(December, year 54 AK)
Yuta, Itachi and Hikari moved instantly as the Stone ninjas started moving.
Itachi jumped forward and performed fast series of hand seals and produced a huge fire ball, aiming at Keisuke, the Stone squad captain, who responded immediately with a stone wall ninjutsu, the two of them clashed directly using their ninjutsus. Itachi was clearly intended if not to defeat Keisuke, then to restrain him, not letting him interfere with other fights.
Hikari ran at the two younger men, Daichi and Ryota, clashing with both of them simultaneously. Ryota tried to disengage and go for Itachi to help his captain, but Hikari didn't give him an opportunity to get away and almost injured Ryota when he was trying to create distance, while simultaneously blocking Daichi's attacks. With that she forced both of them into a direct fight at a close distance.
'Well, there goes our formation and teamwork...' Yuta thought as he was engaging with Maki, the only girl from the Stone group. But although he thought that, Yuta understood that they were acting exactly according to what Shisui had drilled into them with his tactics and teamwork training, there simply wasn't any better move in this situation.
Itachi, as the strongest of their group, had no choice but to engage with the enemy's Jonin to restrain him, as neither Hikari nor Yuta had any chance against him.
Hikari just clashed with the enemy team's two fighters at once because of course she would, apparently just one is not enough for her...
Leaving just one opponent for Yuta, and enough room for him to come up with a plan on how to deal with all four of their enemies.
Shisui had drilled similar tactics into them during their training, they even simulated similar situations and how to act against such opponents during those trainings, when Shisui had created similar situations using shadow clones.
But training and simulation are one thing, and the real battle is another.
As Maki, the only girl among the Stone ninjas, ran at Yuta with bloodthirst in her eyes, Yuta quickly thrown a bunch of shurikens at her to slow down her advance.
Maki immediately stopped and quickly formed a couple hand seals and slammed her hands to the ground, a stone wall quickly rose in front of her, blocking all the shurikens.
'What a waste of chakra...' Yuta commented in his mind, but immediately after that, the stone wall cracked into many small pieces that immediately flew in Yuta's direction, covering a wide area around Yuta, 'Hm? I take it back, that is a nice move, defense and offense combined, huh...' Yuta thought as he quickly completed Body Flicker jutsu, speeding it up by forming a hand seal since it would be faster to use it with the hand seal rather than sealles, and flickered away from the area, easily escaping the attack in time.
'I could deal with her either by using my Shadow Cloak or Shadow Chains genjutsu I think, but then their Jonin might figure out my genjutsu since he is still in the area, and then it would be harder to use against him, and he is the most dangerous enemy here...' Yuta thought as he reappeared some distance away.
'It would be best if I could deal with her without my genjutsu, so my trump card will remain hidden until I use it against their Jonin. Or at least I should use my genjutsu against her while making it look like she blundered on her own, so the Jonin won't suspect that a genjutsu was at play here right away...' Yuta analyzed.
'Ok, sounds like a plan.' Yuta thought as he glanced in Hikari's direction and thought, 'She seems fine on her own against two enemies at once, she is even able to restrain them both from getting away and interfering with other fights. She will be just fine, my priority is the Jonin, I should deal with this girl and then join Itachi to quickly deal with him.'
Yuta glanced back in Maki's direction, but he didn't see her at the area where she was just a moment ago.
'Oh, I see what's going on, interesting...' Yuta thought as he quickly completed a couple of jutsus without using hand seals.
After a second, the ground beneath Yuta's feet burst open and a hand holding a kunai shot towards Yuta from underground. But as kunai hit Yuta, it passed through him without meeting any resistance, revealing that it was just a clone.
Some distance away, crouching and hiding behind a big chunk of rock that remained from the first ninjutsu clash between Itachi and the Stone ninjas, Yuta was observing Maki's moves carefully, and then, as her kunai went through his clone without any resistance, Yuta formed a Rat hand seal with one hand, index and middle fingers pointing up, as he send the chakra signal.
As Maki was momentarily distracted, trying to figure out what happened and why her kunai passed through Yuta's image, she heard a distinct sizzling and shortly after a loud explosion happened, leaving a big cloud of dirt and dust covering the view.
Previously, when Yuta didn't see Maki at her previous location, he immediately suspected that she would sneak up on him from underground, as it was a one of the signature moves of the Stone ninjas that commonly use Earth Release ninjutsus.
Coming to that conclusion, Yuta created a clone at his own location, left a paper bomb and used the Body Flicker justu to hide some distance away, all of that without using any hand seals, so Maki won't suspect a thing.
After a couple months of going on missions, Yuta was no longer the same broke Genin as before. Now he was wearing a nice piece of mesh armor underneath his clothes. He also has a few paper tag bombs and smoke bombs at him at all times.
He still rarely uses those expensive ninja tools like paper bombs and holds on to them just for these kinds of occasions, when the situation becomes difficult and every bit of advantage counts.
After the explosion, as the dirt and dust in the air started to fall, clearing the view little by little, Yuta concentrated on his chakra senses and finally noticed, that Maki's chakra signature, although had lost some of its strength, it was still present.
'Still alive, huh.' Yuta thought as he remained hidden under the rock, 'I have to admit, she is not half-bad, to be able to survive that blast at point blank, having only a split-second to react... Not bad at all...'
Yuta had thought about adding the Shadow Chains genjutsu to the mix to make sure that Maki dies in that blast, but he decided not to. Yuta thought, that if Maki dies too easily, their Jonin would suspect something, so Yuta decided not to use his genjutsu just yet and try to deal with Maki without it.
Yuta still thought that the only real problem here is the enemy Jonin, and not his other three teammates, so Yuta was holding onto his trump card – genjutsu for the very last moment to have best chances dealing with the Jonin later on, who still doesn't suspect a thing about Yuta's genjutsu, and Yuta preferred it to remain this way until the very last moment.
"I'll kill you!" Yuta heard a loud and angry shout from the area where the view was still partially obstructed by the dust in the air.
As Yuta heard the shout, he immediately sensed a big chakra flare from that area, so he used Body Flicker once again to get away, and as he reappeared some distance away, he saw how his previous location was hit by many small stones that hit the ground with enough force to tore deep into it.
Yuta felt a shiver on his back as he observed the impact of Maki's Earth Style ninjutsu, it was comparable to a discharge of a giant shotgun with buckshot shells, there wasn't a piece of intact ground left in the wide area where Yuta was just a moment ago...
'If I didn't have such a good proficiency with the Body Flicker jutsu, I wouldn't be able to get away in time... When do I get something with this kind of firepower?' Yuta lamented in his mind, 'My strongest attack is still just a kunai, either thrown or hand-delivered...'
Yuta switched his attention to the area where Maki was, and there she saw her, battered, clothes partially torn, she was covered in dirt and there was some burns on the not covered areas of skin, and some blood was slowly dripping from her left hand, but despite her terrible appearance, she stood firmly on the ground and her eyes were filled with hatred as she looked back at Yuta.
"You are dead, you brat!" She shouted angerly as she proceeded to form a series of hand seals.
'She is mostly a ninjutsu type I see.' Yuta analyzed, 'But with this rate of her using one chakra-intensive ninjutsu after another, I don't really need to do anything, she will do my job for me by exhausting her own chakra rapidly like that...'
'But still, I don't have much time, Itachi is under a lot of pressure fighting the Jonin on his own, I need to go help him as soon as possible, so I probably should taunt this girl a bit more and find an opening so I could finish her off without my genjutsu...'
--- AN ---
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