(6th of August, year 55 AK)
There were a lot of people going in the direction of the arena, and Yuta followed them unhurriedly.
Yuta drew number 3 back then so his match would be second one. The first match was between some two Leaf ninjas, and Yuta couldn't care less about that fight.
As Yuta arrived at the entrance of the arena, he was surprised how lively it was, so many people were constantly flowing like a river into the arena's building. Shortly Yuta found his way into the arena's participants area where he found Itachi and Hikari that were already there and he greeted them casually.
As Yuta saw Itachi and Hikari again, after training for years, he felt a bit nostalgic all of a sudden, but he quickly calmed down, remembering that for them it was just one month and he shouldn't display any inappropriate emotions right now.
"You seem a bit different..." Hikari suddenly commented thoughtfully after the greeting, "Did you get taller? No, that's not it..."
Itachi looked at Yuta with a bit more attention as well, as he said with a bit of worry and some interest in his voice, "Were you being using that jutsu again?"
Yuta felt like he was being scolded again for some reason.
"What jutsu?" Hikari intervened puzzled, "What are you two talking about?"
"Ah, that, well, after that time when I fell asleep at the training grounds, after that I was more careful. There weren't any backlashes since then..." Yuta said casually, although it came a bit hasty.
"You are lying." Itachi stated calmly, and his brows furrowed just a tiny bit.
"Em, well, maybe there was just a one more time that it backfired just a little, but I'm completely fine now, see?" Yuta replied with a bit helpless smile. He wasn't expecting to be questioned by Itachi about his recklessness during training of all things today.
Itachi sighed a bit tiredly and said, "You must be more careful. Jutsu that could cause such things are dangerous."
"Yea, I know, believe me..." Yuta shuddered a bit as he remembered the spinning room, the mess on the floor and his bloodied half-dead face in the mirror, with his though process becoming sluggish and inconsistent...
"It wasn't backfired 'just a little' like you were saying, is it? Did you check up in the Hospital after that?" Itachi pressed a bit sternly.
'What is this? Did I acquire somewhere along the way an older brother I didn't know I had? What is his business? I'm a grown man and I know what I'm doing, I don't need some nine years old brat to tell me what to do... Sigh, well, grown? Maybe, but only internally, and I'm not so sure about that anymore after what happened... Recently with all this time-traveling I tend to overlook most dangers as something insignificant... And he has a point, I did almost kill myself back then, and he had warned me before too, but I didn't listen... Of course I didn't, I thought I knew better...'
"Sigh, I'm fine, really." Yuta pressed confidently, "I was a bit careless before but it's all good now."
"Well, if you say so." Itachi said calmly and relaxed, seemingly dropping the matter.
"What are you two talking about?" Hikari asked from the side.
"It's nothing." Yuta replied without any desire to talk about it any further.
"Tsk. Whatever jutsu you've being practicing, it's not going to help you, I'm still going to win." Hikari said as a matter of fact.
"Oh, really..." Yuta said as he looked at so confident Hikari.
'She knows what I'm capable of, so why is she so confident?' Yuta realized that there is something off, 'She saw how I captured ninjas with my genjutsu multiple times, she should be more worried about my genjutsu than that, she is not stupid after all...'
'Did she prepared something against my genjutsu? How could that be? My only nemesis so far is the dojutsu users, and also ninjas with more chakra than me I guess, but Hikari doesn't have any of that, why is she so confident I wonder... Well, I'll find out soon enough.'
Soon Yuta, along with all the other participants, were called into the center of the arena, where the proctor of the final part of the exams explained the rules to them, basically no killing and everything goes pretty much. And after that, Yuta and others, except for the two Leaf ninjas, were asked to leave the arena, and the first match was about to start.
As Yuta and nine others returned back to the separate balcony area for the participants, Yuta leaned against the handrails and lazily prepared to watch the fight.
