(late March, year 54 AK)
"I see you all here, good." Shisui said as he appeared beside Yuta, Itachi and Hikari shortly after Yuta arrived.
'I still can't sense Shisui's chakra before he reveals himself, his chakra concealment is much better than that guy I fought for my combat evaluation. But scratch that, since Shisui is here, does that mean he is our team leader? How did that happen? Isn't Itachi's team is supposed to be led by some background character Jonin?' Yuta thought.
Shisui looked like a young man about 160 cm tall, and he looked much more mature than he should at his age Yuta thought, since he remembered that Shisui is supposed to be four or five years older than Itachi, and since Itachi is eight right now, that means Shisui is no older than thirteen, but to Yuta he looked like a teen of about fifteen or sixteen years old.
Yuta, Itachi and Hikari on the other hand, was about 130 cm tall and looked much younger than him. The three of them could be mistaken for normal kids if not for the ninja tool pouches each of them had and the leaf headbands on their foreheads.
Both Shisui and Itachi wore simple black T-shirts with an Uchiha crest on their backs and black shorts, while Yuta and Hikari both wore similar clothes but with no crests, with pants instead of shorts.
'Not a single fan of fashion, everyone dresses almost the same and simple...' Yuta thought as he observed his group.
After Shisui showed up, the group faced him and started paying attention to what he says next.
"All three of you are early graduates." Shisui said while observing the group, "That means all three of you are way ahead of your pears. But don't get too confident now, it's still a long road ahead of you until you qualify as a proper shinobi. I'm Shisui Uchiha, and as you already know, I'm your instructor and squad leader, you are to follow my lead from now on."
' "As you already know"? - I didn't know that, I'm hearing this for the first time!' Yuta thought, 'Well, it was kind of obvious, since he was the one who delivered my headband and asked me to come here and meet my team...'
...
'But still, this is a huge deviation from the original plot. I'm excited to see how the future events will go after such a change.'
"I have a test for you. Since I'm the leader of the squad, I want to get to know you better." Shisui continued.
' "To know us better?" - you already know all about me that's for sure, and since you and Itachi are supposed to be the best buddies in the original plot and it seems that this part didn't change, the only person left that you don't know everything about already is Hikari.' Yuta thought, 'What are you going to do I wonder, the "bell" test?'
"But before that, please introduce yourself, your name, what you like and dislike. It's sort of a tradition." Shisui said, as he looked at Hikari.
"Name's Hikari, I like taijutsu because I'm good at it, I don't like sneaky tactics because I believe if I'm strong enough, then I won't need to overcomplicate things with those." Hikari stated and looked at Itachi and Yuta, as if to dare them to disagree with her, stopping her glare on Yuta much longer than on Itachi for some reason.
'I think she probably doesn't like me...' Yuta thought, 'And what with that crap about "don't like sneaky tactics"? Does she want to become a shinobi or a brawler?'
"My name is Itachi Uchiha." Itachi said as Shisui looked at him next, "I like peace and I don't like war." Itachi enigmatically stated without elaborating.
'Right...' Yuta thought, 'Loving peace so much that in the end you didn't mind killing your own parents for it...'
"My name is Yuta Arai." Yuta said as Shisui looked at him next.
'What should I say next?' Yuta thought, 'I thought I would say something like "I want to become Hokage one day" or some bullshit like that to fit in and hop in on this loyal-Konoha-ninja train, but it doesn't feel right for some reason now.' Yuta glanced at Hikari and recalled her words, that only mentioned her likes and dislikes that are specific to the ninja skills.
"I like genjutsu because I'm good at it, and I don't like taijutsu, because of the similar reason." Yuta said.
"Well, it wasn't much, but it will do for now." Shisui commented, "Now about the test I've mentioned. Since we will be working as a team, we have to get used to each other's skills, you three will fight me together, I think scoring a hit on me will suffice for this test, give it everything you've got."
'Great, another test and another fight...' Yuta thought with exasperation, 'It couldn't have being any worse than this, Shisui knows all about my genjutsu, he even technically could've been called a co-creator of my Shadow Cloak jutsu, and on top of that, with his skills and the Sharingan, there is a flat-zero chance for my genjutsu to succeed against him even slightly. I'm not to be another laughingstock like Kurenai for using regular genjutsu against a Mangekyo Sharingan user, no thank you!'
