AN: I'm sorry for the three days without new chapters, I had a food poisoning and was a bit sick, but now I'm back and there will be updates almost each day from now on, hopefully.
(June 27th, year 54 AK)
After finally finishing working on the sealless and multitargeted Shadow Cloak genjutsu, Yuta felt mentally tired and a bit empty inside. Up until now he was going through the days with his mind being concentrated on a single goal – to push his jutsu to the absolute limit he possibly could, and now that it is done, he felt a bit lost.
Although that state didn't last long, and after a few days of rest and doing absolutely nothing, Yuta's mind has recovered and he concentrated on the task at hand. Specifically, on the last part of his plan – to make the sound, that he has to produce for the jutsu, to become untraceable.
During the last battle Yuta had imitated bird sounds to cast a genjutsu from the hidden position, but shortly after the Mist ninjas arrived at that position anyway, they had traced the suspicious sound he made.
In this time-loop, while practicing the genjutsu all this time Yuta had also practiced imitating the birds' sounds and by now he could reproduce a good variety of the birds' sounds, at least among those that are living in the forest around the village.
But Yuta understood that it wasn't enough. Skilled ninjas could potentially notice that there is something off, and Yuta doesn't want to leave it at that, especially not when he has an idea how to fix the problem.
Yuta resumed his training routine. Now he was working on a way to suppress the excess soundwaves that he produces, to only emit the soundwave streams that are targeting his enemies and contain his chakra, so only the target will hear the sound this way.
As for his targets being able to trace the sound after they hear it – Yuta wasn't worried about that. During his training in this time-loop he already tried adjusting the trajectories of his chakra-infused sound waves and it worked just fine, so Yuta would just curve and circle around his soundwaves, so his opponents will hear them as if they were coming from a different direction.
At first, Yuta tried to use his chakra to block the sound from his mouth completely. During the next two months he tried different approaches how to block the sound. He tried to create a kind of a chakra layer around his mouth that would do that, but after all this time all of his attempts had failed, he found it hard to block and filter the sounds just with his chakra.
Then Yuta had an idea to approach the issue from a different angle.
He tried to infuse a tiny amount of his chakra into all the sound that comes from his mouth and not just some of it, like with his jutsu.
He was already used to that process, but he found out that it was one thing to infuse some of the soundwaves with his chakra for the jutsu, and it's another matter altogether when he needs to infuse all the soundwaves with the tiny amount of his chakra.
Yuta spent another three months trying to infuse a bit of his chakra into all the sound waves that his mouth produces and only by the end of it he finally was able to do that.
Then for another month Yuta was practicing directing all the soundwaves in one specific direction. At first, he had an idea to figure out the way to just cancel the soundwaves out, but then he quickly understood that it would be much easier to apply the techniques that he already had mastered instead, so it would be much easier to just direct the soundwaves away than to look for the way to cancel them.
After that he tried to direct all the soundwaves that came from his mouth, just the same way he already was doing with his jutsu, and he directed them all directly upwards, into the sky, so no one would hear it. It worked just fine, Yuta only was using a minuscule amount of his chakra to direct the sound. He tested it out and the sound of his voice had appeared completely mute, only someone who was standing exactly on the line where the soundwaves were going would be able to hear it this way.
Then shortly after Yuta had another idea – why direct the excess sound into the air? Why not just pack it all together with his jutsu, he already directs his jutsu through sound, so it would be easier to just tie the excess soundwaves all together with it.
Yuta had practiced another month with this method, and found it quite easy and efficient, and no one else but his targets will hear a thing this way, and even his targets will hear the sound as if it was coming from a different direction, since Yuta decided to always make the sound path of his jutsu a bit curved from now on.
When this part of his training was finally over, Yuta felt a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.
He decided to spend a few days resting and during these days he had replayed the last battle in his mind a few times, but this time he had imagined how the battle would go with his current self instead.
In his mind it turns out, that he would be able to kill all six ninjas without much problem, he could make the first three ninjas die without them even realizing what had killed them. Although to pull that off, he would need not only his current skills but the increased amount of chakra as well, Yuta realized that both of his original genjutsus right now are pushing the absolute limits of his abilities.