Yuta remembered that a long time ago, well, it was a long time from his point of view at least, that he was a bit nervous when he thought about fighting on the arena with so many people watching. But now, after years of training, Yuta lazily looked over all the people inside the viewers area and realized that he wasn't nervous at all anymore, it was just another fight and nothing too problematic.
Somewhere along the way during his years of training Yuta just outgrown his nervousness and fear of many people watching, somewhere along the way he just accepted the necessity of going through it and he somewhere along the way he stopped being nervous anymore.
The first fight was... From Yuta's point of view, it was boring and unimpressive, although he tends to see any fights this way when he considers the participants as being much weaker than himself. Yuta was trying not to look down on weaker ninjas like Shisui told him before, but still, this particular fight was boring and not interesting for Yuta in the slightest.
Two Leaf ninjas about sixteen in age, fought mostly with taijutsu and shurikenjutsu, only using some Substitution jutsu from time to time. It was not totally unimpressive though, the tactics, the tricks and feints, the attempts at misleading, Yuta noticed all of that from both fighters, but at this point all of that was way below Yuta's own level and of what he was used to during team trainings with Shisui.
Both fighters were still firmly on a Chunin's level of strength, in Yuta's opinion, although Yuta would've preferred to see some more ninjutsu during the fight, but it was almost only taijutsu from start to finish instead.
Then Yuta remembered the Chunin Exams in the original story, and now he understood that those were all exceptional ninjas. This time though, only very few participants were on a somewhat good level, one of those Yuta fought in the preliminary rounds himself, but all of them are all out by now, only Itachi and Hikari left.
Yuta glanced at Itachi and thought, 'I still have no way of defeating him. Maybe during the fight, I would be able to figure something out...' Then he glanced at Hikari and thought, 'And Hikari, her overconfidence today is bothering me, what did she prepare against me? Why is she so confident that she could win against me? Sigh...'
Soon the first match ended, as one of the fighters succeeded in one of his feints during the taijutsu exchange and was able to kick his opponent down to the ground, and quickly followed with a kunai attack, pointing out a lethal blow before his opponent was able to stand up.
With that, the match ended, and Yuta was summoned to the arena, as well as his opponent, some Valleys guy that glared daggers at Yuta this whole time.
As Yuta turned away from the arena and was about to go through the stairs, the Valleys guy smirked at him and simply jumped down from the balcony straight to the arena instead of taking stairs.
As Yuta noticed that, he thought confused, 'What is this guy's deal I wonder...' and then he shrugged his shoulders and took the stairs unhurriedly. He briefly thought about jumping from the balcony too, but he felt it was kind of childish and immature, so he took the stairs.
As Yuta was walking through the stairs, he thought, 'How do I do this? I could win in the matter of seconds, it would be efficient, but... How do I say it? I feel like showing off a bit, it is only natural after all the training, and my next match against Hikari... Somehow, I don't' feel like it is going to go the way I thought it would... So, my first match could as well be my only opportunity to show off a bit.'
...
'I'm not going to win decisively in seconds, I'm going to dismantle that Valleys guy thoroughly and unhurriedly instead. It might be a bit humiliating for the Valleys village, but he had it coming, I don't like being glared at like that. Or maybe I should win professionally and efficiently instead? After all, that would be the best way to earn some extra points in the eyes of the higher-ups who would decide on my promotion... Well, it might be the case, but I still don't think it will matter that much in the end, and if it does – I'll just re-do the whole thing again.'
Soon Yuta walked out into the open and approached the middle of the arena, where the proctor and his opponent were already waiting for him.
"Yuta Arai, Kota Tsuji, ready?" The proctor asked as he looked at the two participants, one was a tall boy around sixteen, and the other was a nine-years-old, both are looking at each other, one with hostility, and the other with lazy indifference.
Seeing no objections, the proctor signaled with his hand as he said loudly, "Begin." and immediately jumped back to not get in the way of the upcoming fight...
--- AN ---
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