Shisui jumped back and created some distance, then said, "You may begin."
'What can I even do in this fight without my genjutsu?' Yuta thought as he looked at the sky as if blaming the havens for stacking up so many disadvantages on him in this upcoming fight, 'Well, if I don't know what to do, I may as well do whatever I can, I suppose. What a drag...'
Yuta glanced at his teammates and noticed that they do not seem to be planning to take cover in the surrounding trees and bushes, preparing for a direct confrontation.
'Great... Hiding, laying an ambush and striking from the shadows doesn't seem to be an option either it seems... Do they even know what are we up against? Shisui might as well be the strongest shinobi in the village currently, damn it...'
Itachi, Hikari and Yuta glanced each other in the eyes and as if reaching some level of understanding, they run straight at Shisui, with Yuta being slightly behind Itachi and Hikari.
'Damn, it won't end well, I just know it! But it's not like I have a say in this situation, with my greatest weapon being out of the picture, all I can do is to support those two.' Yuta thought as he observed Itachi's and Hikari's movements, analyzing and predicting what they would do next, and preparing to move accordingly, taking the role of support for this fight.
And although it wasn't easy for Yuta to work as a team with people who are not much more than strangers to him, since he didn't interact with them in the academy that much, it was still manageable for him to get some read on them and understand to some extent what are their next actions would be and how he should cooperate with them to work as a team.
'Huh, I guess all those teachings and reading materials about combat tactics and teamwork weren't for nothing...' Yuta thought as he moved his hand closer to his pouch, intending to play it by the book.
Hikari pulled a kunai and engaged Shisui in a direct clash, which Shisui blocked with his own kunai without much effort. Itachi circled around Shisui at the same time, formed hand seals and exhaled a Great Fireball jutsu at Shisui, while he was still locked in a clash with Hikari.
Yuta, who is following them a little behind, predicted the moves of his teammates and even before Itachi completed his Great Fireball jutsu, Yuta already calculated the trajectories that Shisui will likely take to dodge the jutsu, and as he did, he pulled a bunch of shurikens and thrown them to cover up and block Shisui's escape paths.
As Great Fireball justu approached Shisui and Hikari, Hikari jumped back at the last moment and Shisui jumped up and to the side to avoid the fireball, where he was hit by the two of the six shurikens that Yuta thrown earlier, one shuriken hit his arm and another – his neck, that resulted in a lot of blood being spilled everywhere.
'Yeah, right, like that would ever happen...' Yuta thought as he had an urge to roll his eyes at the scene, but instead he focused on his chakra senses, trying to locate the real Shisui, as he didn't believe even for a moment that he could hit the real deal with a shuriken like that.
Hikari, being the closest to Shisui, also seemed to be able to figure out that much and was currently looking around, paying close attention to her surroundings, while Itachi was momentary shocked by the bloody scene of Shisui slowly falling down.
Sure enough, the next moment Shisui puffed in a small cloud of smoke, revealing that it was just a log.
The next moment Yuta's senses screamed danger to him, he sensed a vague chakra movements behind him, all he was managed to do is to turn around just in time to see Shisui's kick closing in on him, Yuta barely had time to put his forearms in the way to block it and as he did, he hastily applied some chakra to cushion the blow as it hit him.
Receiving such a heavy kick, Yuta felt like he was hit by a train while he flew backwards uncontrollably.
'Damn, didn't he remember about my injury? If I didn't block that kick in time, I would've had my ribs broken for sure! I can't stabilize and regroup in time, if I fall like that, I may actually break something...' Yuta thought as he was desperately trying to recover, as he landed with his back on something soft and his uncontrollable flight was quickly stopped.
'Phew, someone was able to catch me in time it seems...'
--- AN ---
Sorry I missed the schedule and chapter came late again, I'll get it on time in the future. It's just that my reserve of advanced chapters for patreon is run out and I wasn't able to make enough time for writing these days, it should get better soon.
Thanks to waltersaaron16, Loalola, Krishna_Razz, GokageSensumo, and Daoistbm0BeO for the power stones.