(28 April, year 54 AK)
After a good night's sleep Yuta went to buy some food pills and then found a desolate training grounds on the outskirts of the village, where he wouldn't be disturbed.
As he found himself in a small clearing surrounded by trees, Yuta took out a round brownish food pill and looked at it.
'Damn, this small thing costed me all my savings, 2.5k Ryo for one pill... Supposedly this pill will allow me to train for three days straight and will passively replenish my chakra, something like that are sure not healthy and outright harmful, especially for a young body like mine, but well, not that I care about that.' Yuta thought as he swallowed the pill without hesitation.
Yuta waited a little and soon he felt a surge of energy as if he drunk an insane dose of caffeine.
'Well, time to get to work, I guess...' Yuta thought, 'I'll create a time loop during these three days to train and refine my skills, and it would be great if I could raise my spiritual energy and chakra reserves to catch up to Itachi and Hikari, they both had Chunin level chakra back in the academy, and after a month of intense training and lots of spars, their chakra level increased even more.'
'Because of being talented and going through intense training, they both grew their chakra reserves a lot during this month, but it can't be said the same about me, since the improvement rate of my physical condition is quite poor and my spiritual energy growth is also not that much faster, the only significant gain during this month for me was the experience of fighting and the teamwork skills, other than that nothing is worth mentioning.'
'Well, I always knew my talent sucks, and it would be like that, and the only way I grow significantly stronger is through the long periods of training over time, no way around it.'
'Anyway, the most important thing to do during this time-loop is that I should finally break through the bottleneck I was stuck on with the sound genjutsu for a while now. It was a while since I asked Shisui for the sound genjutsu records, and after getting those records Shisui didn't asked me about my progress with it ever since, I guess he is expecting me to figure it out on my own and I better do it rather sooner than later if I want to keep an appearance of a talented genjutsu user.'
'Secondary objectives would be is to increase my chakra levels, train better mastery over the three academy ninjutsu, and try to figure out how to cast those ninjutsu without hand seals, I already found some clues about it from the academy library and from Shisui during the last month of intense training, the main issue with that should be chakra control, and since it's the one thing I'm good at, I should be able to do it.'
'Also, I need another good genjutsu other than the Shadow Cloak if I don't want to be a one-trick pony, especially since the threat level of the Shadow Cloak genjutsu varies greatly on whether the enemy knows about it or not, and sooner or later everybody will know about this jutsu if I'm going to use it often. It's about time I get a forceful type genjutsu, since when my chakra reserves will grow up to Chunin level, I should be able to pull some forceful type genjutsu like that, although it would be a long while before it becomes anything like Kurenai's Tree Binding Death genjutsu.'
'As for those three basic genjutsu that Shisui taught me long time ago, looking at them now, I don't feel like they even combat ready techniques, more like basic genjutsu tricks, nothing more, no need to train them to further my mastery over them.'
'Hell Viewing genjutsu is extremely flawed, it is very obvious and very easy to dispel, might only work on a fresh and disoriented Genin at most. Sly Mind is a little better, but also quite obvious, experienced shinobi will spot the inconsistencies in their surroundings instantly and less experienced ninja will find out very soon that they are going in circles and dispel the genjutsu without any problem. As for Interrogation genjutsu, it's slow and only usable when the target is fully restrained, it's unusable in combat.'
After forming a plan for his training, Yuta started with the most important part and resumed his attempts at infusing his chakra into the sound. From an outside point of view it might've looked quite strange, as there was a young boy in a simple black clothes, with short black hair and fully concentrated blue eyes, who was standing there and clapping his hands over and over again, completely focused on what he was doing.
During his attempts Yuta focused on his chakra senses to observe attentively how his chakra disperses into the air on each clap, trying his best to guide and attach his chakra to the sound waves.
When Yuta previously spent a lot of time doing the same thing a while ago, he was frustrated doing it, since he didn't know how exactly he was supposed to do it and he didn't know if he was even on the right track or not. But right now, after analyzing all he knew so far, he believed that there was no other way than just continuing banging his head against this wall until he succeeded.
Yuta even suspects that a lot of great things are probably accomplished this way. From his conversations with Shisui, and even to some extent from his interactions with Mamoru at the orphanage and Manabu, his class teacher, and also from the reading materials at the academy's library, Yuta begins to suspect that a lot of important details about shinobi techniques are often left out or described vaguely on purpose.
After coming to this realization, Yuta tried to remember something like that from his memories from the anime, and he wasn't surprised when he did remember some scenes of how Jiraiya and Kakashi were teaching Naruto stuff. When Jiraiya taught Rasengan to Naruto he was also vague about a lot of important details, expecting Naruto to figure it out on his own, and although he appeared as lazy and uncaring teacher, in fact he was observing Naruto all the time, he was clearly very interested in Naruto mastering the jutsu.
