(1st of July, year 55 AK)
As Yuta was deep in thoughts figuring out how exactly he should use his genjutsu for cheating in the middle of the exam, other ninjas were already actively trying to use their own means to do the same. With varying results though, as after ten minutes as exam started the first cheater was already called out by the proctor and his two teammates were also disqualified on the spot.
One of the teammates of the caught cheater started arguing but was quickly knocked out by one of the proctor's helpers, soon all three of them were left the room. Soon after that, one after another, participants were being called out and disqualified with their entire teams, in just five more minutes about thirty more participants were forced to leave the classroom.
'Hm, how do I do this...' Yuta was thinking while ignoring the commotion in the room, 'I'm not exactly a great specialist when it comes to working with the visual senses, only my Shadow Chains jutsu uses a visual-element illusion in it, and my Shadow Cloak works with the recognition and comprehension, it only touches visual senses indirectly at best, so I don't exactly have a great expertise when it comes to working with visual senses and visual component of illusions...'
'Although, I might be skilled just enough for performing a little trick here...'
Among the six participants with answers Yuta picked the one that has the least amount of chakra, so his manipulations with a half-backed genjutsu on such a target would go as easy and as smoothly as possible.
'Now then, I need to see what my target is seeing so I could sneak a peek at his sheet and memorize his answers. I've never done anything like that before, but it should be doable...'
'First, I need my chakra to take over the target's chakra network, same as for any other genjutsu in general. Then I need to highjack the target's visual senses, but not to alter them as with a normal use of genjutsu, but to get access to it instead. Nothing conceptually difficult, should be doable...'
Yuta began to design and calculate a new jutsu, although it was hard to call a jutsu at all, if it succeeds it would be just a half-backed and crude way of genjutsu application, totally unusable in real combat situations.
'If I remove all main components from my Shadow Cloak jutsu and only leave the core elements that are responsible for transferring the jutsu to my target and for establishing my influence over the target's chakra network, I would only need to add the new component that would be responsible for the connection to the target's visual senses.'
...
After ten more minutes, as the only thirty minutes left until the end of the exam, Yuta realized that he doesn't have enough time to design the new component he needs and to integrate it into his jutsu. Even if he rashes and makes it as fast and questionable as possible, he'll still be late by a huge margin.
'Sigh, so I need to time-travel even for that, huh... Wait, if it's just some more time that I need, I could use my mindscape for that, since time flows differently when I'm inside. Is it even possible for me to work on designing a jutsu while I'm in there? One way to find out...'
Yuta sat more comfortably and closed his eyes, as he entered his mindscape.
Next moment Yuta saw the astonishing view of the endless water surface in all directions that divides the world inside his mindscape into two equal halves, an endless and bottomless River of Time below, an empty black void above, or rather not black but devoid of light or anything at all.
'I could never get used to this view, no matter how many times I've seen it...' Yuta thought in awe as he looked around while seating cross-legged on the water surface, already feeling how the influence of the River of Time washes away all his emotions with a soothing and pleasant cold feeling of calmness.
Yuta returned to designing the new component for his genjutsu to highjack someone else's visual senses. As some time passed, Yuta found that developing a jutsu inside his mindscape, under the direct soothing influence of the River of Time, was quite convenient and easier, and the work was progressing much smoother than in the real world.
...
An unknown amount of time passed, since counting time inside this place was impossible. Years ago, when Yuta had much less chakra, he was able to estimate the amount of time he spend inside his mindscape by the amount of chakra that was slowly being drained while he was here, but by now with his much larger chakra reserves the drain long become unnoticeable, no way to calculate the time anymore.
Yuta finally finished working on his new jutsu. Then Yuta slowly formed a series of hand seals and hummed, producing a faint sound.
Yuta knew that it was all inside his mindscape and it was all just a visual representation of what he wanted to do. The sound of him humming resounded just like Yuta imagined, his own chakra network was being affected by his own genjutsu, just like he imagined. It felt a bit off and not real to Yuta, because it wasn't real in the first place, but still, the jutsu worked all the same.
It was at the same time real and not real, the chakra was being spent for real, the effect was quite real as far as Yuta could see, although it was all just inside his mindscape, and the feeling was a bit off.
'I'm using a jutsu inside this place for the first time, it feels a bit off, although all the effects are exactly as I expect them to be. Well, Naruto was fighting Kurama with Giant Rasengans in such a place, so everything here should work just like in the real world, I suppose. But I haven't used this jutsu in the real world yet, will it work the same as it does here? I need further testing.' Yuta calmly analyzed as he felt his own genjutsu begin to affect his chakra network.
He felt how his jutsu connected to his visual senses without altering them as usual genjutsu does, the visual data was being connected with his genjutsu, he felt that he could use it through the connection with his own chakra.
'But how do I actually read it? I can't just directly slam that massive data stream into my own brain through the chakra connection, can I? It should be possible, in theory, but developing a way to directly input visual data stream into my own brain is a bit too much, it would be like building a nuclear power station when all I need is to power the light bulb for my school project...'
...
'No need to overthink it, I just have to use a reverse genjutsu on myself and inject the visual data stream into it, allowing myself to see it through the layer of a genjutsu, as an illusion. It is sort-off a crutch, but it'll do, and it is a very simple thing to do.'
After some more time Yuta quickly completed designing the new and simple reverse genjutsu that should handle the visual data from the first genjutsu from his target and to project it into his own visual senses as a regular genjutsu.
'This should do.' Yuta calmly thought and exited his mindscape.
...
Back in the classroom Yuta opened his eyes and as the calming influence of the River of Time subsided, a mix of emotions hit him. It was a sense satisfaction of a job well-done, an amazement from how more convenient and easy it was to work on a new jutsu inside his mindscape instead of a real world, and there was a quite strong sense of a mental exhaustion from the complex calculations he was working on for who knows how long.
Yuta sighed and calmed down, as he thought, 'Well, let's just hope it works in the real world the same as in my mindscape...'
He looked at the clock on the wall and realized that he was out for fifteen whole minutes.
'If fifteen minutes passed in the real world, then how long was I've being working inside my mindscape?' Yuta thought with a sense of worry, 'Ten hours? Twenty? Damn... No wonder I feel mentally exhausted right now...'
'No matter, let's see if it works...'
Yuta lowered his hands and hid them under the desk as he performed a slow series of hand seals and hummed, although the barely audible sound of him humming was only heard by a one person in the room.
Yuta felt a connection that was being established with his genjutsu, he wasn't in a hurry and was controlling his genjutsu deliberately slowly not to alert the ninja he was targeting. It was a Leaf ninja in his twenties with about 1C amount of chakra, and Yuta was proceeding with slow caution not to trip that ninja's chakra sensitivity.
Soon, the connection to the visual senses was firmly established and Yuta sighed in relief. His new genjutsu was crude, and it wasn't exactly working correctly, as Yuta had to manually correct errors in its inner workings on the fly, but in the end the job was done and the information he needed was become available for him.
Yuta formed another series of slow hand seals and hummed again, as he casted a reverse genjutsu on himself, now that he doesn't need to be careful and cautious anymore, he quickly put it to work and established the connection between two genjutsus and the next instant he saw the room from a different point of view. His target's point of view.
'Got you!' Yuta thought with satisfaction and blindly picked up the pen and moved his own sheet closer as he started to write blindly in it as he was shamelessly looking thought other person's eyes at the sheet of paper with all the answers in it.
Were there much easier ways to complete this test for Yuta? Sure, there was. But right now, Yuta was having fun of his life going thought the exam with his own skills and creativity, and he loved every second of it...
--- AN ---
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