(July, year 55 AK)
After getting more advices from Shisui, Yuta spent the tenth cycle, as well as two more after that by further perfecting and polishing his new jutsu.
At the start of the thirteenth cycle Yuta was very satisfied with how his new jutsu had turned out.
As he was sitting on his bed at home, he thought, 'I don't think I can improve it any further anymore, it's as good as it going to be, with my current capabilities at least. The jutsu requires six hand seals, but I should be able to reduce it all the way to sealless casting. And it requires even less chakra than the Shadow Cloak jutsu. It also could be casted on multiple targets as well.'
'And for the illusion of my clones itself, it turned out even better than I imagined, it shouldn't be possible even for the experienced ninjas to spot right away where is a clone and where is the real me, it should be able to briefly confuse even a Jonin. Although the Sharingan users, or the Byakugan... Damn those cheaters... Sigh... I still don't know what Shisui meant that time, and he won't be telling me more...'
'And with this jutsu's lesser complexity and chakra requirements, I should be able to cast it faster and easier than the Shadow Cloak, that means I should be able to layer the genjutsu on top of another one more easily and consistently. With the correct timings by casting it on the same opponent in the exact moment the opponent is trying to dispel the genjutsu, I should be able to create an illusion that the genjutsu cannot be dispelled.'
'By forcing my opponent to fight me with this genjutsu being constantly active, I would create a huge advantage for myself in such a fight... But it will depend on my own skills against my opponent's skills, as well as how prepared my opponent is in terms of resisting genjutsu. A skilled Jonin probably could repeatedly stop and flare his chakra flow so even I won't be able to continue layering my genjutsu on such an opponent over and over to keep it running, but this will also hinder my opponent as well, since he wouldn't be able to use any jutsu himself with his chakra flow being repeatedly surging like that.'
'And still, those special eyes are such a pain, my new genjutsu won't amount to much in front of those dojutsu users at all... I need to find a way to fight against them, without that there is no winning against Itachi not even in theory... Hikari though, this new genjutsu of mine should hinder her well.'
'Although she did show some unexpected skills in resisting genjutsu suddenly during our mission to the Land of Rivers where we fought some Valleys ninjas and a genjutsu user. Back then she was able to see through that guy's genjutsu right away when he swapped our positions suddenly and made me look like him to Hikari, while she was in the middle of her attack. Back then she held back just enough so I was able to defend myself against her attacks, somehow, she knew from the start...'
...
'Sigh, doesn't matter, I wouldn't know if it's effective against her until I try. I still need to train with my new genjutsu until I'm able to cast it without any hand seals fast and proficient enough.'
From now on Yuta stopped using his mindscape for everything and started practicing his new genjutsu in the real world.
For the next twelve cycles, or months in a time-loop, Yuta was actively training with his new genjutsu, reducing the hand seals requirement, as well as mastering it so using it becomes as natural for him as with his other two genjutsu, so he could use it in combat without much thought in an instant.
At the end of another cycle Yuta realized, that his progress in practicing the new genjutsu had slowed to a crawl and he doesn't make any significant progress anymore, and that meant that he was done mastering it and his skills with it is as good as they could possibly be at the time being.
'Removing hand seals and mastering the new genjutsu took less time than I thought, huh...' Yuta thought at the end of the cycle, lying in bed and thinking if he should go for another cycle or stop there. In the end, deciding that there is no reason to keep practicing, since he won't be getting any better with it even if he practices for another year.
'I believe it only gets easier from this point. I already advanced my genjutsu skills quite a lot. Developing a new similar genjutsu will be much easier from now on, as long as it is not some new area of genjutsu application. I spent two years by now on this new genjutsu, and considering the time acceleration in my mindscape, it was more like five years in total. But if I were to develop some new similar genjutsu right now, I think it will only take about a year or two instead of five, that's progress, I guess...'