But despite that, Jiraiya didn't guide Naruto extensively while teaching him the Rasengan, instead he was vague about many key details of the jutsu on purpose.
While continuing the attempts, Yuta thought about many things about how Shisui was teaching him genjutsu and later helping him develop Shadow Cloak jutsu.
'I think I'm starting to get it now.' Yuta thought, 'Back then I was a little frustrated, that Shisui, although he agreed to teach me genjutsu, he didn't teach me much. Besides the three simple genjutsu, he only gave me some advice from time to time. I wanted to learn many things from him but all I've got is some guidance instead. But now I'm slowly starting to see the reason behind all of that.'
'Usually, it's not hard to learn and master a jutsu, given that there is someone willing to teach it to you. But already created and refined ninja jutsus, besides being heavily guarded and not easily obtainable, is not something anyone could modify and improve, or even create similar jutsus based on it. And having learned the jutsu this way, the user tends to use it "as it is", never to improve it any further, and in a shinobi battle the intel about your opponent's jutsus is the key to victory. Those who learns a bunch of jutsu and uses them "as it is" will be quickly outmaneuvered in battle when their opponents would quickly discover the extent of their jutsus.'
'On the other hand, When Jiraiya taught Naruto the Rasengan, he was vague of purpose about some important details, forcing Naruto to figure it out himself. This way, when Naruto finally figured it out, he understood the jutsu on a much deeper level than he would've being if Jiraiya had taught him in a different way. Because of that Naruto was taught a valuable skill and a mindset of figuring things out and was able to later on use Rasengan as a foundation to create his own jutsu – Rasenshuriken.'
'I think Shisui was doing the same thing when he was teaching me genjutsu. But even understanding that, I would've still preferred if he taught me multiple strong genjutsu techniques directly instead. Figuring out things, as well as creating and improving my own jutsus is sure important thing in this world and it's a signature of any exceptional shinobi I guess, but do I really have to go this route though?'
'With my unlimited time, I don't really care about wasting time on learning and mastering multiple already created jutsus, even if they aren't tailored to me and my fighting style, even if I won't be able to easily improve and modify them, so what? Quantity of jutsus will become quality on its own at some point, it was proven by Kakashi, The Copy Ninja, who knows a thousand jutsus.'
'But I guess I'm just a little bitter since my expectations was crushed by reality again. At this point in time, I only can take whatever I can get, and if the only thing I can get is Shisui's guidance in developing and improving my own genjutsu techniques, then I guess I'll do just that.'
While thinking about many things, Yuta continued his attempts on infusing chakra into the sound waves while concentrating on his chakra senses to track his own chakra that was being dispersed in the air.
Hours flew by rapidly.
...
(29 April, year 54 AK)
'It's already morning huh, it's being whole day and night since I started, I still feel energized, but I already could feel a vague feeling of fatigue, as if I didn't sleep whole night but there is too much caffeine still in me so no way I would be able to fall asleep. Although I can easily continue, this feeling is unpleasant.' Yuta absentmindedly thought as he registered the sunrise as he continued his training.
...
(30 April, year 54 AK)
...
(1 May, year 54 AK)
'Three days and nights, it's sunrise again and I feel like I'm about to collapse...' Yuta's though, 'The pill's effects are fading, it's about time for the Team-Shisui to assemble soon, I better time-travel before my body collapses...'
As Yuta's tired mind processed that thought, he immediately entered his mindscape, he gave a brief look at the River of Time and proceeded with time-travel.
...
(28 April, year 54 AK)
Yuta woke up in the middle of the night, his mind was still a little bit sluggish and tired after three days and nights of non-stop training. He stood up and went to double-check the calendar to confirm the date, and after that he went back to sleep.
'This pill sucks, I'm in no rush here, I can time-travel as much times as I want to, taking that pill to train non-stop for three days and nights was such a stupid decision...' That was the last thought of Yuta's tired mind as he was fallen asleep almost instantly as he returned back to bed.
--- AN ---
I personally wouldn't mind taking that pill right now, I'm so behind with everything and I'm writing this chapter in the middle of the night right now and feeling quite tired... The chapter has a lot of yap, but it is a little bigger than usual, so I hope you wouldn't mind
Also, what do you guys think about that theory about techniques being taught in such a vague manner on purpose? What I wrote in this chapter is my understanding of things after rewatching the anime. Damn, at this point I probably watched the entire Naruto + Shippuden for at least three times, I need to stop... But each time I watch it, I come to understand a lot of things from a different angles, so I guess it's beneficial for this fic's quality, or so I say to myself to justify the time being wasted on it.
Thanks to Krishna_Razz, Eyes_Of_The_Void, Loalola, 676867 and GokageSensumo for the power stones.