(June 30th, year 54 AK)
Yuta was hiding behind a tree, concealing his presence to the best of his abilities, but just after a second after he used the Substitution jutsu and got here, he heard a distinctive sound of shurikens cutting the air as they flew in his direction.
'He can't possibly hit me through the tree, can he?' Yuta thought with a brief confusion, as he heard the sound of incoming shurikens, but then he immediately realized his mistake and quickly used Body Flicker to get away to find a better hiding spot. He also used a Clone jutsu to leave a clone behind, so Shisui's attention will stay in his previous position a bit longer, while he will hide somewhere else.
Yuta knew that trying to fool Shisui by leaving a clone behind is likely meaningless, Shisui would see through all his moves with his Sharingan anyway, but he still did it to not spare any effort. After all, even if it gives Yuta even a tiny bit of advantage by chance, then Yuta would gladly take it. He was fighting Shisui after all, if he holds anything back – the fight would be over in a second, Yuta understood that clearly.
As Yuta reappeared some distance away in the branches of a tree, he looked back at his previous position, and as he thought, the shurikens had been also connected by wires and had circled around the tree, trying to tie up Yuta with wires to the tree. As the wires passed through the clone without meeting any resistance, Yuta dispelled the clone, it served its purpose already.
Yuta also tried to trace the wires and find the Shisui's location, but that was unsuccessful, the wires were cut off as soon as the attack failed to hit him, and Yuta only figured the general location where Shisui must be hiding but he didn't see him at all.
It was just a second or two as Yuta appeared in the branches of a nearby tree, but the next instant he saw a big fireball coming at him from the side.
Same as the last time, Yuta only was able to dodge it barely, on the absolute limit of his skills, boosting his speed with chakra as much as his current chakra control allows. Just like the last time, there wasn't any time to think or prepare any jutsu at all, all he was able to do was to jump to the side.
And As Yuta was flying mid-air, in the middle of the turning around from the fire attack, Yuta suddenly met with a punch to the chest. He only was able to put his hands in a hastily block as Shisui's punch hit him hard. Shisui seems to be able to predict his moves in advance and used the previous fireball attack to make him jump in this direction, where he met him mid-air with a punch.
'Damn, this is too fast, all this fight is going on way too fast, I don't have any time to think on a strategy properly... I have to seize the initiative somehow before it's too late...' Yuta thought as he flew to the ground, barely able to regroup and land properly to not broke anything in his body, 'Fine then, since I still can't think properly during such a fast-paced fight, let's use the already proven method instead.'
With that thought Yuta channeled the Calm State, letting the soothing-cold feeling to take hold of his entire being, washing away all the emotions with it.
The look in Yuta's eyes changed, all expressions left it completely, only the intense focus and concentration remained. His posture also adjusted, all tension left it, only the readiness to move swiftly at any moment left in his stance.
Yuta's eyes quickly looked around with unnatural calmness. Shisui, that was there just a moment ago, had disappeared again without a trace. Yuta's hands were aching quite badly after blocking that punch.
'This is just his Shadow Clone with just 10C of chakra, I have a real chance of winning against him.' Yuta's calm mind analyzed, 'But from the very beginning he was the one who was in control of the fight's flow. He is not leaving me any openings for an attack of my own. When he appeared for the punch, there wasn't enough time to use Shadow Chains on him, and then he immediately disappeared again. I must force him to show an opening somehow.'
'About ten seconds had passed since the initial fire jutsu attack, and since Itachi and Hikari didn't show up by now, that only means that they are preoccupied as well. So, the situation now is the same as back then, I'm alone, no backup, the enemy is too strong, and I must deal with it on my own. He won't allow me to go and regroup with my team either.'
Yuta was carefully observing his surroundings, kunai in hand in a defensive stance, waiting for the next attack.
'I tried to disengage and hide multiple times, nothing worked so far, so I assume it's all useless. Using clones as a distraction? Probably useless too.' As Yuta was trying to find a way to force Shisui to show up, he heard how another round of shurikens were quickly flying in his direction from the cover of the nearby trees, Shisui was still out of sight.
'Shurikens again? Probably wired as well... I have an idea, although a bit risky...' Yuta thought as he jumped to the side. Although all of the possible escape routes was sealed with incoming shurikens and one shuriken was still heading straight at him. He prepared to block it with a kunai, but as he suspected, the shuriken changed its trajectory mid-flight again.
Yuta twisted his body to the side in an attempt to avoid being hit, since he was failing to deflect the shuriken with his kunai again, like the last time.
Next instant a series of events happened simultaneously. First, Yuta's body wasn't able to fully dodge the shuriken and it hit him, although his efforts weren't in vain and it only grazed him through the chest slightly.
Next instant, Yuta puffed in a small cloud of smoke, revealing a wooden log in his place, and to the side among nearby trees Yuta's silhouette had reappeared briefly, before disappearing again.
But Yuta's plan wasn't destined to work out, and the next instant another bunch of shurikens flew towards the wooden log.
The log puffed in smoke again and Yuta reappeared on its place, then he quickly jumped away from the incoming shurikens, trying to create a distance between him and Shisui's supposed location.
Yuta had a slight cut on his chest, and a bit of blood was slowly soaking his black clothes. The cut was shallow and could be safely ignored for the time being, Yuta thought. Such a cut could be avoided if he had worn a mesh armor, but sadly, Yuta didn't complete enough missions to save up the money for it just yet, he was still a Genin who only had one C-rank mission and one unexpected B-rank under his belt, previous D-ranks weren't paying much either, and with all the cuts and additional spendings on ninja tools he only had about half of what a good mesh armor piece costs.
Yuta looked for Shisui, trying his best to spot him, but was still unable to, even his chakra senses weren't able to pick up his trace.
Previously, Yuta was trying to imitate the Substitution jutsu with his Transformation jutsu, he also briefly used the Clone jutsu to lure Shisui out, but it didn't work out. Shisui was able to see through his every move and directly attacked Yuta, who was transformed into a log, forcing him to react.
'This isn't going very well, I can't disrupt his control over the fight's flow like that, I have to come up with something else and soon.' Yuta thought as he saw the bunch of shurikens that he avoided before had changed their trajectory and followed him.
Yuta quickly used the Substitution jutsu at the last moment and tried to hide again among trees, as the shurikens hit his afterimage and revealed the wooden log in the puff of smoke.
'I could tell that I'm much better in a fight than before, now that I trained a lot to use these jutsus fast enough and without any hand seals, but still, it is not enough against someone like Shisui.' Yuta calmly calculated, his breath starts to quicken up a bit, and his body was aching with all the fast moving he was forced to do, boosting his every move with chakra on the edge that his chakra control allows.
'I won't last long in this kind of fight.' Yuta's realized, staying unnaturally calm under the influence of the Calm State, 'I need to secure a shot on Shisui somehow, and for that I have to find him first. He sees through my clones, transformations and presence concealment, there is no hiding against such an opponent, there is no fooling him with tricks either...'
...
'Nothing I have or could come up with - works... This fight is physically tiring. Although I still have a lot of chakra to spare, basic jutsus and the Body Flicker jutsu aren't taking much of my chakra. Boosting my muscles with chakra takes some more but not too much, it's just putting a lot of strain on my body. But without a clear target in sight I can't unleash my genjutsu, I don't know where I am supposed to guide my chakra-infused soundwaves to...'
...
--- AN ---
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