(December, year 54 AK)
Yuta completed his shift and Itachi took over when it was already dark outside, and Yuta went inside the mansion to rest.
This time Yuta controlled his emotions and appearance better, so Shisui didn't approach him inside the mansion this time, and Yuta didn't warn him about the incoming attack during the coming night.
A while later, Yuta woke up in the middle of the night as his chakra senses warned him about the attack. He, without feeling any surprise and remaining calm inside, immediately jumped out of his bed and ran outside the mansion.
Shortly after, Yuta flickered and stood beside Itachi, facing four Stone ninjas some distance in front of them, Hikari appeared beside them as well.
"Well, would you look at that, it's just some kids, tree-huggers, are they even old enough to be considered ninjas?" Daichi said his line mockingly for the nth time and Yuta suppressed the desire to yawn.
The short conversation continues a bit more, until Keisuke finally said, "... Everyone, attack, we don't have all night." and the Stone ninjas started moving.
'Finally stopped yapping. Well, let's do this. Hopefully, it will be the last time I had to listen to that conversation... Seriously, those Stone guys should learn a thing or two from us. We assembled here fast in just about two seconds after the attack, stood silently, and calmly observed our enemies while calculating the following strategy, without any yapping, like proper and professional ninjas should.'
Yuta thought as he observed how Itachi moved to clash with Keisuke, and Hikari proactively attacked Daichi and Ryota, then he glanced at Maki, who moved straight at him with burning hatred in her eyes, but in Yuta's eyes she was already dead, she just doesn't know it yet.
Yuta pulled a bunch of shurikens from his pouch and threw them at her, same as before, and proceeded to repeat the same moves as before.
Shortly after, the time came and Yuta, while looking at Maki bursting out from the ground just beneath his clone some distance away from the real him, Yuta immediately detonated the paper tag bomb he left on the ground beneath his clone and simultaneously used the Shadow Chains genjutsu to restrain Maki.
And just like that, the same as before, Maki was blown to pieces by the point-blank detonation of the paper tag bomb.
"Maki! NO!" Keisuke shouted from the distance desperately and Yuta ignored him completely.
'So far so good, but let's do some things differently this time.' Yuta thought and after he briefly glanced at Itachi vs Keisuke's fight, he switched his attention to Hikari vs Daichi and Ryota's fight, just in time to witness how Hikari, making a good use of the distraction that Yuta had provided by killing Maki, had slashed her sword through Ryota's chest while he was momentarily distracted, leaving a deep cut. It wasn't lethal, but it started bleeding profusely, and it was a very serious wound if it wasn't treated soon enough.
Seeing that, Yuta openly starts running in Hikari's direction, much to Hikari's annoyance and irritation.
Yuta thought about approaching this fight sneakily, but then he thought about how he killed Maki by using his Shadow Chains genjutsu, and about Keisuke that might've seen what happened, so Yuta decided to openly use his Shadow Chains a few more times to reinforce Keisuke's understanding of his genjutsu openly.
He decided to do that with one simple purpose – Keisuke doesn't know that Yuta can't use this jutsu against him yet, so Yuta would demonstrate it a few more times openly, and then, when time comes to use it against Keisuke, Yuta would show him that it doesn't work against him, hence Keisuke will relax and drop his guard a bit later on, allowing Yuta to use his other genjutsu against him that Keisuke doesn't suspects yet – Shadow Cloak.
Although the Shadow Cloak genjutsu didn't work on Keisuke very well the last time, Yuta believed that together with Hikari, the three of them attacking Keisuke at the same time, it might turn out differently.
Those calculations had run through Yuta's mind in a split-second as he approached Hikari's fight.
"Why are you here, go away, go help Itachi instead!" Hikari barked at him annoyedly as Yuta came closer.
'Sigh, I already tried that, didn't work very well the last time...' Yuta thought tiredly, but obviously he couldn't explain that to her.
Instead, Yuta said, "We should finish here quickly and go help Itachi together."
As he said that, Hickari clicked her tongue in annoyance and attacked Daichi and Ryota again, quickly closing the distance and pressing her attack by swinging her sword wildly at both of them, clearly being very irritated by Yuta's sudden interference with her fight.
