(July, year 54 AK)
As Yuta walked away from the two severely wounded ninjas and an unconscious one, he thought with a bit of regret, 'How come neither of them suspected anything at all?'
'There was a bird's sounds that I had to imitate for my genjutsu, and although I had picked the right kind of local bird to imitate, the sound was still off, there is almost no birds right now in the vicinity, I directed the sound so it would seem as if it came from the sky, but if they paid a proper attention to the environment, they would've noticed that there wasn't a bird in the direction from where the sound came from...'
'But I guess I expected too much from them, they are probably just some average Chunins, maybe only a proper Jonin would be sharp enough to notice something like that right away...'
'But again, they saw their unconscious comrade disappearing in front of their eyes, it was a dead giveaway of the genjutsu being used, but what did they do? They assumed it was just another clone distraction instead, like the two clones that I left behind for us to be able to hide and sneak up on them more easily, so they had completely wasted that clue I left for them.'
'And then even after I made Shuji to realize it was a genjutsu and let him warn his teammate about it, what did Hiromitsu do? He dispelled the genjutsu and saw how his teammate disappeared as well, he should've suspected that something isn't right, he should've tried to dispel the genjutsu at least one more time right away, but he didn't...'
'Well, not like it would've helped him anyway, with me standing right in front of him and being ready to restore the genjutsu by layering it perfectly on top of another in the moment of it being dispelled, at least that part of the testing went somewhat smoothly and it worked just as planned, I only hoped for being able to test it a few more times though...'
'Sigh, I should've engaged in a taijutsu with the last enemy instead to test out my weakest skill, that would've been much more useful and at that point there won't be anything wrong with that, but I expected him to dispel my genjutsu at least once more, but well... whatever...'
...
'Well then, I wasted enough time, if Hikari isn't done yet, then it would be only right thing to do if I help her.' Yuta thought as a smirk had formed on his face, 'We are a team after all, right? I can't let my teammate to struggle in a fight against a strong opponent without providing any help, right? That would be bad teamwork and Shisui won't be happy about it, right? I guess it's only natural if I help Hikari right away!'
Although Yuta did some questionable mental gymnastics to justify him interfering in Hikari's fight, in truth he just didn't want Hikari to hog all the fun for herself there.
It was a rare occasion to be able to fight against a strong enemy like that, and Yuta had previously estimated that guy Jun as the strongest among their squad, so Yuta didn't want to miss out on the opportunity to test his skills against the guy, especially not after those two ninjas turned out to be so weak and disappointing.
After all, all those years that Yuta spent training were all for one single reason - to become stronger. And there isn't any better way to test the results of training than to have a fight against a strong opponent, that's how everyone tests and measures strength in this world, and Yuta is no different.
Although with Yuta's knowledge about this world, he understands the true power levels much better than anyone else who was born in this world, but even he finds it vital to test his own limits and measure his own progress in a form of a real battle, only then he could be sure of where exactly he truly stands on the power scales.
In a few more seconds of running, Yuta approached the place where Hikari was fighting against Jun. Since Yuta was in a hurry and he didn't hide himself well enough and was being quickly spotted by Jun who quickly jumped back after another clash with Hikari and looked to the side at Yuta with tense expression.
Hikari spotted Yuta too and her enthusiastic attitude had dimmed a bit and she quickly shouted, "Hey! Don't you dare! This is my fight! You've already got those two other guys!"
"You can't be serious." Yuta replied to Hikari while keeping his eyes firmly on Jun, his stance was firm and he was focused.
Even though Yuta wasn't worried too much about Jun, and he even believed that Hikari should be able to handle him alone, he still remembered well that he wasn't good at taijutsu and he understood how quickly a strong and experienced ninja could close the distance and kill him, so he wasn't about to make a rookie mistake and lover his guard around such an opponent even for a split second.
"We are a team. Captain won't be happy if we don't work as one, you know that. I don't want to be subjected to yet another torture session that he calls 'teamwork training', do you?"
Although Yuta was spouting all what comes to his mind, he was just trying his best to convince Hikari to let him join on the fun.
If Jun where to get to know what is going on here, he would've be pissed beyond all reason, as there was two eight-year-old kids who were arguing about who among them would have all the fun of fighting and killing him, him who is an experienced veteran ninja who is almost in his thirties and who was trained as a ninja from the very young age...
"He is mine! I can handle him on my own!" Hikari replied angerly.
"Sigh, fine, I'll be just here if you need me..." Yuta said reluctantly. Although he wanted to test his skills here, it wasn't that important, there will be other opportunities in the future, and if he wanted to, he still could time-travel and go ahead of Hikari and clash with the guy before she did, but Yuta finds that too trivial to bother time-traveling for.
"Hey you, where are my teammates?!" Jun finally had enough and shouted angerly at Yuta with a bit of worry sipping into his tone.
...
'Hm, I said I will stay away, but what if he is the one who engages instead...' Yuta thought as a slight smirk formed on his face.
"Huh, what do you think? If I'm here, that could only mean that they are all dead, you moron." Yuta said as he looked at Jun like as if he said something utterly idiotic.
'Yea, by the book it could only mean that.' Yuta thought, 'Those two had a rescue mission, if they succeeded, I would be either defeated or in pursuit after them. If I showed up here, that means either they are defeated or that my other teammates are dealing with them right now. And if that's the case, since I showed up here, that means that I wasn't needed there, and this is also a bad sign for Jun. No matter how he thinks about it, his teammates are either already dead or soon will be.'
Yuta didn't know what exactly was going on inside Jun's head, but it seems that Jun had come to a similar conclusion as his expression hardened and the look in his eyes grew colder.
"I'll kill you!" Jun shouted and started forming hand seals at a very high speed.
"Sigh, now look at what you've done..." Hikari sighed with annoyance, but the next instant she already ran at Jun with her sword, her expression was very displeased.
Although Hikari ran fast, she was a moment too late and Jun was able to finish his jutsu. Yuta was on guard and focused all his attention on Jun, ready to use Substitution or Body Flicker or both to dodge whatever Jun was about to throw at him, but what happened next was quite unexpected for him and surprised him greatly.
The next instant, Yuta felt a vague feeling, on the edge of his chakra sensitivity, he felt how the foreign chakra subtly enveloped his chakra network and slightly interfered in his chakra flow.
'Huh?! Is he using genjutsu?! Against ME!?' Yuta was so shocked by the realization that he almost lost control of his actions for a moment and almost dispelled the genjutsu on instinct the moment he noticed it.
But then he stopped his instinctive action just in time, he wanted to use this rare opportunity to test it out, genjutsu specialists are very rare among ninjas after all, besides Yuta was confident that he wouldn't lose to his opponent in the field of genjutsu.
'Let's see what you've got for me...' Yuta thought as he focused on his senses and started to analyze every tiny detail in what he sees, hears, smells and feels on his skin...
Yuta understood that it might be stupid to allow the enemy's genjutsu to affect himself like that, but he couldn't resist the opportunity to test out someone else's genjutsu either, and he was confident that he will be able to still see through it enough to be able to defend himself anyway. If there was one field in which Yuta felt confident, it was genjutsu, after all, and his opponent is no Uchiha, so Yuta believed there is no way he could lose here, not like that, he will not be defeated by a regular genjutsu specialist.
--- AN ---
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