(December, year 54 AK)
...
"...Yuta..."
...
"Yuta!"
"Huh?" Yuta finally woke up, opened his still tired eyes and looked around hastily, but the next second he realized it was just Shisui who was calling to him and there was no danger around, so he relaxed a bit.
"We are moving out in five minutes." Shisui said as he saw that Yuta finally woke up after he called to him multiple times.
"Got it." Yuta replied in a raspy voice and placed his face back on his tool pouch.
Yuta felt his whole body was very heavy and his muscles felt very sore, it was hard to move. He checked his chakra reserves and noticed that with his unsatisfactory condition his chakra only replenished up to about 30G, that was only about 60% of his total chakra reserves.
'I hate everything...' Yuta's first thought was as he thought about how far the village still is, and that they will move fast again just in case, although it was highly unlikely that there will be a pursuit, after all they were already deep in the Land of Fire's territory.
Then Yuta, suppressing the pain in his muscles, moved his hand and searched his pouch for something, soon he pulled out a food pill and ate it. Their team is in a hurry and there is still a possibility of the enemy's pursuit, so they didn't light the fire and didn't prepare any normal food, so the food pills was the only option, and right now Yuta needed that energy.
Yuta glanced around and saw that both Itachi and Hikare were ready to move out, sitting close by and waiting.
'Damn, how could they look like that, freshen up and full of energy, when I've been reduced into such a state?' Yuta thought with a bit of envy, 'Lacking physical energy and being physically weakest in the group sucks...'
Yuta pushed his body and stood up with effort, put back his ninja tools pouch and started doing simple exercises to warm up his sore muscles. He knew they would start moving in a couple minutes, and he needed his body to be able to keep up, and the state his body was in right now wasn't perfect to say the least.
Although it was about six hours of sleep and rest, and they even excluded him from the night watch shift allowing him to sleep through the whole night, Yuta still didn't feel rested at all. His muscles felt as if they were made of wood, and his whole body felt like it was at least three times heavier than usual. But as he went through the three minutes of light exercises, his muscles had regained some of its strength and responsiveness.
As Yuta finished warming up and joined the group who was already stood up by the cave's entrance and ready to move out, Shisui said, "We had covered good distance yesterday, and we currently halfway to the village, but we shouldn't let our guard down, we will keep moving at the same speed and we should reach the village before night."
"Understood." The three of them replied readily.
"Yuta, it looks like I had underestimated how much you had pushed yourself during that fight. Will you be able to keep up?" Shisui asked.
"Yes, no problem." Yuta replied. With the state of exhaustion he was still in, and how confident his words were when he replied, most would expect those words to be said with resolve and determination, but Yuta didn't display any of those, he just replied with a tired acceptance, like an office worker would reply when the boss drops a stack of papers on his desk when the working hours is almost over and asks to work a few more hours overtime.
After that the group moved out, it was early and it was still dark, but it was getting gradually lighter by the minute as they started moving.
The day had repeated itself, for Yuta it was almost the same as yesterday, maybe just a bit easier, either because his chakra had partially replenished, or because he was getting used to it. Either way, this time Yuta wasn't pushed to the same extent of being on the verge of collapsing as they approached the village entrance when it was already starting to get dark and the sun was setting.
"We should report to the Hokage right away." Shisui said after they went through the identification process at the entrance.
Then as he looked at Yuta, he said, "You can go rest right away."
"No, thanks, I can keep going a bit longer." Yuta replied.
Although he was indeed very exhausted, he wasn't on the verge of collapsing yet. And he also knew that his less than presentable appearance, since he still didn't have time to clean up after the last fight, is not an excuse to go rest while others were reporting to the Hokage.
Their mission, after all, was escalated from a simple C-rank all the way to A-rank, and they had fought and killed a Jonin from the one of the major hidden villages, so Hokage might have some questions for Yuta, as well as for other team members, so Yuta figured that it would be much better if he would be present, no matter what state he was in.
Although Yuta also understood that the whole matter that they went through is not really that important in the grand scheme of things. Yes, they fought and killed an Iwagakure's Jonin, yes, they had brought back some piece of trash that has religious value to The Earth Temple, but all of that is not a very big deal at all in Yuta's understanding.
But even if he believed that the whole matter is not very important, he still had to act like it was to keep appearances, so he refused to go rest and followed Shisui to the Hokage's office instead.
...
As they entered Hokage's office, Shisui quickly reported their mission details and recounted it in a short form, as he put a scroll with a written report on Hokage's table.
At first, even if Hiruzen was surprised by Shisui's and his squad's sudden visit so late, he didn't show it and acted as if everything was fine and only natural.
But the more Shisui explained and the more Hiruzen read the scroll Shisui put on his table, the more his expression changed.
When Hiruzen get to know that the Stone team led by a Jonin had attacked the mansion while Shisui was temporarily away, and that these three Genins somehow managed to not only survive but also to defeat and kill Stone ninjas, the Jonin included, his face shown an expression of disbelief and astonishment.
As Yuta observed the scene from the side, he wondered, 'Did that written report that Shisui had prepared, does it contain the details of our fight? I was kind of out of it, but on our way back Shisui and others had enough time to discuss the fight in detail, I guess. But how would Shisui explain our sudden win against a Jonin without mentioning Hikari's new Kekkei Genkai?'
...
'Well, I guess he always could just describe the fight more on a vague side. After all, it wasn't completely out of the question for the three of us to beat a Jonin. Or I guess he could just divert all attention to himself by claiming that he had returned in time to finish that Jonin himself, although this way he would rob us of our well-deserved achievement, but not that I care about stuff like that. As long as I become stronger, collecting achievements like that would be easy.'
Hiruzen quickly suppressed his expression of disbelief and astonishment and put on a friendly smile as he looked at the three Genins standing just a step behind Shisui.
"You did well, all three of you, especially you, Itachi." Hiruzen praised them warmly, "To defeat a Jonin-led team, it's no small achievement, well done."
"Thank you, Lord Hokage." The three of them replied respectfully but calmly.
'"Especially Itachi?", I guess that Itachi was mentioned in the report as the one who contributed the most in the fight against the Jonin, since Hikari's new ability remains a secret. And I remain in shadows, and no one will know that without me that whole mess would be the end of us... I literally had to die twice and return back in time three times to resolve it. Even the fight against Mist ninjas back then turned out not this dangerous.'
...
'Well, I guess that Hikari would've used her new ability sooner or later anyway, so maybe if I were to stall my fight against that girl in the beginning, maybe Hikari would've taken care of everything instead? Now that I think about it, maybe I should not have tried so hard to win that fight relying solely on myself. Later in the fight, Hikari would've noticed that Itachi was struggling, and she would've had no choice but to reveal her new ability to quickly finish off her opponents and to go help Itachi...'
'Sigh, whatever, that whole mission was a good lesson for me and a reminder about the true power scale of this world. That Jonin, that felt to me like an insurmountable mountain, in reality, he was just a cannon fodder in the face of the true powerhouses. And if he is just a cannon fodder, then who am I?'
...
'I must become stronger...'
--- AN ---
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