turned around to leave after saying that.
'I don't want to get on the Fugaku's radar in case he still keeps Itachi under surveillance, also I don't really want to be surrounded by these kids. Itachi is quite mature for his age, and I don't feel cringe talking to him, but others though... No thanks!'
"Hey, don't be like that! Why even fight for us if you don't want to hang out with us?" Saisu exclaimed being annoyed.
Yuta glanced back and said with a smile, "As you said, we are from the same class, it's only natural that I jumped into the fight, isn't it?" After spewing that bushtit with a straight face, Yuta left, 'I'm getting better at acting, I think!' He thought proudly.
"Damn, I didn't know he was such a cool guy!" Saisu said after Yuta left, being impressed.
"He is cool guy? Didn't you see his face? He was beaten even worse than us!" One of the other boys said being irritated.
Itachi, hearing that remark, lowered his eyes in embarrassment, 'He took that last punch for my sake...' Itachi thought.
But this was only Itachi's shadow clone, and the original Itachi was currently training, obliviously to what's happened, on some of the training grounds nearby the Uchiha clan compound.
...
After the classes ended and Yuta went home and had some dinner, he went to train as per usual.
He was in the middle of his Water-Walking exercise session, he was walking on water quite confidently, his chakra was under a lot of strain still, but the exercise itself was no longer that difficult for him. It still depletes his chakra in about ten minutes or so, but he has gotten used to it by now and he was gradually reducing the chakra wastage by improving his chakra control.
"I see you are training hard as usual." Yuta heard Shisui's casual voice from the shore of the lake, "And you are getting better, nice job!"
"Thanks." Yuta replied absentmindedly, he was used to Shisui's sudden visits by now, the only thing that was still bothering him is that he wasn't able to notice him before he starts talking, even once.
Shisui jumped forward and landed beside Yuta on the surface of the lake.
"I heard from Itachi that you helped him at the academy today." Shisui said casually as he walked alongside Yuta, who was continuing with his exercise by walking on the surface of the lake.
"More like I helped his shadow clone." Yuta replied casually.
"So, you indeed knew that it was a shadow clone." Shisui said without much surprise.
"Yea, no kidding... Why else would I bother to take the punch to the face in his place? The teacher was present, if he saw Itachi using the Shadow Clone jutsu, it would've become the big deal."
"Ha ha, it sure would've." Shisui laughed casually, "He would've probably graduated from the academy just for that. So, you didn't want him to graduate just yet?"
"Yea, it would be nice if I could end up on his team after the academy, but there is just no way for me to graduate early just after my first year..." Yuta said casually with some regret in his voice.
Recently Yuta was started to speak with Shisui more and more casually and openly, he was aware that sometimes he was saying too much, but after thinking about it for a while, Yuta thought that it's not a big deal, he won't be spilling any important secrets anyway, and it's not like he has any ill intentions either, so there is no reason for secrecy. It could be said that Yuta started to trust Shisui to some degree.
Another big factor for being open and honest with Shisui, in Yuta's opinion, was that at the end of the day Shisui is a seasoned shinobi, and he is very sharp, trying to hide certain things from him would only cause suspicion. So whenever the conversation touches something Yuta aren't willing to say, like the exact nature of his special ability that he uses to gather intel on the future events, in such cases Yuta openly tells Shisui that he don't wan't to talk about it, instead of trying to lie and divert the topic subtly, like all the shinobi usually do.
And such open tactics with Shisui seem to be working great for Yuta so far.
Shisui looked at Yuta thoughtfully, "I see, your chakra control is already better than most of the Genins, your chakra reserves are also good enough already, and you won't have any problem with the academy jutsu, that's for sure."
"Yea, and I won't have any problem with any theoretical tests either, but there is just one problem left." Yuta said regretfully.
"Your taijutsu." Shisui declared with certainty.
"Exactly." Yuta glanced at Shisui and nodded as he continued walking on water, having no issues maintaining the concentration on his chakra flow, "I don't have much talent for taijutsu, and taijutsu had just happened to be the shinobi's bread and butter..."
After a few seconds of silence, Shisui said thoughtfully, "Itachi will remain in the academy for one more year, but any more than that and it would be detrimental for his growth as a shinobi, do you understand?"
"Yea, I get that, he needs real life experience, and he is already bored with the academy to the point of sending a shadow clone in his stead."
"So, what do you think, would you be able to reach the requirements for the early graduation in the next year?"
"Sigh, I could only do my best." Yuta said, "It would be much easier if I master some advanced jutsu, like the Shadow Clone though, but sadly..."
"You don't have enough chakra for that, the Shadow Clone jutsu was mostly being used by Jonins for a reason." Shisui said casually.
"I know that." Yuta sighed regretfully, 'It would be a while before I could amass that much chakra, should I time-travel and repeat the academy years over and over until I reach it?' He thought depressed.
After a while of silence, Shisui finally said.
"But it doesn't have to be the Shadow Clone jutsu. There is some advanced jutsu exists that didn't require too much chakra, and mastering one of them could help you to graduate early as well." Shisui said with a smile, "Do you already know in which area you are most talented? I could help you with one advanced jutsu depending on what is your strong suite is, it would be only fair if I could repay you for your intel on Orochimaru and you helping Itachi at the academy."
Yuta was excided hearing that Shisui was willing to teach him an advanced jutsu, he was trying his best to keep the concentration and not start wobbling on the surface of water due to his excitement embarrassingly, still, the ripples on the water surface around his feet was intensified significantly due to the sudden lapse in chakra control.
After a brief thought, Yuta said, "My spiritual energy is much stronger than physical energy, so I guess, anything Yin-related would be great for me."
"Yin-related, huh. Since that the case, your specialty should be genjutsu then, you are in luck, it's my specialty as well!" Shisui confidently said with a smile.
--- AN ---
Posting each day is a lot of work, I might take a day off once or twice a week. The next chapter will be published on time though.
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Thanks to Loalola, ParadoX691, creationking, waltersaaron16, Jayroy_63, Dylan_Cardenas_843, Rohan_ps and Coldasice223 for the power stones!