(6th of August, year 55 AK)
As Yuta, being in the middle of his dodging maneuver, watched how dozens of kunai copies changed direction and followed him, his first instinct was to just break the genjutsu so there would be only one kunai left in his vision, easy to dodge or deflect. He still had more than enough time to do that, Kota's genjutsu was shabby and it only was able to affect Yuta because he allowed it to happen in the first place.
But that was too easy, and Yuta felt that it would be like backing down at first sight of difficulty. Yuta allowed this genjutsu to happen, and now, after Kota had weaved this genjutsu into some decent attack, if Yuta just breaks it now, he felt it would be like running away from something he already signed up for.
So he didn't.
'Well, you and I are both genjutsu users, so let's see whose genjutsu is wins...' Yuta thought as he glanced at Kota, 'I did underestimate you to too much, didn't I? Your chakra is on the level of an average Chunin, and since my own strength was always limited by my own chakra level, since I spend so much extra time in time-loops honing my skills and developing my own genjutsu, my chakra level have always being my bottleneck, hence I tend to gauge other ninja's strength the same way, by their chakra level...'
'I always knew that chakra level is not a fool-proof way to measure strength. There is Kakashi, whose chakra level, at least at the start of the series, was about on an average Jonin's level with all the drain from the Sharingan, but anyway, he was one of the strongest Jonins in the village even then. And there is Naruto whose chakra is monstrous, but only later in the series he starts to learn how to use it properly... But instinctively I still tend to use it to measure strength, huh...'
Those thoughts went through Yuta's mind in an instant as he quickly formed the Shadow Mirage genjutsu without any hand seals and calmly said, "Nice trick." to cast it on Kota.
The Shadow Mirage genjutsu was lite and quick, Yuta designed it to be that way from the start, so he didn't have any problem executing it fast enough even during his current predicament.
The next instant Kota saw how Yuta suddenly multiplied, and now six copies of Yuta were trying to scatter in different directions.
Kota instantly realized that Yuta somehow had cast a genjutsu on him, although he had a hard time figuring out how he managed to do that without using any hand seals and without him noticing.
Kota wanted to break the genjutsu that was currently affecting him right away, but then he realized that if he were to concentrate now on stopping his chakra flow and flaring it to break the genjutsu – his own genjutsu that currently affecting Yuta would be broken as well, since he wouldn't be able to hold on to it, since he already had a very hard time just keeping it running.
Then Kota thought, 'One out of six chance is better than nothing.' and adjusted his hand position, directing his kunai through the wire to target one of the six Yutas, and the rest of the kunai had followed and also targeted the same Yuta.
Kota was betting all-in on this one out of six chance to deal with Yuta here and now.
Next instant, multiple events happened at once.
Kota saw how his real kunai reached one of Yutas, beside dozens of its copies. That Yuta had hurriedly swung his kunai in a futile effort to deflect all the kunai flying at him, he managed to slice through four kunai copies without meeting any resistance, it was all illusions, and next all other kunai had hit him at once, although only one among them was real, the one that plunged deep into Ytua's stomach while others disappeared.
Blood spurted, five other Yutas disappeared, and Yuta slowly fell on his knees while clutching the kunai that was deep in his stomach, the blood was pouring on the ground. It was a serious injury, although still not lethal if treated right away.
Kota was ecstatic as he saw that, he thought, 'I did it! I actually did it! Father, I had avenged you! Now all those pricks won't be laughing at us anymore, this will show them that it was just a fluke! Some Leaf Genin kid beating my father, a genjutsu specialist Jonin while using genjutsu? Yeah, right, like that was possible in a fair fight... With this win I'll show them that it was just a fluke!'
"Ha ha ha, I did it! Father, I really did it!" Kota was laughing with pure joy as he was watching Yuta on his knees, bleeding, defeated. Kota hadn't noticed right away that the proctor wasn't in a hurry to end the match and to announce the winner...
That was because the real Yuta, the only Yuta that everyone else saw from the very beginning, was casually standing just beside Kota like they were friends or something.
What Kota didn't know is that Yuta wasn't a person who would play chances like that, so the real Yuta wasn't even among the six copies to begin with.
Previously, during the dialogue Yuta had already cast his Shadow Cloak on Kota and kept it dormant up until now. And now, as he cast his Shadow Mirage, creating his illusions in Kota's mind, he simultaneously activated his Shadow Cloak, hiding himself completely.
So, by targeting one of the six Yutas, Kota had already lost his chance to succeed in his attack.
