(5th of July, year 55 AK)
Yuta looked at a still shocked and bewildered Keiko with a calculative look in his eyes. The intense pain was assaulting his senses from each nerve of his body, and although Yuta's warped perception of reality had dulled it for him, allowing him to still move and think somewhat rationally, it was still bothering him quite a lot.
Considering that he might make a mistake in such a state, he immediately channeled the Calm State for the first time in a while and felt how his emotions were being washed away by the soothing calm of the River of Time.
'Much better.' Yuta calmly thought. Although the pain didn't go anywhere, now it wasn't getting in the way as much as before, it was like it had lost all colors and if before Yuta could partially ignore it with it being still affecting him somewhat, now he found that he could completely ignore it without letting it to affect his moves and judgement at all.
Keiko noticed that the look in Yuta's eyes had changed drastically. If before he had somewhat strained by pain but still pretty much a clear and focused look in his eyes, now his eyes become unnervingly cold, clear, deep and somewhat inhumane, totally unreadable, with absolutely no emotions behind them.
"What are you? ..." Keiko blurted out barely audible.
'I could end the fight in seconds...' Yuta's cold mind analyzed, 'But that will require of me to use my genjutsu openly. I'm currently being watched by people that would decide if I'm worthy of a promotion. Hence, I should earn some extra points with them by trying to conceal my genjutsu by throwing some other jutsu into the mix. It won't fool many ninjas in here, but it is expected from a proper ninja to always conceal their jutsu. Hm, I have an idea...'
Yuta pointed his kunai at Keiko, who stood about five meters in front of him and made a Tiger hand seal with his left hand in front of his chest, index and middle finger pointing up, the hand seal commonly used to concentrate and gather chakra. Although he wasn't really using the hand seal itself to guide his chakra and formed it just as another distraction.
Keiko quickly snapped out of her shocked state and raised her guard and adjusted her stance, ready for any attack that Yuta might throw at her.
Next instant Yuta activated the dormant Shadow Cloak genjutsu that he had cast on Keiko earlier and at the same time he created five clones around Keiko that silently appeared, so including himself there is now six Yuta's was surrounded her from all sides, everyone pointing a kunai at her.
From the outside's perspective Yuta's move was nonsensical, since it wasn't hard to deduce where is a clone and where is a real Yuta, since the clones are just intangible illusions without any mass, they don't create sounds, the dust in the air will fly through them, they aren't leaving any footprints and don't create any movements in the air when they move.
And most of all, Yuta didn't create any distractions when he created the clones, so everyone, Keiko included, should still know precisely who the real Yuta is, since he didn't move from his previous spot yet.
Considering all that, almost everyone in the spectators' area was confused why Yuta used such a move. Although not everyone was confused. Those with dojutsu who were able to see chakra, and those with high enough chakra sensitivity, they were able to notice that Keiko's chakra network had the signs of a genjutsu being cast on it for a while now, and the rest wasn't very hard to deduce for those ninjas.
And as Keiko looked around and saw the six identical Yuta's, all pointing a kunai at her with right hand, and with left hand still locked in a Tiger hand seal, she wasn't able to spot any signs that it was just clones, the Shadow Cloak genjutsu was obstructing her perception and recognition, not allowing her to recognize the signs and making her unable to tell which is real. For her all six of them looked very real...
"Shadow Clones?" Kekio blurted out in confusion. Although she was just a talented Genin from a minor hidden village, she still knew about the signature jutsu of the Leaf village. Pretty much everyone knew about it, it was a signature jutsu of the Leaf on the same level of recognizability as the Hiding in Mist Technique of the Mist village.
The next moment the posture of all six Yuta's slightly changed, seemingly preparing for a direct attack on Keiko from all sides.
Keiko's eyes widened as she said in disbelief, "No, wait, could it be... Isn't your sensei is Shisui Uchiha? Shisui of the Body Flicker? Could it be his signature jutsu?". Shisui had earned his reputation during the end of the Third Great War and during the still chaotic couple of years after it ended. He was also quite a recognizable figure among all hidden villages, as well as his signature move with clones and rapid movements utilizing the Body Flicker jutsu that made all his clones being able to become real at any moment.
If only Keiko had a few more moments to think it through properly, she would've been able to realize, that Yuta couldn't possibly use Shisui's signature jutsu, since it wasn't possible to use the Body Flicker in quick succession for him like Shisui does, without being hindered by its disorientation side effect. After all, he doesn't have the Sharingan that Shisui was relying on to negate the side effect of the Body Flicker jutsu.
The Body Flicker jutsu is a very known and widely spread jutsu that pretty much every ninja learns at some point in their ninja career, and everyone knows its limitations well. With the extremely fast movement the jutsu causes, without something like the Sharingan to keep up with the speed of the jutsu, it wasn't possible to use the jutsu in combat for pretty much anyone. Even among the whole Uchiha clan, only Shisui was able to completely negate the side effect of the Body Flicker jutsu and to master the jutsu to such an extent that allowed him to develop his signature move with clones like that.