With how much Yuta worked on them and to what extent he had mastered them, both of his jutsus now are way ahead of his current level of chakra and chakra control, and on the absolute edge of his genjutsu mastery as well.
But after thinking about his skills a bit more, Yuta also realized that there is a glaring gap in his skillset. He has a serious weakness – he doesn't have anything substantial besides his genjutsu. If Yuta were to encounter an opponent on whom his genjutsu wouldn't work, then it would be the game over for him.
'This world of shinobi has a lot of people who have ways to resist my level of genjutsu or to counter it outright.' Yuta thought while lying on the roof of one of the buildings in the village and lazily observing the clouds.
'Dojutsu users have a natural resistance to genjutsu, for example, Uchiha and Hyuga clans, so if I were to ever have to fight them – I would be at a severe disadvantage. Although there is a genjutsu exists, that Tobirama had created specifically against the Uchiha – False Darkness, maybe I could develop something similar to it one day...'
'Anyway, I do need to have something as a back-up, just in case.' Yuta thought, then he remembered his short taijutsu exchange during the last battle...
With how slow his physical body was developing all this time - Yuta understood that taijutsu was never an option in a serious fight for him, and it's likely that it never will be, at least not before he does something to enhance his physical body somehow.
This idea had only reinforced back when he had a few taijutsu exchanges with the Mist ninjas, that time he was completely outmatched and seriously risking being killed outright.
'Taijutsu is not an option, I'm developing a skillset of mid/long ranged combat. I use genjutsu to fool or outright paralyze my enemy and then I finish them with a ranged attack. Since my enemy is unable to defend themselves, the ranged attack I use doesn't need to be powerful, just a thrown kunai will be more than enough to finish regular opponents like that.'
'But what about not regular opponents? Some people have passive defenses, like Gaara. Some might have crazy regenerative abilities, like Naruto or Orochimaru. Some might just figure out my jutsus and employ countermeasures in advance, like that guy during the combat evaluation with a wide-ranged ninjutsu, that I couldn't dodge and have no means to defend myself against it. There could be countless ways when my skillset wouldn't work...'
'And there is Hyuga and Uchiha with their genjutsu resistance as well...'
'The next obvious step in my skillset development would be to add some elemental ninjutsu, after all, it seems that most of the Jonins are using a variety of elemental ninjutsus. Some use them in specific ways, like Asuma with his Wind Style chakra blades. Some use regular ninjutsus, like Kakashi with his multiple elements and a wide variety of ninjutsus.'
'Well, Shisui did say that later on he would teach us chakra shape and nature transformation, that is the beginning of the training for the elemental ninjutsus.'
'Also, from the very beginning I also wanted to learn Fuinjutsu – The Sealing Arts, I wonder if I just ask Shisui about it, will he just give it to me? Probably not outright, he does guide my training and I'm like a legit disciple to him, but he has a certain way of teaching stuff, he won't give me the Fuinjutsu learning materials if he doesn't think that it would be good for me at the time being.'
'He also has a certain way of teaching genjutsu, he only throws some advice here and there, but only much later did I find out that those advices was crucial and had saved me probably multiple years of stumbling in the dark by myself...'
'Then he suggested for me to develop my own genjutsu, pushing me towards the path I'm currently in. Back then I wasn't happy about it, I wanted to get my hands on a multiple cool jutsus instead, but right now I finally understand that developing my own jutsus and my own path was the best thing for me, it was much better than Shisui will ever realize in fact.'
'I was able to develop my genjutsu skills to this level only because of that.'
...
'But also, Shisui's way of teaching is also very frustrating. He only gives me a bit of information, some advice, and then leaves me alone. And only after months and years of effort could I figure everything out, piece together all the clues and advices he gave me, and finally complete the jutsus. Sure, this way is good for me, it helps me to master the skills on a fundamental level, but it is very frustrating, to say the least...'
--- AN ---
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