Previously, when Yuta created his own illusions and hidden himself from Kota's perception, he, while being not targeted by those kunai any longer, unhurriedly walked up to Kota and just stood beside him with his hands in his pockets, generously letting Kota to enjoy his moment.
'It seems he didn't notice anything, huh...' Yuta thought as he managed just in time to manipulate his Shadow Cloak and Shadow Mirage genjutsu on Kota so Kota wouldn't see his real kunai that flew a bit further through Yuta's illusion and hit the ground a bit behind it, while simultaneously creating an illusion of the said kunai as if it had really plunged into the stomach of his illusory self.
The modifications in his illusions that were made on the fly were crude in Yuta's opinion, there were some inconsistencies in tiny details, but it seems that it was still enough to fool Kota.
'That move of his, it was a bit interesting I must admit.' Yuta thought while standing beside Kota, waiting for him to humiliate himself more and more by speaking nonsense and shouting in joy, 'It reminds me of the Shuriken Shadow Clone jutsu, Kota's move could be seen as a genjutsu variation of it, huh... The Shuriken Shadow Clone jutsu is much more powerful than this I assume, it would create hundreds of copies and each one of them would be as good as the real one, no need for tricks and trajectory adjustments through ninja wires, it would just cover area wide enough to shred everything in it.'
'I think I could implement a move like this one into my Shadow Mirage jutsu, after all, my copies also have ninja tools to throw, I won't even need to do anything extra. This actually could provide a good distraction during the fight, my opponent would be forced to defend himself even if there is a chance that it is just an illusion. Although that will expose one of my copies as an illusion if my opponent tries to block the attack, but still, the move like that, it does have some potential.'
"Hey, proctor, don't you want to hurry up and announce the winner already? That kid is going to kick the bucket for real!" Kota shouted at the proctor after the first wave of joy started to subside in his heart. He was a bit worried that Yuta would die on him, hence he would be disqualified because of that. He even suspected that it might be the true intention of the proctor to begin with - to make him, a true genjutsu genius of the Valleys village, to be disqualified like that from the finals with the price of one stupid kid's life.
Proctor completely ignored the shouting with perfectly blank face, he didn't want to ruin whatever Yuta was playing at by giving away any clues of what's really going on here, to not tip Kota off.
'I wonder if that's how Itachi felt while fighting Sasuke that final time with genjutsu...' Yuta thought, still not in a hurry to finish this farce, he was enjoying every moment of it a bit too much, 'They both had Mangekyo Sharingan by that time, so the level of genjutsu that was being thrown around should be really powerful. Sasuke was good at genjutsu, but he never specialized in it. But Itachi, he should've been an entire realm above Sasuke at genjutsu, but still, that genjutsu exchange at the beginning had ended in a draw. Because Itachi wanted it to be that way, not because Sasuke was his equal at genjutsu I believe.'
Then Yuta heard a distant shout from the participant's area, "Hey, you idiot, stop wasting everyone's time and your chakra on that weakling, finish it already!"
'Tsk, couldn't Hikari just wait a bit longer? I'm having my moment here!' Yuta thought with irritation, 'Well, whatever, it was indeed time to wrap this up, if I stall any longer this fight would look like a circus show instead...'
"What the..." Kota's brows furrowed as he also heard Hikari's shout, he was bewildered about what it meant. The audience was mostly quiet and murmuring during the match, so everyone heard Hikari's loud shout.
Next instant the severely injured Yuta some distance in front of Kota gradually disappeared like a cloud of dust being swept by slow wind. At the same time, another Yuta slowly appeared by his side while holding a kunai that was firmly pressed against his own throat. One careless move and his neck will be sliced open, Kota gulped nervously as he started to realize what just happened.
A strong sense of fear creeped into Kota's heart as he imagined what would happen if he would have to fight Yuta for real, in a life-and-death fight.
Kota's mind was in a disarray, trying and failing to figure out how and when Yuta had put him into a genjutsu. He wasn't sure anymore if he even fought the real Yuta from the very beginning. Kota realized that the real Yuta could've as well just stood by his side the whole time while Kota was fighting shadows and empty air.
"How... when..." Kota mumbled.
"The fight is over! The winner is Yuta Arai!" The proctor announced loudly.
With that, Yuta pulled away his kunai and walked away casually, he didn't look back even once, this whole fight against Kota was already an ancient history in his mind as he was thinking how he would fight against Hikari next.
Although for Kota, that was one of the scariest fights he ever had and would have in the future. From now on, he would be always wondering during each fight if he is under a genjutsu or not. The way Yuta had put him under a genjutsu without him even realizing when and how it happened, it had left a big scar on his heart.
--- AN ---
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