'The cast is quicker than with the Shadow Cloak, requires less chakra, could be used almost instantly against fast taijutsu specialists, everything is just the way I wanted, now I only need to test it against the real opponents... I guess it's time to end this time-loop and progress to the finals, huh...'
'And my chakra... It's about 8C right now, almost on a Jonin's level, huh... The time in this time-loop is comparable to five years of hard work, and it only increased my chakra from 5.7C to 8C, 2.3C in total. My chakra growth rate is slowing down, it would take another five years of training in time-loops to reach 10C or 1J with this progression. And the real struggle will only begin after I reach 1J. And the side effect of the energies imbalance is starting to show up again, although not as serious as I feared, it should be gone again in six months of natural physical growth or so.'
...
'It would be hard to increase my chakra past Jonin level? So what? I'll figure something out when I get there. There are enough forbidden techniques in the world that could make my chakra and power to skyrocket, and even if I'm not satisfied with those, I always could just develop something on my own in the future, so I'm not really worried about my low natural ceiling with my overall talent, there is always a way...'
'Besides, my favorite part of this world since I watched the anime have always been all those special eyes, Sharingan, Byakugan, Mangekyo Sharingan, Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, Tenseigan, Rinnegan, and whatever that bullshit eyes that those Otsutsuki guys had... And now I could even understand Orochimaru a bit better in his desire to acquire the Sharingan for himself, the real and perfect one, not just transplanted.'
'Shouldn't I aim for something like that as well? But how? I don't like the Orochimaru's path of trying to possess the body of Itachi and then Sasuke to get it. But is there any other way for me to do something like that?'
'I guess there is another way, there was a guy in some of the side stories that developed a jutsu, Chimera Technique was its name I think, it allows to absorb multiple bodies of Bloodline users to fuse all Bloodlines into your own body... But it's not much better, is it? One way or another, I have to either take someone else's body as my own, or to fuse their body into mine...'
'To be honest, the idea of using Orochimaru's jutsu or that Chimera Technique is not something I'm enthusiastic about. I might resort to something like that in the distant future to get the Sharingan, but only if there is absolutely no other way. Using something like that feels repulsive. Although, for the sake of power, and if there are no other solutions, I still might use something like that...'
...
'Well, there is no point in thinking about that right now. One step at a time. First the finals and the promotion, then the Uchiha clan's crisis, then it is Danzo's turn, Hikari also needs some investigation, that new Bloodline of hers is quite suspicious, I don't remember anything like that in the original story and this worries me. And only when I'm done with all of that and there is nothing else more urgent and pressing on my list, then I would be able to start working on my own stuff.'
'By then I should grow up a bit more, build up my reputation in the village, maybe get another promotion if not to Jonin rank then to Special Jonin at least, by that time I would be able to make moves more freely inside and outside the village, and that would be the optimal time to start working on my own goals.'
'If I decide to get myself into biology and medical experimentations in search of a way to improve my physical body, I should be able to start building my own lab like Orochimaru did. Such a thing is impossible to do right now, along with many other things, so it has to wait until then.'
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'Although there is another path exists into that field, more promising, although more dangerous... I could time-travel all the way back and try to make Orochimaru pick me up, shouldn't be too hard considering his tendencies of picking up kids. From that point I could try to become someone like Kabuto for him to assist with his research to get access to the good stuff, although it won't be easy. Also, I need to find a way to suppress my spiritual energy first before I could safely return all the way to the past, or my untrained four-year-old body might just explode on the spot, huh...'
...
'Well, let's progress this timeline and go to the Chunin Exams finals first.' With that thought Yuta went to sleep instead of starting another new cycle, and tomorrow is a day when the final rounds will be conducted. Yuta wasn't able to fall asleep right away with all the excitement about fighting Hikari with his new genjutsu he had developed just for this...
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Little did he know...
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--- AN ---
Another chapter in "holy yapper" style, and I'm not sorry for it... Well, maybe just a little...
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