Yuta, to not stay still, pull out a bunch of shurikens and followed Hikari at some distance behind her, he started throwing shurikens ad Daichi and Ryota from time to time whenever he saw slightest opportunity, although it served as a good distraction, both of them was able to defend against it and the fight continued.
He didn't use Shadow Chains genjutsu right away, looking for a good opening first. After all, there is two of them, and his Shadow Chains genjutsu is still a single target jutsu, so if he restrains one of them, another would be able to protect him in time and to dispel the genjutsu from outside, so Yuta has to pick a good timing before using his Shadow Chains genjutsu first, if he doesn't want it to be wasted and to give away crucial intel on his jutsu right away like that.
Yuta started to calculate Daichi's and Ryota's moves, and the more time went by, the more Yuta understood how they move and operate, so the strategy started to form in his mind, and soon he finished his calculations.
After that, when Hikari briefly disengaged after another clash with one of them, Yuta quickly signaled her with hand sign language a few words, "wait, right, kill", he was sure that she would pick up on what he was implying right away, after all the team training that Shisui put them under, they are already able to communicate with just few simplest signs like that easily.
After that, instead of jumping right back into the fray, Hikari waited for a moment, while Yuta immediately threw a kunai with a paper tag bomb wrapped around the handle, the trajectory of the kunai wasn't random, it flew right in the middle between Daichi and Ryota and stack in the ground just between them, the paper tag was already sizzling.
Daichi and Ryota quickly jumped away from the blast, Ryota to the left from Yuta and Hikari, and Daichi to the right. But as Daichi's feet touched the ground after the jump, he heard a distinct whistling sound of some bird that came somewhere from the sky, or so he thought, and the next moment Daichi saw in shock how the area below his feet become pitch black and formed black chains that wrapped around his whole body in an instant, firmly restraining his movements.
And right at the next moment, not letting him even properly comprehend what happened, Hikari's sword plunged into his chest right away, piercing his heart, as Hikari didn't stand still and immediately followed Daichi as the paper tag bomb was detonating, since Daichi was the one who jumped to her right, and that was what Yuta signaled her to do.
As the sword pierced his chest, Daichi looked at it with shock and disbelief in his eyes. Next second Hikari pulled out the sword, and the pitch-black chains disappeared, allowing Daichi to move, but he didn't have any strength left and just fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes, life slowly fading from his eyes.
"Daichi!!!" Ryota screamed in shock as he watched the scene, unable to do anything to stop it as he was too far away to intervene and there was a paper tag bomb exploding between him and Daichi, so he just watched how his teammate was killed in front of him, so close and at the same time – too far to do anything to stop it.
Ryota was already wounded, and his strength was depleting fast, seeping out of him together with his blood from his profusely bleeding wound on his chest.
He looked away from Daichi's fallen body and looked at Yuta, who stood not too far away, still clasping his hands forming a hand seal. Needless to say, that Ryota knew full well who was responsible for Daichi's death, and Maki's death just before that, as he quickly figured that Daichi didn't dodge the blade because he was under some kind of jutsu that Yuta had casted just now.
An intense hatred started to burn brightly in Ryota's eyes as he ran straight at Yuta, much faster than before, now, Ryota was seemingly didn't care anymore about his own life and the condition of his body, all that he cares now is to take that kid who killed two of his friends to hell with him, nothing else mattered to Ryota at that moment, there was only Yuta in his eyes, and the quickly disappearing distance between the two of them.
Yuta watched with a bit of satisfaction of a job-well-done as Daichi's body fell to the ground, then he heard some movements to his left and glanced in that direction, just in time to spot a quickly approaching Ryota with murder in his eyes.
'Oh shit...' Yuta thought as he remembered how far Hikari currently was and that he was completely on his own for at least a second or two until she would be able to come back and protect him. And then Yuta quickly remembered Hikari's personality and at that moment he knew, it wasn't even guaranteed that she would be in a hurry to protect him at all, especially after he had interfered in her fight again like that...
'Shit, shit, shit...' Yuta thought as he quickly formed another hand seal while watching how Ryota, with completely crazy look on his face was already closing the distance on him...
--- AN ---
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