So even with Keiko's limited knowledge of such things, she should've figured all that, if only she had a second or two to think...
Then, if only she had a bit more time, she would've also realized that Yuta shouldn't be able to use the Shadow Clone jutsu to create five shadow clones like that either. That jutsu, after all, is a Jonin level jutsu that requires a huge amount of chakra that someone like Yuta shouldn't possess in the first place. And although her chakra sensitivity isn't great, even she should've been able to pick up such a big chakra surge from such a close distance, but she felt nothing at all when Yuta created his clones.
Next moment all six Yutas rushed at her from all directions at once. Keiko quickly started forming hand seals for a jutsu.
'Oh, now you want to use a jutsu?' Yuta thought coldly, 'Too bad, it's too late for that...'
Keiko also quickly realized that she wouldn't make it in time, so she stopped forming hand seals and pulled a kunai, bracing herself for the incoming attacks.
Even though after the previous taijutsu exchanges with Yuta she knew that she had a slight advantage against him, she also knew that she couldn't dodge all six attacks all at once either. But she is not about to give up just like that without even trying.
As the six Yutas came closer, she moved as fast and precise as she possibly could, she twisted her body, avoiding first two kunai attacks. She moved to hit the third kunai with her own kunai, intending to move her hand back quickly after the collision, fast enough to block the fourth kunai in turn. She moved her left hand to intercept the fifth kunai with her thin metal plate on the back of her glove she was wearing, even though she figured that the thin metal plate wasn't enough to completely block the kunai that about to hit her with Yuta's full force behind it, but in her mind it should hold it just enough so kunai won't pierce her left hand very deep.
But all of those moves were still not enough, and soon she realized that she wouldn't be able to counter the sixth kunai no matter what. And also, the five kunai she was already accounted for, each one of those still has a chance to go through her hasty defenses and still hit her.
After all, even though Yuta had less reach, and slightly less speed and strength than her, the six of them attacking at once, it was too much for her to counter...
But as her kunai collided with the third kunai attack she was aiming to quickly deflect, Keiko was already prepared to use the recoil to move her kunai back fast enough to block the forth kunai, she suddenly realized that her kunai was passing through the third kunai attack without meeting any resistance at all.
Keiko's mind was working at a maximum speed, trying to figure out what was going on, she was in the middle of twisting her body to avoid the first two kunai attacks, so her stance was very unstable at the moment. And the recoil and push back from the collision of two kunai that she accounted for - it didn't happen so her balance was very shaky and unstable at the moment, and she couldn't make any new moves from that position without standing firmly on the ground.
Then the fourth kunai arrived unblocked and passed through her body without causing any pain or injury. The fifth kunai collided with her left hand and also passed through without causing any harm.
"Clones?!" Keiko shouted in disbelief. She was bewildered about how she could possibly fall for such basic jutsu that she should've recognized right away. The real Yuta didn't even create any distraction to hide among his clones, so it turns out that she knew where the real Yuta was all along...
But as soon as the realization hit her, it was already way too late to do anything with that knowledge. As the five out of six Yutas disappeared, Keiko realized that there was a sharp kunai that was being pressed against her neck from her right side.
She carefully and slowly turned her head just a bit so she could see Yuta to her side, his expression was still exactly the same as before, only the cold and unnatural calmness in his eyes, no celebration, no joy of victory, no signs of suppressed pain, no nothing, not a single emotion behind his eyes at all.
"... Just what are you?" Keiko asked in a shaky voice. She wasn't expecting her own voice to come out so shaky, but standing and looking into Yuta's unnaturally calm eyes from such a close distance had unnerved her much more than she was willing to admit even to herself.
"That is not the right words." Yuta said coldly as he adjusted his stance a bit more threatening, so it looked like he was preparing to slice her neck open, although he was just acting to make a point, he wasn't really intended to kill her.
"I surrender!" Keiko immediately blurted out loudly with a bit of fear seeping into her voice.
The proctor who was standing some distance away was already raising his hand and about to announce the winner of the fight.
Yuta thought about canceling his Calm State and realized that he was still under the effect of the pain inducing poison, so he coldly demanded from Keiko before the proctor could announce the end of the fight, "The antidote."
"Oh, right, right." Keiko quickly replied as her right hand dropped the kunai on the ground and she quickly but carefully pulled out a small pill out of her pocket and handed it to Yuta.
"The fight is over! The winner is Yuta Arai!" The proctor announced at the same time as Yuta took the pill and as he heard the announcement, he also pulled away his kunai and walked back to the spectator's area without looking back.
--- AN ---
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